Note 9 — Chapter IV · The Malay Pantheon

Footnote supra. Sambu (Sambhu, the Auspicious One) is merely another name for Shiva (rarely of Brahma), and its application to the crocodile-spirit would appear to indicate that this latter was, formerly, at least, regarded as an embodiment of that supreme god’s manifestation as a water-god. It is worth while to compare this with the expression “’Toh Panjang Kuku,” which is applied to the corresponding manifestation of the supreme god on land, and which strongly suggests the tiger.

“Most of the theological words of this list [printed in App. xiv.] are Sanskrit, and afford proof sufficient, if any were needed, of the former prevalence of the Hindu religion among the Malays and Javanese. Many of them are more or less corrupted in orthography, owing to the defective pronunciation and defective alphabets of the Archipelago. Some, also, are altered or varied in sense. Tapas, ‘ascetic devotion,’ is deprived of its last consonant and becomes tapa. Avatar, ‘a descent,’ is converted into batara; and instead of implying the descent or incarnation of a deity, is used as an appellative for any of the principal Hindu deities. Combined with guru, also Sanskrit, it is the most current name of the chief god of the Hindus, worshipped by the Indian islanders, supposed to have been Vishnu, or the preserving power. It may be translated “the spiritual guide god,” or, perhaps, literally “the god of the spiritual guides,” that is, of the Brahmins. Agama in Sanskrit is “authority for religious doctrine”; in Malay and Javanese it is religion itself, and is at present applied both to the Mahomedan and the Christian religions. With nearly the same orthography, and in the same sense, Sanskrit words, as far as they extend, are used throughout the Archipelago, and even as far as the Philippines.”—Crawfurd, Mal. Grammar, pp. cxcvii.–cxcviii. ↑