J. Noorduyn Some remarks on Javanese chronogram words; A case of localization In: Bijdragen tot de Taal-, Land- en Volkenkunde 149 (1993), no: 2, Leiden, 298-317 This PDF-file was downloaded from http://www.kitlv-journals.nl Downloaded from Brill.com09/30/2021 08:11:50AM via free access J. NOORDUYN SOME REMARKS ON JAVANESE CHRONOGRAM WORDS: A CASE OF LOCALIZATION1 The Javanese tradition of expressing dates in candrasengkalas or chronograms, i.e. by representing the numbers in dates by words having a fixed numerical value, has several times been recorded, and occasionally commented upon. However, so far no one has offered an exhaustive explanation of the origin and development of this tradition. This paper does not attempt to discuss all the aspects of this tradition either. It is hoped, however, that the following observations will show that an overall explanation of this remarkable phenomenon may be possible, at the same time indicating the lines along which this could be undertaken. In order to show how chronograms were used in Javanese historical texts, an example will be quoted from an eighteenth-century chronicle written in metrical form which contains many such dates. This text was edited and translated by M.C. Ricklefs in 1978. On p. 20 of this edition the following verse line is found (with the meaning of each word and the figure denoting its numerical value being added): 1 The author wishes to thank Professor J.J. Ras, whose valuable comments on some details in a first draft of this paper have been gratefully made use of in the revision of this paper. He also acknowledges the help of Mrs. Rosemary Robson, who kindly corrected the English of the text. He feels especially indebted to Professor A. Teeuw, who, because of the author's protracted illness, edited the final draft of this paper. He introduced some valuable corrections and additions. In discussions with the author, Teeuw pointed out that the mnemonic poems quoted by Korn and Ricklefs most probably go back to the text in the Old Javanese kakawin metre Turagagati (Zoetmulder 1974:456); in due time Teeuw hopes to return to this problem of the original version of the poem. J. NOORDUYN, former Director of the KITLV and lecturer in Bugis, Makasarese and Sundanese with the Department of Languages and Cultures of Southeast Asia and Oceania at the University of Leiden, obtained his Ph.D. at Leiden in 1955. His two principal publications are Een achttiende-eeuwse kroniek van Wadjo', 1955, and 'The Manuscripts of the Makasarese Chronicle of Goa and Talloq: An Evaluation', BKI 147-IV, 1991. Dr. Noorduyn's address is Rijn en Schiekade 119, 2311 AT Leiden. Downloaded from Brill.com09/30/2021 08:11:50AM via free access Some Remarks on Javanese Chronogram Words 299 guwa jaladri wedang patala2 cave sea hot water (centre of the) earth 9 4 4 1 In his translation, Ricklefs (1978:21) renders this verse line as a coherent sentence, starting with the previous line and adding prepositions between the chronogram words, in the following way: When [they were roughly shaken] in Kadhiri, in 'the cave in the sea was hot water from the centre of the earth' [C1449/March 1527-Febr. 1528]. In this way the text of the chronicle has chronograms embedded in the description of certain events. Here, we shall not enter into the function and use of Javanese chronograms in texts; instead, we shall focus on the question of why and how Javanese chronogram words acquired their numerical value. Why does a word meaning 'cave' stand for the numeral 'nine' and a word meaning 'earth' for 'one'; why, to take another example, has the Javanese word pw-M/i/courageous', the numerical value of 'one'? To begin with, the published records consisted first of all of lists of Javanese words used for each numeral from 'one' to 'nine' plus 'zero'. The first Western investigator to give attention to this phenomenon, as to many other Javanese cultural phenomena, was Raffles (1817:ccii-ccv). He was followed by Gericke (1836), Hageman (1852:391-395), and Van Hien (1895M9336; 1933:382ff). These scholars all added glosses to the chronogram words listed, purporting to indicate their lexical meaning. Korn took a step forward (1922) when he published a Javanese poem of eleven stanzas, each containing four lines of twelve syllables. Each stanza presents the chronogram words for the successive numerals 'one' to 'ten' plus 'zero'. In his comments Korn added translations of some of these words, also mentioning some other words not included in the poem. A similar poem, clearly related to the former but consisting of ten stanzas and including a number of different words from or variants of words occurring in Kom's version, was published by Ricklefs in an appendix to his above- mentioned text edition (1978:243-244). Korn occasionally compared Hageman's data, and Ricklefs those of Van Hien. As an illustration of these published records, Raffles' list of chronogram words for 'three' and his glosses will be given below, along with the third 2 For Modern Javanese words (MJ) the present-day orthography is used, with one exception: e or e are written (hence with the diacritics) where necessary to distinguish the mid-open front vowel from e (pepel). Foir Old Javanese (OJ) the spelling system used in Zoetmulder (1982) has been followed. Sanskrit words (Skt) are presented according to the current transliteration system, though only in such cases where explicit reference is made to words in that language; otherwise such words have been spelt, depending on the context in which they occur, as OJ or MJ words. The term Javanese (also abbreviated as Jav.) is used whenever the latter opposition is not relevant. Downloaded from Brill.com09/30/2021 08:11:50AM via free access 300 /. Noorduyn stanzas from the chronogram poems in Korn's and Ricklefs' versions (below, these lists will be referred to as K and R respectively). Raffles: Three Banning: fire (of a furnace), Pawaka: fire (from a volcano), Siking: fire (struck from a flint), Guna: fire (from friction of wood), Dahana: the fire which pervades every thing that has life, extensive fire, fire that has never been extinguished, Tri-ningrana: fire (of the work-room), Uta: a leech, Buja-lana: alligator or crocodile, Huti: worm of the earth, Jata: flame of fire, Weda: fire or heat confined in a vessel, as in a cooking vessel, Anala: the fire which giveth warmth to the heart, the fire of passion, the fire which giveth warmth to passion, Gni: fire (to a match), Utawa: fire, Kea: great fire, Lena: fire of flame of a lamp, Puyika: fire and ashes, mixed, Tiga: three, Uninga: a torch. Korn: III Ricklefs: 3 Bahni pawaka siki guna dahana, bahni pawaka siking guna dahana trini rama uta ujwala nauli, trinira mauta bujal anauti jata weda nala gni ulawaha, jatha weda nala agni utawaka kaya lena puyika tiga uningan. kaya lena puyika tiga uninga The poems have no poetical value or pretensions; they are obviously a kind of mnemonic verses. Comparison of Raffles' text with the other two shows that the former goes back to a similar poem which Raffles or his informant (possibly the aged Adipati Sura Adimenggala of Semarang, Ras 1992:305) must have had at his disposal. The sequence in which Raffles' words are listed per numeral is almost exactly the same as that displayed in the relevant stanzas of the poems, as becomes evident from a comparison of the examples given above. Raffles' list for 'one' is similar to the first stanza of R except for sasadara, which is absent, and ron or godong, which occurs instead of rani. There are more variants in Raffles' lists for the other numerals, but in the main the order is the same. Therefore, Raffles' list may actually be taken as another version of the two poems published by Kom and RickJefs. The other published lists are arranged differently: in Gericke they occur in an arbitrary order; Hageman gives them in the order of the Javanese alphabet; while Van Hien uses that of the European alphabet. In one case it can be shown that Gericke's data also must go back to a similar poem to those published by K and R. Gericke's list for 'six' (written in a column) starts with the words rasa, sadrasa, winayang, gana, and retu, which also happens to be the first line of the sixth stanza of K and, allowing for wisaya instead of winayang, of R. These are also the first words in Raffles' list of words for 'six', with the exception that in the latter, rasa is not the first Downloaded from Brill.com09/30/2021 08:11:50AM via free access Some Remarks on Javanese Chronogram Words 301 word but the very last; the first word here is marga, which does not occur in K and R. Apparently, Gericke did not take his list for 'six' from Raffles' list, but he, or his informant, also had a chronogram poem at his disposal; in most cases, however, he changed the sequence of the words. It is obvious from the above remarks that these words should not be studied in isolation, as they are presented in the lists by Van Hien and Hageman, but in their contexts in the poems, including Raffles' list. Ricklefs rightly remarks in his comments that the origin of these poems is probably to be sought in some OJ manual for poets (Ricklefs 1978:241), but does not go into this matter in more detail. A closer look at the two verses clearly reveals their Old Javanese origin.