Many inscriptions are found on the hidden base. Many have been deciphered, read and translated, sometimes with difference in opinion. Practically all which have been read turn out to be instructions to specify the types of scene that were to be carved.
We may infer from these inscriptions that already at that time when this part of Borobudur was built (according to Dumarçay, between 778 and 792 CE), the knowledge of Sanskrit, the priestly language of India, had already begun to spread in a wider circle beyond the court and priestly institutions, on its way to be absorbed by the local Javanese culture in general. We know that many Sanskrit words have become part of Indonesian vocabulary, in the same way it has happened in many other Asian countries. What is most important here is the use of local spelling of some Sanskrit words which indicates that the process of Javanese modification of new cultural elements from India has already begun at this relatively early time in history, namely around the last decade of the 8th century – the time when this part of the monument could have been constructed.
We may infer from these inscriptions that already at that time when this part of Borobudur was built (according to Dumarçay, between 778 and 792 CE), the knowledge of Sanskrit, the priestly language of India, had already begun to spread in a wider circle beyond the court and priestly institutions, on its way to be absorbed by the local Javanese culture in general. We know that many Sanskrit words have become part of Indonesian vocabulary, in the same way it has happened in many other Asian countries. What is most important here is the use of local spelling of some Sanskrit words which indicates that the process of Javanese modification of new cultural elements from India has already begun at this relatively early time in history, namely around the last decade of the 8th century – the time when this part of the monument could have been constructed.
Prof. De Casparis, nevertheless, compares the script of these inscriptions with that of the Karang Tengah inscription of the first half of the 9th century.
These writings form one of the very few tangible evidence of the dynamics of the local culture of Java, which not merely absorbed elements from imported Indian culture, but also modified and adapted these to its own usage. This evidently happened everywhere in all countries that came under the impact of Indian culture, as part of a long process in history that still extends into the present. These inscriptions on the hidden base, nevertheless, tell us that the dynamics of the local culture had already begun to assert themselves in Central Java around 800 CE, early in the days of the heavily Indianized Shailendra period.
These writings form one of the very few tangible evidence of the dynamics of the local culture of Java, which not merely absorbed elements from imported Indian culture, but also modified and adapted these to its own usage. This evidently happened everywhere in all countries that came under the impact of Indian culture, as part of a long process in history that still extends into the present. These inscriptions on the hidden base, nevertheless, tell us that the dynamics of the local culture had already begun to assert themselves in Central Java around 800 CE, early in the days of the heavily Indianized Shailendra period.
