Hierarchical ranks in the Surakarta keraton

[Bjorn]

In earlier threads, Alan has shared the colour coding of Surakarta wrongko sunggingan and pendok as they pertain to the keraton of Surakarta. I have copy-pasted the relevant section from another thread.

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Sunggingan:-
Colour means the base colour:-
White or yellow --- bupati or the royal family
Gold --- pangeran
Sea blue --- penewu
Light green --- mentri

Pendok colours:-
Red --- royal family or a bupati
Green --- penewu or mentri
Dark grey --- lurah
Black --- jajar and may also be used by all ranks, and for wear at a funeral

Court clowns can wear any colour sunggingan or pendok, but must wear it with a rojomolo ukiran
Cantung balung have same rules as clowns, but usually wear poleng motif.
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Now my question is, what exactly do these titles mean (I've underlined them in the copy-pasted segment above)? As I recall, a bupati is a district governor (head of a kabupaten). But what about the other ranks? What were people in these positions responsible for, and how many - if any - people did they govern. I seem to recall that a penewu was responsible for some 1000 people, but I could be remembering this incorrectly.

[A. G. Maisey]

Bupati --- a regent, the highest ranking administrative officer in a regency, but also there are 'inside" bupatis and outside bupatis, the outside bupati is the regent, the inside bupati is a very highly ranked officer working within the Karaton itself.

Pangeran --- prince , it is the title for the son of a ruler

Penewu --- literally it means an officer in charge of 1000 men, in olden times, when a kingdom was at war, the peneqwu would have been in charge of 1000 men, but in more recent times that title has been used as a middle ranking ranking official, in 21st century terms, a "middle manager", "Sewu" mean "one thousand".

Jajar --- lowest rank for a karaton official

Cantung Balung --- this is not translatable, and to explain fully would need a 5000 word paper. The Canthung Balung can be thought of as humourously fierce cross between warrior and clown who precedes some traditional Surakarta Karaton parades.

Lurah --- usually understood as the chief, head, administrator of a village or small administrative area, but can also be the person appointed to supervise other people in the carrying out of specific duties. This is the same idea as the Bupati, an inside lurah, and an outside lurah. Working in the karaton he is a supervisor, appointed outside the karaton he is a village head. They used to be appointed as village heads by the Ruler, Sinuhun, in Surakarta, the Sunan or Susuhunan, these days they are appointed by the government.

Mentri --- this is a confusing word. There are several spellings used, I understand the correct (if there is such a thing) Javanese romanised spelling is "mantri", but in Javanese both vowels and consonants can be subiect to change by the user of the word. In Javanese "mantri" can have several meanings, but in the context of karaton hierarchy it should be understood as "an official", in other words a fairly low ranking official in charge of a certain function, not a highly ranked administrative official. The word comes through into Bahasa Indonesia as "menteri', which is a government minister.

Poleng motif is black and white squares, it can be thought of in the sense of "good/bad", "day/night", the idea of opposites necessary to balance all in the cosmos.

Sunggingan is painted, but specifically the painted ornamention on furniture, a form of ornamentation that was very popular in Europe in past times.

Pendok (pendhok) is keris specific

Rojomolo --- another 5000 word job, but quickly and simply, the water spirit of the Bengawan Solo

Ukiran --- a carving

[Bjorn]

Thank you for taking the time to write that down, Alan. It's nice to have a better idea of what these words actually refer to.

[Paul B.]

If we consider these Sunggigan krisses as being used for formal events then there is no difference in the dress code for a Gayaman versus Ladrang as opposed to the unpainted versions?
Here is one with a black back ground?
Decorated with Kala and one eyed Bintulu creature (along the opening of the blewah).

[A. G. Maisey]

Paul, there are events of varying natures. The style of dress, and the style of keris dress can vary according to the nature of the event. In some instances it may be acceptable for some people to wear gayaman keris dress, but not for other people. The answer to what is acceptable when, where and by whom is really a question that can only be answered by an authority on the protocol that applies in a particular kraton or social setting. My knowledge does not extend that far.

Black is the colour for a jajar.

[Jean]

So it is better to buy a white sunggingan scabbard in ladrang style than a black gayaman!