Rajah Kalacakra Keris

[A. G. Maisey]

David, yeah, the word was presented as one word in the initial post, so its reasonable that this is the way anybody would start to look for it.

Malay (B.I) and Javanese are like other languages in that a word meaning very often depends on context.When I check my dictionaries I find this:-

In Javanese "kala" can mean:- time, season, last, past, a bird trapping noose on a long handle, a stinging animal. It also forms compounds with other words, as the first syllable, for example --- kalacakra : The Sun

In B.I."kala" can mean:- time, period, era, age, tense (gram.), scorpion, Scorpio, mare. Again, there are compounds.

In Balinese:- time, when, while, ogre, demon,Shiva. Again, there are compounds.

Cakra
In Javanese "Cakra" can mean:- a round frame, a mythical arrow, a diacritic mark indicating "R" in Javanese script. + compound words.

In B.I.:- Vishnu's mythical weapon

In Balinese:- wheel, circle, Shiva's weapon, the sign for conjunct "R" after a consonant, vulva,. + compound words

In Old Javanese cakra can mean :- wheel, discus, a type of duck

In Old Javanese kala can mean:- evil, contemptible, dishonest, fraudulent, deceitful, a type of trumpet, scorpion,. There are also compound words, and the same word stressed in different ways, in fact in Zoetmulder there are a couple of columns devoted to "kala" and its associated words.

All the stuff above was lifted from dictionaries, but only one for each language. I believe that if I referred to my other Javanese dictionaries I would find more meanings.