Which down the Esplanade did go at the ninth hour of the day...."—

Bole-Ponjis, by H. M. Parker, ii. 215.

[The Jaun Bazar is a well-known low quarter of Calcutta.]

[1892.—

"From Tarnau in Galicia

To Jaun Bazar she came."

R. Kipling, Ballad of Fisher's Boarding House.]

JAVA, n.p. This is a geographical name of great antiquity, and occurs, as our first quotation shows, in Ptolemy's Tables. His Ἰαβαδίου represents with singular correctness what was probably the Prakrit or popular form of Yava-dvīpa (see under [DIU] and [MALDIVES]), and his interpretation of the Sanskrit is perfectly correct. It will still remain a question whether Yava was not applied to some cereal more congenial to the latitude than barley,[[145]] or was (as is possible) an attempt to give an Indian meaning to some aboriginal name of similar sound. But the sixth of our quotations, the transcript and translation of a Sanskrit inscription in the Museum at Batavia by Mr. Holle, which we owe to the kindness of Prof. Kern, indicates that a signification of wealth in cereals was attached to the name in the early days of its Indian civilization. This inscription is most interesting, as it is the oldest dated inscription yet discovered upon Javanese soil. Till a recent time it was not known that there was any mention of Java in Sanskrit literature, and this was so when Lassen published the 2nd vol. of his Indian Antiquities (1849). But in fact Java was mentioned in the Rāmāyana, though a perverted reading disguised the fact until the publication of the Bombay edition in 1863. The passage is given in our second quotation; and we also give passages from two later astronomical works whose date is approximately known. The Yava-Koṭi, or Java Point of these writers is understood by Prof. Kern to be the eastern extremity of the island.

We have already (see [BENJAMIN]) alluded to the fact that the terms Jāwa, Jāwi were applied by the Arabs to the Archipelago generally, and often with specific reference to Sumatra. Prof. Kern, in a paper to which we are largely indebted, has indicated that this larger application of the term was originally Indian. He has discussed it in connection with the terms "Golden and Silver Islands" (Suvarṇa dvīpa and Rūpya dvīpa), which occur in the quotation from the Rāmāyana, and elsewhere in Sanskrit literature, and which evidently were the basis of the Chrysē and Argyrē, which take various forms in the writings of the Greek and Roman geographers. We cannot give the details of his discussion, but his condensed conclusions are as follows:—(1.) Suvarṇa-dvīpa and Yava-dvīpa were according to the prevalent representations the same; (2.) Two names of islands originally distinct were confounded with one another; (3.) Suvarṇa-dvīpa in its proper meaning is Sumatra, Yava-dvīpa in its proper meaning is Java; (4.) Sumatra, or a part of it, and Java were regarded as one whole, doubtless because they were politically united; (5.) By Yava-koṭi was indicated the east point of Java.

This Indian (and also insular) identification, in whole or in part, of Sumatra with Java explains a variety of puzzles, e.g. not merely the Arab application of Java, but also the ascription, in so many passages, of great wealth of gold to Java, though the island, to which that name properly belongs, produces no gold. This tradition of gold-produce we find in the passages quoted from Ptolemy, from the Rāmāyana, from the Holle inscription, and from Marco Polo. It becomes quite intelligible when we are taught that Java and Sumatra were at one time both embraced under the former name, for Sumatra has always been famous for its gold-production. [Mr. Skeat notes as an interesting fact that the standard Malay name Jāwă and the Javanese Jāwa preserve the original form of the word.]