The Ingenuity of Sengkalan: How to Cryptically Record Time with Words
Let’s get to know the most beautiful way to capture years
I. Introduction
A chronogram is an ancient cultural product of chronography tradition to record time on inscriptions or texts. Numbers are embedded intentionally inside phrases or sentences that are engraved or written on it to denote a significant date (mostly years). As reflected from its etymology, chronos (χρόνος) meaning time and gramma (γράμμα) meaning letter, chronogram serves a way for people to encode time with letters in way that it would be contained seamlessly inside a maxim, motto, or statement.
Crystal (1998), as cited in Chrisomalis (2021), said that chronogram fell into a type of what is called ludic linguistics. Ludic, from the Latin word ludo, which means to play, reflects the humanity’s way to implement numerology in literature with a playful flavor with it. Crystal also argued that this kind of subject is still obscurely acknowledged because studies in the past didn’t really put a serious attention to this part of linguistics topic, even though the subsequent studies started to cover this subject.
One of the most obscure, yet interesting study about chronogram is the sengkalan, a fascinating — Indonesian version of the chronogram tradition. Before we get to know about sengkalan, we firstly need to learn about what a chronogram is and what does it looks like, particularly chronograms flourished in the European cultures that use Roman numerals as its base numbering system. We’re going to set another types of chronograms aside, like Arabic, Hebrew, Greek, etc. in this article for the sake of brevity, and we are then compare how Roman chronogram differs with sengkalan.
Roman chronograms work by embedding Roman numerals inside phrases in an inscription. One should take into account that the “Roman” terminology I used here implies to the usage of Roman numerals only and has nothing to do with Roman as the civilization, as it is not limited to particular language or culture, whether it is of Romance, Germanic, or other European language family, because frankly Roman chronograms were invented later in the middle of 14th century according to history, although chronograms that record older dates are also known (Hilton, 1882).
The easiest example of a Roman chronogram could be taken from a motto to observe the year of Queen Elizabeth I’s passing:
My Day Closed Is In Immortality
The first letter of each words denote the numbers of the Queen’s year of death in Roman numerals, i.e. MDCIII or 1603 in Arabic numerals.
The initial placement is not always the case, because the letters in a Roman chronogram could be freely placed in any possible positions, as long as the end product represent the respective year as intended according to the Roman numeral system. An example of how this system works could be shown in this figure below, taken from an inscription in Saxony-Anhalt, Germany (Chrisomalis, 2021):
The inscription says:
ANNO
QVO VVESTPHALA PAX IVBILANS VNIVERSÆ DAT PACEM EVROPÆ
The translation would be: “The year where Westphalia’s rejoicing peace gives peace to the entire Europe”
The numbers arranged according to the Roman numeral value and its breakdown would appear like this:
MDCLLXVVVVVVVIII → M-DCLL-XVVVVVV-VIII → 1000+700+40+8 = 1748
Description: M= 1000; D=500; C=100; L=50; X=10; V=5, I=1
This chronogram is an example of a complete Roman chronogram because it uses all seven letters in the Roman numerals in order to demonstrate its arranging rules. This example gives you the best description for the common yet complex Roman chronogram that could be found the most in Europe, compared to the previous example that is easier to comprehend.
So, you could imagine how a chronogram works, particularly Roman chronograms used in European cultures. Now, I am going to introduce you to sengkalan.
II. Sengkalan
Sengkalan is an Indonesian variety of chronogram. It is mostly associated with the Javanese people, although a smaller percentage of people from other ethnicities, such as Balinese people, are also known to use sengkalan. Different from Roman chronograms that use Gregorian calendar, sengkalan is based on the Javanese calendar, also known as Saka calendar, that could be signified with its latinized abbreviation AJ, from Anno Javanico (Javanese year).
The etymology of sengkalan is derived from the word sakakala, where saka (शक) means the Shaka people, an ethnic group of Indo-Scythian descent, who are believed to be Indian immigrants who came to Java in the ancient times and introduced various Hindu-Buddhist concepts, one of it is the solar calendar system; and kala (काल) that means time (Yogyakarta Cultural Agency, 2014). Other sources suggest that sengkalan etymology could be traced back to the history of King Aji Saka. Aji Saka or Jaka Sengkala is the son of Batara Gajali, the king of Surati in India who migrated to Java and was given the title Mpu Sengkala, who then taught various kinds of knowledge, including calendrical system (Baratakesawa, 1980).
Sengkalan is based on the Bhutasamkhya system (Apsari et al., 2021), where bhūta (भूत) means “to be” and saṃkhyā (सांख्य) means “to enumerate”. The Bhutasamkhya system works by assigning a numerical value to words so that when it is composed into a phrase, motto, or sentence, the full text would denote the recorded year. But, there is a caveat. The Bhutasamkhya system is ordered in rectoverso manner, which means when the sentence is read from left-to-right, the numerical value has to be arranged from the opposite direction instead, that is right-to-left.
Despite the initial influence of Indosphere culture, at which the ancient Maritime Southeast Asian society was significantly an Indosphere civilization, the sengkalan later evolved very differently from chronograms found in the Indosphere cultures, as an impact of social changes happened in the Javanese people due to trade, colonialism, and migration, which would be explained later.
Sengkalan in the Javanese culture is comprised of two types, sengkalan lamba and sengkalan memet. The usage of sengkalan lamba and sengkalan memet is coexistent, and both of these types have very different features, which would be explained in the following parts.
2.1. Sengkalan Lamba
Sengkalan lamba (lamba=simple) is a chronogram composed solely on words arranged into a sentence to represent a year. This is the most common type of sengkalan that you could find in most Javanese artifacts and is still used today. Sengkalan lamba could be found in epitaphs, plaque, or inscription as a motto, sentence, or phrase. For example, I will show a figure below depicting a motto of a well-known Indonesian university.
Another example of sengkalan lamba usage could be seen in this figure below:
Figure 3, as shown above, gives you an example of sengkalan lamba usage in the classical Javanese era. The year 1400 AJ corresponds to the year 1478 CE, a rough date of the decline of the Majapahit Empire, the last Hindu-Buddhist empire in present day Indonesia, and the beginning of Islamic sultanate era in Java. This adage is said to be mentioned both in Serat Kandha and Babad Tanah Jawi, two of many classical Javanese literaries about the history of Java (Balisatuberita, 2022).
The interesting linguistics trivia is that the adage is somehow juxtaposed two words that bear the value of zero at the same time, i.e., sirna and ilang. This condition raised the question, “why did the creator of this adage seamlessly combine the two words to create a stress on something being lost and gone?”. Tomé Pires in his book Suma Oriental: An Account of the East, From the Red Sea to Japan, Written in Malacca and India in 1512–1515 recounts the history of Java really well. From this, we could learn the possible semiotics from this classical sengkalan.
The Majapahit Empire at that time was facing numerous political problems: challenges from foreign powers, civil war, power struggle inside the empire’s dynasty, and multiple attempts to usurp the throne. One of the greatest turning points that causes the decline of the Majapahit Empire is the overthrow of the last canonical Majapahit emperor, according to Babad Tanah Jawi, Sri Maharaja Bravijaya V (aka Bhre Kertabhumi).
Pires (1944) said that Pate Rodim (aka Raden Patah; aka Jim Bun [靳文]), who was the stepson of Arya Damar (aka Arya Abdillah) and also the grandson of Bravijaya V, declared war to Majapahit. Patah had a confusing lineage due to its complex familial relationship. Historians suggested that Patah is Bravijaya’s own biological son but acknowledged as a grandson, because he was raised by Prince Arya Damar (who was also a son of Bravijaya) who married Bravijaya’s then-disavowed concubine after she gave birth to Patah, hence the “grandson”, even though he is supposed to be Bravijaya’s direct descendant.
It was done after he migrated with his stepbrother Raden Kusen (aka Husein; aka Kin San) (some sources argued that Kusen was Patah’s blood brother from Bravijaya as Damar is said to be infertile) from Palembang, Sumatra (a vassal state of Majapahit headed by Prince Arya Damar, Bravijaya V’s son) to Majapahit’s central region in Java. When Kusen pledged his allegiance to Majapahit and resided in Terung (now Sidoarjo Regency) to study Islam and manage a land bestowed by Bravijaya V, Patah was in a more rebellious side and decided to establish a new community instead, located in Demak (now Demak Regency).
Pires (1944) recounted that “his country has greatly fallen away from what it was before”. This quote is later explained thoroughly in the commentary — Patah defeated the army of Bravijaya and then “the great and magnificent capital of Java fell in 1475 to become a wilderness”. After these series of wars, Majapahit then faced its aftermath of defeat, marking the establishment of the first Islamic kingdom in Java, Sultanate of Demak. Demak later assumed Majapahit’s sovereignty, then seceded to become its own independent state. Patah is said to rule Demak from 1477 until 1519.
The remaining heirs or royal family members of Majapahit either involved in a series of wars with Demak to retain the surviving areas of Majapahit sovereignty in Java (led by Bravijaya VI or Dyah Ranavijaya, the successive — noncanonical emperor from “Girindravardhana dynasty” according to popular interpretation) or fled to the eastern salient of Java and established a small Hindu kingdom. Some of them took a refuge even farther to Bali island.
It was in 1478 then Bravijaya V died. His year of death is also observed with a sengkalan, akin to Elizabeth I death’s chronogram. It is mentioned in Pararaton (The Book of Kings) (Brandes, 1897; Pitono, 1965):
Putranira sang Sinagara, bhre Koripan, bhre Mataram, bhre Pamotan, pamungsu bhre Kĕrtabhûmi, kapĕrnah paman, bhre prabhu sang mokta ring kadaton i çaka çunya-nora-yuganing-wong, 1400.
Translation:
The sons of the Sinagara (Emperor Rajasavardhana) are: Bhre Kahuripan (present-day Sidoarjo), Bhre Mataram (present-day Yogyakarta), Bhre Pamotan (present-day Sidoarjo), and the youngest one Bhre Kertabhumi (present-day Mojokerto), is one of (Bhre Pandansalas’ [Emperor Suraprabhava]) uncle—(it was) the bhre prabhu¹ (king) who mokta² in the kadaton (palace) in Saka year of “sunya nora yuganing wong”³, 1400.
¹ It could be implied that the person referred to here is Kertabhumi because Suraprabhava passed away earlier in 1474 CE.
² From Sanskrit, moksha, meaning to die or liberated from life-death cycle of suffering according to Hinduism, Buddhism, and Jainism teaching.
³ Translation: “silent be not the age of the person”. The numerical values are: Sunya= 0, [n]ora= 0, yuga-ning= 4, wong= 1 → 1400 AJ or equivalent to 1478 CE.
Again, we can see a similar pattern of double expression of nothingness or negation, as written in sengkalan for Majapahit’s demise and Bravijaya V passing’s sengkalan. From this observation, we could conclude that the emphasis on the first two words connotes the seriousness of the event. According to linguistics perspective, this kind of synonymous repetition could be fall under the category of rhetoric device in literature called “tautology”, from Greek: tautos (ταὐτός) means “the same” and logos (λόγος) means “idea”. Tautologies are used in literature to emphasize a saying or statement (Zui, 2023).
In this case, the redundant usage of synonyms from the first two words in the previous sengkalans could be interpreted as a communication style to make the significance of the event become amplified to the reader. Seeing from literature point of view, this rhetorical device ought not to be understood as stylistic mistakes, rather it could be a figurative way to tell us how dire the situation of the event was when the sengkalans were issued. In such case, we could tell the desperation at the time when the Majapahit Empire was overwhelmed with tensions from the inside and the outside.
In conjunction to Bravijaya V’s sengkalan, we could see how the defeat of the emperor by his own descendant, and his passing during the wane of the Majapahit’s glory, serves as a lamentation, a call of misery, in response to the awakening of new foreign powers; the plummeted influence of Hindu-Buddhist dharma (religion) during the Islamic arrival in Java; and the loss of a patron figure, i.e., Bravijaya V, who bears the title Batara (ꦨꦠꦫ) “the savior, the god”, from Sanskrit Avatara (अवतार) meaning a godly incarnation. The chronogram “sirna ilang kṛtaning Bhumi” serves as a pêpêngêt (remembrance) to the past glory of the Javanese people that was fading away in such a quick way that the world’s welfare is gone forever.
Albeit this historiography is the most popular interpretation of Majapahit’s final glory involving the “last” emperor Bravijaya V, a figure that is said to be canonical or linked to Babad Tanah Jawi, it is important to note that this story is often criticized for its historical inaccuracy. According to Djafar (1977), Majapahit did not actually vanished in a literal sense after Kertabhumi’s death and succeeded by the so-called “Girindravardhana dynasty”, as it is known from various inscriptions issued by the Majapahit government itself, like Waringinpitu inscription issued in 1447 CE, Petak inscription (date unknown), and Jiyu I –IV inscriptions issued in 1486 CE, that: (1) there are three known figures bearing the title “Girindravardhana” both from before and after Kertabhumi’s reign; and (2) an emperor (Dyah Ranavijaya) who succeeded Kertabhumi do exist.
Djafar then explained and opined that several Dutch historians, i.e., N.J. Krom, P.J. Zoetmulder, W.F. Stutterheim, and B.J.O. Schrieke, may have misinterpreted the history of Majapahit’s power struggle and line of succession during its final years because they lacked the understanding of Majapahit’s system as a government that is structured in a cosmogony. Majapahit consisted of regions headed by a Paduka Bhattara (The Royal Highness Lord) or Bhre (ꦨꦿꦺ) an abbreviation from Bhattara i/ing … (The Lord in …). He said that the event of war declared by a figure from Kadiri (Dyah Ranavijaya) should be interpreted as an event of rebellion committed by a regional king to Majapahit’s central power in a sense of usurpation happening inside of Majapahit’s royal family.
From Djafar, it could be implied that Patah’s invasion to Majapahit, as referred in many popular historiography, is anachronistic and invalid. While Demak did invade or attack Majapahit, the former version of historiography is inaccurate because the event did not occur during Kertabhumi’s reign, but later when Ranavijaya assumed the throne (Rahimsyah, 2000). Moreover, Djafar concluded that the term “Girindravardhana”, often described by some accounts as a dynasty, even a whole new dynasty, is incorrect. He argued that “Girindravardhana” is merely a title and that Majapahit was only ruled by one dynasty instead, i.e., Girindra or Rajasa. Rajasa, as a dynasty, is a continuous royal family lineage spanning from Singhasari Kingdom that was pioneered by Sri Ranggah Rajasa or famously known as Ken Angrok, to Girindravardhana Dyah Ranavijaya of Majapahit Empire.
Reflectively, the historical writing of Babad Tanah Jawi, which is often cited by popular sources to describe the dissolution of Majapahit, should not be dismissed altogether regardless of its inaccurate and myth-laden historiography. D.R. Puguh, a history researcher from Diponegoro University, suggests that traditional sources have equal rights to be used as a historical source (Putri, 2018). He added that, from Hermanus Johannes De Graaf, a Dutch scholar, Babad Tanah Jawi does have factual writings in it, most importantly when the context is well understood for it to be reasonably acknowledged as a factual historical source.
Moving from the history of Majapahit to a more modern yet interesting ones, sengkalan lamba in tangible artifacts could still be easily found in many historical places in Java, with most of them still culturally preserved in the realm of Yogyakarta Sultanate, now Special Region of Yogyakarta province. Here, I will show you the last example of sengkalan lamba usage in physical objects, i.e., an epigraph or in Indonesian is known as prasasti.
Figure 5 above is an inscription carved onto the monument that was called Tugu Golong Gilig (The Round-Cylindrical Monument) or Tugu Paal Putih (The White Milestone [as in distance marker] Monument). Today, it is officially named Tugu Yogyakarta (The Yogyakarta Monument). Despite being shaped rectangularly, why was the monument called “round-cylindrical”? It is because the first monument was erected earlier by the Sultan Hamengkubuwana I in 1756. With the height of 25 meters, the monument was originally shaped cylindrical in its main shaft and has a round, ball like ending on the apex (Setyaningrum, 2023). Think about a pawn chess piece, but with a taller body and a smaller rounded head. Now, the monument is topped with a golden, unicorn-horn like pinnacle.
Being located in one of the most active volcanic ranges of Java and Indonesia, Yogyakarta is heavily prone to earthquakes. In 1867, when Sultan Hamengkubuwana VI reigned, Yogyakarta experienced a catastrophic earthquake with a magnitude scale of 7.8 Mw (equivalent to the intensity IX “Violent”). It is officially called Gempa Bumi Jawa 1867 (1867 Java Earthquake). The disaster was so devastating because the epicenter is located near the Yogyakarta region, just on the southern coast of the Indian Ocean. The calamity of the situation could be described, according to an excerpt I take from a Dutch-language newspaper, De Locomotief, on June 11, 1867, like this:
De Locomotief | Dingsdag, 11 Junij — XVIᵉ Jaargang — Aᵒ1867 №68
“AARDBEVING”
Uit DJOCJA zijn de tijdingen allerbedroevendst. Den geheelen omvang van de ramp kent men, zoo ‘t schijnt, nog op verre na niet juist; pasar dat en veel, menschelevens bij te loor zijn gegaan, en zeer veel geldelijk verlies is geleden, moet boven allen … verheven … worden.
“EARTHQUAKE”
Out of DJOCJA is the most depressing news comes from. The full scope of the disaster, as it seems, is still not fully known extensively; the fact that a lot lives have been lost, and a fair amount of financial loss has been suffered, must be put on the priority above anything else.
The newspaper reports that many of important buildings are greatly damaged to the earthquake, as quoted from this excerpt:
De kratons van de Sultan en van Pakoe Alam, het residentiegebouw, de kerk en het fort zijn onbruikbaar; Pasar Gede en veel andere fabrieken zijn verwoest.
The kraton (palaces) of the Sultan and the Paku Alam, the resident’s building, the church, and the fort are unusable; Pasar Gede (Yogyakarta Grand Bazaar) and so many other factories are destroyed.
Enough with the history, the text written in the monument could be extracted and looked like this as in Figure 6:
The inscription faces southwards of Prince Mangkubumi Avenue in Yogyakarta. The sengkalan “the gate of the welfare — the leader of the state” — could be elaborated as a saying that meant: the voyage towards the gateway of prosperity shall be initiated by a leader figure (Saraswati, 2022). This is related to the monument’s renovation started in the year mentioned, specifically in the full Javanese calendrical system, Sapar (the 2nd month in Javanese calendar), Alip (the 1st year in Javanese octo-ennial year cycle aka windu), and then the year 1819 AJ or 1889 CE.
Citing an article from Yogyakarta Sultanate’s official website (2018), the monument’s renovation history is documented well on three other, out of four, epigraphs — which I would show below with the text excerpt:
Yasan Dalem [h]ingkang Sinuwun Kangjeng Sultan Hamengkubuwana [h]ingkang kaping 7.
The Royal Establishment of Ingkang Sinuwun (His Majesty) Kangjeng (The Honorable) Sultan Hamengkubuwana VII.
This suggests that the monument is a property of Hamengkubuwana VII as a part of his royal estate inside the kingdom’s realm.
[H]ingkang mangayubagya Karsa Dalem, Kangjeng Thuwan Residhen Y. Mullemester.
(The one) who rejoices His Majesty’s Will, Kangjeng (The Honorable) Mr. Resident Y. Mullemester.
Kraton Yogyakarta recounts that in this epigraph, the Resident of Djokjakarta who held the office at that time, Jan Mullemeister, expressed his pleasure of the renovation event to HM Sultan Hamengkubuwana VII, suggesting that the Netherlands colonial government didn’t contribute any financial aid to the construction, but only welcomes it instead.
Pakaryanipun sinambadan Patih Dalem Kangjeng Raden Adipati Danureja [h]ingkang kaping 5, ka[h]undhagen dening Thuwan Y. P. F. Van Bhrussel, opsihter waterstat.⁴
The construction work is organized by Patih Dalem (Royal Prime Minister) Kangjeng (The Honorable) Raden (Lord) Adipati (Duke) Danureja V, engineered by Mr. Y. P. F. Van Brussel, opzichter waterstaat (supervisor of the [Dutch East Indies] water management department).
⁴ This is a verbatim transliteration and explanation taken from Kraton Jogja’s official website. It is said that the person’s name is Y. P. F. Van Brussel. However, I challenge this interpretation as the Javanese script transliteration may have confused the letter “wa” (ꦮ) to “pa” (ꦥ) as the two glyphs do look similar. Also, there are no mentions of said name in Dutch archives or records of Dutch East Indies colonial government individuals. So, the Kraton Jogja may have erred the transliteration. My argument and reinterpretation is supported by a book titled Regeeringsalmanak voor Nederlandsch-Indië 1888 - Tweede Gedeelte: Kalender en Personalia published by Batavia Landsdrukkerij in Batavia (present-day Jakarta). The book recorded a name J. W. F. van Brussel who is said to work as the “opzichter der Iste klasse, eerstaanioezend waterstaatsambtenaar” in Djokjakarta, or translated as “supervisor, 1st class, first appointed (I assume aanioezend is an older spelling of aanwijzend) water management official.” Thus, this finding verified my doubt and corrected the error I have discovered.
Reflecting with the sengkalan “wiwara harja manggala praja”, we can conclude that the rebuild of Yogyakarta Monument served as a symbol of Hamengkubuwana VII welcoming a new era of welfare, with the monument acting like a historical landmark that pinpoints the event, the reconstruction is hoped to relieve the past tragedy and to keep moving on.
2.2. Sengkalan Memet
After we have learned about sengkalan lamba, we’re going to move to sengkalan memet (memet=complicated; confusing). Sengkalan memet is a type of chronogram that utilizes imagery, graphics, and iconography about certain events, deliberately using figurative speech in a way that it should be understood with deeper analysis by its readers. Sengkalan memet is created to describe the environment and circumstances of certain events in its time using visualization that could be interpreted in a sentence (Listya & Pratama, 2019).
Its enigmatic nature that makes sengkalan memet called “complicated”, because an image doesn’t speak for itself, but the reader ought to know what the sengkalan maker was intended to say. When sengkalan lamba is already hard enough to interpret, sengkalan memet needs the extra steps in order to decode the meaning.
Sengkalan memet usually existed alongside certain buildings, acting like an ornament like the European gargoyles, or even intentionally displayed in the front façade to symbolize the significance of the building. It also appears in places like bas-reliefs in sacred temples and in puppetry (Listya & Pratama, 2019).
The unique thing about sengkalan memet is that: it is an original invention of the Javanese people (Listya & Pratama, 2019). It is nonexistent in other Indosphere counterparts and is heavily associated with the Javanese artwork culture. The sengkalan memet existence is a remark of how the Javanese people respects symbolism and the character of restraint, reservation, and subtlety. This, I suggest, is an empirical manifestation of Javanese ethics — expressed in artworks — about being thoughtful in minds.
There is an old proverb nurtured by the Javanese people that says: “mikul dhuwur, mendhem jero” that means “to carry highly, to bury deeply (inside)”. Nugroho (2021) said, the Javanese ethics is similar to Aristotelian ethics where ethics should be based on human interests called the ethics of wisdom, contrasted to Western ethics that highlights more on duty and absolute norms — the ethics of obligation. He added, the Javanese ethics primarily believed that human being is demanded to refrain and avoid conflicts in order to create a harmony (Nugroho, 2021). How is this related to sengkalan memet? Shortly, it is the mindset of thoughtfulness that possibly contributed to the invention of sengkalan memet. It is a way to address a message with an eloquent — but silent, visible — but discreet, style.
Moving from philosophical aspects of sengkalan memet, we could observe its features by looking at the examples I show below:
Figure 11 above is a sengkalan memet depicting two dragons with both tail ends intertwined together. The sengkalan memet is interpreted as “dwi naga rasa tunggal” or translated as “two dragons — one feeling”, the numerical value could be broken down like this:
dwi → “two” → Numerical Value= 2;
naga → “dragon(s)” → Numerical Value= 8;
rasa → “feeling, flavor, sense” → Numerical Value= 6;
tunggal → “one” → Numerical Value= 1.
Altogether, the sengkalan memet produces the string of numbers of 2861, then reversed to 1682 AJ or equivalent to 1756 CE. This sengkalan memet could be found in Regol Kemagangan and Regol Gadung Mlathi building. According to the Kraton Yogyakarta official website (2017), the meaning of this sengkalan memet signifies the year when the Yogyakarta Palace was started to be inhabited by the royal family.
This is confirmed by Sunaryo (2003) — his research said that the sengkalan year of 1682 AJ or 1756 CE signified the process after palihan nagari (the transition of the state). For context, palihan nagari could be understood as an effect taken after the Giyanti Treaty signing in 1755 CE, where the previous Mataram Sultanate was partitioned into four monarchies of what is known today as follows: (1) Yogyakarta Sultanate, (2) Surakarta Sunanate, (3) Mangkunegaran Principality, and (4) Pakualaman Principality. These new political entities are also goes by the name catur sagatra (four in one body) by the Javanese people in the region, meaning: despite the secession because of inner conflicts and (thanks to) the Dutch colonial interventions, the kingdom is first and foremost still Mataram.
Harnoko in Sunaryo (2003) said that the sengkalan, where the tails of two dragons twisted together, represents golong-gilig or the unity between a king’s majesty with his people in building a nation. He also added that the sengkalan encapsulates the Javanese saying: “gumolog-gilig saiyek” meaning unity and cooperation. That’s why it reflects the new kingdom establishment in the hope of portraying the spirit of unity of the king and his people.
There are many kinds of sengkalan memet out there, below I show another example of sengkalan memet with their documented meaning:
The stone statue in Figure 12 above depicts an elephant. The statue is located in Sunyaragi Garden, a garden complex in Kasepuhan Palace belonging to Cirebon Sultanate— a fringe Javanese-Sundanese kingdom, which is now dissolved and merged into the current West Java province. The statue bears the sengkalan “gajah derum tirta linuwih” that translates from Javanese as “the elephant lay down on an excessive water” (Purnomo, Nugroho, & Ismoyo, 2020). The sengkalan numerical values could be broken down like this:
gajah → “elephant” → Numerical Value= 8;
derum → “lay down” → Numerical Value= 5;
tirta → “water” → Numerical Value= 4;
linuwih → “excessive”, “overly” → Numerical Value= 1.
The numbers then rearranged as 1458 AJ or 1536 CE. From Purnomo, Nugroho, & Ismoyo research (2020), I could conclude that the sengkalan serves two meanings. The extrinsic meaning is taken from the statue itself. The statue is located in an area of pertirtaan (water garden) that was built in the year 1458 AJ by the Cirebon Sultanate, hence the connection of the elephant to excessive water. The elephant is designed with its trunk facing upwards because it was engineered to be a water spout. The intrinsic meaning is that an elephant, according to Hinduism, depicts the liman or Airavata (ऐरावत), a divine being resembling an elephant, the vahana or vehicle for the god Indra (इन्द्र). In oriental culture, elephants are associated with the kings and the authority, also bearing the characteristics of power, wisdom, and compassion. This is a symbol of those personalities said to be present in Sultan of Cirebon and his offspring.
III. Numerical Values of Words in Javanese Language
After we’ve learned what sengkalans are and how they work, we finally came into the most pivotal question:
“How do the words and their numerical value work? How do we know what is what? And, how to make one?”
Because sengkalan is a relatively intricate art, the explanation would take very long, if not laborious. Not to mention the specific rules and order to make a proper — readable sengkalan. I recommend you to read the book Keterangan Candrasengkala by Raden Baratakesawa. He made a brief but extensive explanation about sengkalan, along with the history, character of each number and word examples, and how to make one. Unfortunately, the book is written in Indonesian and Javanese, so that’s another work to do. For efficiency, I would explain it shortly and also took several references from Apsari et al. (2021) research article.
Principally, we need to remember that — in sengkalan, some words in the Javanese language are assigned to a numerical value. It is because some words are said to have some characteristics of numbers, or at least comparable and metaphorical to unit of numbers. This is not rocket science numerology as there is no absolute mathematical formula because sengkalan is largely based on the conventional database of words and numerical value that you need to memorize.
One thing for sure is you could always predict that — any words bearing a characteristic in nature and associated with a certain number should always correspond to that number. For instance, the word indriya (ꦲꦶꦤ꧀ꦢꦿꦶꦪ), meaning senses, is equivalent to the number 5 because there are five basic senses, i.e., hearing, seeing, tasting, smelling, and touching — then, the word sirna (ꦱꦶꦂꦤ), meaning vanish, as mentioned in the earlier chapter, is equivalent to the number 0 because it represents nothingness (Apsari et al., 2021). However, this trick is not always reliable because mostly the words in the convention are based on an arbitrary assignment, if not symbolism in relation to the Dharmic religions or Javanese culture, which may seem confusing and random for most.
Here is a brief example of some words in the Javanese language along with its numerical value:
3.1. Number 1
Characteristics: singularity, domain, celestial object, of one amount.
- Gusti, Hyang, wong → Lord, God, person
- Rat, jagad, buwana, nagara → land, universe, realm, state
- Chandra, Surya, Bhumi → Moon, Sun, Earth
- Setunggal, eka, siji → one
3.2. Number 2
Characteristics: related to eye, related to action from paired body parts or action of two things, of two amount.
- Netra, mata, paningal → vision, eye, sight
- Nembah, ngabekti, gandeng → to worship (as in two hands praying), to devote (by praying with two hands), to pair (as in connecting two objects together)
- Kalih, dwi, lara → two
3.3. Number 3
Characteristics: fire element, of fire nature, of three amount.
- Geni, agni, dahana → fire or flame;
- Benter, murup, kukus → hot, burning, steaming;
- Tiga, tri, telu → three.
3.4. Number 4
Characteristics: water element, of water nature, of four amount.
- Segara, banyu, telaga → sea, water, lake;
- Suci, wedhang, warih → pure (as in cleansing nature of water), a hot beverage, coconut water;
- Sekawan, catur, papat → four.
3.5. Number 5
Characteristics: air element, related to giants and its nature, of five amount, senses.
- Bayu, angin, samirana → air or wind;
- Butha, yakhsa, raseksa; galak, bayu → giant; savage, muscular;
- Gangsal, panca, lima → five;
- Indriya → senses.
3.6. Number 6
Characteristics: flavors/feeling, source of flavors, six-legged insects, of six amount.
- Rasa, manis, amla, lona, retu, asin, ilat → feeling/flavor, sweet, sour, spicy, bitter, salty, tongue;
- Gula, asem, uyah → sugar, tamarind, salt;
- Semut, tawon, anggas → ant, wasp, grasshopper;
- Enem, sad, nem → six.
3.7. Number 7
Characteristics: related to priest, related to horse, related to mountain, of seven amount.
- Pandhita, resi, yogi → priest, a rishi, a yogi;
- Turangga, kuda, titihan → horse;
- Giri, prawata, cala → mountain, mountain range, foothill;
- Sapta, pitu → seven.
3.8. Number 8
Characteristics: related to reptiles, related to elephants, of eight amount.
- Ulo, naga, basu, cecak, bajul, salira, tanu → snake, dragon, gecko, lizard, crocodile, monitor, chameleon;
- Gajah, dwipangga, liman → elephant;
- Asta, wolu → eight.
3.9. Number 9
Characteristics: related to opening, related to orifice, related to gateway, of nine amount.
- Ambuka, bedhah, butul, masuk → to open, to rip, go-through, enter;
- Bolong, guwa, terusan → hole, alcove (small recessed area of stonewall in holy places used as a place of worship, synonymous with a cave), a passage;
- Kori, lawang, gapura, manjing → gate, door, gateway, entrance;
- Nawa, sanga → nine.
3.10. Number 0
Characteristics: related to sky, nothingness, absence, negation.
- Langit, akasa, luhur → sky, space, very high (figuratively meaning to be honored);
- Suwung, sonya → empty, silent;
- Musnah, sirna, ilang, pejah → gone, vanish, disappear, dead;
- Tanpa, tan, ora, nir → without, none, no, less/lack.
IV. Do-it-Yourself Sengkalan
With this knowledge, you could learn how to make a sengkalan of your own. In this instance, I would compose a sengkalan lamba of the year 2020 CE, because it is the most significant year in the modern history up until recently. From the given examples, we could gather words with numerical value that corresponds to the year 2020 CE. Beforehand, we need to convert the year 2020 CE to Javanese year, to be specific the 1st January of 2020 in order to make a defined beginning (due to calendrical system difference, Javanese and Gregorian year cycle is overlapped). The Gregorian date is equivalent to Javanese date of Rebo Legi, 5th Jumadilawal, 1953 AJ. You could utilize this handy — online Javanese almanac website here.
Now, we need to describe what happened in 2020?, specifically 1953 AJ. With the obvious answer, we could describe the year 2020 CE/1953 AJ from its notable event, which is the peak year of the Covid-19 pandemic. In this case, I would create a sengkalan lamba that portrays the state of calamity and disturbance as the main idea. I will show the description below:
V. What Makes Sengkalan so Great and Unique?
As mentioned in the earlier chapter, sengkalan became a unique kind of chronogram tradition in Indonesia, particularly in Java. Sengkalan is developed pretty well that it made its own characteristics and driven apart from the initial Bhutasamkhya system that was introduced during the height of Indosphere influence. Sengkalan later adopted its own identity according to local language, culture, and literature. In its place of origin, Bhutasamkhya is slowly fading away as new kinds of chronogram system started to replace the former in their chronogram tradition, i.e., Katapayadi system (Joseph, 2016). This means sengkalan tradition is preserved well in the modern era in Indonesia.
Not only that, the sengkalan is considerably efficient because it is only consisted of 4 words — suggests that it is made for quadriarithmic (four-numbered) year (in fact, there are many three-numbered sengkalans on ancient epigraphs discovered in Indonesia that denote the years prior to 999 AJ, but that’s another story). Compared to Roman chronograms, the sengkalan is easily remembered, especially for mottos that are need to be eternally commemorated, because the words represent the number themselves — so you don’t have to arrange jumbled letters just to know in what year did King Charles I purchased his first pony, written in a deteriorated epitaph of an unreadable Trajan font.
The existence of a sengkalan memet also serves you an option to make chronograms with a more discreet manner. This is because sengkalan memet is unfamiliar outside Indonesia, so there’s a chance one could erect a monument, but without putting any written embellishment on it, because nobody would realize that the monument encodes a sengkalan — except maybe a select few of people who are educated in the sengkalan tradition. In this scenario, particularly in the current times, if you’re too embarrassed to make a written chronogram recording the year when you confessed your love to your partner, you could possibly slap a picture of random animals or object as long as it corresponds to the sengkalan conventions. Maybe put a statue of two giants who hugs tightly in the garden of your porch? The floor is all yours. Just remember that you have to master the words first.
Lastly, when there’s yin, there’s yang. When there’s something so great about sengkalan, there should be something lacking of it, and that’s normal. As you can predict, despite being very brief and efficient, the sengkalan system takes more step than Roman chronogram in the making, which is to encode numbers and then put it on an assigned word from the array. The difficulty also starts when an untrained person tries to compose or interpret sengkalan. Chrisomalis (2021) actually commented on this — he said, the date encoding is “opaque” where commoners with lack of literacy skills at that time are necessary to learn the connection between the words and its numerical value to read the year, in contrast to Roman chronogram.
At the end, sengkalan remains to be a fascinating subject of chronogram tradition study in the world, and surely it is flourished very greatly as a culture, as reflected from its past and current history as told in this article.
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