M a j a p a h i t R e v i s i t e d

A. G. Maisey · 29th June 2007, 11:07 PM

Pak Ganja, I think we may be a little confused here.

The booklet :- "Pakem Doewoeng Angka I, Wesi Adji", and was printed by Stroomdrukkerij "De Bliksem".It is not in Javanese script, but is in romanised script.It is not a history of keris, nor a history of the writings on keris, it is a guidebook (pakem) on the various types of iron.It is exactly the booklet which forms the first part of your three books bound as one, at least, this is so, judging from the first page which you were kind enough to publish for us.

The manuscript noted as the property of PB IX is in Javanese script, and that is also not a historiography of keris, but is in very much the form that your romanised version takes-----"King So&So of Far Far Away also had keris made, not only copies of previous dapurs, but also the new dapurs such&such, and such&such, which were made by Empu Whatshisname in the Saka year whatever".Then, under this script are drawings of the dapurs. It then has a part which lists the ricikan for each dapur, after this is mention of the bringing of the Prambanan meteorite to Surakarta,then it gives the philosophical meanings of the various ricikan and prabot.

I apologise for being less than clear in my previous post.

Yes, the stories attached to the old empus can be very interesting reading, but we should remember that they form a part of folk myth, and cannot be taken as history. Just as the content of the babads may have had a factual foundation, but this content was distorted for political and other reasons, so the folk myths also most likely had a factual foundation, but were distorted by popular belief, confusion, and the universal desire to believe in the interesting and incredible.A little bit like Arthur and the sword in the stone.

However, be that as it may, nobody can argue that the name of Kinom is not the most famous of all the empus. I think if he had personally made, or even been involved in the making of all the keris that I have seen that were attributed to him, he would have had to live to the age of 501, not merely 105.

Pak Ganja,regarding the "200 karya", I suspect that the source you are drawing on may have translated this incorrectly. At that time in Jawa--- and in fact, up until quite recently--- awards of land were given as a number of households (cacah), so Pangeran Sendang was given an area of land that contained 200 cacah, or workers, counting only the head of the house.The original text may possibly have been rendered as "cacah molo" (house count), or "cacah wuwung" (roof count). The purpose of giving the land was to provide the recipient with a living, so the actual gift was not so much the land, but rather the productivity of the land, which was gauged by the number of households it could support.

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29th June 2007, 11:07 PM	#18
A. G. Maisey Member Join Date: May 2006 Posts: 7,013	Pak Ganja, I think we may be a little confused here. The booklet :- "Pakem Doewoeng Angka I, Wesi Adji", and was printed by Stroomdrukkerij "De Bliksem".It is not in Javanese script, but is in romanised script.It is not a history of keris, nor a history of the writings on keris, it is a guidebook (pakem) on the various types of iron.It is exactly the booklet which forms the first part of your three books bound as one, at least, this is so, judging from the first page which you were kind enough to publish for us. The manuscript noted as the property of PB IX is in Javanese script, and that is also not a historiography of keris, but is in very much the form that your romanised version takes-----"King So&So of Far Far Away also had keris made, not only copies of previous dapurs, but also the new dapurs such&such, and such&such, which were made by Empu Whatshisname in the Saka year whatever".Then, under this script are drawings of the dapurs. It then has a part which lists the ricikan for each dapur, after this is mention of the bringing of the Prambanan meteorite to Surakarta,then it gives the philosophical meanings of the various ricikan and prabot. I apologise for being less than clear in my previous post. Yes, the stories attached to the old empus can be very interesting reading, but we should remember that they form a part of folk myth, and cannot be taken as history. Just as the content of the babads may have had a factual foundation, but this content was distorted for political and other reasons, so the folk myths also most likely had a factual foundation, but were distorted by popular belief, confusion, and the universal desire to believe in the interesting and incredible.A little bit like Arthur and the sword in the stone. However, be that as it may, nobody can argue that the name of Kinom is not the most famous of all the empus. I think if he had personally made, or even been involved in the making of all the keris that I have seen that were attributed to him, he would have had to live to the age of 501, not merely 105. Pak Ganja,regarding the "200 karya", I suspect that the source you are drawing on may have translated this incorrectly. At that time in Jawa--- and in fact, up until quite recently--- awards of land were given as a number of households (cacah), so Pangeran Sendang was given an area of land that contained 200 cacah, or workers, counting only the head of the house.The original text may possibly have been rendered as "cacah molo" (house count), or "cacah wuwung" (roof count). The purpose of giving the land was to provide the recipient with a living, so the actual gift was not so much the land, but rather the productivity of the land, which was gauged by the number of households it could support.