Laguna Copperplate Inscription

The Laguna Copperplate Inscription (Filipino: Inskripsyon sa Binatbat na Tanso ng Laguna, Malay: Prasasti keping tembaga Laguna; often shortened into the acronym LCI), a legal document inscribed on a copper plate in 900 CE, is the earliest known calendar-dated document found in the Philippines. The date of the inscription would make it contemporary to the Balitung kingdom of Central Java, although it did not necessarily originate from that area.[1]

Laguna Copperplate Inscription
Image of the Laguna Copperplate Inscription displayed at the Baybayin section of the National Museum of Anthropology in Manila
MaterialCopper
Height< 20 cm (7.9 in)
Width< 30 cm (12 in)
Created900 CE
Discovered1989
Lumban, Laguna, Philippines
Present locationNational Museum of the Philippines

The plate was found in 1989 by a laborer near the mouth of the Lumbang River in Wawa, Lumban, Laguna in the Philippines. The inscription, written in a mix of the Old Malay language using the Old Kawi script, was first deciphered by Dutch anthropologist and Hanunó'o script expert Antoon Postma in 1992.[1][2]

The LCI documents the existence of several early Philippine polities as early as AD 900, most notably the Pasig River delta polity of Tondo.[1] Scholars believe that it also indicates trade, cultural, and possibly political ties between these polities and at least one contemporaneous Asian civilization—the Medang Kingdom of the island of Java.[1]

Historic context
See also: Indian honorifics, Greater India, Sanskritisation, and Brahmi script

Prior to the European colonialism, South East Asia including Malaysia were under the influence of Indosphere of greater India, where numerous Indianized principalities and empires flourished for several centuries in Thailand, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, Philippines, Cambodia and Vietnam. The influence of Indian culture into these areas was given the term indianization.[3] French archaeologist, George Coedes, defined it as the expansion of an organized culture that was framed upon Indian originations of royalty, Hinduism and Buddhism and the Sanskrit dialect.[4] This can be seen in the Indianization of Southeast Asia, spread of Hinduism and Buddhism. Indian diaspora, both ancient (PIO) and current (NRI), played an ongoing key role as professionals, traders, priests and warriors.[5][6][7][7] Indian honorifics also influenced the Malay, Thai, Filipino and Indonesian honorifics.[8] Examples of these include Raja, Rani, Maharlika, etc. which were transmitted from Indian culture to Philippines via Malays and Srivijaya empire.

The pre-colonial native Filipino script called Baybayin (ᜊᜌ᜔ᜊᜌᜒᜈ᜔), known in Visayan as badlit (ᜊᜇ᜔ᜎᜒᜆ᜔), as kur-itan/kurditan in Ilocano and as kulitan in Kapampangan, was itself derived from the Brahmic scripts of India. Its use was recorded in the 16th century by Miguel López de Legazpi.[9]

Discovery and provenance
The Laguna Copperplate Inscription (key) is inscribed with small writing hammered into its surface. It shows heavy Indian cultural influence (by way of Srivijaya) present in the Philippines prior to European colonization in the 16th century.

The Laguna Copperplate Inscription was found in 1989 near the mouth of the Lumbang River near Laguna de Bay,[10] by a man who was dredging sand to turn into concrete. Suspecting that the artifact might have some value, the man sold it to an antique dealer who, having found no buyers, eventually sold it to the National Museum of the Philippines, where it was assigned to Alfredo E. Evangelista, head of its anthropology department.[11][12] The National Museum refers to the artifact as the Laguna Copper Plate.[13]

A year later, Antoon Postma noted that the inscription was similar to the ancient Indonesian script of Kawi. Postma translated the script and found the document dated itself to the Saka year 822, an old Hindu calendar date which corresponds to 900 CE.[14] This meant that the document pre-dated the arrival of Ferdinand Magellan in 1521 and is from about the same time as the mention of the Philippines in the official Chinese Song dynasty History of Song for the year 972.[15]

Description

The inscription is on a thin copper plate measuring less than 20 × 30 cm (8 × 12 inches) in size with words directly embossed onto the plate. It differs in manufacture from Javanese scrolls of the period, which had the words inscribed onto a heated, softened scroll of metal.[11]

Inscribed on it is year 822 of the Saka Era, the month of Waisaka, and the fourth day of the waning moon, which corresponds to Monday, April 21, 900 AD in the Julian calendar.[14] The text is Old Malay with numerous loanwords from Sanskrit and a few non-Malay vocabulary elements whose origin may be Old Javanese.[1] The Sanskrit words are used for technical terms, while the Javanese words are used for forms of address. The Old Malay uses differs from examples found in Java and Sumatra.[16] The document states that it releases its bearers, the children of Namwaran, from a debt in gold amounting to 1 kati and 8 suwarnas (865 grams; 27.8 troy ounces).[11][14]

Text
Line Transliteration
The text below is from Hector Santos' 1995 transliteration.[17] All of the letters in Santos' text were in smallcaps.		 Original translation by Antoon Postma (1991)[1] Notes
1 swasti shaka warshatita 822 waisakha masa ding jyotisha. chaturthi krishnapaksha so- Hail! In the Saka-year 822; the month of March–April(Vaishakh) according to the astronomer: the fourth day of the dark half of the moon; on
2 -mawara sana tatkala dayang angkatan lawan dengannya sanak barngaran si bukah Monday. At that time, Lady Angkatan together with her relative, Bukah by name,
3 anakda dang hwan namwaran di bari waradana wi shuddhapat(t)ra ulih sang pamegat senapati di tundu- the child of His Honor Namwaran, was given, as a special favor, a document of full acquittal, by the Chief and Commander of Tundun
4 n barja(di) dang hwan nayaka tuhan pailah jayadewa. di krama dang hwan namwaran dengan dang kaya- representing the Leader of Pailah, Jayadewa. This means that His Honor Namwran, through the Honorable Scribe
5 stha shuddha nu di parlappas hutangda wale(da)nda kati 1 suwarna 8 di hadapan dang hwan nayaka tuhan pu- was totally cleared of a salary-related debt of 1 kati and 8 suwarna (weight of gold): in the presence of His Honor the Leader of Puliran,
6 liran ka sumuran. dang hwan nayaka tuhan pailah barjadi ganashakti. dang hwan nayaka tu- Kasumuran; His Honor the Leader of Pailah, representing Ganasakti; (and) His Honor the Leader
7 han binwangan barjadi bishruta tathapi sadanda sanak kaparawis ulih sang pamegat de- of Binwangan, representing Bisruta. And, with his whole family, on orders of the Chief of Dewata
8 wata [ba]rjadi sang pamegat medang dari bhaktinda di parhulun sang pamegat. ya makanya sadanya anak representing the Chief of Medang, because of his loyalty as a subject (slave?) of the Chief, therefore all the descendants
9 chuchu dang hwan namwaran shuddha ya kaparawis di hutangda dang hwan namwaran di sang pamegat dewata. ini gerang of his Honor Namwaran have been cleared of the whole debt that His Honor owed the Chief of Dewata. This (document) is (issued) in case
10 syat syapanta ha pashchat ding ari kamudyan ada gerang urang barujara welung lappas hutangda dang hwa ... there is someone, whosoever, some time in the future, who will state that the debt is not yet acquitted of His Honor... * Line 10 of the LCI ends mid-sentence.[1]

Geographical place-names identified in the text

Postma, who first translated the LCI, notes that place names and personal names in the LCI need to be carefully studied by scholars because “they furnish vital clues regarding the political & topographic background” of the world around the time of the LCI.[1]

Going into the specifics of the text, he notes that:[1]

“the toponyms or placenames are: Pailah (lines 4 and 6); Tundun (line 3); Puliran (line 6) and Binwangan (line 7). Dewata (line 8) and Medang (line 8) could be either personal names or toponyms.”[1]

Postma identified three of these toponyms, Binwangan, Pailah and Puliran, as Malayo-Polynesian (most likely Filipino) in origin,[1] and three other toponyms, Tundun, Dewata and Mdang, as Sanskrit in origin.[1]

After carefully considering possible interpretations of the text, including the possibility that Pailah and Puliran were located in the Laguna Lake region, Postma concluded that he was confident that Binwangan, Pailah, and Puliran:[1]

“find their equivalents within the limited area of what is now known as Bulacan Province in the Philippines, [and that] the text of this same LCI can be considered to refer indeed to these places, already existing already under identical names in the tenth century.”[1]

LCI place-names as settlements Bulacan

Postma emphasized[1] that his interpretation of the LCI placenames being in Bulacan puts these named settlements on key locations on Central Luzon's river systems, which he referred to as “waterhighways” which allowed “an effective (and often only) means of transportation and communication between the different settlements”[1] as well as “offering the seafaring traders of China and Southeast Asia of early times an easy access to interior trading centers via these riverine communication-lines.”[1] He also noted that Central Luzon's rivers were “much deeper and certainly were more navigable than they are today.”[1]

Postma's assertions have been challenged a number of times, notably by the Pila Historical Society Foundation and local historian Jaime F. Tiongson. But these challenges have not been fully resolved by Philippine historiographers’ process of peer review.[18][19]

LCI words affirmed as place-names

Postma asserted that he was fairly certain that four words in the LCI were place names, or toponyms: "Pailah (lines 4 and 6); Tundun (line 3); Puliran (line 6) and Binwangan (line 7)."[1]

Tundun

Tundun, whose name Postma believed to be "Sanskrit in origin",[1] was referenced in line 3 of the LCI.[1] It is the most easily recognizable of the toponyms identified by Postma in the LCI, and scholarly consensus[20](p"134")[21](p"38") generally agrees with Postma's original identification of the LCI's Tundun as Tondo, the polity located on the northern seaside of the Pasig River delta, where the Pasig River empties into Manila Bay.

Postma left an avenue for an alternative interpretation open however, saying that Mdang and Tondo:[1] “because of their lingual consonants (n and d) that are of Sanskrit origin might originally be toponyms existing on the Island of Java.”[1]

Pailah

Postma identified Pailah, whose name he believed to be Malayo-Polynesian (and probably Filipino) in origin,[1] as a “locality with its own leader.”[1] It was referenced twice, in lines 4 and 6 of the LCI. Locating its possible location in Bulacan, Postma proposed its site to be “the village of Paila, in Barangay of San Lorenzo at the eastern part of the municipality of Norzagaray, with coordinates 14–54.5 & 121-06.9.”[1]

Puliran

Postma identified Puliran, whose name he believed to be Malayo-Polynesian (and probably Filipino) in origin,[1] as a “locality with its own leader”[1] referenced in line 6 of the LCI. Postma asserted that Puliran was probably located in modern-day Bulacan, on the current site of “Pulilan, along the Angat River (pronounced: Anggat) north of Manila, (coordinates: 14–54.2 & 120-50.8)”.[1]

Binwangan

Postma believed that the place-name of Binwangan, referenced in line 7 of the LCI as a locality with its own leader,[1] was Malayo-Polynesian (and probably Filipino) in origin.[1] Locating its possible location in Bulacan, Postma proposed its site to be “the village of Binwangan, belonging to the municipality of Obando, situated at the mouth of the Bulacan River, with coordinates 14–43.2 & 120–543.”[1]

LCI words believed to be possible place-names

Based on linguistic analysis, Postma concluded that the words Dewata and Mdang “could be either personal names or toponyms.” He noted that their names seemed to be Sanskrit in origin, but did not go into a deep discussion of where they might have been located, other than to say Mdang was already known as a place name in Indonesia.

Abinales and Amoroso (2005) note[21] that the leaders of Dewata and Mdang (if these words are indeed to be accepted as toponyms) were not present for the transaction but were rather invoked as authorities in certifying the cancellation of the debt in question:

“Jayadewa invokes the authority of the chief of Dewata, who in turn represents the chief of Medang.”[21]

Mdang

Postma's paper proposing his translation and interpretation of the LCI mentions that his search of the Indonesian toponym listings developed by Damais and Darmosoetopo, as well as his consultation with the 14th Congress of the Indo-Pacific Prehistory Association (IPPA) in August 1990, determined that Mdang was the only (possible) toponym in the LCI which matched with known Indonesian place-names.[1]

Abinales and Amoroso (2005), citing Patanñe (1996) note that this seems to refer to "a temple complex in Java, where the kingdom of Mataram was a rival to Srivijaya."[21]

Dewata

Scholars after Postma, such as Patanñe (1996) and Abinales and Amoroso (2005)[21] have come to identify the Dewata of the LCI as a settlement in or near “present-day Mount Diwata, near Butuan”.[21]

While it is clear in the text of the LCI that Jayadewa of Tondo is invoking the authority of the Chief of Dewata, the precise relationship between Dewata and Mdang is less clear. E.P. Patanñe notes:

"This relationship is unclear but a possible explanation is that the chief of Dewata wanted it to be known that he had a royal connection in Java.”[20]

Other proposed interpretations of place-names

Postma's assertions regarding the exact locations of Pailah and Puliran and Binwangan have been challenged by the Pila Historical Society Foundation and local historian Jaime F. Tiongson, who assert that the place names Pailah and Puliran are more likely to refer to places close to where the plate was found – in Lumban, Laguna – given that archeological findings in nearby Pila show the presence of an extensive settlement during precolonial times.[18][19]

According to Tiongson's interpretation: Pailah refers to Pila; Puliran refers to Puliran, the old name of the territory that occupied the southeastern part of Laguna de Bay at the time; and Binwangan refers to modern day Barangay, Binawangan in Capalonga, Camarines Norte.[22](p"125")[18][19]

Significance

The Laguna Copperplate Inscription, among other recent finds such as the Golden Tara of Butuan and 14th century pottery and gold jewellery in Cebu, is highly important in revising the ancient Philippine history, which was until then considered by some Western historians to be culturally isolated from the rest of Asia, as no evident pre-Hispanic written records were found at the time. Philippine historian William Henry Scott debunked these theories in 1968 with his Prehispanic Source materials for the Study of Philippine History which was subsequently published in 1984.[23] The locations mentioned are all near rivers, suggesting Old Malay may have come to the area along trade networks.[16]

The inscription is a document demonstrative of pre-Hispanic literacy and culture, and is considered to be a national treasure. It is currently deposited at the National Museum of Anthropology in Manila.

It is the earliest document that shows the use of mathematics in precolonial Philippine societies. A standard system of weights and measures is demonstrated by the use of precise measurement for gold, and familiarity with rudimentary astronomy is shown by fixing the precise day within the month in relation to the phases of the moon.[24]

Cultural references
See also: Hinduism in the Philippines, Religion in pre-colonial Philippines, Indosphere, and Indianisation

The inscription shows heavy Sanskrit, Old Javanese and Malay linguistic influences.[11] Among the observations made by Antonio Pigafetta in the 16th century Boxer Codex was that Old Malay had currency amongst classical period Filipinos as a lingua franca. The Golden Tara statue, an ancient artifact discovered in Butuan, Agusan del Norte, dates from the same period and strongly suggests the presence of Hindu-Buddhist beliefs prior to the introduction (and subsequent subscription) to Roman Catholicism and Islam amongst Filipinos.

Other inscriptions from nearby regions

These inscriptions are all from the province of Central Java, Indonesia (excepting the Kalasan inscription which is in the adjacent Special Region of Yogyakarta).

gollark: Rude.
gollark: Also my other graph.
gollark: If we're just doing arbitrary vaguely nonsensical things which could possibly be related to a point someone is making, check out my graph!
gollark: Suuuuuure.
gollark: I can imagine, for limited values of "imagine" (I can't picture them usefully, or anything like that, but I can't do that anyway), impossible things like "colourless green", say.

See also

References
  1. Postma, Antoon (April–June 1992). "The Laguna Copper-Plate Inscription: Text and Commentary". Philippine Studies. Ateneo de Manila University. 40 (2): 182–203. JSTOR 42633308.
  2. Tiongson, Jaime F. (August 8, 2010). "Laguna Copperplate Inscription: A New Interpretation Using Early Tagalog Dictionaries". Bayang Pinagpala. Retrieved on November 18, 2011. Archived September 29, 2012, at the Wayback Machine
  3. Acharya, Amitav. "The "Indianization of Southeast Asia" Revisited: Initiative, Adaptation and Transformation in Classical Civilizations" (PDF). amitavacharya.com.
  4. Coedes, George (1967). The Indianized States of Southeast Asia. Australian National University Press.
  5. Lukas, Helmut (May 21–23, 2001). "1 THEORIES OF INDIANIZATIONExemplified by Selected Case Studies from Indonesia (Insular Southeast Asia)". International SanskritConference.
  6. Krom, N.J. (1927). Barabudur, Archeological Description. The Hague.
  7. Smith, Monica L. (1999). ""INDIANIZATION" FROM THE INDIAN POINT OF VIEW: TRADE AND CULTURAL CONTACTS WITH SOUTHEAST ASIA IN THE EARLY FIRST MILLENNIUM C.E.')". Journal of the Economic and Social History of the Orient. 42. (11–17). JSTOR 3632296.
  8. Krishna Chandra Sagar, 2002, An Era of Peace, Page 52.
  9. Morrow, Paul. "Baybayin, the Ancient Philippine script". MTS. Archived from the original on August 21, 2010. Retrieved September 4, 2008..
  10. Chua, Xiao (May 28, 2013). "KAHALAGAHAN NG LAGUNA COPPERPLATE AT IKA-400 TAON NG VOCABULARIO NI SAN BUENAVENTURA". IT'S XIAOTIME!. Retrieved October 10, 2017.
  11. Morrow, Paul (July 14, 2006). "Laguna Copperplate Inscription". Sarisari etc.
  12. "Expert on past dies; 82". Philippine Daily Inquirer. October 21, 2008. Archived from the original on October 24, 2008. Retrieved November 17, 2008.
  13. National Museum of the Philippines. "National Cultural Treasures of Philippine Archaeology". Retrieved June 13, 2019.
  14. "The Laguna Copperplate Inscription Archived November 21, 2014, at the Wayback Machine. Accessed September 4, 2008.
  15. William Henry Scott, Prehispanic Source Materials for the Study of Philippine History, pg.65. ISBN 971-10-0226-4.
  16. Andaya, Leonard Y. (October 2001). "The Search for the 'Origins' of Melayu". Journal of Southeast Asian Studies. 32 (3): 321. Retrieved August 16, 2020.
  17. Santos, Hector (October 26, 1996). "Sulat sa Tanso: Transcription of the LCI". www.bibingka.com. Archived from the original on October 29, 2014. Retrieved October 10, 2017.
  18. Tiongson, Jaime F. (November 11, 2006)., Tiongson, Jaime F. (November 11, 2006). (November 11, 2006). "Puliran in the Laguna Copperplate Inscription: Laguna de Bay or Pulilan, Bulacan?". Bayang Pinagpala. Archived from the original on November 28, 2012. Retrieved November 18, 2011.CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  19. Tiongson, Jaime F. (November 29, 2006). "Pailah is Pila, Laguna". Archived from the original on July 7, 2012. Retrieved November 18, 2011.
  20. Patanñe,E.P. Philippines in the Sixth to Sixteenth Centuries. 1996.
  21. Abinales, Patricio N. and Donna J. Amoroso, State and Society in the Philippines. Maryland: Rowman and Littlefield, 2005.
  22. Kimuell-Gabriel, Nancy A. (March 3, 2013). "Ang Tundo sa Inskripsyon sa Binatbat na Tanso ng Laguna (900 MK.-1588)" (PDF). www.bagongkasaysayan.org. Bahay Saliksikan ng Kasaysayan – Bagong Kasaysayan (BAKAS), Inc. Archived from the original (PDF) on August 22, 2017. Retrieved July 7, 2017. Gray literature partly based on Kimuell-Gabriel, Nancy A. (2001). TIMAWA: Kahulugan, Kasaysayan at Kabuluhan sa Lipunang Pilipino. Tesis Masteral (PhD Thesis). Departamento ng Kasaysayan, Unibersidad ng Pilipinas, Diliman.
  23. William Henry Scott. Prehispanic Source materials for the Study of Philippine History. ISBN 971-10-0226-4.
  24. Mathematical Ideas in Early Philippine Society
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