Ethnographic Arms & Armour - View Single Post

A. G. Maisey · 20th February 2022, 07:59 PM

I believe this will prove to be a letter or a number written in Honocoroko (Hanacaraka), ie, Aksoro Jowo Honocoroko, Javanese letters.

The way in which these letters & numbers are written can vary quite a bit from person to person, and also from time to time, depending upon the script used. Sanscrit is not a script, it is a language, I think it is usually written in Devanagari. In any case, Sanscrit is not used in Jawa --- this appears to be a Javanese mendak --- but it does form the foundation for Kawi, the Javanese literary language.

I suggest you do a google search and find some charts, there are plenty online, do the comparison both upright and upside down.

Maybe a project for next winter?

Once you have some possibilities it might be worthwhile to compare the possibilities to numbers of the Candra Sangkala, if there is no direct number, remember that numbers can be related to letters.

A fairly frequent result is to find that you might have something that can be read as "dha" = 8. The number 8 can be representative of the naga, a serpent, an elephant, and an elephant can be understood as Ganesha; "dha" can also be understood as representative of the shortest mantra "aum" or "om"; for a Muslim, the letter "dha" can be understood not as "dha", but as the name "Allah".

Good luck.

20th February 2022, 07:59 PM	#2
A. G. Maisey Member Join Date: May 2006 Posts: 6,701	I believe this will prove to be a letter or a number written in Honocoroko (Hanacaraka), ie, Aksoro Jowo Honocoroko, Javanese letters. The way in which these letters & numbers are written can vary quite a bit from person to person, and also from time to time, depending upon the script used. Sanscrit is not a script, it is a language, I think it is usually written in Devanagari. In any case, Sanscrit is not used in Jawa --- this appears to be a Javanese mendak --- but it does form the foundation for Kawi, the Javanese literary language. I suggest you do a google search and find some charts, there are plenty online, do the comparison both upright and upside down. Maybe a project for next winter? Once you have some possibilities it might be worthwhile to compare the possibilities to numbers of the Candra Sangkala, if there is no direct number, remember that numbers can be related to letters. A fairly frequent result is to find that you might have something that can be read as "dha" = 8. The number 8 can be representative of the naga, a serpent, an elephant, and an elephant can be understood as Ganesha; "dha" can also be understood as representative of the shortest mantra "aum" or "om"; for a Muslim, the letter "dha" can be understood not as "dha", but as the name "Allah". Good luck.