Notes Tarumanagara:What's in a name?

摘要

Probably since the publication of Nicolaas J. Krom's Hindoe-Javaansche Geschiedenis,~1 based on an observation by CM. Pleyte, the name of the fourth- to seventh-centuries CE West Javanese kingdom of Tarumanagara has often been associated with the word tarum, the Sundanese name of the indigo plant.~2 This plant, which is native among others to both Java and much of Southeast Asia and Southern China,~3 is also thought to have given its name to a major river of West Java, the Citarum.~4 Krom does not support his assumption with concrete data, but merely states that 'there are numerous names of places and states known that are derived from the plant kingdom [so] that in theory there cannot be any objection to also consider this name to have such an origin'~5-without, furthermore, giving specific examples of the other states that he had in mind.~6