The Banjar language, Banjar Hulu is a Malayo-Polynesian language thought to have originated in Sumatra with significant admixtures of local Dayak and Javanese words.
The island of Kalimantan was originally settled by colonist from the Asian mainland about 2500 BC and these ancestors of the Dayaks were later joined by Malay settlers. The fusion of the Malay and Dayak peoples is considered the origins of the Banjar ethnic group and the Banjar Hulu language.
South Kalimantan was anciently ruled by a Kingdom known as Nan Serunai, and long the center for Buddhist and Hindu realms that evolved into the first Banjar kingdom.
A Hindu Javanese style court, was established at Negara Dipa in the 13th century. By the 15th century the capital had moved to Negara Daha and during these centuries the Hindu Banjar kingdom was a power along coast of Borneo, although latterly vassal to the Majapahit empire of Java.
Kayu Tangi near Martapura, was the site of the fourth and last, Banjar royal compound and capital, although in fact it was Banjarmasin, the third capital, that the Dutch attacked in 1612, and it was Kay Tangi to which the Banjarese fled.
Banjar people
