Is it a Tajong?

[Amuk Murugul]

Originally Posted by A. G. Maisey

Can anybody say what the word "tajong" means, and what language it is from?

Hullo Alan,

My guess is that the word has Sanskrit roots.
Given the interchangeablity of 'o' with 'oe' and 'g' with 'k' within the archipelago, it comes from the word 'tajoeg/tajog', meaning flower of gold adorning the head.
I don't know anything about the Djawa Koena language, but it should have similarities with Soenda Koena.
So, in Djawa Koena, one may find the words (Latinised, of course) "akaris
alandejan gading inoekir tajoeng(or tajong)", referring to the carved ivory keris hilt.

Best,

[A. G. Maisey]

Good guess Amuk.

It did not occur to me that we might have been looking at Old Javanese transplanted to another place.

Old Javanese has associations with Sanscrit, through Kawi, the literary and religious language of old Jawa.

In Old Javanese we have "tajun" with the "n" as a velar, which gives it an "ng" sound, so you could read tajun as tajung.

Tajun has a keris association :- "akris alandeyan gadin inukir tajun" (lit:- wearing a keris, with a hilt of elephant ivory carved as a tajung) (?Sudamala),and Zoetmulder speculates on an association between tajun and tajug:- a golden flower ornament for the head.

So, it looks as if maybe originally a keris tajung was a keris with a hilt ornamented in similar fashion to that of the tajug, a golden flower head adornment.

If this is so, then it has now become simply a name of this particular type of keris, which means that we cannot use an alternate meaning of the word to give any guidance to what a keris tajong is and is not. However, perhaps originally it referred only to a keris with a particular form of handle.

PS---I just noticed we used the same Old Javanese quote, but you have used pre-1972 spelling; I lifted mine from Zoetmulder.