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Old 7th October 2013, 10:08 PM   #4
A. G. Maisey
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Join Date: May 2006
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I have not seen the "Pamor Atlas", I do not know who wrote it, I do not know what the sources for the information contained therein were.

I do know that I have never seen this pamor in an old blade (pre-WWII).

I saw this pamor for the first time maybe 15 or 20 years ago, in a blade from Madura. At that time I was told that it was a new pamor and that its name was "ron catur" :- ron = leaf (krama for godhong), catur = four (literary usage, Kawi).

In Javanese the word "semanggi" is the name of a herb that has three leaves, not four, and is used in food ; however in Indonesian the word "semanggi" translates as "clover".
It is also the name of a vegetable dish that uses a lot of spice.
It is also the name of a kampung in Solo.

I'm guessing here, but I feel that whoever coined the term "Semanggi" to describe this or another pamor, grabbed the nearest Indonesian dictionary to find a suitable term.
However, in Jawa, pamor names are correctly given in Javanese, not Indonesian.
A Malay name for a pamor can be acceptable when that pamor is a Malay pamor, and Indonesian is based on a form of Malay as it is spoken in Southern Sumatera.
But this pamor we're talking about comes from Madura, so it should have either a Madurese name, or a Javanese name, not an Indonesian or Malay name.

The variation between the name that may, or may not be able to be given to this pamor under discussion, according to the Pamor Atlas, and the name that I was given for it by an Empu of the Karaton Susuhunan in Surakarta, is just one of the reasons why I feel that when we seek names for things that we cannot understand we need to be very careful in respect of the name that we eventually accept as correct.

Technically this is a surface manipulated pamor that has been made in a similar way to udan mas. It is a reversal of the well-known Surakarta pamor "X", the pamor that in its current application recognises Pakubuwana X as an iconic figure, and in its original application was an early 20th century Karaton pamor.

EDIT

While I was writing the above the images of "pamor semanggi" were posted.

I personally regard the upper image as one of the variations of udan mas, and I cannot see the lower image clearly enough to guess at what it might be --- if I even have a name for it.

FURTHER EDIT

Lucky four leaf clovers in Jawa?

I really do think that this idea is stretching the Irish Connection just a wee bit too much.

Last edited by A. G. Maisey; 7th October 2013 at 10:14 PM. Reason: addition
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