A grammar and dictionary of the Malay language : with a preliminary ...

DISSERTATION, xliii
as Sumeru, the Hindu Olympus; Prawata, "the mountain;"
Sundaru, " the beautiful ;
" Arjuna, "the mountain of Arjuna;"
and Brahama, " the mountain of Brahma/' or " of fire/' for it has
an active volcano. Neither the Javanese, or any other nation of
the Archipelago, have names for the larger islands, unless such
as are derived from their principal inhabitants. Sumatra may
be, however, an exception, and Sanskrit. Barbosa, whose narra-
tive is dated in 1516, and who visited the island some years
earlier, describes it with surprising correctness under this name
just as we now write it, and it must be presumed that he received
it from Arabian, Persian, or Indian merchants, for the word is
hardly known to the natives of the country, and he informs us
himself that the ancients called it Taprobana.*
Some European scholars have attached much importance to
the names of places, as afi'ording evidence of conquest and pos-
session by distant nations, but certainly they are of little value
for such a purpose, so far as Sanskrit is concerned, in the islands
of the Archipelago, where priests could impose them, as well as
conquerors, and where the natives of the country could do so as
well as either of them,—which, indeed, the latter have actually
done, almost in our own times.
The time and manner in which the Hindu religion, and its
inseparable attendant, the Sanskrit language, were introduced
into the Archipelago, is a matter of, at least, grreat
Introduc- . . mi i i •, ,
of Hindu- curiosity. The monsoons, there can be no doubt, had
a large share in bringing about this revolution. Aided
by these, the timid Hindus could early accomplish voyages
which were impracticable, even in the jNIediterranean and
Euxine, to their more intrepid and adventurous cotemporaries
of Greece and Italy. We may be even tolerably sure, that, had
monsoons, instead of westerly winds, prevailed in the Atlantic,
America must have been discovered long before the time of
Columbus. The trade which the Hindus would be enabled to
carry on under their auspices, would lead, in time, to partial
settlement, and of course to an acquaintance with the manners
and languages of the country ; finally, to conversion to Hindu-
* Liliro fli-Odoardo Barbosa. Ramusio, vol. 1