The History of Java, v. 1-2Raffles, Thomas Stamford, Sir
History
The History of Java, v. 1-2
Raffles, Thomas Stamford, Sir
Java (Indonesia) -- History
[14] The term _Zapagé_ or _Zabaja_ seems also to have been a corruption
from _Jawa_, and to have been used with the same latitude, according
to the following notices by Major Wilford. "There was a constant
intercourse, both by sea and land, between the kingdom of _Magad'hi_
and China, on the authority of Chinese history; and they traded to an
island and kingdom, called Founan, to the eastward of Siam, during the
third and fourth centuries. This was probably a Malay kingdom; but
we cannot ascertain its situation. It seems that the Malay emperors
and kings, as those of _Zapagi_ and _Founan_, did what they could to
introduce trade and learning into their dominions, but their exertions
proved ineffectual; at least they were not attended with much success;
and their subjects soon relapsed into their former mode of life." ...
"There are two countries called Maharaja, which are often confounded
together; the first, at the bottom of the Green Sea, including
Bengal and all the countries on the banks of the Ganges; the second
comprehended the peninsula of Malacca, and some of the adjacent islands
in the seas of China. In these countries the emperor, or king, always
assumed the title of Maharaja, even until this day. Their country,
in general, was called _Zapagé_ or _Zabaja_, which is a corruption
from _Java_ or _Jaba_, as it was called in the west, and was also the
name of Sumatra, according to Ptolemy, who calls it _Jaba-diu_, and
to Marco Polo. In the peninsula of Malacca was the famous emporium of
_Zaba_: Zubaja, in Sanscrit, would signify then _Zaba_. The empire of
_Zabajé_ was thus called, probably, from its metropolis, _Zaba_, as
well as the principal islands near it. _Zaba_ was a principal emporium
even as early as the time of Ptolemy. It remained so till the time of
the two Mussulman travellers of Renaudot, and probably much longer.
It is now called _Batu Sabor_, upon the river Jehor, which is as
large as the Euphrates, according to these travellers; who add, that
the town of Calabar, on the coast of Coromandel, and ten days to the
south of Madras, belonged to the Maharaja of Zabaje. The wars of this
Maharaja with the king of _Alkoner_ or countries near Cape Comorin, are
mentioned by the two Mussulman travellers in the ninth century, and
it seems that, at that time, the Malayan empire was in its greatest
splendor."--_Asiatic Researches_, vol. ix.
[15] Others again have derived the term _Jawa_ from _Yava_, which in
Sanscrit means barley, whence Java has occasionally been termed the
land of barley.
[16] Beschryving van _Groot Djawa_ of te _Java Major_ door F.
Valentyn.--Amsterdam, 1726.
[17] The breadth is a few miles less between Cheribon and the south
coast, occasioned by the deep bay of _Cheláchap_, and also in the
eastern termination of the island beyond Surabáya, where it only
averages forty-five geographical miles.
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