Aksara Seminar Series: Cham inscriptions and Cham manuscripts: A legacy of development

Speaker: Mohamed Effendy bin Abdul Hamid
Date/Time: Sat 14 Apr 07, 2.30 - 4.30pm
Venue: Possibility Room, Level 5

The Vo Canh Stele is one of the earliest Sanskrit inscriptions found in Southeast Asia, in the vicinity of the kingdom of Champa, Vietnam. The inscription, dated to be from the fourth century, records the donation made by a King belonging to the family of Sri Mara. The significance of this inscription was that it was one of the earliest examples of the Pallava script being used in Southeast Asia by a Malay-like polity, Kerajaan Champa.

This seminar will highlight the localization of Sanskrit by the Cham people by contrasting it to other Cham inscriptions and the writing found in the Cham manuscripts. This will highlight that although the Cham language and writing show significant borrowings from other cultures, it actually enhanced the development of the Cham language.

Admission is FREE and no registration is required.

About the Speaker:

Mohamed Effendy bin Abdul Hamid is a postgraduate student in the National University of Singapore, Southeast Asia Studies Programme. His interest in Champa’s history began in the year 2000 and has been awarded a research grant in 2005 by National University of Singapore’s Graduate research programme to conduct fieldwork research in Cham communities in Vietnam and Cambodia. Mohamed Effendy has also participated and attended in several international conferences and symposiums such as “New scholarship on Champa”, 5-6 August 2004. He co-presented a paper with Research Associate Mr Pritam Singh on “The Muslims of Indochina: Islam, Ethnicity and Religious Education” and a paper “Cham Manuscripts and the Possibility of a Second Champa Kingdom” at the 19th International Association of Historians of Asia (IAHA) 2006 in the Philippines.