Serpent Sculpture in Telaga Batu Inscription
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Berkala Arkeologi Translated Version ISSN : 0216-1419 E-ISSN : 2548-7132 Volume 40 No. 2, November 2020, 267-286 DOI: 10.30883/jba.v40i2.591 https://berkalaarkeologi.kemdikbud.go.id SERPENT SCULPTURE ON TELAGA BATU INSCRIPTION: AN INTERPRETATION BASED ON PEIRCE’S SEMIOTIC APPROACH FIGUR ULAR PADA PRASASTI TELAGA BATU: UPAYA PEMAKNAAN BERDASARKAN PENDEKATAN SEMIOTIKA PEIRCE Muhamad Alnoza Department of Archaeology, Universitas Indonesia [email protected] ABSTRAK Sriwijaya adalah kerajaan yang berkembang antara abad ke-7 sampai dengan 11 M. Prasasti menjadi tinggalan arkeologis sekaligus sumber tertulis yang dapat merekonstruksikan sejarah kebudayaan Sriwijaya. Prasasti Telaga Batu menjadi berbeda dengan prasasti lainnya, karena satu-satunya yang memiliki ornamen berbentuk mahluk hidup dan isinya yang paling panjang di antara yang lain. Ornamen yang terdapat pada Prasasti Telaga Batu adalah berbentuk ular berkepala tujuh. Kajian ini berusaha untuk menjawab makna figur ular berkepala tujuh tersebut dengan metode semiotika triadik Peirce. Makna tersebut dapat merekontruksi konsep di balik pembuatan figur ular berkepala tujuh beserta alasan mengapa perlu dibuat figur tersebut digambarkan pada Prasasti Telaga Batu. Dalam menjawab pertanyaan tersebut digunakan rangkaian tahapan penelitian arkeologi, meliputi pengumpulan data, analisis data dan interpretasi. Figur ular pada Prasasti Telaga Batu pada akhirnya dapat dimaknai sebagai perwujudan pelindung Datu dan juga wujud sang Datu sebagai Buddha. Kata Kunci: Buddha; Datu; Dewaraja; Mucalinda; Sriwijaya ABSTRACT Sriwijaya is a kingdom that developed between the 7th and 11th centuries AD. The inscriptions become archaeological remains as well as written sources that can reconstruct Sriwijaya's cultural history. The Telaga Batu inscription as one of Sriwijaya inscriptions is different from other inscriptions because it has the only ornament in living creature shape and it is the longest inscription among the others. The ornaments found on the Telaga Batu Inscription are in the form of a seven-headed snake. This study attempts to answer the meaning of the seven-headed snake figure with Peirce's triadic semiotic method. In answering these questions, a series of stages of archaeological research are used, including data collection, data analysis and interpretation. The snake figure in the Telaga Batu inscription can eventually be interpreted as a manifestation of the Datu's protector and the form of the Datu as a Buddha. Keywords: Buddha; Datu; Dewaraja; Mucalinda; Sriwijaya Article Submitted : 27-05-2020 Article Accepted : 14-09-2020 Serpent Sculpture on Telaga Batu Inscription: an Interpretation Based on Peirce’s Semiotic Approach 267 (Muhamad Alnoza) INTRODUCTION Kedatuan Sriwijaya is a Hindu-Buddhist kingdom that developed from the 7th to 11th centuries AD. The area of influence of Sriwijaya is estimated to stretch from Sumatra, Java, the Malay Peninsula and even to the plains of southern Thailand (The Kra Isthmus). Sriwijaya was also the holder of trading power in the Malacca Strait, which connects traders from the western world (India) to the eastern world (China). Buddhism flourished in Sriwijaya, evidenced by the discovery of archaeological remains linking to Buddhist religious practices, either in the form of features or artifacts (Poesponegoro and Notosusanto, 2010, pp. 82-85). Written sources, foreign records, and inscriptions, also prove the existence of Sriwijaya. Chinese chronicles from the Tang and Song dynasties are often used as a reference for foreign sources regarding the history of Sriwijaya, for example the travel notes of I'Tsing or Chao Ju Kua. Other foreign sources also came from the Middle East, one of which came from the records of Abu Zaid (Hall, 1985, p. 92). Regarding the source of the Sriwijaya inscription, generally the inscriptions issued by the ‘kedatuan’, the kingdom, came from Palembang, Bangka, Lampung and Jambi. The first Sriwijaya inscription studied by archaeologists is the Kota Kapur inscription. Hendrik Caspar Kern in 1913 read the inscription and mentioned the name "Sriwijaya" as the name of a king. George Coedes in 1918 then published his article entitled “Le Royaume Srivijaya” and refuted Kern's interpretation by stating that Sriwijaya was a kingdom (Coedes, 2014, pp. 1-28). Other inscriptions from the Sriwijaya era that archaeologists have found include the Kedukan Bukit Inscription (682 AD), Talang Tuo (684 AD), Karang Brahi, Butut, Palas Pasemah and Telaga Batu and many more (Poesponegoro and Notosusanto, 2010, p. 70) -73). The Telaga Batu inscription is one of the Sriwijaya inscriptions which has its own privileges. The peculiarity of the Telaga Batu Inscription was revealed by the results of the translation of the script and the translation carried out by JG de Casparis (1956, p. 35). The inscription contains the curse of Datu Sriwijaya on all Sriwijaya officials, from a rajakumara to a royal washerman. The description of the curse of the Telaga Batu Inscription is the longest compared to other inscriptions of the Sriwijaya era. Apart from its contents, the specialty of the Telaga Batu Inscription lies in its shape. The Telaga Batu inscription has snake figures on its top (Kartakusuma, 1993, p. 18). The shape of the snake makes the Telaga Batu Inscription the only inscription from the Sriwijaya era that has ornaments, especially in the form of living things. The existence of the snake figure on the Telaga Batu Inscription is important to study. The formation of the snake figure on the Telaga Batu Inscription is not ureasonable. As mentioned by Agus Aris Munandar (2019, p. 70), inscriptions are not only written but also shaped to such a degree, motivated by a certain concept. The concept behind the making of the inscription is called meaning, so that archaeologists need to interpret the meaning of the inscription form further. Studies on the meaning of the form or in this case the whole Telaga Batu Inscription have actually been carried out several times by previous researchers. Richadiana Kartakusuma (1993), in his writing entitled Dapunta Hiyam Sri 268 Berkala Arkeologi Vol. 40 Edition No. 2 November 2020 Jayanasa: Study of the Meaning of the Telaga Batu Inscription, tries to find the meaning of Telaga Batu to reconstruct Dapunta Hiyam (Hyang?) Sri Jayanasa's way of politics. The Telaga Batu inscription, according to Kartakusuma, is a monument indicating the possibility that the capital city of Sriwijaya in the 7th century was around Telaga Batu. Herman Kulke (1993) also interpreted the snake figures on the Telaga Batu Inscription as a form of Datu Sriwijaya. The depiction of Datu Sriwijaya in the form of a snake is related to the concept of primus interpares shared by the Sriwijaya community at that time. Dedi Irwanto Muhammad Santun (2013), in his writing entitled The Symbol of the Glory of the Capital of Sriwijaya from the Three Sriwijaya Inscriptions in Palembang, discusses the shape of the Telaga Batu Inscription. Santun mentions that the snake in the Telaga Batu Inscription is a symbol of evil, referring to the form of a "snake- wrapped man" in the megalithic remains of Pasemah. Previous studies regarding the Telaga Batu Inscription apparently have not specifically discussed the snake figure on the inscription, especially relating it to the contents of the inscription. Even though the inscrition has been interpreted, the references are considered not relevant to the concept that should have developed the idea of the Kedatuan Sriwijaya as the center of Buddhism. The study aims to interpret the snake figure by relating it to the contents of the inscription and referring to Buddhist religious concepts. This study is also to understand why the concept is embodied in the form of a snake figure depicted on the Telaga Batu Inscription. The problem raised in this study is to reveal the meaning behind the snake figure on the Telaga Batu Inscription. To find out the meaning of the snake figure on the Telaga Batu Inscription, a semiotic approach is needed. Semiotics is the study of signs, regarding humans as the animalus symbolicum, which interprets everything in life. Signs are seen as a cognitive process that is captured by the senses, used as a way to understand cultural symptoms (Hoed, 2003, p. 3). Semiotics was first proposed by Ferdinand de Saussure (1857-1913). Semiotics in cultural studies was developed by Charles Sanders Peirce (1834-1914). Saussure in his semiotic study focuses more on the discipline of linguistics, while Peirce focuses on philosophy (Lantowa et al., 2017, p. 1). Semiotics in archeology has just been developed in the world of archeology in Indonesia for the first time by Munandar in his dissertation entitled Efforts to Give Meaning to 14-19th century Balinese Palaces (1999) and his book entitled Proxemic Relief of the 8th-10th Century Temples (2012). Munandar, in his dissertation, discusses the provision of meaning with a semiotic approach to parts of the great palaces in Bali. While, in his book Munandar discusses the meaning of distance in reading reliefs based on semiotics. The semiotic study in this study uses the Peirce’s Triadic approach, as in the two writings. The importance of using Peirce's Triadic approach in this study is due to several advantages that exist in this approach, which include the following: 1. Has a definite theoretical basis, namely semiotics as a science that interprets artifacts 2. The relationship between objects and their references becomes clearer 3. Secondary archaeological data becomes clearer position in archeological studies (Munandar, 2002, p. 190). Serpent Sculpture on Telaga Batu Inscription: an Interpretation Based on Peirce’s Semiotic Approach 269 (Muhamad Alnoza) METHODS The archaeological method is the method used in this study. The method consists of several stages, namely the stage of data collection, data analysis and data interpretation (Sharer and Ashmore, 2003, p. 156). Data collection was carried out by describing the shape of the snake figure on the Telaga Batu Inscription and presenting the contents of the inscription. The data collection used literature study with several reference sources.