Medieval Indonesia
Aug 23, 2017 · 1 min read

Thank you for your considered response to my flippant comment. I’m quite sure you shouldn’t take my remark as serious criticism; I included the GMS entirely because a) I had just looked over it before writing the post and b) it was a convenient example of the focus on manuscripts in medieval scholarship. I don’t think the intent of the GMS is problematic at all, and I can’t see the points I’m making here presenting any obstacles to its future success. It would be great if some Indonesian inscriptions could be included in the final product — I may even be able to contribute a translation or two if you like, although there are definitely more capable philologists than me in the world, e.g. Stuart Robson, Willem van der Molen — but I don’t see how you could include the good stuff, the Old Javanese literary texts, without compromising on criteria. All of the manuscripts of these pieces were written in the last four hundred years or so, although internal references tell us that they must be considerably older.

I’m in no position to give advice, really, as I have no experience with a complex project like yours. I appreciate your taking the time to read my post, but I feel bad that you felt the need to respond in such detail. I don’t think you need to justify the project to lowly me. I will delete the GMS remark and include an update and a link to the sourcebook at the end of the post if you think that would be a good idea.

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    Medieval Indonesia

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    Posting about ancient and medieval Indonesia, up to ~1500 CE. Mainly into 14th & 15th century stuff, but earlier is fine too.