Rediscovering an Old Javanese Inscription: Mpu Mano’s Donation in Favor of a Buddhist Dignitary in 888 Śaka

Abstract

This paper furnishes a detailed philological analysis of an Old Javanese copper-plate inscription, dated 888 Śaka (966 ce), that was long considered lost but has been rediscovered during a survey of inscriptions kept in Dutch collections. The inscription, of which only the beginning is preserved, and that too only in the form of the first of a set of plates onto which it was copied in the 14th century ce, records a certain Mpu Mano’s donation in favor of a Buddhist dignitary named Mpu Buddhivāla. Among issues that receive special attention are (1) the disctinction between toponyms and common nouns in descriptions of the landscape; (2) the problem of textual manipulation and redating of earlier grants on the occasion of their Majapahit-period reissue; (3) the terminology of pawning expressed by the word saṇḍa; (4) the lexicographical progress that can be made by paying attention to specifically Buddhist technical terminology.