[A. G. Maisey]

Pak Ganja, I thank you profusely for your further explanation.

Yes, I know that cacah is modern Javanese, I also know that it means a number or an amount.It has the alternate meaning of a census, and it can be combined with a number of other words in more or less standard usage, such as "cacah eri", "cacah sirah", and so on.Used as "cacah wuwung" it is the counting unit for households.

I do understand very clearly that it is not anything at all to do with a measurement of width, length, or breadth, or area and I offer my most humble apologies for the inadequacy of my writing in my previous post which has caused you such confusion.

That post read, in part:-

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.

The number of households was not only used as a measure of potential income, but was also used in calculation of available men,in the raising of levies.

This focus on households to measure value of an area, rather than on measured physical size is culturally and historically understandable when we consider the situation in old Jawa, where it would seem that the ruler or lord relied for his power on the number of households over which he held control, rather than the area of land. His power base was people, rather than area, and this power base was maintained by the giving of gifts, political manipulation, and coercion, rather than by force.(Pigeaud)

Thus, when gifts of land were made, it was most often not the land that was given, but rather, the right to income from the people who lived on that land. Where actual land was given, it was usually an undeveloped area of forest. It does not seem logical that undeveloped land would be given to a man of very advanced years.

Pak Ganja, I thank you most sincerely for the additional information in respect of these old Javanese standards of measurement. I assure you, I have never encountered the word "garumbul". Most enlightening.I find it fascinating that the standards of land measurement seemed to constantly change, however, when we consider the root of "bau" it becomes understandable, because with "bau" we are talking about a unit of manpower, thus, the ruler was adjusting the area of land in accordance with the nature of the land and thus the capacity of a single man to work a defined area. If these old records were subjected to careful analysis it could well be that under a single ruler , we may find that the physical area of a bau varied from region to region.Again, a culturally logical way in which to measure:- since power and authority was based on people, why not use people as the foundation for measurement of area? Perhaps a slightly different way of thinking to what we are now accustomed to, but a perfectly logical one.Most especially if one wishes to maximise the return from any area of land.