# Đông Yên Châu inscription

The Đông Yên Châu inscription is an Old Cham inscription written in Pallava script, found in 1936 at Đông Yên Châu, northwest of Trà Kiệu, which used to be the old Champa capital known as Simhapura, in central Vietnam. The inscription was written in prose, is the oldest document of Cham (and indeed of any Austronesian language), and testifies to the existence of indigenous beliefs among the ancient Cham people of the Champa kingdom. Though not itself dated, the phrasing of the inscription is identical to those of dated Sanskrit inscriptions of Bhadravarman I of the second dynasty, who ruled Champa at the end of the 4th century CE. It contains an imprecatory formula ordering respect for the "naga of the king", undoubtedly a reference to the protective divinity of a spring or well. This vernacular text shows that in the 4th century, the land that now constitutes modern-day central Vietnam was inhabited by an Austronesian-speaking population. The evidence, both monumental and palaeographic, also suggests that Hinduism was the predominant religious system.
The fact that the language in the inscription shares some basic grammar and vocabulary with Malay has led some scholars to argue that the inscription contains the oldest specimen of Malay words in the form of Old Malay, older by three centuries than the earliest Srivijayan inscriptions from southeastern Sumatra. However, most scholars consider it established that this inscription was written in Old Cham instead. The shared basic grammar and vocabulary comes as no surprise, since Chamic and Malayic languages are closely related; both are the two subgroups of a Malayic–Chamic group within the Malayo-Polynesian branch of the Austronesian family.

## Text

The language of the inscription is not far from modern Cham or Malay in its grammar and vocabulary. The similarities to modern Malay and Cham grammar are evident in the yang and ya relative markers, both found in Cham, in the dengan ("with") and di (locative marker), in the syntax of the equative sentence Ni yang naga punya putauv ("this that serpent possessed by the king"), in the use of punya as a genitive marker, and so on. Indian influence is evident in the Sanskrit terms siddham, a frequently used invocation of fortune; nāga ("serpent, dragon"); svarggah ("heaven"), paribhū ("to insult"), naraka ("hell"), and kulo ("family"). The text of the inscription itself, associated with a well near Indrapura, is short but linguistically revealing:
Transliteration
    Siddham! Ni yang nāga punya putauv.
    Ya urāng sepuy di ko, kurun ko jemā labuh nari svarggah.
    Ya urāng paribhū di ko, kurun saribu thun davam di naraka, dengan tijuh kulo ko.
Word-for-word English equivalent
    fortune! this (that) serpent possess king.
    (O) person respect (in) him, for him jewels fall from heaven.
    (O) person insult (in) him, for one-thousand year remain (in) hell, with seven family he.
English translation
    Fortune! this is the divine serpent of the king.
    Whoever respects him, for him jewels fall from heaven.
    Whoever insults him, he will remain for a thousand years in hell, with seven generations of his family.
Malay translation
    Sejahtera! Inilah naga suci kepunyaan Raja.
    Orang yang menghormatinya, turun kepadanya permata dari syurga.
    Orang yang menghinanya, akan seribu tahun diam di neraka, dengan tujuh keturunan keluarganya.
Western Cham translation
    Nabuwah! Ni kung nāga milik patao.
    Hây urāng adab tuei nyu, ka pak nyu mâh priak yeh hu plêk mâng syurga mai.
    Hâi urāng papndik harakat pak nyu, ka ye saribau thun tram di naraka, hong tajuh mangawom nyu.
Vietnamese translation
    Thời vận! Đây là xà thần của người.
    Ai tôn trọng người, với ngươi vàng bạc rơi từ thiên đường.
    Ai sỉ nhục người, kẻ đó sẽ ở địa ngục nghìn năm, với bảy đời gia đình hắn.
| Dong Yen Chau | Proto-Chamic | Malay | Meaning | Notes |
| ni | *inĭ, *inɛy | ini | this | Short form ni survives; from Proto-Austronesian *i-ni. |
| nāga | | naga | serpent/dragon | From Sanskrit नाग (nāga) |
| punya | | punya | possess | |
| putauv | *pataw, *pɔtaw | | king | Possibly borrowed from Vietnamese "phụ đạo", which in the past may have had the connotation of a "ruler", after its literal meaning of "prince's tutor" (i.e., "king's ruler before they became a king"). The modern meaning of phụ đạo is after-school tutorials. |
| urāng | *ʔuraːŋ | orang | person/people | |
| sepuy | | sopan | to respect | Possibly borrowed from Sanskrit śúbh ("to beautify, to embellish, an auspicious offering") or śobhā́ ("distinguished merit"). |
| labuh | *labuh | labuh | to drop | In modern Malay, labuh means to drop something while it's still attached (e.g., sail, anchor, curtain, skirt) |
| nari | | dari | from | |
| svarggah | | syurga | heaven | From Sanskrit स्वर्ग (svarga) |
| saribu | *saribɔw | seribu | one thousand | |
| thun | *thun | tahun | year | From Proto-Malayo-Polynesian *taqun |
| davam | | diam | to stay/remain, also means "silent" | |
| di | *dĭ | di | in | |
| naraka | | neraka | hell | From Sanskrit नरक (naraka) |
| dengan | *dəŋan | dengan | with | From Proto-Malayo-Polynesian *deŋan |
| tijuh | *tujuh | tujuh | seven | |
| kulo | | keluarga | family | From Sanskrit कुल (kula, "family; clan; lineage"). Compare with Malay keluarga, from Sanskrit kula + varga. |