Pūrṇavarman’s Prints

In early West Java (ca. fifth–sixth century CE), the ruler Pūrṇavarman sponsored the creation of a group of inscriptions to praise his virtues and achievements. Engraved on prominent natural rock surfaces at river confluences and high places throughout the polity called Tārumānagara, these innovative works juxtapose poetic texts in Sanskrit with calligraphic designs and carved images of human and animal footprints. The rock inscriptions served a specific set of functions related to Pūrṇavarman’s kingship and his identity as an īśvara — a divine lord able to control and shape the natural environment through acts of thaumaturgy. Pūrṇavarman’s records also bear witness to formative political and religious events in the premodern archipelago. As the earliest surviving examples of writing in the region, they are critical evidence of the harnessing of a new power technology in the service of political spectacle. Previous studies have presented the poetic elements not only in isolation from the accompanying images and signatures, but also from their environmental settings. Through a new contextual analysis, this article examines the design and siting of these multimedia works within the Indigenous environments that made them efficacious.