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THE ALPHABET Kari Inscriptions
The Dinaya inscription, although written in Kavi script, is still couched in Sanskrit, but later inscriptions are mostly in Kavi character and the Kavi or Old Javanese language. The oldest Kavi record, which is also the oldest Buddhist inscription of Java, is written, however, in the Deva-nagari script of northern India of the eighth-cleventh centuries; it is the Kalasan inscription (it was found in the Kalasan temple in Central Java) of the Sailendra dynasty of Sri Vijaya, belonging apparently to ca. A.D. 778. A slightly later inscription, found at Pareng in Central Java, and dated 785 Saka era (A.D. 863), is partly in Sanskrit verse and partly in Kavi prose, but written in Kavi character. Most important is the Kavi inscription known as the "Minto stone," having been sent as a present by Sir Stamford Raffles, the founder of Singapore, who was then the British governor of Java, to Lord Minto in Scotland; this inscription was found in JavaPasuruhan. It is dated 876 Saka era (that is, A.D. 954), and contains an inscription of King Vava, the last ruler of Central Java. The opening couplet of the monument is in Sanskrit.
After the shifting of the political centre from central to eastern Java, which took place in the tenth century A.D., the Kavi or Old Javanese literature began to flourish. An inscription of King Er-langga (or Airlangga), one of the most enlightened rulers of ancient Java, under whose reign there was vigorous activity in the domain of arts and literature, has been found at Penang-Gungen (Surabaya): it is dated 963 Saka era (A.D. 1041), and is inscribed on both sides in Kavi character; it is, however, wholly bilingual, being couched on one side in the Kavi language, and on the other side in pure Sanskrit.
The epigraphic records of early Java continue in almost unbroken series down to the end of the Indo-Javanese period. The last Kavi inscription on copper-plate is of 1473, the last stone inscription is dated 1408 Saka era, corresponding to A.D. 1486. The Kavi inscriptions are much more numerous (about two hundred of the longer ones) than those in Sanskrit, the number of the latter however, is much smaller than that of similar records discovered in Champa and Cambodia.
Modern Javanese Character
After the fall of Majapahit in about A.D.1478 (the traditional date), Kavi was gradually replaced by "Middle Javanese," although it continued to be a literary language long after it had become archaic, Middle Javanese persisted up to ca. 1628, when it made room for the New Javanese, but the former is still represented by the dialects of Banyumas, North Cheribon, North Krawang and North Bantam. Modern Javanese gradually breaks up into several sub-divisions, such as Krama Inggil, form of speech used in addressing gods and the aristocracy, the Basa Kedatan, a kind of court-language, Ngoko, the language of the commoner, and Madya or Madhya, a sort of compromise dialect between Krama and Ngoko.
