Singapore Stone
Singapore Stone | |
---|---|
Old Javanese or Sanskrit | |
Created | At least 13th century, and possibly 10th or 11th century |
Discovered | 1819 Mouth of the Singapore River |
Present location | Displayed in the Singapore History Gallery at the National Museum of Singapore |
The Singapore Stone is a fragment of a large sandstone slab which originally stood at the mouth of the Singapore River. The large slab, which is believed to date back to at least the 13th century and possibly as early as the 10th or 11th century, bore an undeciphered inscription.[1] Recent theories suggest that the inscription is either in Old Javanese or in Sanskrit, which suggested a possibility that the island was an extension of the Majapahit civilization in the past.[2][3]
It is likely that the person who commissioned the inscription was Sumatran. The slab may be linked to the legendary story of the 14th-century strongman Badang, who is said to have thrown a massive stone to the mouth of the Singapore River. On Badang's death, the Rajah sent two stone pillars to be raised over his grave "at the point of the straits of Singapura".
The slab was blown up in 1843 during British colonial rule to clear and widen the passageway at the river mouth to make space for a fort and the quarters of its commander D.H. Stevenson. The Stone, now displayed at the National Museum of Singapore, was designated by the museum as one of 11 National Treasures of Singapore in January 2006, and by the National Heritage Board as one of the top 12 artefacts held in the collections of its museums.
Sandstone slab
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Discovery
In June 1819, a few months after the arrival of Sir
You remember the situation of it [the sandstone slab] on the rocky point on the south [sic: southeast] side of the entrance of the Singapore Creek. That point was covered with forest trees and jungle in 1819, and the stone was brought to notice by some Bengal clashees who were employed by Capt. Flint, R.N. (the first Master Attendant); the men on discovering the inscription were very much frightened, and could not be induced to go on with the clearing, which, if I recollect right, was completed by Chinese under the stimulus of high wages.[6]
The slab was inscribed with 50 or 52 lines of script, but by the time of its discovery the meaning of the inscription was already a mystery to the island's inhabitants.[7][8]
Appearance
On the stony point which forms the western side of the entrance of the salt creek, on which the modern town of Singapore is building, there was discovered, two years ago, a tolerably hard block of sand-stone, with an inscription upon it. This I examined early this morning. The stone, in shape, is a rude mass, and formed of the one-half of a great nodule broken into two nearly equal parts by artificial means; for the two portions now face each other, separated at the base by a distance of not more than two feet and a half, and reclining opposite to each other at an angle of about forty degrees. It is upon the inner surface of the stone that the inscription is engraved. The workmanship is far ruder than any thing of the kind that I have seen in Java or India; and the writing, perhaps from time, in some degree, but more from the natural decomposition of the rock, so much obliterated as to be quite illegible as a composition. Here and there, however, a few letters seem distinct enough. The character is rather round than square.[9][10]
On a tongue of land forming the termination of the right bank of the river at Singapore, now called Artillery Point, stands a stone or rock of coarse red sandstone about ten feet high, from two to five feet thick, and about nine or ten feet in length, somewhat wedge-shaped, with weather-worn cells. The face sloping to the south-east at an angle of 76° has been smoothed down in the form of an irregular square, presenting a space of about thirty-two square feet, having a raised edge all round. On this surface an inscription has originally been cut, of about fifty lines, but the characters are so obliterated by the weather that the greater part of them are illegible. Still, there are many left which are plain enough, more particularly those at the lower right-hand corner, where the raised edge of the stone has in some measure protected them.[12]
The inscription was engraved in rounded letters about three-quarters of an inch (1.9 cm) wide.[13]
Destruction
About January 1843,
According to Maxwell's papers,
A large block from the monument lay abandoned at
I remember a large block of the rock at the corner of
Fort Canningis now; but during the absence of the Governor at Penang on one occasion the convicts requiring stone to replace the road, chipped up the valuable relic of antiquity, and thus all trace of our past history was lost. It was destroyed when the sea-wall was built around Fort Fullerton, where the Club, Post Office, and Master Attendant's Office now are. It used to be decorated with flags and offerings when at the entrance of the Singapore river. The immediate consequence of the removal of the stone, an act of vandalism, was the silting up of the river. I have been told that an inscription in similar characters,[19] which I always understood were "cuneiform," still exists (1884) in the Carimon Islands.[20]
D. W. Montgomerie, recalling that the Bengal sailors who had discovered the slab while clearing the jungle could not be persuaded to continue the work, commented: "What a pity it is that those who authorized the destruction of the ancient relic were not prevented by some such wholesome superstition!"[21]
In 1918, the Raffles Museum and Library's Committee of Management asked the Royal Asiatic Society's museum in Calcutta to return the fragments of the sandstone slab, and the Calcutta museum agreed to send one fragment back to the museum.[22] Archaeologist John N. Miksic has said that "presumably the other pieces are still in Calcutta".[23][24]
Inscription and attempts at decipherment
Several scholars tried, over time, to better understand the extant text of the Singapore Stone and, ultimately, to decipher it.[25] The sub-sections below provide a summary of those decipherment proposals.
Sir Stamford Raffles
Raffles himself tried to
The principal curiosity of Singapore is a large stone at the point of the river, the one face of which has been sloped and smoothed, and upon which several lines of engraven characters are still visible. The rock being, however, of a schistose and porous nature, the inscription is illegible. It is said that Sir Stamford Raffles endeavoured, by the application of powerful acids, to bring out the characters with the view of decyphering them, but the result was unsuccessful.[27]
In the Hikayat Abdullah,
William Bland and James Prinsep: Pali?
In his note published in the Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal of 1837, Dr. William Bland reported that he had "frequently made pilgrimages" to the Stone, "determined, if it were possible, to save a few letters, could they be satisfactorily made out, to tell us something, however, small, of the language or the people who inscribed it, and hence eke out our limited and obscure knowledge of the Malayan Peninsula."[12]
With the assistance of a "clever native writer", Bland used "well-made and soft dough" to take impressions of the characters on the slab to copy them. After an impression of each character had been made, the character itself in the stone was painted over with white lead, "as far as the eye could make it out, ... and if the two agreed, it was considered as nearly correct as possible, and although this was done to all the characters, it was more particularly attended to in the more obscure ones, for the letters marked in the facsimile with more strength could readily be copied by the eye."[12] Bland also discovered that when the Stone was viewed "when the sun was descending in the west, a palpable shadow was thrown into the letter, from which great assistance was derived."[12]
In Bland's view, "speaking from a very limited knowledge of the subject", the inscription was in "the ancient Ceylonese, or Pálí". James Prinsep concurred, saying that although he could not venture to put together any connected sentences or even words, "some of the letters – the g, l, h, p, s, y, &c. – can readily be recognised, as well as many of the vowel marks". He expressed the opinion that the purpose of the inscription "is most probably to record the extension of the Buddhist faith to that remarkable point of the Malay Peninsula".[12]
Peter James Begbie's speculative theory: Tamil?
In The Malay Peninsula (1834), Captain Peter James Begbie made "an attempt to throw some light upon a subject so confessedly obscure". He referred to the legend of the 14th-century strongman Badang in the Malay Annals (1821),[29] a posthumously-published English translation of the Sejarah Melayu (1612) by the British orientalist John Leyden (1775–1811). According to the Malay Annals, news of Badang's remarkable feats of strength reached the land of Kling (the Coromandel Coast). The Rajah of that country sent a champion named Nadi Vijaya Vicrama to try his strength with him, staking seven ships filled with treasures on the issue of the contest. After a few trials of their relative powers, Badang pointed to a huge stone lying before the Rajah's hall and asked his opponent to lift it, and to allow their claims to be decided by the greatest strength displayed in this feat. The Kling champion assented, and, after several failures, succeeded in raising it as high as his knee, after which he immediately let it fall. Badang took up the stone, poised it easily several times, and then threw it out into the mouth of the river, and this is the rock which is at this day visible at the point of Singhapura, or Tanjong Singhapura. The Annals go on to state that after a long time, Badang died and was buried at the point of the straits of Singhapura, and when the tidings of his death reached the land of Kling, the Rajah sent two stone pillars to be raised over his grave as a monument, and these were the pillars which were still at the point of the bay.[30]
Begbie went on to speculate that the monument installed over Badang's grave was the sandstone slab at the mouth of the Singapore River, and that the inscription contained a recital of Badang's feats. He identified the "Rajah of Kling" as Sri Rajah Vicrama who reigned from 1223 to 1236.[31] In Begbie's view, the inscription was in an obsolete dialect of Tamil:
At the period of the transaction [which Begbie put at about A.D. 1228], the Malays were destitute of a written language, as it was not until between forty and fifty years afterwards, when the Mahommedan religion became the popular one, that the Arabic character was introduced. It appears to be probable that the Kling Rajah, aware of this destitution of a written character, employed a sculptor of his own nation to cut the inscription on the rock, and that, from the epitaph being in an unknown language, the original story as therein related, being necessarily handed down by oral tradition, became corrupted in every thing but its leading features. This supposition is borne out by the form of the characters, which more resembles that of the Malabar language than any other oriental tongue that I am acquainted with. I do not mean to say that the words are essentially Tamil, but merely to express an opinion that the inscription is couched in an obsolete dialect of that language.[32]
J.W. Laidlay, Iain Sinclair, Francesco Perono Cacciafoco, and I-Shiang Lee: Kawi?
J.W. Laidlay examined fragments of the sandstone slab that had been donated to the Asiatic Society of Bengal by Colonel Butterworth and Lieutenant-Colonel James Low, strewing finely-powdered animal charcoal over the surface of the stones and sweeping it gently with a feather so as to fill up all the depressions; in this way "the very slightest of which was thus rendered remarkably distinct by the powerful contrast of colour. By this means, and by studying the characters in different lights", Laidlay was able to make drawings of the inscriptions on three fragments. According to Laidlay, the fragment shown in the top drawing seemed to have been from the upper part of the inscription, but was omitted in Prinsep's lithograph as effaced. He could not identify the other two fragments with any portion of the lithograph.[21]
Laidlay felt that the square shape of the characters had misled Prinsep into concluding that the inscription was in Pali. In fact, the characters bore no resemblance whatsoever to Pali. Laidlay was unable to identify the characters with those of any published
In December 2019,
In August 2023, Francesco Perono Cacciafoco and I-Shiang Lee produced a comparison between the Singapore Stone and the
Studies by Kern and other scholars: Old Javanese or Sanskrit?
The first effectual study of the sandstone fragments was by the Dutch
Other scholars have taken different views. Dr. J.G. de Casparis, a scholar of ancient Indonesian writing, gave the preliminary judgment that the style of the script might date from an earlier period such as the 10th or 11th century. He was able to decipher one or two words, which seemed to be in the
The Singapore Stone today
One of the fragments of the original sandstone slab that was saved by Lieutenant-Colonel Low, which was later returned to what was then the Raffles Museum in Singapore, is today known as the Singapore Stone. It is currently displayed in the Singapore History Gallery of the National Museum of Singapore. The Stone was designated by the Museum as one of 11 "national treasures" in January 2006,[42] and by the National Heritage Board as one of the top 12 artefacts held in the collections of its museums.[43]
The Singapore Stone, along with its connection to the legend of
See also
- Archaeology in Singapore
- Early history of Singapore
- National Museum of Singapore
Notes
- ^ Kelvin Cahya Yap; Tony Wenyao Jiao; Francesco Perono Cacciafoco (2023). "The Singapore Stone: Documenting the Origins, Destruction, Journey and Legacy of an Undeciphered Stone Monolith". Histories. 3, 3: 271-287.
- ^ a b c d Cornelius-Takahama, Vernon (30 March 2000). "The Singapore Stone". Singapore Infopedia, National Library, Singapore. Archived from the original on 29 November 2020. Retrieved 16 October 2016.
- ^ Kelvin Cahya Yap; Tony Wenyao Jiao; Francesco Perono Cacciafoco (2023). "The Singapore Stone: Documenting the Origins, Destruction, Journey and Legacy of an Undeciphered Stone Monolith". Histories. 3, 3: 271-287.
- Governor of the Straits Settlementsfrom 1893 to 1894.
- ^ a b The papers were published by the Straits Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society in the first volume of Rost, Reinhold (1886). Miscellaneous Papers Relating to Indo-China : Reprinted for the Straits Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society, from Dalrymple's 'Oriental Repertory' and the 'Asiatic Researches' and 'Journal' of the Asiatic Society of Bengal (Trübner's Oriental Series). London: Kegan Paul, Trench, Trübner & Co. 2 vols. This work was reprinted by Routledge in 2000.
- ISBN 9971-917-16-5.
- ^ SSRN 631781..
- ^ Kelvin Cahya Yap; Tony Wenyao Jiao; Francesco Perono Cacciafoco (2023). "The Singapore Stone: Documenting the Origins, Destruction, Journey and Legacy of an Undeciphered Stone Monolith". Histories. 3, 3: 271-287.
- ISBN 0-19-588565-1.. In the second edition of Crawfurd's book, the relevant passage appears at 70–71: see Crawfurd, John(1830). Journal of an Embassy from the Governor-General of India to the Courts of Siam and Cochin China, Exhibiting a View of the Actual State of Those Kingdoms (2nd ed.). London: Henry Colburn & Richard Bentley.
- Abdullah bin Abdul Kadir; annotated transl. by A.H. Hill (1969). The Hikayat Abdullah : The Autobiography of Abdullah bin Abdul Kadir (1797–1854). Singapore: Oxford University Press. p. 167.
- ^ It is not known whether this is the William Bland (1789–1868) who was a transported convict, medical practitioner and surgeon, politician, farmer and inventor in colonial New South Wales, Australia.
- ^ a b c d e f Bland, W. (William) (1837). "Inscription on the Jetty at Singapore". Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal. 6: 680–682.. Reprinted in Miscellaneous Papers Relating to Indo-China, above, vol. 1 at 219–220.
- ^ Abdullah bin Abdul Kadir, Hikayat Abdullah, above, at 167 n. 18.
- ^ Abdullah bin Abdul Kadir, Hikayat Abdullah, above, at 166 n. 18.
- ^ According to A.H. Hill's translation of the Hikayat Abdullah: "Mr. Coleman was then engineer in Singapore and it was he who broke up the stone; a great pity, and in my opinion a most improper thing to do, prompted perhaps by his own thoughtlessness and folly. He destroyed the rock because he did not realize its importance. Perhaps he did not stop to consider that a man cleverer than he might extract its secrets from it... As the Malays say 'If you cannot improve a thing at least do not destroy it.'" Hill notes that the demolition was done on the orders of Captain Stevenson, who was acting as Settlement Engineer in January 1843, and not Coleman, who was not in Singapore at the time. According to Hill, "It is interesting to note that no name appears in Thomson's translation of this passage [reproduced below]; it looks as if Abdullah inserted Coleman's name erroneously, when revising his manuscript for publication by North": Abdullah bin Abdul Kadir, Hikayat Abdullah, above, 166–167 n. 18.
- ^ Low, James (1848). "An Account of Several Inscriptions Found in Province Wellesley, on the Peninsula of Malacca". Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal. xvii (ii): 62–66.. Reprinted in Miscellaneous Papers Relating to Indo-China, above, vol. 1 at 223–226.
- ^ Kelvin Cahya Yap; Tony Wenyao Jiao; Francesco Perono Cacciafoco (2023). "The Singapore Stone: Documenting the Origins, Destruction, Journey and Legacy of an Undeciphered Stone Monolith". Histories. 3, 3: 271-287.
- ^ Prinsep, James (1848). "Inscription at Singapore". Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal. xvii: 154 f., reprinted in Miscellaneous Papers Relating to Indo-China, above, vol. 1 at 222–223.
- Nagari script it has been concluded that it was carved between A.D. 800 and 1000. The text consists of four Sanskrit words meaning "The illustrious feet of the illustrious Gautama, the Mahayanist, who did possess an armillary sphere": Brandes, J.L. (1932). "A Letter from Dr. J. Brandes on the Kerimun Inscription". Journal of the Malayan Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society. 10 (1): 21–22., cited in Miksic, Forbidden Hill, above, at 10.
- ^ "Singapore Stone". Singapore Paranormal Investigators. 2000–2005. Archived from the original on 23 June 2007. Retrieved 13 July 2007. The citation is from Rouffaer, G.P. (1921). "Was Malakka emporium voor 1400 A.D. genaamd Malajoer? En waar lag Woerawari, Ma-Hasin, Langka, Batoesawar? [Was the Trading Post of Malacca Named Malajoer before 1400 A.D.? And where were Woerawari, Ma-Hasin, Langka, Batoesawar?]". Bijdragen tot de Taal-, Land- en Volkenkunde van Nederlandsch-Indië. 77 (1): 58., referred to in Miksic, Forbidden Hill, above, at 42.
- ^ a b c Laidlay, J.W. (1848). "Note on the Inscriptions from Singapore and Province Wellesley : Forwarded by the Hon. Col. Butterworth, C.B., and Col. J. Low". Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal. xvii (ii): 66–72., reprinted in Miscellaneous Papers Relating to Indo-China, above, vol. 1 at 227–232.
- ^ Rouffaer, "Was Malakka emporium voor 1400 A.D. genaamd Malajoer?", above, at 58, citing Makepeace, Walter; Gilbert E. Brooke & Roland St. J. (John) Braddell (gen. eds.) (1921). One Hundred Years of Singapore : Being Some Account of the Capital of the Straits Settlements from its Foundation by Sir Stamford Raffles on the 6th February 1819 to the 6th February 1919. Vol. I. London: J. Murray. p. 576. The information is referred to in Miksic, Forbidden Hill, above, at 42 n. 1.
- ^ Miksic, Forbidden Hill, above, at 42 n. 1.
- ^ Kelvin Cahya Yap; Tony Wenyao Jiao; Francesco Perono Cacciafoco (2023). "The Singapore Stone: Documenting the Origins, Destruction, Journey and Legacy of an Undeciphered Stone Monolith". Histories. 3, 3: 271-287.
- ^ Kelvin Cahya Yap; Tony Wenyao Jiao; Francesco Perono Cacciafoco (2023). "The Singapore Stone: Documenting the Origins, Destruction, Journey and Legacy of an Undeciphered Stone Monolith". Histories. 3, 3: 271-287.
- ^ "[I]t was almost universally known that many had attempted to decipher the writing in question, and had failed to make anything of it, among whom was one of great eminence and perseverance, the late Sir S. Raffles.": Bland, "Inscription on the Jetty at Singapore", above, at 680–682, reprinted in Miscellaneous Papers Relating to Indo-China, above, vol. 1 at 219–220.
- ^ Begbie, P.J. (Peter James) (1834). The Malayan Peninsula, Embracing its History, Manners and Customs of the Inhabitants, Politics, Natural History &c. from its Earliest Records... Madras: Printed for the author at the Vepery Mission Press. pp. 355–360. Reprinted as Begbie, P.J. (Peter James) (1967). The Malayan Peninsula. With an Introduction by Diptendra M. Banerjee. Kuala Lumpur; New York, N.Y.: Oxford University Press.
- Abdullah bin Abdul Kadir; with comments by J.T. (John Turnbull) Thomson(1874). Translations from the Hakayit Abdulla bin Abdulkadar, Mūnshi. London: H.S. King & Co.
- ISBN 967-9948-18-8.
- ^ Begbie, above, at 357–358.
- ^ The relevant paragraphs read:
See Begbie, above, at 358–359.At the mouth of the river there is a large rock, which is concealed at high water, and on which a post was erected four or five years ago by, I believe, Captain Jackson of the Bengal Artillery, to warn boats of the danger; this is the rock fabled to have been hurled by Badang: He is said to have been buried at the point of the straits of Singhapura, the scene of this wonderful exploit; and there, the very spot where this record is to be still seen, the Rajah of Kling, who had been so serious a loser by it, ordered this monument to be erected.
Fabulous and childish as the legend is, it brings us directly to the point. Sri Rajah Vicrama, called by Crawfurd John Crawfurd (1820). History of the Indian Archipelago: Containing an Account of the Manners, Arts, Languages, Religions, Institutions, and Commerce of Its Inhabitants ; with Maps and Engravings in Three Volumes. Vol. ii. Constable. p. 482. Archived from the original on 22 May 2021. Retrieved 21 January 2021. Sri Rama Wikaram, reigned in the year of the Hegira 620, or A.D. 1223, and was succeeded in Heg. 634, or A.D. 1236 by Sri Maharaja. The Annals state, after recording the death of Badang, that this king reigned a long time; consequently the occurrence must be placed early in his reign. The Annals were written in the year of the Hegira 1021, or A.D. 1612, nearly four centuries afterwards, and the original circumstance thus became obscured by legendary traditions; but I think that we are fairly warranted in concluding that there was a remarkable wrestler of the name of Badang existing at that period, and that this inscription contained a recital of his feats, etc.
- ^ Begbie, above, at 359.
- ^ Menon, Malavika (7 December 2019). "New book traces Tamil community's presence in region dating back 2,000 years | The Straits Times". www.straitstimes.com. Retrieved 7 January 2023.
- ^ Zaccheus, Melody (22 December 2019). "Singapore may be 1,000 years old, not just 700 as believed: Study | The Straits Times". www.straitstimes.com. Retrieved 7 January 2023.
- ^ I-Shiang Lee; Francesco Perono Cacciafoco (2023). "Unravelling the Mystery of the Singapore Stone: A Comparative Analysis with the Calcutta Stone and the Possible Kawi Connection". Histories. 3, 3: 261-270.
- ^ Goh, Charlene (1 October 2023). "What's inscribed on the ancient Singapore Stone? 18-year-old gets a step closer to revealing its secrets". TODAY.
- ^ Cited in Rouffaer, above, at 58. See Miksic, Forbidden Hill, above, at 13.
- ^ Rouffaer, above, at 67, cited in Miksic, Forbidden Hill, above, at 13.
- ISBN 90-04-04172-9. See Miksic, Forbidden Hill, above, at 13.
- ^ a b Miksic, Forbidden Hill, above, at 13.
- ^ Miksic, Forbidden Hill, above, at 14.
- Melaka commissioned by Resident of Singapore William Farquhar in the 19th century; (8) a wooden hearse used for the funeral of Chinese philanthropist Tan Jiak Kim in 1917; (9) an early 20th-century embroidered Chinese coffin cover, one of the largest of its kind in existence in Singapore; and (10) a glove puppet stage belonging to the Fujianpuppet troupe, Xin Sai Le, which came to Singapore in the 1930s.
- ^ "Our Top Twelve Artefacts". National Heritage Board. Archived from the original on 14 June 2007. Retrieved 17 July 2007.
- ^ Yeo, Sam Jo (5 August 2016). "NDP 2016: 7 magical moments you should not miss". The Straits Times. Archived from the original on 9 January 2019. Retrieved 9 January 2019.
References
Articles
- Bland, W. (William) (1837). "Inscription on the Jetty at Singapore". Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal. 6: 680–682., reprinted in vol. 1 of Rost, Reinhold, ed. (1886). Miscellaneous Papers Relating to Indo-China : Reprinted for the Straits Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society, from Dalrymple's 'Oriental Repertory' and the 'Asiatic Researches' and 'Journal' of the Asiatic Society of Bengal (Trübner's Oriental Series). Vol. 1. London: Kegan Paul, Trench, Trübner & Co. pp. 218–219. This two-volume work was reprinted by Routledge in 2000.
- Prinsep, James (1848). "Inscription at Singapore". Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal. xvii: 154 f., reprinted in Miscellaneous Papers Relating to Indo-China, above, vol. 1 at 222–223.
- Low, James (1848). "An Account of Several Inscriptions Found in Province Wellesley, on the Peninsula of Malacca". Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal. xvii (ii): 62–66., reprinted in Miscellaneous Papers Relating to Indo-China, above, vol. 1 at 223–226.
- Laidlay, J.W. (1848). "Note on the Inscriptions from Singapore and Province Wellesley Forwarded by the Hon. Col Butterworth and Col J. Low". Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal. 17 (2)., reprinted in Miscellaneous Papers Relating to Indo-China, above, vol. 1 at 227–232.
- Rouffaer, G.P. (1921). "Was Malakka emporium voor 1400 A.D. genaamd Malajoer? En waar lag Woerawari, Ma-Hasin, Langka, Batoesawar? [Was the Trading Post of Malacca Named Malajoer before 1400 A.D.? And where were Woerawari, Ma-Hasin, Langka, Batoesawar?]". Bijdragen tot de Taal-, Land- en Volkenkunde van Nederlandsch-Indië. 77 (1): 58..
- Cornelius-Takahama, Vernon (30 March 2000). "The Singapore Stone". Singapore Infopedia, National Library, Singapore. Archived from the original on 4 July 2007. Retrieved 13 July 2007.
- "Singapore Stone". Singapore Paranormal Investigators. 2000–2005. Archived from the original on 23 June 2007. Retrieved 13 July 2007.
- Kelvin Cahya Yap; Tony Wenyao Jiao; Francesco Perono Cacciafoco (2023). "The Singapore Stone: Documenting the Origins, Destruction, Journey and Legacy of an Undeciphered Stone Monolith". Histories. 3, 3: 271-287.
- I-Shiang Lee; Francesco Perono Cacciafoco (2023). "Unravelling the Mystery of the Singapore Stone: A Comparative Analysis with the Calcutta Stone and the Possible Kawi Connection". Histories. 3, 3: 261-270.
Books
- Abdullah bin Abdul Kadir; annotated transl. by A.H. Hill (1969). The Hikayat Abdullah : The Autobiography of Abdullah bin Abdul Kadir (1797–1854). Singapore: Oxford University Press.
- Miksic, John N. (Norman) (1985). Archaeological Research on the 'Forbidden Hill' of Singapore : Excavations at Fort Canning, 1984. Singapore: ISBN 9971-917-16-5.
Further reading
- Kelvin Cahya Yap; Tony Wenyao Jiao; Francesco Perono Cacciafoco (2023). "The Singapore Stone: Documenting the Origins, Destruction, Journey and Legacy of an Undeciphered Stone Monolith". Histories. 3, 3: 271-287.
- I-Shiang Lee; Francesco Perono Cacciafoco (2023). "Unravelling the Mystery of the Singapore Stone: A Comparative Analysis with the Calcutta Stone and the Possible Kawi Connection". Histories. 3, 3: 261-270.
- "Special Report : The National Museum Reopens : Never-seen-before Artefacts on Display at the New History Gallery". Channel NewsAsia. 5 December 2006. Archived from the originalon 12 October 2012. Retrieved 17 July 2007.
- "Our Top Twelve Artefacts". National Heritage Board. Archived from the original on 14 June 2007. Retrieved 13 July 2007.
- Tan, Noel Hidalgo (15 June 2007). "The Ancient Script of Southeast Asia – Part 1". SEAArch – The Southeast Asian Archaeology Newsblog. Retrieved 13 July 2007.
- Tan, Noel Hidalgo (20 June 2007). "The Ancient Script of Southeast Asia – Part 2". SEAArch – The Southeast Asian Archaeology Newsblog. Retrieved 13 July 2007.
- "Inscribed sandstone known as the 'Singapore Stone', Singapore, 10th - 14th century" Roots.gov.sg. Retrieved 12 July 2022.