A Manual of the Malay language With an Introductory Sketch of the Sanskrit Element in Malay — A Reader’s Guide

elugu; and that there is no trace whatever of any extensive settlement of the Telugus in the Malay Archipelago.

[Footnote 7: Crawfurd, Malay Grammar, Dissertation xxxix., xliii.]

Marsden’s contention, on the other hand, points to Gujarat as the quarter from which Hindu civilisation penetrated to the far East, and to conquest as the mode in which the way was cleared for its introduction.[8]

[Footnote 8: “Innovations of such magnitude, we shall venture to say, could not have been produced otherwise than by the entire domination and possession of these islands by some ancient Hindu power, and by the continuance of its sway during several ages. Of the period when this state of things existed we at present know nothing, and judging of their principles of action by what we witness in these days, we are at a loss to conceive under what circumstances they could have exerted an influence in distant countries of the nature here described. The spirit of foreign conquest does not appear to have distinguished their character and zeal, for the conversion of others to their own religious faith seems to be incompatible with their tenets. We may, however, be deceived by forming our opinion from the contemplation of modern India, and should recollect that, previously to the Mohametan irruptions into the upper provinces, which first took place about the year 1000, and until the progressive subjugation of the country by Persians and Moghuls, there existed several powerful and opulent Hindu states of whose maritime relations we are entirely ignorant at present, and can only cherish the hope of future discoveries from the laudable spirit of research that pervades and does so much honour to our Indian establishments.” --_Marsden, Malay Grammar_, xxxii.]

Before proceeding to classify some of the Sanskrit words which are found in Malay, and to deduce any theories from their presence, it is necessary, in order to avoid misconception, to notice several difficulties which cannot be overlooked.

In the first place, it is not meant to be asserted that the Malays have obtained all the words enumerated further on direct from the people of India. All theories founded upon the presence of Sanskrit words in Malay must apply with equal force to Javanese, which contains a larger proportion of Sanskrit words than Malay. “Sanskrit words are found in greatest purity in the Javanese, and next to it in the Malay, their corruption increasing as we recede from Java and Sumatra.”[9] It may be assumed, therefore, that in addition to the influence which Hinduism exerted among the Malays of Sumatra by means of direct intercourse with India, there was also a second source from which the Malays derived a great portion of their Hindu nomenclature, namely, the ancient Hindu kingdoms of Java.[10]

[Footnote 9: Crawfurd. See also Marsden, Malay Grammar, xxxiii.]

[Footnote 10: “The Hindu religion and Sanskrit language were, in all probability, earliest introduced in the western part of Sumatra, the nearest part of the Archipelago to the continent of India. Java, however, became eventually the favourite abode of Hinduism, and its language the chief recipient of Sanskrit. Through the Javanese and Malays Sanskrit appears to have been disseminated over the rest of the Archipelago, and even to the Philippine Islands. This is to be inferred from the greater number of Sanskrit words in Javanese and Malay--especially in the first of these--than in the other cultivated languages, from their existing in greater purity in the Javanese and Malay, and from the errors of these two languages, both as to sense and orthography, having been copied by all the other tongues. An approximation to the proportions of Sanskrit existing in some of the principal languages will show that the amount constantly diminishes as we recede from Java and Sumatra, until all vestiges of it disappear in the dialects of Polynesia. In the ordinary written language of Java the proportion is about 110 in 1000; in Malay, 50; in the Sunda of Java, 40; in the Bugis, the principal language of Celebes, 17; and in the Tagala, one of the principal languages of the Philippines, about one and a half.” --_Crawfurd, Malay Grammar, Dissertation_ xlvii. _Sed quære_ as to the total absence of Sanskrit in the Polynesian dialects. Ellis’ “Polynesian Researches,” i. 116.]

These remarks may be illustrated by reference to the fourth column of the lists of words which follow.

Again, some of the Sanskrit words in the following lists are synonyms merely, there being native or Arabic words, or both, in common use to express the same object.

In some instances, too, the words quoted are not often heard in the colloquial dialect, but occur in books to which in many cases they have been transplanted from Javanese romances.