The Term ācārya in Old Javanese Inscriptions

Old Javanese vocabulary remains understudied as many Old Javanese texts, primarily stone and copperplate inscriptions, have not been published or their contents were not considered in Petrus Josephus Zoetmulder’s Old-Javanese-English Dictionary (1982). Numerous Old Javanese titles also need closer examination as there is no scholarly convention about their interpretation. The paper investigates the term ācārya in Old Javanese inscriptions in its various contexts through centuries. There are hundreds or even thousands Old Javanese inscriptions while printed and online catalogues contain few hundreds texts. There are 35 Old Javanese, two Sanskrit and two Old Malay inscriptions dated from the ninth to the fifteenth centuries CE which contain the term ācārya. The paper gives relevant quotes in Old Javanese, Sanskrit and Old Malay and examines ways of interpreting them. The term ācārya was not a personal name in Old Javanese epigraphy. The title ḍaṅ ācāryya, or “revered teacher, master”, was its usual form in Old Javanese inscriptions but their Sanskrit parts as well as pure Sanskrit and Old Malay inscriptions give the word without particles, like Javanese ḍaṅ. Since the early tenth century onwards, especially in East Java kingdoms, ḍaṅ ācāryya often were officials samgat/saṁ pamgət. They served as judges and teachers of religious law. The date of the Air Asih and Parablyan inscriptions should be corrected to the 1190s Śaka/1268–1278 CE because of their similarities with the Mula Malurung and Sarvadharms inscriptions. Saṁ pamgət of Tirvan, Kaṇḍamuhi and Maṅhuri probably formed a triad and acted together in the thirteenth century

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