Kawaca is a term for war attire mentioned in

Old Javanese Old Javanese or Kawi is an Austronesian languages, Austronesian language and the oldest attested phase of the Javanese language. It was natively spoken in the central and eastern part of Java Island, what is now Central Java, Special Region o ...

texts. Its name comes from the

Sanskrit Sanskrit (; stem form ; nominal singular , ,) is a classical language belonging to the Indo-Aryan languages, Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European languages. It arose in northwest South Asia after its predecessor languages had Trans-cultural ...

''kawaca'' which means armor,

cuirass A cuirass ( ; ; ) is a piece of armour that covers the torso, formed of one or more pieces of metal or other rigid material. The term probably originates from the original material, leather, from the Old French word and the Latin word . The us ...

, a type of

chain mail Mail (sometimes spelled maille and, since the 18th century, colloquially referred to as chain mail, chainmail or chain-mail) is a type of armour consisting of small metal rings linked together in a pattern to form a mesh. It was in common milita ...

, any kind of cover, corset, jacket.

Description

Petrus Josephus Zoetmulder Petrus Josephus Zoetmulder S.J. (January 29, 1906 – July 8, 1995) was an Indonesian expert in the Old Javanese language. He came from Utrecht and was associated with the Society of Jesus by 1925. He worked at Leiden University in the 1930s ...

, in his Old Javanese-English dictionary, defines kawaca as a chain mail, possibly shaped like a jacket, which is made of metal. The word also has a second meaning, namely the shirt worn by the clergy. Irawan Djoko Nugroho argues that in a military context, kawaca means armor. It is shaped like a long tube and is made of cast copper. According to Jiří Jákl, kawaca was a metal

breastplate A breastplate or chestplate is a device worn over the torso to protect it from injury, as an item of religious significance, or as an item of status. European In medieval weaponry, the breastplate is the front portion of plate armour covering th ...

worn on the upper body of a high-ranking soldier. In high Balinese language, ''kwaca'' or ''kuwaca'' is a general term for a jacket, although it used to mean armor in Old Javanese. In modern

Javanese language Javanese ( , , ; , Aksara Jawa, Javanese script: , Pegon script, Pegon: , IPA: ) is an Austronesian languages, Austronesian language spoken primarily by the Javanese people from the central and eastern parts of the island of Java, Indones ...

, kawaca means cuirass or chain mail. The ''

Kakawin Ramayana ''Kakawin Ramayana'' is an Old Javanese poem rendering of the Sanskrit Ramayana in ''kakawin'' meter. ''Kakawin Rāmâyaṇa'' is a ''kakawin'', the Javanese form of ''kāvya'', a poem modeled on traditional Sanskritam meters.It is believed to ...

'' (c. 870 AD), which is the Javanese version of Valmiki's epic

Ramayana The ''Ramayana'' (; ), also known as ''Valmiki Ramayana'', as traditionally attributed to Valmiki, is a smriti text (also described as a Sanskrit literature, Sanskrit Indian epic poetry, epic) from ancient India, one of the two important epics ...

(c. 500 CE), mentions clothing and armor that reflect the era. A member of the royal family is said to wear crown, ''padaka'' (collar, medallion, or breastplate), ''karambalangan'' (girdle or plastron) and use gold-plated armor even in battle. ''Kakawin Ramayana'' also mentions the term ''watek makawaca'', which means armored troops. A suit of armor, or specifically cuirass, is depicted on the reliefs of the Divyavadana story in the Borobudur temple. In that story, it is said that Rudrayana sent a gift to king Bimbisara in the form of his famous cuirass which not only had miraculous powers but was also adorned with priceless gems. The cuirass is depicted as sleeveless and apparently closed in front.

References

Indonesian inventions Asian armour Body armor Military equipment of antiquity Military equipment of Indonesia {{armor-stub

Description

See also

References