The popularity of this character is documented in numerous archaeological remains, such as inscriptions, statues, and reliefs, as well as textual documents that have Bhīma as the main character. Our study shows that the inscriptions are related to the social and political contexts of the Sunda region from the late 15th into the 16th century, and that they are predominantly commemorative in nature rather than being records of contemporary events.Īs in other parts of Asia, the figure of Bhīma was made the subject of cult worship in Java. This article’s objective is to present new editions of fifteen Old Sundanese inscriptions, based on direct reading from the original artefacts and on newly made photos and estampages, and to interpret the contents of these inscriptions by renewing the philological approach, pioneered by some Dutch scholars in the 19th century, of making systematic use of Old Sundanese sources preserved in manuscripts, in order to elucidate the meaning of the inscriptions. However, the epigraphic corpus still leaves many problems without a compelling solution, while the available editions are of uneven quality. Old Sundanese inscriptions had already been studied by the end of the 19th century by the Dutch scholars, and post-Independence Indonesian scholars have continued to make occasional contributions.
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