Social Science and Human Research Bulletin

This study investigates whether political terror can be examined in ancient Indonesia without anachronistically applying the modern concept of terrorism to early political formations. Employing a qualitative historical-critical literature review and epigraphic source analysis, the study examines the emergence and representation of political authority from prehistory to the early Sanskrit Yūpa inscriptions discovered at Muara Kaman, East Kalimantan, conventionally associated with the polity known as Kutai. The analysis integrates archaeological, historical, linguistic, and political-violence scholarship. The findings suggest that social differentiation and ranked authority plausibly predated the earliest surviving written records of kingship. The Yūpa inscriptions document dynastic genealogy, Sanskritic political representation, Brahmanical ritual, royal generosity, and claims of military conquest and tributary submission under King Mūlavarman. Importantly, these accounts of conquest constitute evidence of the political representation of military domination, but do not independently establish systematic intimidation, deliberate fear-producing violence, or psychological effects extending beyond the immediate targets of conflict. The study therefore distinguishes military conquest, political subjugation, symbolic legitimation, and audience-directed terror as analytically separable mechanisms of political power. It argues that ancient political authority could be communicated through both coercive and legitimizing claims without necessarily satisfying the defining characteristics of terrorism. Rather than identifying ancient terrorism, the article demonstrates how the political communication of authority and the political communication of fear can be investigated as related but distinct historical phenomena.

Terrorism, political violence, political authority, fear, coercion, ancient Indonesia

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