Aji Saka

For the Indonesian footballer, see Aji Saka (footballer).

Aji Saka is a Javanese legend that tells the story abouthow civilization came to Java, brought by legendary firstking of Java named Aji Saka, and the mythical story ofJavanese script origin.[1]

1 Origin

Aji Saka is said to come from Bhumi Majeti, a mythicallocation in Jambudvipa (India). His name comes from theJavanese word saka or sokomeaning essential, important,or in this case primordial. Thus the name Aji Saka liter-ally means “primordial king”. A more modern interpre-tation derives his name from the Saka or Indo-Scythians.In either case, the legend is viewed as symbolising the ad-vent of Dharmic Hindu-Buddhist civilization in Java. Thelegend also holds that Aji Saka was the inventor of theSaka year, or at least the first king that initiated the adop-tion of this Hindu calendar system in Java. The kingdomof Medang Kamulan was probably linked to the histori-cal Medang Kingdom. The story of Aji Saka defeating aman-eating king has also been interpreted as the downfallof an unpopular local ruler, the rise from cannibalism tocivilisation, and perhaps also resistance to Indian faithsby the ruling class.

2 Summary

2.1 The pacifization of Java

Soon after the gods created and nailed the island of Java toits place, the island become habitable. However the firstrace that rule the island was the race of denawa (giantdemon) that repressed all creatures and ate humans. Thefirst kingdom in Java was Medang Kamulan, and the kingwas the Giant King Dewata Cengkar, the cruel King ofthe country who had a habit to eat human flesh of his ownpeople.One day came a young wise man, by the name of AjiSaka to fight Dewata Cengkar. Aji Saka himself camefrom Bumi Majeti. One day he told his two servants, bythe name of Dora and Sembodo, that he was going toJava. He told them that while he was away, both of themhave to guard his Pusaka (heirloom). No one except AjiSaka himself allowed to take the Pusaka. After arriving

in Java, Aji Sakamoved inland to the kingdom ofMedangKamulan. In the big battle, Aji Saka could successfullypush Dewata Cengkar to fall to the Javan Southern Sea(Indian Ocean). Dewata Cengkar did not die, he becamea Bajul Putih (White Crocodile). Aji Saka became a rulerof Medang Kamulan.

2.2 The tale of a giant snake

Meanwhile, a woman from the village of Dadapan, foundan egg. She put the egg in her lumbung (rice barn). Aftera certain period the egg vanished, instead a snake foundin the rice barn. The villagers would like to kill the snake,but the snake said : “I'm the son of Aji Saka, bring meto him”. Aji Saka told the snake, that he would be rec-ognized as his son, if he could kill the Bajul Putih in theSouth Sea. After a long stormy battle which both sidesdemonstrating physical strength and showing skillful abil-ity of fighting, the snake could kill Bajul Putih.As had been promised the snake was recognized as AjiSaka’s son and he was given a name Jaka Linglung (astupid boy). In the palace Jaka Linglung greedily ate do-mestic pets of the palace. He was punished by the King,expelling him to live in the Jungle of Pesanga. He wastightly roped until he could not move his head. He wasinstructed only to eat things which fall to his mouth.One day, a group of nine village boys were playing aroundin that Jungle. Suddenly it was raining heavily. They hadto find a shelter, luckily there was a cave. Only eight boyswent inside the cave, the other onewhowas suffering froma very bad skin disease, his skin was stining and he wasdirty, he had to stay out of the cave. All of a sudden, thecave fell apart, The eight boys vanished, only the one whostayed outside was safe. The cave in fact was the mouthof Jaka Linglung.

2.3 The origin of Javanese script

Meanwhile, after becoming ruler of the Medang Kamu-lan kingdom, Aji Saka sent a messenger back home toinform his faithful servants Dora and Sembodo, to bringthe pusoko (heirloom) to Java and send them to Aji Saka.Then Dora came to Sembodo and told Aji Saka’s order.Sembodo refused since he clearly remembered Aji Sakaprevious order: no one except Aji Saka himself was al-lowed to take the pusoko. Dora and Sembodo each feltsuspicious towards another, and suspecting each othertried to steal the pusoko. So they fight each other to death.

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2 4 REFERENCES

Aji Saka that was curious of why it is taken so long for thetwo to came to Java, finally came home himself only todiscover the body of his two faithful servants and the ter-rible misunderstanding among them. To remember thefaithful acts of his two servants, Aji Saka composed apoem that later become the origin of hanacaraka Javanesescript. The Javanese alphabet itself forms a poem, and aperfect pangram, of which the line-by-line translation isas follows.:[2]

Hana caraka There (were) two messengersdata sawala (They) had animosity (among each other)padha jayanya (They were) equally powerful (in fight)maga bathanga Here are the corpses.in detail:hana / ana = there were/wascaraka = messenger (actually, 'one who is loyal to andtrusted by someone')data = have/hassawala = difference (regarding a matter)padha = same, equaljayanya = 'their power', 'jaya' could mean 'glory' as wellmaga = 'here'bathanga = corpses

• Hana caraka (There were two messengers)

• Data sawala (They had animosity)

• Padha jayanya (They were equally powerful in fight)

• Maga bathanga (Here are the corpses)

3 See also• Tantu Pagelaran

• Wawacan Sulanjana

4 References[1] “Javanese Characters and Aji Saka”. Joglosemar. Re-

trieved 29 March 2012.

[2] Soemarmo, Marmo. “Javanese Script.” Ohio WorkingPapers in Linguistics and Language Teaching 14.Winter(1995): 69-103.

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5 Text and image sources, contributors, and licenses

5.1 Text• Aji Saka Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aji_Saka?oldid=687715631 Contributors: Davidcannon, Chris the speller, Rigadoun,Gunkarta, Morinae, Addbot, Tassedethe, Drpickem, Yobot, RudolfRed, Khazar2 and Anonymous: 3

5.2 Images

5.3 Content license• Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0