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10th century inscription found in the Philippines

The Laguna Copperplate Inscription is an official acquittance (debt relief) certificate inscribed onto a copper plate in the Shaka year 822 (Gregorian A. D. 900). It is the earliest known calendar dated document found within the Philippine Islands. The plate was found in 1989 by a laborer near the mouth of the Lumbang River in Wawa, Lumban, Laguna, in the Philippines. The inscription was mainly written in Old Malay using the Early Kawi script, with several technical Sanskrit words and Old Javanese or Old Tagalog honorifics. After it was found, the text was first translated in 1991 by Antoon Postma, a Dutch anthropologist and Hanunó'o script researcher. The text is Old Malay, with numerous loanwords from Sanskrit and a few non Malay vocabulary elements whose origin may be Old Javanese. The document states that it releases its bearers, the children of Namwaran, from debt in gold amounting to 1 kati and 8 suwarnas (865 grams; 27.8 troy ounces).

Postma asserted that he was fairly certain that four words in the inscription were place names, or toponyms: "Pailah" (lines 4 and 6), "Tundun" (line 3), "Puliran" (line 6), and "Binuangan" (line 7). Postma left an avenue for an alternative interpretation open, however, saying that Mdang and Tondo "because of their lingual consonants (n and d) that are of Sanskrit origin might originally be toponyms existing on the Island of Java". The locations mentioned are all near rivers, suggesting Old Malay may have come to the area along trade networks. It is the earliest document that shows the use of mathematics in precolonial Philippine societies. The use of precise measurement for gold demonstrates a standard system of weights and measures, and fixing the precise day within the month in relation to the phases of the moon shows familiarity with rudimentary astronomy.

Prior to the European colonial era, Southeast Asia was under the Indosphere of greater India, where numerous Indianized principalities and empires flourished for several centuries in what are now Myanmar, Thailand, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, Brunei, the Philippines, Laos, Cambodia, and central and southern Vietnam. The influence of Indian culture in these areas was given the term indianization. French archaeologist George Coedes defined it as the expansion of an organized culture that was framed by the Indian origins of royalty, Hinduism and Buddhism, and the Sanskrit dialect. This can be seen in the Indianization of Southeast Asia, the spread of Hinduism, and the transmission of Buddhism. The Indian diaspora, both ancient (PIO) and current (NRI), played an ongoing key role as professionals, traders, priests, and warriors. Indian honorifics also influenced Malay, Thai, Filipino, and Indonesian honorifics. The pre colonial native Filipino script called Baybayin , known in Visayan as badlit , as kur itan/kurditan in Ilocano, and as kulitan in Kapampangan, was itself derived from the Brahmic scripts of India. Its use was recorded in the 16th century by Miguel López de Legazpi.

The inscription shows heavy Sanskrit and Old Javanese linguistic influences. by a man named Ernesto Legisma, who was dredging sand to turn it into concrete. Suspecting that the artifact might have some value, the man sold it to an antique dealer, who, having found no buyers, eventually sold it to the National Museum of the Philippines, where it was assigned to Alfredo E. Evangelista, head of its anthropology department. The National Museum refers to the artifact as the Laguna Copper Plate. A year later, Antoon Postma noted that the inscription was similar to the ancient Indonesian script of Kawi. Postma translated the script and found the document dated itself to the Saka year 822, an old Hindu calendar date that corresponds to the year 900.