Page 914 - Proceedings Collega2023

Introduction

Descriptions of the indigenous ink making in the Malay tradition are not well documented. It is
believed that the information and know-how of the ink making were passed over the generations by oral
means rather than properly documented. This is further aggravated by the fact that the knowledge of ink
making was limited to exclusive community circles only such as the officers of the palaces, the religious
teachers, and their students. The only Malay historical archive which mentioned the ink making tradition
is the Hikayat Abdullah. Munsyi Abdullah stated:

“Allah penyakit itu pun sembuhlah. Maka badanku pun pulihlah pulang semula. Maka
adalah permainanku diberi oleh nenekku itu, sebatang kalam resam dan suatu papan
loh dan sedikit dawat beras. Katanya: “Inilah engkau buat main sehari-hari. Jikalau
engkau bermain tanah atau pergi main ke panas, aku pukul.” Maka takutlah aku pergi
ke mana-mana, melainkan duduklah aku.” (Abd.H 20:5).

According to Munsyi Abdullah, his grandmother supplied him with writing ink made of rice which
was burnt to cinders. Unfortunately, that was the only information provided; neither the mixture of
ingredients nor the process of ink making was described. Another written account on the Malay ink
making tradition can be found in ‘History of Sumatra’ (1811), written by William Marsden who was a
British administrative officer in Bangkahulu. He remarked that the ink used by the Malays was made from
the mixture of soot and egg white. These circumstances prompted Wan Ali (1987), Ding (1992) and Siti
Hawa (2010) to document numerous indigenous Malay ink making formulations gathered mostly from
personal communications with the informants, who either themselves once involved in the ink making or
witnessed the procedures performed by others. In general, the ink was water based formulation and
comprised of three main elements; colouring agent, adhesive and additives. The colouring agent
determines the ink’s pigment, either black or coloured. As for the adhesive, its function is to ensure that
the ink adheres well to the paper fibre, provide fluidity to the ink flow and, improve the permanency and
durability of the ink. Finally, the additives were often added to complement the roles of additives. Besides,
they also serve to neutralize the odour of the solution and to shorten the ink drying time.

The text of Malay manuscripts is prominently written in black ink. Only certain words of the text
are highlighted with coloured ink out of which the red ink is the most common. The use of red ink in this
manner, among others, meant to mark the beginning of a new chapter (as Malay manuscripts in general
were written continuously without any paragraphs, refer Fig. 1), to distinguish the verses of the Qur’an
from the normal text, to highlight verses of poetry or important words in a particular text. The black ink
can be divided into two types i.e. either derived from carbon or iron gall. As the name implied, the carbon-
based ink was made from various types of carbon sources such as soot or lamp black, charcoal or paper
ash. The carbon pigment was then mixed with binding agent such as gum from stem of a tree or fruit
skins, as well as other additives. This type of ink was widely used during the period of the 14th to the
19th century when many manuscripts were created and re- created, copied and re-copied (Ding, 1986).
The second type of black ink i.e. the iron gall ink, was made by mixing a solution of tannic acids of plant
sources with iron(II) sulphate (copperas); it too requires added gum, but as a thickener rather than as an
adhesive. The blackness is the result of a chemical reaction. This type of ink was found used in the later
period.

International Conference on Local Wisdom of the Malay Archipelago (COLLEGA 2023) Page - 901 -