Page:A dictionary of the Sunda language of Java.djvu/485

464 Sunat, Arabic, what is authorized or allowed. Actions meritorious though not obligatory. Sambayang sunat, prayers of super-erogation.

Sunat, Arabic, circumcision. Sagala islam kudu di sunatan, all Mahomedans must be circumcised.

Sunda, the Western half of the island called by Europeans generally Java. It extends from Java Head to, and includes the residency of Cheribon, as distinct from the Eastern half of the island, which is Jawa or Java properly so called, and on the island itself always meant, when Java is spoken of. Sunda may be derived from the Sunda word Tunda, to set aside, to put by, and Sa or Saha,, 722, a particle and prefix signifying union, association, with, together. In Sunda Sa in the composition of words means also having the property of. The words Saha and Sa and Tunda are contracted into Sa-unda or Sunda, a place of deposit, an entrepot. Hence there is also the word Tundan, to carry by stages, to transport by corvées from one place to another. Sonda, C. 765, is good, excellent, delightful, pleasing, agreeable. There is also Sundara, C. 749, handsome, beautiful, elegant; well, excellent,—which would give a Sanscrit etymon for the word, as many other islands in these parts also possess. The Sunda-country would well merit the title of delightful, pleasing, agreeable, in the eyes of the people of Coromandel, either from coming from a coast comparatively barren and treeless, or from having successfully performed a long sea-voyage, and meeting with a country that teamed with vegetation to the very brink of the waves. Sundara, C. 759, handsome, beautiful, elegant. Hence Sundarā, a name of Kama, the god of love = the handsome one. Sundari, a handsome woman. In the Prianger Kegencies, south of Bandong, is a Chi Sondari. The natives of India, coming from the droughty coasts of Coromandel, would be struck with the beauty of the ever-verdant plains and mountains of Java. One of the wives of Silawangi of Pajajaran was called Nyai Mantri Manék Mayang Sunda,, Java, 2 vol., page 104, which may be translated, her ladyship the counsellor, the beautiful gem of illusion, or her ladyship of the counsellor, the gem of illusion of Sunda. In Pantuns occurs the name of Kěntrik Manik Mayang Sunda, as the heroine of a romantic story. I feel rather inclined to derive Sunda from Tunda: in the Sunda language, to set aside, to put in deposit, so that it may be found and taken here after, and Saha or Sa-Tunda = Sa-unda, would imply a place of deposit, or, as we would call it now a days, an entrepot. I would imagine that this name was given to the West-end of Java, from the natives of the islands having been in the habit of bringing the spices of the Moluccos, and the produce of the Archipelago generally, to this place to meet the traders from the continent of India. Just outside of the bay of Bantam, there is even now an island called Pulo Tunda. Deposit island, sometimes also called Pulo Babi or Hog island. The suitableness of the position for the ancient trade of the country is proved from the prosperity of the old town of Bantam at a subsequent period and up to the arrival of Europeans round the Cape of Good Hope.