The Influence of Sanskrit on Indonesian Language

The Influence of Sanskrit on Indonesian Language

Written by James Sneddon in The Indonesian Language, Its History and Role in Modern Society. Sydney: UNSW.2003.pp.167-172

Another phenomenon in the development of modern Indonesian has been the use of Sanskrit words and phrases. These do not come directly from Sanskrit, the major source being Old Javanese.

Between the 10th and 15th centuries, there was a prolific literature in Old Javanese, also called Kawi. Heavily influenced by Indian literature, the scholars of the Hindu-Javanese period laced their works with Sanskrit forms, much as did the scribes of Srivijaya. It is from such preserved literature that most of the new borrowings now referred to as Sanskrit originate.

In some cases, such words are hybrids drawn from Sanskrit and Kawi to form new words that did not exist in those languages, much as the word ‘television’ is composed of the elements ‘tele-’, from the Greek word for ‘far’, and ‘vision’, from the Latin word for ‘sight’, producing a word in English unknown to speakers of Latin or Ancient Greek. One group that has provided many new terms based on Sanskrit are those previously known as the ‘solidarity makers’, the military and political leaders, who attempted to promote feelings of nationalism among the population.

For such people, Sanskrit terms have been particularly prestigious. They hark back to the glorious days of great Hindu-Javanese kingdoms, particularly Majapahit, and powerful kings such as Airlangga and Hayam Wuruk. Terms suggestive of power and legitimacy have been much exploited by the military, such as perwira (officer— Sanskrit prav-ira ‘hero’) and purnawirawan (retired; veteran — Sanskrit purna ‘complete’ and v-iryav n ‘warrior’), in place of the mundane alternatives opsir (Dutch officier) and pensiunan (pensioner— Dutch pensioen with Indonesian suffix -an).

Created forms include:
- The national philosophy Pancasila (The Five Principles) and the national motto Bhinekka Tunggal Ika (Unity in Diversity).

- Sanskrit numbers, such as panca (five), as in Pancasila, dwi (two) as in dwiwarna (two colours), for the Indonesian red and white flag, and  dwifungsi (two functions — a hybrid of Sanskrit and Dutch), for the  dual role of the military in defence and politics. Other examples include tri (three), as in tridarma (the three duties), for the responsibilities of institutes of higher education, and sapta (seven), as in sapta marga (the seven ways),for the seven principles that the armed forces must obey.

- Awards for meritorious service have grandiose sanskritic names,such as Satyalancana Karya Satya (satya ‘loyal, faithful’, lancana ‘badge’, karya ‘work’), a medal for long distinguished public service, Mahaputra Adipradana (mahaputra ‘great son’, adi ‘superior’, radana ‘first’), the highest order for distinguished service to the nation, and Bintang Yudha Dharma (bintang Malay ‘star, medal’, yudha ‘war’, dharma ‘service’), war service medal. The use of pseudo-Sanskrit in such honours gives an illusion of long tradition, thereby providing legitimacy to new creations.

- After the occupation of Dutch New Guinea, the capital Hollandia was eventually renamed Jayapura, Sanskrit for ‘Victory City’, the use of Sanskrit linked to the need to legitimise the takeover.

- Many Indonesians, particularly Javanese, have Sanskrit-based names. Suharto, whose Sanskrit-derived name means ‘good possessions’, named his son Hutomo Mandala Putra (better known as Tommy Suharto). At the time, Suharto was commander of the Mandala army unit. The name that he gave his son derives from hutomo, the Javanised form of Sanskrit utama (principal, eminent), mandala (circle), the name of the army unit (significantly given a Sanskrit name, being another instance of the choice of a powerful Sanskrit word), and putra,meaning ‘prince’ in Sanskrit, but being an honorific term for ‘son’ in Indonesian. Thus the name means ‘Son of the Leader of Mandala’.

- President Sukarno gave his Japanese bride the ‘Indonesian’ name Dewi Ratna Sari, which consists of three Sanskrit words, meaning ‘goddess’, ‘jewel’ and ‘essence’ respectively. Names from the Hindu epics, the Mahabharata and Ramayana, are well known to Indonesians.

- Technology Minister Habibie (Former President of Indonesia), in the last days of the Suharto government, had plans for a new Indonesian aircraft to be called Gatotkaca, after a powerful flying figure in the Mahabharata.

- When the Indonesian women’s archery team won a silver medal at the Seoul Olympics in 1988, they were widely proclaimed as the Tiga Srikandi (the Three Srikandis), after a woman archer in the Mahabharata.

- Other institutions exploit Sanskrit in the same way. The Catholic Church frequently uses it instead of Latin, as in the names of the Catholic universities Atma Jaya (Victorious Spirit) and Sanata Dharma (Genuine Good Deeds). A prominent Protestant university also has a Sanskrit name, Satya Wacana (Faithful to the Word).

- Private businesses very often choose Sanskrit names; Hotel Kartika Candra means nothing more than ‘Star Moon Hotel’, but the euphonious flow of sounds combined with the mystique of Sanskrit gives it a special prestige.

-Even lowly leather goods or bicycle shops can have Sanskrit names, like Surya Jaya (Victorious Sun) or Mitra Setia (Loyal Friend).

- Sometimes Sanskrit and Malay words are combined in names, the Sanskrit element here also adding to the aura of superiority, such as Gunung Mulia (Noble Mountain) for a book shop or Cahaya Baru (New Light) for a tailor. There are other reasons for the use of such pseudo-Sanskrit forms.

As an alternative to borrowings from European languages, they have considerable attraction. While many sound grandiose, they do not have a foreign flavour, Sanskrit phonology having been modified to the needs of Javanese, and they thus often have a native ‘feel’ about them, especially to Javanese.

- Sanskrit-based words are felt to be refined and polite, and so are popular as euphemisms for more blunt native words, such as payudara (female breasts) for Malay buah dada (literally ‘fruit of the breast’), and pidana (crime) for Malay kejahatan, which also means ‘evil’.

- A number of euphemisms occur with the prefixed component tuna- (lacking), from Sanskrit tunna- (struck, hurt, cut). In borrowings into Old Javanese, this word had developed the meaning ‘lacking, being short of’, which it retains in modern Indonesian, as in tunanetra (without sight — netra Sanskrit ‘eye’) instead of buta (blind), tunawisma (without house — Sanskrit vesma ‘house, building’) instead of gelandangan (vagrant, homeless) and tunakarya (without work — Sanskrit karya ‘work’) for penganggur (unemployed). Such terms are rarely used in everyday speech, but do appear in politer formal language

Tuna- is an example of a new affix entering the language through modern borrowing from Sanskrit. Among others are antar-, swa-, pra-, and pasca-. While some of theseappear in a few older borrowings, mainly of whole words,it is only since independence that they have becomecommon and can be recognised as prefixes.

- Antar- (inter-)occurs in words like antarpulau (inter-island), antarbenua (intercontinental) and antar golongan (inter-group). These words have probably been created under influence of English terms with theprefix ‘inter-’(which was borrowed into English from Latin and is cognate with the Sanskrit form).

- Swa-, from the Sanskrit sva (self), occurs in a fewolder forms but is mainly found in recent introductions,such as swasembada (self-sufficient), swadaya (self-help)and swalayan (self-service).
- Pra-, Sanskrit for ‘pre-’, occurs in such forms asprasejarah (prehistory — sejarah ‘history’ from Arabic), prasangka (prejudice — sangka ‘think,suppose’ from Sanskrit), prakata (foreword — kata ‘word’ being an old borrowing of Sanskrit kath ‘word, speech’) and prasekolah (preschool — sekolah from Portuguese).

- The prefix pasca- was introduced quite recently in themeaning ‘post-’ and has become rather productive in the modern language, as in pascasarjana (postgraduate —sarjana ‘scholar’ from Sanskrit), pasca-pemilu post-election — pemilu being an abbreviation for pemilihan umum ‘general election’) and pasca-jajak pendapat (post-referendum — first used in reference to strife following the 1999 referendum in East Timor). One modern coinage with the prefix pra- offers an interesting illustration of how obscure the meanings of these forms are to most people.

- The word pramugari was coined for ‘airline stewardess’.There are different accounts of the origin of mugari, but it was apparently an Old Javanese word meaning something like ‘managing affairs’. The word is popularly reanalysed as consisting of pramu, meaning something like ‘one who serves’ and gari, which seems not to be assigned any meaning. As a result of this false analysis, other terms have been coined with a component pramu, such as pramuniaga (shop assistant — niaga ‘trade’ from Sanskrit) and pramuwisma (servant — wisma ‘building, house’ from Sanskrit), although only the original pramugari is in common use in everyday speech, the others being euphemisms.

- The Sanskrit suffix -van (having, possessing), was earlier borrowed as part of certain words, such as rupawan (handsome — Sanskrit r pa ‘form, shape’) and hartawan (wealthy — Sanskrit artha ‘wealth, property’). In the modern language, its use has been greatly extended, coming to be thought of as meaning someone who practises a particular activity, as in: dramawan dramatist ilmuwan scientist (ilmu ‘science’ from Arabic ilm) olahragawan sportsman (olahraga ‘sport’) usahawan businessman (usaha ‘business, enterprise’ from Sanskrit) wartawan reporter (warta ‘news’ from Sanskrit).

- As these examples show, the suffix is not confined to combining with borrowings from Sanskrit. For these words there are corresponding female forms with -wati, such as olahragawati (sportswoman) and wartawati (female journalist), although forms with -wan can cover both male and female. While many of these neo-Sanskrit forms have been chosen for concepts in cultural areas, borrowings for science and technology are almost always taken from European languages (apart from early borrowings that sometimes came from Arabic).

- Instead of everyday matahari (sun), the Sanskrit word surya has been chosen for scientific communication, along with derivatives like tata surya (solar system — tata ‘order, arrangement’ from Sanskrit). The Sanskrit derivative angkasa (sky, heaven) is used in preference to the native langit in scientific contexts, such as in angkasa luar (outer space — luar ‘outside’) and angkasawan (astronaut


Not all proposed borrowings from Sanskrit have found favour. As mentioned, some are refined euphemisms not used in everyday speech.

- Pariwisata (tourism) occurs only in official language, turisme being the everyday word. Some forms devised by planners were not accepted at all.

- A number of forms with the prefix nir-, from the Sanskrit for ‘without, free from’, such as nirleka (prehistory — Sanskrit lekha ‘writing’), were coined by the Terminology Commission, but were not accepted by the public.

- The base pirsa, from the Sanskrit original from which periksa (examine) also comes, occurs in pirsawan (with -wan from Sanskrit) and pemirsa (with the Malay prefix pe- ‘one who does the action’). These words were coined for ‘television viewer’; however, although heard, they are not really able to compete with the Malay penonton (viewer, spectator). Likewise, the borrowing wahana could not compete against the Malay kendaraan in the meaning ‘vehicle’.

By the 20th century, direct Indian influence was long past, with Sanskrit playing no part in the life of the people of Indonesia, except in Bali. Therefore, modern borrowings from Sanskrit have been deliberate choices, sometimes by language planners but much more frequently by others familiar with or having access to Kawi sources. the mid-1960s, which has largely been spontaneous, not a result of deliberate choice but by the often casual use of English words by people directly familiar with the language.