THE TEXTS OF THE HIKAYAT RAJA PASAI: A Short Note

Author(s): RUSSELL JONES

Source: Journal of the Malaysian Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society, Vol. 53, No. 1 (237)
(1980), pp. 167-171
Published by: Malaysian Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/41493569 .
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 THE TEXTS OF THE HIKAYAT RAJA PASAI
A Short Note

by
RUSSELL JONES

The Hikayat Raja Posai is a Malay text which chronicles events in Pasai,
North Sumatra,forroughlya centuryfromabout 1280 AD, coveringthe period
of the firstMuslim rulersof that state. It can be surmisedthat it would have
been composed (not necessarilyin the formin which it now appears) duringthe
14thcentury,makingit one of the earliestMalay textsknown.
Our knowledgeof the work derives from one manuscriptwrittenin Jawi
script. This is a copy made for Sir StamfordRaffles(completed on 3 January
1815) while he was Lieutenant-Governorof Java. It is one of several Malay
manuscriptswhich were loaned to Rafflesby the Regent of Demak for copies
to be made. Presumablythe copy we now possess was made by one of Raffles'
scribes in Batavia. It was subsequentlytaken back to London by Raffles,and
afterhis death was presentedto the Royal Asiatic Society, on January16 1830.
It is still in the Royal Asiatic Society Library,in London, registeredas, Raffles
Malay no. 67.
Strictlyspeaking that is not a unique manuscript,since another copy of
the text is preservedin the Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris (no. Mal.-Pol. 50, see
Cabaton,224). However,the latteris merelya copy made by the Frenchscholar
Édouard Dulaurier, duringa visit to London in 1838, and so has littlereference
value for the study of the text. Dulaurier howeverbecame the firstto publish
an edition of the text (Dulaurier, 1849). It is in Jawi script, clearly printed,
and in factthe most reliableedition of the text so farto appear. But Dulaurier
was responsiblefor amending(correctingperhaps?) the title of the text as given
in the colophonfromHikayat Raja Pasai to Hikayat Raja-Raja Pasai, beginning
a fashion which has persisted ever since. Incidentally, Dulaurier's visit to
London proved to be a turningpoint in the historyof Malay Studies in France.
His visitto London was actuallyto studyCoptic manuscripts,but he came across
manuscriptsin Malay, had his interestaroused enough to make copies of several,
and on his returnto Paris he was moved, aftersome disappointments,to intro-
duce the teachingof Malay and Javanesethere(Sokoloff1948, 163-4).
The Hikayat Raja Pasai was next published, this time in romanisedform,
by J.P. Mead (Mead, 1914). As Hill points out (Hill, 1960, 41-2) this texthas
numerousmisreadingsand printingerrors. Mead followedDulaurier in giving
it the title of Hikayat Raja-Raja Pasai .
A much more ambitiouseditionby the late Dr. A.H. Hill was publishedby
the Malaysian Branchin 1962 (Hill, 1960). This consistsof a revisedromanised
text, an Introduction,an English translationand comprehensivenotes, and
might easily have become the definitiveedition of this work. Unfortunately

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RUSSELLJONES VOL. 53
JMBRAS,

the jinx which seems to have haunted this text showed itselfonce more. Hill
was killed in an air crash in Java on 26 January1961 (see Obituaryin JMBRAS
XXXV/1 1962, p. 113)and delays in the printingof the textmeantthathe had not
had any opportunityto revisethe finalproofs. At all events,when the published
transcriptioncame to be checked against the manuscript,many misreadingsor
printingerrorsbecame apparent. As a result this edition was dropped from
the syllabusforthe B.A. in Malay in the Universityof London.
In 1973 a thirdedition of the work,consistingof a prefacein Bahasa Indo-
nesia and a transcriptionof the Malay hikayat,was published in Yogyakarta
(see Teuku Ibrahim Alfian,1973). The editor of this, hailing fromthe region
of Pasai, was in a strongposition to produce a good text, and does add some
helpfulnotes; however,the Malay transcriptionis very imperfect. Some of its
shortcomings,such as the omissionaltogetherof the last two pages of the Malay
text,may be attributableto the publisherratherthan the editor.
A fourthedition has been in preparationfor some years. From 1962 the
presentwriterused the Hill edition for teachingthe text in the Universityof
Sydney,and began the task, with the aid of studentswho were studyingit, of
listingthe deviationsfound when the edition was compared with a facsimileof
the manuscript. The intentionwas to collect materialsfor a revised edition of
the Hill edition,which was patentlynecessary. The writerproceeded to revise
the whole Hill edition and to supplementit with index and lists of names of
personsand places mentionedin it. Agreementwas reachedin 1967 withDonald
Moore Press Ltd. to publish the work. Meanwhile Dr. Gibson-Hill, who had
been concernedwith the printingof the Hill edition, and John Bottoms,who
had also been workingtowards some revision of the work, had passed away.
By 1970 Donald Moore Press Ltd. had ceased to publish,and the typescriptwas
accordinglyreturned. The revisionof the Malay and Indonesian orthography
of 1972 put a furtherobstacle in the way of the workbeing published; however
in 1979 it was retypedin the ReformedSpelling. It is hoped now that a reason-
ably reliable transcriptionof the Malay text of the Hikayat Raja Pasai will be
published beforelong, to make this valuable littlework available to studentsof
Malay, particularlythose in Malaysia and Indonesia. It may be some time
beforea revisedversionof the large Hill editionwill again be readyforthe press.
The attached reproductionof the manuscriptpage bearing the colophon
atteststhe actual titleof this work (Hikayat Raja Pasai) and also the date when
the copy of it was completed(3 January1815), both matterson which therehas
long been misunderstanding. The excerptsof the correspondingpassage from
the different editions explain to some extentwhy those misunderstandings have
come about.

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PART1, 1980 THE TEXTSOF THE HIKAYAT
RAJA
PASAI

Raffles MS no. 67, Royal Asiatic Society

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169

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RUSSELLJONES VOL. 53
JMBRAS,

Edition of J P Mead (19Í4)

Tamat-lah hikáyatRaja Pasai selamat sempurna yang mem-
bacha dia dan segala yang menengarkan dia, istemewa yang
menyuratkandi-peliharakan Allah subhanahu wataala apa-lah
kira-nyadari dunia datang akhirat berkat shafaat Nabi Moham-
mad mustafi sal-lallahhu alaihi was'salam. Tamat hari isnin
kapada hari dua-puloh satu kapada bulan muharramsanat tujoh
hijratul-nabi.*
* I IT*
Edition of AH Hill (1960)
Tamat Hikayat Raja-Raja Pasai selamat sempurnayang mem-
bacha dia dan segala yang menengarkandia, istemewayang men-
yuratkandia di-peliharakanAllahu subhanahuwa ta*ala apa-lah
kira-nya dari dunia datang' ka-akhira baraka shafa'a al-Nabi
Muhammadal-Mustafa Salla llahu 'alaihi wa sallam. Tamat hart
ithttainkapada hari dua-puloh satu kapada bulan muharamsanai
tujoh hijratu'l-nabisangkingkiai (hyayi) Suradimanggala,bupati
sapuh pu negeriDenmak nagariBogor,warsa 1942.

Edition of Teuku Ibrahim Alfian (1973)

- passage omitted -

Proposed transcription by present writer

Tamat HikayatRaja Pasai. Selamat sempurna
yang membaca dia dan segala yangmenengarkandia, istimewayang
menyuratkandia, dipeliharakanAllah subhanahu wa-taala apalah kiranya
dari dunia datangke akhirat,berkatsyafaatNabi Muhammad
mustafa,salla 'llahu 'alaihi wa-sallam.
Tamat hari ithnin,kepada hari
duapuluh sa, kepada bulan
Muharram,sanat za
Hijratu'l Nabi
1230
SangkingkyayiSuradimangaala,bupati
sapu (pu) nagari Demak nagari Bogor,warsa 1742

Variant readings of the colophon in the differenteditions

line Dulaurier Mead Hill Teuku Ibrahim
1839 1914 1960 Alfian 1973
1 Tamat Tamat Tamat-lah Tamat omits
1 Hikayat Hikayat Hikayat Hikayat „
Raja Raja-Raja Raja Raja-Raja „
Pasai Pasai Pasia Pasai

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PART1, 1980 THE TEXTSOF THE HIKAYAT
RAJA
PASAI

line Dulaurier Mead Hill Teuku Ibrahim

1839 1914 1960 Alfian 1973
3 dia dia omits dia omits
4 ke ke omits ka „
4 Nabi Nabi Nabi al-Nabi „
5 mustafa Mustafa mustafi al-Mustafa „
6 kepada pada kepada kapada ,,
7 sa satu satu satu „
8 za za tujoh tujoh „
9 1230 (year, 1230 1230 omits „
in Arabic)

Collation of the page numbers of the differenteditions

MS 1849 1914 1960 1973
10 6 3 49 40
20 14 7 53 46
30 22 11 57 51
40 29 15 61 56
50 36 18 65 60
60 43 22 69 65
70 50 25 73 70
80 57 29 77 75
90 65 33 82 80
100 73 37 86 85
110 82 41 91 90
120 90 45 96 96
130 98 50 101 102
140 106 54 106 -

REFERENCES
Cabaton,A. 1912 Catalogue sommairedesmanuscrits indiens Ф malayo-polynésiens
, indo-chinois
(BibliothèqueNationale,
Paris).
Dulaurier, duroyaume
Éd. 1849 La chronique dePasey,&с (Paris).
Hill,A.H. 1960 HikayatRaja-RajaPasai,a revised
romanised &c (JMBRASxxxiiiPt 2).
version
Mead,J.P.1914 A romanized oftheHikayat
version Raja-RajaPasai(JSBRAS,66).
V. 1948 "Malais(1844)"in Cent-
Sokoloff, del'ÉcoledesLangues
cinquantenaire Orientales
(Paris)
pp 163-176.
TeukuIbrahimAlfian1973 KronikaPasai, sebuahtinjauan sejarah(GadjahMada University
Press,Yogyakarta).

Editor's Note.
AfterreadingDr. Russell JonesNote, the Council of the MBRAS has with-
drawn fromcirculationall the remainingcopies of JMBRAS Vol. 33. Part 2.
(1960) and this Note is published for the benefitof those who received copies
in 1960 or have since acquired them.

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