A chronicle of Suvarnapura (Srivijaya)

Abstract

Half a century has elapsed since that great French savant G. Coedes, published his well-known and oft-quoted paper,(BEFEO, XVIII, (1918), 6, pp. 1-36) and made known to historians and scholars the existence, in ancient times, of the great Malay empire of Sri Vijaya. Many distinguished scholars have, in the interval, made important contributions to our knowledge concerning the Maharajas of Sri Vijaya, or Zabag i.e. Javaka, as they have been referred to by Arab writers; but it cannot be said that we possess, at present, definite knowledge about the part which this great naval power played in the history of South-east Asia. Recently, I have had the good fortune of discovering a series of documents which throw a flood of light on the relations which the Maharajas of Sri Vijaya had with the ancient Sinhalese kingdom on the one hand, and with the rulers of the South Indian states on the other. The manner in which I became aware of the existence of these documents, and of their preser- vation through the centuries, is so unique that one may entertain suspicion about their genuineness. The documents have been written very superficially, in tiny characters, in between and over the lines of the original writing, on a large number of Sinhalese inscriptions on slabs, pillars and natural rocks, ranging in date from the eighth to the fifteenth centuries.