Melacak Sejarah Kuno Indonesia (Tracing Ancient Indonesian History through Inscriptions).

• Position: Book review

Melacak Sejarah Kuno Indonesia (Tracing Ancient Indonesian History through Inscriptions). By M. BOECHARI. Edited with an introduction by Kresno Yulianto and obituary by Hasan Djafar. Jakarta: KEPUSTAKAAN POPULER GRAMEDIA, 2012. Pp. xxxi + 644.

Professor M. Boechari (1927-1991) was the best known of Indonesia's epigraphers of the post-war generation. A student of R. M. Ng. Poerbatjaraka, he became the teacher and mentor of several succeeding generations of students of early Indonesian history, archaeology, and epigraphy. He made a major contribution to the Indonesian National History project; transcribed and translated numerous Old Javanese, Old Malay, and Sanskrit inscriptions; and produced over a hundred articles and manuscripts, both in Indonesian and English, on subjects ranging from early Indonesian inscriptions, literature, and chronicles to pre-Islamic political, social, and economic history. Since many of his articles were published in volumes and periodicals now difficult to obtain, the Department of Archaeology at the University of Indonesia and the Ecole francaise d'Extreme-Orient in Jakarta have collaborated in gathering together in one volume a large and representative collection of Boechari's articles, as well as a number of unpublished manuscripts and transcriptions of inscriptions. Although Boechari's interests ranged widely, his major contributions were in the study of early Javanese states through the medium of inscriptions, a focus that is reflected in the composition of the volume.

The editors have identified a number of themes in Boechari's writings, and have made an effort to group the articles accordingly. Some of the more general subjects addressed--the case for a multidisciplinary study of the past, the need to provide adequate teaching materials for students in the Indonesian language, an urgent call for trained archaeologists to be allowed to investigate temple sites before restoration work begins, and the importance of valuing indigenous scholarship--are reflected in the four articles in Indonesian language, most written in the late 1970s specifically for an Indonesian academic and official audience, in section one in the volume. These comprise three general essays and an appreciation of the scholarly work of Prof. Poerbatjaraka, and are of largely historiographic interest.

Boechari's major research-based articles are grouped in sections two, three, and four of the volume. Parts two and three, dealing respectively...