Aji Saka is a Javanese legend that tells the story of how

civilization A civilization (or civilisation) is any complex society characterized by the development of a state, social stratification, urbanization, and symbolic systems of communication beyond natural spoken language (namely, a writing system). ...

came to

Java Java (; id, Jawa, ; jv, ꦗꦮ; su, ) is one of the Greater Sunda Islands in Indonesia. It is bordered by the Indian Ocean to the south and the Java Sea to the north. With a population of 151.6 million people, Java is the world's mos ...

, brought by the legendary first king of Java named Aji Saka, and the mythical story of the origin of Javanese script.

Origin

Aji Saka is said to have come from Bhumi Majeti, a mythical location in Jambudvipa (

ancient India According to consensus in modern genetics, anatomically modern humans first arrived on the Indian subcontinent from Africa between 73,000 and 55,000 years ago. Quote: "Y-Chromosome and Mt-DNA data support the colonization of South Asia by m ...

). His name comes from the Javanese word ''saka'' or ''soko'' meaning essential, important, or in this case primordial. Thus the name Aji Saka literally means "primordial king." A more modern interpretation derives his name from the

Saka The Saka ( Old Persian: ; Kharoṣṭhī: ; Ancient Egyptian: , ; , old , mod. , ), Shaka (Sanskrit ( Brāhmī): , , ; Sanskrit (Devanāgarī): , ), or Sacae (Ancient Greek: ; Latin: ) were a group of nomadic Iranian peoples who hist ...

Indo-Scythian Indo-Scythians (also called Indo-Sakas) were a group of nomadic Iranian peoples of Scythian origin who migrated from Central Asia southward into modern day Pakistan and Northwestern India from the middle of the 2nd century BCE to the 4th centur ...

Western Satraps The Western Satraps, or Western Kshatrapas (Brahmi:, ''Mahakṣatrapa'', "Great Satraps") were Indo-Scythian (Saka) rulers of the western and central part of India ( Saurashtra and Malwa: modern Gujarat, Maharashtra, Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh ...

Gujarat Gujarat (, ) is a state along the western coast of India. Its coastline of about is the longest in the country, most of which lies on the Kathiawar peninsula. Gujarat is the fifth-largest Indian state by area, covering some ; and the ninth ...

.Foreign Influence on Ancient India, Krishna Chandra Sagar, Northern Book Centre, 199
p.131
/ref> In either case, the legend is viewed as symbolizing the advent of

Dharmic Dharma (; sa, धर्म, dharma, ; pi, dhamma, italic=yes) is a key concept with multiple meanings in Indian religions, such as Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism, Sikhism and others. Although there is no direct single-word translation for '' ...

Hindu Hindus (; ) are people who religiously adhere to Hinduism. Jeffery D. Long (2007), A Vision for Hinduism, IB Tauris, , pages 35–37 Historically, the term has also been used as a geographical, cultural, and later religious identifier for ...

Buddhist Buddhism ( , ), also known as Buddha Dharma and Dharmavinaya (), is an Indian religion or philosophical tradition based on teachings attributed to the Buddha. It originated in northern India as a -movement in the 5th century BCE, and ...

civilization in Java. The legend also holds that Aji Saka was the inventor of the Saka year, or at least the first king that initiated the adoption of this Hindu calendar system in Java. The kingdom of Medang Kamulan was probably linked to the historical

Medang Kingdom The Mataram Kingdom (, jv, ꦩꦠꦫꦩ꧀, ) was a Javanese Hindu–Buddhist kingdom that flourished between the 8th and 11th centuries. It was based in Central Java, and later in East Java. Established by King Sanjaya, the kingdom was rul ...

. The story of Aji Saka defeating a man-eating king has also been interpreted as the downfall of an unpopular local ruler, the rise from cannibalism to civilization.

Summary

The pacification of Java

Soon after the gods created and nailed the island of Java to its place, the island became habitable. However, the first race that ruled the island was the race of ''denawa'' (giant demons) that repressed all creatures and ate humans. The first kingdom in Java was Medang Kamulan, and the king was the Giant King Dewata Cengkar, the cruel King of the country who had a habit of eating the human flesh of his own people. One day came a young wise man, by the name of Aji Saka, to fight Dewata Cengkar. Aji Saka himself came from Bumi Majeti. One day he told his two servants, by the name of Dora and Sembodo, that he was going to Java. He told them that while he was away, both of them had to guard his

Pusaka Pusaka is a Sanskrit word meaning treasure or heirloom. Within Javanese Kejawen culture and other Austronesian cultures affected by it, known as the Malays, but most specifically the inhabitants of modern-day Indonesia and Malaysia ( Minangs) ...

(heirloom). No one except Aji Saka himself was allowed to take the Pusaka. After arriving in Java, Aji Saka moved inland to the kingdom of Medang Kamulan. In the big battle, Aji Saka was able to push Dewata Cengkar to fall into the Javan Southern Sea (

Indian Ocean The Indian Ocean is the third-largest of the world's five oceanic divisions, covering or ~19.8% of the water on Earth's surface. It is bounded by Asia to the north, Africa to the west and Australia to the east. To the south it is bounded by t ...

). Dewata Cengkar did not die; he became a Bajul Putih (White Crocodile). Aji Saka became a ruler of Medang Kamulan.

The tale of a giant snake

Meanwhile, a woman from the village of Dadapan found an egg. She put the egg in her ''lumbung'' ( rice barn). After a certain period the egg vanished, and instead a snake was found in the rice barn. The villagers wanted to kill the snake, but the snake said: "I'm the son of Aji Saka, bring me to him." Aji Saka told the snake that he would be recognized as his son if he could kill the Bajul Putih in the South Sea. After a long stormy battle in which both sides demonstrated physical strength and showed skillful fighting ability, the snake was able to kill Bajul Putih. As had been promised, the snake was recognized as Aji Saka's son and he was given a name, Jaka Linglung (a stupid boy). In the palace Jaka Linglung greedily ate domestic pets of the palace. He was punished by the King, expelling him to live in the Jungle of Pesanga. He was tightly roped until he could not move his head. He was instructed only to eat things which fell to his mouth. One day, a group of nine village boys were playing around in that Jungle. Suddenly it was raining heavily. They had to find a shelter; luckily there was a cave. Only eight boys went inside the cave; the other one was suffering from a very bad skin disease, his skin was stinging and he was dirty, and he had to stay out of the cave. All of a sudden, the cave fell apart. The eight boys vanished, only the one who stayed outside was safe. The cave in fact was the mouth of Jaka Linglung.

The origin of Javanese script

Meanwhile, after becoming ruler of the Medang Kamulan kingdom, Aji Saka sent a messenger back home to inform his faithful servants Dora and Sembodo, to bring the 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 Saka's previous order: no one except Aji Saka himself was allowed to take the pusoko. Dora and Sembodo each felt suspicious towards another, and suspecting each other tried to steal the pusoko. So they fought each other to death. Aji Saka was curious about why it was taking so long for the two to come to Java; he finally came home himself, only to discover the body of his two faithful servants and the terrible misunderstanding between them. To remember the faithful acts of his two servants, Aji Saka composed a poem that later become the origin of hanacaraka Javanese script. The Javanese alphabet itself forms a poem, and a perfect

pangram A pangram or holoalphabetic sentence is a sentence using every letter of a given alphabet at least once. Pangrams have been used to display typefaces, test equipment, and develop skills in handwriting, calligraphy, and keyboarding. Origins The ...

, of which the line-by-line translation is as follows.:Soemarmo, Marmo. "Javanese Script." Ohio Working Papers in Linguistics and Language Teaching 14.Winter (1995): 69-103. ''Hana caraka'' There (were) two messengers
''data 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/was
''caraka'' = messenger (actually, 'one who is loyal to and trusted by someone')
''data'' = have/has
''sawala'' = difference (regarding a matter)
''padha'' = same, equal
''jayanya'' = 'their power', 'jaya' could mean 'glory' as well
''maga'' = 'here'
''bathanga'' = corpses File:Hanacaraka legend 1.png, ''Hana caraka'' (There were two messengers) File:Hanacaraka legend 2.png, ''Data sawala'' (They had animosity) File:Hanacaraka legend 3.png, ''Padha jayanya'' (They were equally powerful in fight) File:Hanacaraka legend 4.png, ''Maga bathanga'' (Here are the corpses)

Analysis

Although Aji Saka is said to be the bearer of civilization on Java, the story of Aji Saka (78 AD) received several objections and rebuttal from other historical sources. Valmiki's

Ramayana The ''Rāmāyana'' (; sa, रामायणम्, ) is a Sanskrit literature, Sanskrit Indian epic poetry, epic composed over a period of nearly a millennium, with scholars' estimates for the earliest stage of the text ranging from the 8th ...

, made around 500 BC, records that Java already had a governmental organization long before the story:

"Yawadwipa is decorated with seven kingdoms, gold and silver islands, rich in gold mines, and there is Cicira (cold) Mountain that touches the sky with its peak."

According to Chinese records, the Javanese kingdom was founded in 65 BC, or 143 years before the story of Aji Saka began.W.P Groeneveldt (1880). ''Notes on the Malay Archipelago and Malacca Compiled from Chinese Sources''. Batavia. The story of Saka or Aji Saka is a Neo Javanese story. This story has not yet been found to be relevant in the Old Javanese text. This story tells of events in the Medang Kamulan kingdom in Java in the past. At that time, the king of Medang Kamulan Prabu Dewata Cengkar was replaced by Aji Saka. This story is considered as an allegory of the entry of Indians into Java. Referring to the

Liang dynasty The Liang dynasty (), alternatively known as the Southern Liang () in historiography, was an imperial dynasty of China and the third of the four Southern dynasties during the Northern and Southern dynasties period. It was preceded by the South ...

information, the Javanese kingdom was divided into two: the pre-Hinduism kingdom and the post-Hindu kingdom, which began in 78 AD.

References

{{Reflist Javanese folklore

mythology Myth is a folklore genre consisting of narratives that play a fundamental role in a society, such as foundational tales or origin myths. Since "myth" is widely used to imply that a story is not objectively true, the identification of a narra ...