Local Inscriptions
During Yijing’s sojourn in India, six lithic inscriptions were carved with oaths of loyalty to the maharaja, or “great king,” of Srivijaya. One found at Sabokingking in Palembang provides the most detailed view of the empire’s internal structure.
The inscription contains three different words which epigrapher de Casparis uniformly translated as “empire”: huluntuhanku, vanua, and kadatuan. This conflation obscures important shades of meaning.[1124] Huluntuhanku literally means “my nobles and commoners”; it may therefore signify “those who are subject to me.” This term only occurs in the Sabokingking inscription, suggesting that the ruler’s power in other areas was mediated by local chiefs. In other contexts, de Casparis translated vanua as “village.”[1125] Kadatuan stems from the root word datu, a person who “protects all the mandalas of my kadatuan” From this we can infer that a kadatuan was composed of mandalas. However, the word kadatuan an also occurs in other contexts in the same inscription, where it must mean “palace.” This translation is consistent with versions of the oath found outside Palembang.[1126]Although the inscription is too long to quote in full, the following translation of the first few lines gives an idea of the full contents of the Sabukingking inscription:
“Om! Success!... All of you, as many as you are,—sons of kings... chiefs, army commanders, nayakas, pratyayas, confidants (?) of the king, judges, chiefs of the... (?), surveyors of groups of workmen, surveyors of low-castes, cutlers, kumaramatyas, catabhatas, adhikaranas,... (?), clerks, sculptors, naval captains, merchants, commanders,... (?) and you—washermen of the king and slaves of the king—all of you will be killed by the curse of (this) imprecation: if you are not faithful to me, you will be killed by the curse.
Besides,—if you behave like a traitor, plotting with those (?) who are in contact with my enemies, or if you go over to Datus spying for others, or of your families or friends, of your servants, or of other chiefs spying for others,—if you are in contact with traitors plotting against me, before they are (actually) together with you, people who are not submissive to me and to my empire, and if, (at last), you go over to them,—you will be killed by the curse.”[1127]
Three of the four inscriptions found outside Palembang mention gods who protect the kadatuan of Srivijaya.
Another version of the oath, found at Boom Baru, a neighborhood of Palembang, also mentions the kadatuan.[1128] The Kedukan Bukit inscription, from a locality in Palembang (which does not contain the oath) mentions the vanua of Srivijaya. The use of a single name to refer to the palace, the town in which the palace stood, and the entire kingdom or territory which acknowledged the king's authority is also found in Java.The paramount ruler in the four oath inscriptions found outside Palembang is called the Datu of Srivijaya. De Casparis and Kulke agreed that the ruler of Srivijaya was one of a number of datu, a “ruler, chief of a district” who was superior to the others. The primus inter pares bore the additional title dapunta hiyang. The latter word corresponds to “ancestor,” and suggests that the king received special anointment from the dead.
Another critical term is samaryyada. This is a compound derived from three Sanskrit words, but since there is no record of the use of this term in India, it may have been a uniquely Malay formulation meaning “having specified boundaries.”[1129] Roads led from the ruler's vanua into the area “having specified boundaries,” and subordinate rulers lived along these roads. Some of the subordinate datu were invested by the supreme ruler. Kulke[1130] speculates that the composer of the Srivijayan inscription created this term because he wished to reflect the datu’s greater level of control over the areas around the capital than the Sanskrit terms implied, and possibly also the special character of Palembang.
Also found at Sabokingking were two fragments ofwhat was originally a long document in Sanskrit commemorating a victory over rebels, possibly related to another inscription from nearby Kedukan Bukit. The texts indicate that the king undertook a pilgrimage to a Buddhist shrine. The ruler visited a hill to acquire siddhiyatra[1131] then went on a military expedition with 20,000 soldiers, after which he built a monastery near Telaga Batu to commemorate a victory after which vanua Srivijaya (i.e., the town around the palace) became prosperous.[1132] The Kedukan Bukit inscription has been translated as follows:
Prosperity! Fortune! In Saka 605, on the eleventh day of the light fortnight of the month of Waisaka [i.e., May 1, 683 ce], His Majesty set sail in search of magic power.
On the seventh day of the light fortnight of the month of Jyesta, the king freed himself from... He led an army of twenty thousand (men); his suite... number two hundred travelling by boat, others following on foot, numbering one thousand three hundred and twelve arrived in the presence (of the king?), together, with a joyful heart. On the fifth day of the light fortnight of the month of... light, joyful, came and made the country... Srivijaya, endowed with magic powers, rich.[1133]Srivijayan inscriptions outside Palembang include a version of the oath found at Karang Berahi, on a tributary of the Batang Hari in the hinterland of Malayu, the kingdom which Yijing implies had been subjugated between 672 and 689. Two almost identical versions of the oath have been found at the southeastern tip of Sumatra. A fourth version, dated 686, found on the island of Bangka, threatens enemies of the ruler of Srivijaya with invasion, but promises “success, ease, lack of disasters, abundance” if they are faithful to the king and his chiefs.[1134] An additional passage at the end reports that the inscription “was carved when the army had just set out on an expedition against the land of Java which was not obedient to Srivijaya.” In later centuries Bangka was an important naval base for the Malay kingdom of Palembang. Probably an invasion of Java was launched from Bangka in 686.
After this five-year flurry of inscription-carving ceased in 686, no more texts are known to have been carved in the kingdom. Perhaps only one king favored this medium of communication. One other stone is connected with Srivijaya. Face A of an inscription Nakhon Si Thammarat in south Thailand, dated 775, records that a Srivijayan monarch named Dharmasetu sponsored Buddhist sanctuaries. The nature of Srivijaya’s connection with this region has not been established. This inscription is the last reference to Srivijaya in any Southeast Asian text. For the next 250 years, evidence of Srivijaya is only found in foreign sources.