mendak inscription

[Paul B.]

Who can help me out with this inscription which I found on the upper inside of a mendak (ivory). It is hardly visible so I made a drawing. Possibly sanskrit language?

[A. G. Maisey]

I believe this will prove to be a letter or a number written in Honocoroko (Hanacaraka), ie, Aksoro Jowo Honocoroko, Javanese letters.

The way in which these letters & numbers are written can vary quite a bit from person to person, and also from time to time, depending upon the script used. Sanscrit is not a script, it is a language, I think it is usually written in Devanagari. In any case, Sanscrit is not used in Jawa --- this appears to be a Javanese mendak --- but it does form the foundation for Kawi, the Javanese literary language.

I suggest you do a google search and find some charts, there are plenty online, do the comparison both upright and upside down.

Maybe a project for next winter?

Once you have some possibilities it might be worthwhile to compare the possibilities to numbers of the Candra Sangkala, if there is no direct number, remember that numbers can be related to letters.

A fairly frequent result is to find that you might have something that can be read as "dha" = 8. The number 8 can be representative of the naga, a serpent, an elephant, and an elephant can be understood as Ganesha; "dha" can also be understood as representative of the shortest mantra "aum" or "om"; for a Muslim, the letter "dha" can be understood not as "dha", but as the name "Allah".

Good luck.

[A. G. Maisey]

On the other hand, maybe it is not Honocoroko at all, maybe it is rather badly inscribed Roman letters.

I've just a had a bit of a play with this in Photoshop , I've finished up with a very tiny image that might not reproduce very well here, but it looks more like Roman letters than any Honocoroko that I can recognise.

[Paul B.]

Thanks Alan. Interesting explanation.
For the moment it looks like the Javanese letter Ka or Sa. In what way it is related to a number of the calender I am not sure. BTW. Before the script starts there is a O and a small space and then this script.
Whatever it all means, why would this have been done at all? To give it strenght, a blessing?
The mendak came with a Madura hilt. Doesn't mean it belongs to it anyway.

[A. G. Maisey]

Turn it upside down I can maybe get a cursive "dha" out of it, + something else.

The"o" ? No idea at all.

Normally these inscriptions are for protective purposes.

Its not a calendar number that we look for, its a Candra Sangkala number, each number of which represents some different things, which thing applies in a certain situation is something else again.

[Paul B.]

Tahnks again.The Hanacaraka Javanese script.
The circle is more like a zero perhaps.
I assume all is meant as protection.