and as feras the Moluccas. Their voyages, says Dr. Leyden,
rivalled in the spirit of adventure the expedition of the
Argonauts. They became known to Europeans only in the
decline of their power, which was still formidable to the
Portuguese colony in Malacca, when one of the dependent
princes of Java fitted out a fleet of thirty large vessels of war;
During many-ages preceding the introduction of Islàm, the
religion of the Hindoos prevailed in Java under the Auspices
of a. foreign hierarchy, and" the people had an alphabet of
their own and cultivated a peculiar literature, * which, however^
was entirely founded on that of the Hindoos. The remains
of magnificent temples to the Hindu gods attest the
power and refinement of the Javanese hierarchy, and ancient
inscriptions bear evidence which supports to a certain extent
the antiquity of their civilisation. The chronological era of
the Javan nation nearly synchronisés with the Indian <era of
Salivahana, which corresponds with the seventy-eighth year
of Christianity. Lastly, the Javan language displays unequivocally
the influence of an early culture on the Hindfi
model, and it has adopted a great number of Sanskrit words.
We find, as in other regions anciently eiviliéed, three methods
of inquiry open for research into the history of the ancient
Jayaiis : I mean the examination of their written archives,
if such they may be termed, or rather of their historical and
mythological poems and of, all that remains of their literature
; secondly, the remains of ancient architecture and of
inscriptions found in temples and on other monuments ; and
thirdly, which is most important, an analysis of the. languages
of the older and later inhabitants of Java, including their
sacerdotal and learned dialect, the celebrated Kawi. I shall
begin by a brief survey of this last part of the subject.
Paragraph 1.—-Of the Languages of Java, and especially
the Kawi.
- The influence of Indian culture on the language of Java is
principally observable in the bhasa krama of bhasa dhalem,
* Asiatic Researches, vol. x. p. 199.
the high or court idiom of ;the island, and more especially
in the Kawi or | ancient poetical dialect/ in', which the earliest
remains of literature are preserved.* The nature and the
relations of this poetical and literary language are the professed
object of M.ide5Humb(Dtót'& celebrated work.*f - The results
of hi&~ research, as far as ■thh hisfoiy of the Kawi itself is
concerned, are nearly as follows§ÉÉt
Humboldt rejects the. opinion of Mr.. Crawford, from which
the learned A. W. Schlegel had already expressed his dissent.
By Mr. .Grawfurd the Kawi was regarded as: a sort o f corrupt
Sanskrit, a merely sacerdotal dialect, never a popular or
national idiom, and at most only spoken by the priesthood.
Humboldt observes that at the period when the arts and
religkai tnf? India flourished in Java, the sovereigns and the
dominant caste in that -island were more-©rulessuof Hindu
descent: hence the imitation of Indian arts and the Indian
language bécame. the prevalent habit of the' Javanese people^
and wa«; connected in their minds with all improvement and
elevation of character and fortune. In thiéi most flourishing
period.of Indian arts and. culture in Java the Kawi language
had its origin. The poetical and mythological {compositions
of the Hindoos were imitated by the more Cultivated Javans
in the idiom which they were accustomed to speak. Thus
the Kawi was originally the language* of the Javanese nation*,-
or rather of the highest caste in this nation already assimilated
to and intermixed with the Hindoos? but in forming
this language to the purpose of poetry and literature, it was
found convenient to introduce a larger infusion of Sanskrit
than previously existed even in the idiom of the court. Thus
two refined dialects came into existence,—the poetical idiom
or Kawi, and the : courtly, language of conversation, both
abounding in foreign expressions, yet both retaining precisely
the grammatical structure and the forms of inflexion peculiar
to the proper Javanese language; The cdurt language as
being that of conversation became gradually altered in the
Leyden, vol. x.5 Asiatic Researches.
v, i.fj- Dhe subject; had been previously touched uponfoyA; W. Schlegel. See
his Indische Bibliothek.