Laguna Copperplate Inscription

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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 (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 necessarily did not originate from that area.[1]
The plate was found in 1989 by a laborer near the mouth of the Lumbang River in
Wawa barangay, Lumban municipality, Laguna province. 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.
The LCI documents the existence of several early Philippine polities as early as AD 900, most notably
the Pasig River delta polity of Tondo. 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.
The inscription was written in Kawi script—a writing system developed in Java, and using a mixture of
languages including Sanskrit, Old Javanese, and Old Malay. This was a rare trace of Javanese
influence, which suggests the extent of interinsular exchanges of that time.
Historic context[edit]
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.[4] 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.[5] 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.[6][7][8][8] Indian honorifics also influenced
[9]
the Malay, Thai, Filipino and Indonesian honorifics. Examples of these include Raja, Rani, Maharlika,
Datu, etc which were transmitted from Indian culture to Philippines via Malays and Srivijaya empire.
The pre-colonial native Filipino script called Baybayin (ᜊᜊᜊᜊᜊᜊᜊᜊ), known in Visayan as badlit (ᜊᜊᜊᜊᜊᜊᜊ),
as kur-itan/kurditan in Ilocano and as kudlitan in Kapampangan, was itself derived from the Brahmic
scripts of India and first recorded in the 16th century.[10]
Discovery and provenance[edit]

The actual image of the LCI found in Lumbang River.

The Laguna Copperplate Inscription was found in 1989 near the mouth of the Lumbang River near Laguna
de Bay,[11] 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.[12][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[edit]
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.[12]
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 proleptic Gregorian 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. Some contend it is between Old Tagalog and Old Javanese.[1] 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).[12][14]
Text[edit]
Transliteration
The text below is from Hector Santos' 1995 Original translation by
Line Notes
transliteration.[16] All of the letters in Santos' Antoon Postma (1991)[1]
text were in smallcaps.

Hail! In the Saka-year 822;

the month of March–April;
swasti shaka warshatita 822 waisakha masa according to
1
ding jyotisha. chaturthikrishnapaksha so- the astronomer: the fourth
day of the dark half of the
moon; on

Monday. At that time, Lady

-mawara sana tatkala dayang angkatan lawan
2 Angkatan together with her
dengannya sanak barngaran si bukah
relative, Bukah by name,

the child of His Honor

Namwaran, was given, as a
anakda dang hwan namwaran di bari waradana
special favor, a document
3 wi shuddhapat(t)ra ulih sang pamegat senapati
of full acquittal, by the
di tundu-
Chief and Commander2 of
Tundun
 representing the Leader of
n barja(di) dang hwan nayaka tuhan pailah Pailah, Jayadewa. This
4 jayadewa. di krama dang hwan namwaran means that His Honor
dengan dang kaya- Namwran, through the
Honorable Scribe4

was totally cleared of a

salary-related5 debt of 1
stha shuddha nu di parlappas hutangda
kati and 8 suwarna (weight
5 wale(da)nda kati 1 suwarna 8 di hadapan dang
of gold): in the presence of
hwan nayaka tuhan pu-
His Honor the Leader
of Puliran,

Kasumuran; His Honor the

liran ka sumuran. dang hwan nayaka tuhan Leader of Pailah,
6
pailah barjadi ganashakti. dang hwan nayaka tu- representing Ganasakti;
(and) His Honor the Leader

of Binwangan, representing
han binwangan barjadi bishruta tathapi sadanda Bisruta. And, with his whole
7
sanak kaparawis ulih sang pamegat de- family, on orders of the
Chief of Dewata

representing the Chief of

wata [ba]rjadi sang pamegat medang dari Mdang, because of his
8 bhaktinda di parhulun sang pamegat. ya loyalty as a subject (slave?)
makanya sadanya anak of the Chief, therefore all
the descendants

of his Honor Namwaran

have been cleared of the
chuchu dang hwan namwaran shuddha ya
whole debt that His Honor
9 kaparawis di hutangda dang hwan namwaran di
owed the Chief of Dewata.
sang pamegat dewata. ini gerang
This (document) is (issued)
in case

there is someone,
* Line 10 of
syat syapanta ha pashchat ding ari kamudyan whosoever, some time in
the LCI ends
10 ada gerang urang barujara welung lappas the future, who will state
mid-
hutangda dang hwa ... that the debt is not yet
sentence.[1]
acquitted of His Honor...
Geographical place-names identified in the text[edit]
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 Mdang (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[edit]

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.[17][18]
LCI words affirmed as place-names[edit]
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[edit]
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[19](p"134")[20](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[edit]
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[edit]
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[edit]
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[edit]
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 Sanskritin 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[20] 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.”[20]
Mdang[edit]
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."[20]
Dewata[edit]
Scholars after Postma, such as Patanñe (1996) and Abinales and Amoroso (2005)[20] have come to identify
the Dewata of the LCI as a settlement in or near “present-day Mount Diwata, near Butuan”.[20]
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.”[19]
Other proposed interpretations of place-names[edit]
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.[17][18]
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.[21](p"125")[17][18]
Significance[edit]
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.[22]
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.