Symbolisation in Ancient Tales: A Special Reference to the Malay Text Hikayat Merong Mahawangsa

Abstract

Symbolisation can be interpreted as expressing what is real, not in terms of the actual thing that it is, but that which is represented in other forms. A narrative or a story that is in the mind of the writer or the storyteller is still in the form of ideas or concepts. It becomes a message when it is expressed in an organised form in the language medium that we call text. It is the text that forms the symbol to the story. In Ferdinand de Saussure’s theory of the sign, the story is the signifié or the signified, nd the text is the signifiant or the signifier. Language is an abstract and conventional symbol in the life of human beings. At the same time, there are non-language forms of symbols that have been identified as icons and indices, in particular by Charles Saunders Peirce with his theory of semiotics. This paper presents an interpretation of an ancient text, a composite of narratives of the founding of Kedah (which today is a sultanate in the north-western part of the Malay Peninsula) circa 3000 B.C.E., until the arrival of Islam circa 10th century C.E. Originally an oral tradition, the text was given a written form in the mid-18th century, using the Jawi (Malayised Arabic) script of the time. It was only in 1970 that the Jawi manuscript was transliterated using the Roman alphabet. Interpretation of the text goes through various layers of symbols, beginning with symbols in their Jawi script, and identifying words in their various forms. Making sense of linguistic elements suggests taking into account their usage within the text itself, as well as information from historical texts (in co-texts), and findings of research by relevant disciplines, specifically archaeology, geology dan geography.