Jiří Jákl
Biographic Data
| ID | 170062 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Jiří Jákl |
| GIVEN NAMES | Jiří |
| FAMILY NAME | Jákl |
| SIGNATURE | JÁKL J |
| AFFILIATIONS | Palacký University Olomouc |
| VERIFIED | No |
| TOTAL WORKS | 24 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 6 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 24 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2015 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 1 |
Healing in Premodern Java and Bali: Between Local and Translocal
This article presents and discusses key evidence on medicine, healing and herbal remedies in premodern Indonesia. It focuses on literature in Sanskrit and Old Javanese from the 8th to the 15th century, as well as epigraphic documents from the same period. While many of the concepts encountered testifies to the transregional "Indospheric" and Sanskritic culture that characterises Southeast Asia in this period, one detects strong elements of locali…
Javanese furniture before 1500 CE: A preliminary survey of its types and styles
This study focuses on furniture in Java before 1500 CE, a period of “classical” Hindu-Buddhist culture, before Islamic influences started to have a prominent impact upon the society, religion, and culture of the island. Even though very little in terms of actual wooden and bamboo furniture has survived, visual, textual, and linguistic sources can partially fill the evidential gap. The study intends to provide the first, and rather preliminary, su…
Archery and target-shooting in pre-Islamic Java; What can be known
In Java today, archery survives as a traditional discipline called jemparingan. Javanese archery involves targeting a pendulum-like target from a shooting distance of 35 to 50 metres. The archers take aim from a cross-legged seated posture (bersila) and typically wear traditional Javanese attire during competitions. Though archery has been practiced in Java for long time, there has been surprisingly little effort to study its rich history. This s…
Fearsome Game, Popular Meat, Symbolic Wealth: Human-Pig Relations in Pre-Islamic Java
The Indonesian island of Java has been at the center of the world’s oldest interactions between humans and pigs. This article scrutinizes the complexities of human-pig relations through premodern texts. Philology remains uncommon in studying the past of nonhuman animals, yet its insights are highly relevant. Old Javanese poems and inscriptions differentiate two species: the Javan warty pig and the Eurasian wild pig. Both influenced human societie…
Ruminant Relations: Old Javanese Vignettes on Cattle Management and Milk Products
Java offers exciting opportunities to trace human-cattle relations in a Southeast Asian context. By foregrounding inscriptions, court poems (kakavin), and other textual and iconographic sources, we aim to unearth some historical and cultural aspects of pre-Islamic cattle management and milk consumption, paying special attention to the words used for different breeds, dairy products, and other bovine terminology. Contacts with the Indian subcontin…
Beds and Bed Pavilions in Java before 1500 CE
This article focuses on furniture, and more specifically beds and bed pavilions in pre-Islamic Java, hence before 1500 CE . In this way, it intends to contribute to the knowledge of an aspect of Javanese material culture that is still in need of comprehensive studies. Old Javanese and Malay texts read against the iconographic evidence on temple stone reliefs and metalware identify four types of “sleeping apparatus” in pre-Islamic Java: a mat unro…
Fletcher, Margaret: Transcending the Syllables. The Añaṅg Nirartha. (Ed. by Peter Worsley.)
Patterned Splendour: Textiles Presented on Javanese Metal and Stone Sculptures, Eighth to the Fifteenth Century , by Lesley S. Pullen
Honey-bees, court ladies, and beekeeping in Java before 1500 CE
People have been interacting with bees in the Indo-Malay world for thousands of years. Though the practice of robbing bees of honey and wax is relatively well-documented, we know very little about the early history of beekeeping in Southeast Asia. In this study I will use Old Javanese evidence to demonstrate that providing honey bees with artificial cavities was a practice known in Java at least by the twelfth century CE, several centuries earlie…
The Kalaṅkyaṅ in Old Javanese Literature: From Bird of Prey to Mirror Image of the Poet
The article discusses an enigmatic Old Javanese bird named kalaṅkyaṅ. The avian species known by this name is identified as the white-bellied sea eagle, a bird common in the past in the coastal parts of Java. In the second section it is argued that the kalaṅkyaṅ bird is represented in Old Javanese poetry as the mirror image of the Javanese kawi (poet
Alcohol in Early Java: Its Social and Cultural Significance
In Alcohol in Early Java: Its Social and Cultural Significance, Jiří Jákl offers an account of the production, trade, and consumption of alcohol in Java before 1500 CE, and discusses a whole array of meanings the Javanese have ascribed to its use. Though alcohol is extremely controversial in contemporary Islamic Java, it had multiple, often surprising, uses in the pre-Islamic society.
The Sea and Seacoast in Old Javanese Court Poetry: Fishermen, Ports, Ships, and Shipwrecks in the Literary Imagination
This article analyses some of the less well-known passages in Old Javanese kakawin court poems, in which the sea and seacoast are represented. Unlike classical Malay literature, Old Javanese texts show little interest in the socio-cultural environment of the seacoast, and even less information is provided about the maritime environment of the open seas that enclose the island of Java. Yet, the seascape as a natural environment of substantial aest…
Writing for Eternity: A Survey of Epigraphy in Southeast Asia, by Daniel Perret (ed.)
This collection of eighteen essays is a welcome addition to the field of Southeast Asian epigraphy, which has experienced a revival in the last two decades after a long period of relative dormancy.In the preface, the editor envisages "non-specialists, especially students" (p.7) as its major readership; yet I am sure that scholars-including epigraphists-will find this book useful and will consult it regularly.This book covers both the mainland and…
The figure of "pañji" in Old Javanese sources; What is in a name
Literary and epigraphic references to the figure of pañji in Old Javanese texts are analysed, and contextualised with much better known references to the figure of Pañji in Middle Javanese texts. A hypothesis is offered that Old Javanese term pañji is best rendered as ‘court-name’. It is argued that young boys from elite families obtained their familiar court-name (pañji) at the very onset of their career at the court, where they served as pages …
The Rise of the Chef in Java
This study traces the professionalization of cooking in Southeast Asia, specifically in precolonial Java. We call attention to three different types of cooks documented in the island’s textual record: household cooks (including commercial cooks), cooks in religious establishments, and professional cooks. Women were in charge of the first category, whereas the second and third were controlled by men yet also featured women. Household cooks and rel…
Pangolin, Rāma, and the garden in Laṅkā in the 9th century CE: A few notes on a symbolically powerful “anteater”
In ancient Java, pangolin was a symbolically loaded animal. Its representations in Old Javanese literature and visual art are, however, rare. The pangolin is mentioned four times in the Kakawin Rāmāyaṇa, composed between the middle of the 9th and the first quarter of the 10th century CE. A pangolin is also represented in a narrative relief of Caṇḍi Śiva, in Prambanan, and a very large skeleton of pangolin was found interred under the Caṇḍi Nandi …
Buddhist Law in Burma: A History of Dhammasattha Texts and Jurisprudence, 1250–1850, by Lammerts, D. Christian
The Figure of the Taṇḍa in Old Javanese Literary and Epigraphical Records
This article offers a detailed analysis of the category of men known as taṇḍa. Widely attested in literary records and known from Old Javanese inscriptions, the function and social status of taṇḍa has been a controversial issue. Two views pertaining to the identity of these men have been advanced so far. According to most scholars, taṇḍa were high-status officials, often interpreted as military 'officers'. According to an alternative view, they w…
Black Africans on the maritime silk route: Jəŋgi in Old Javanese epigraphical and literary evidence
This article takes a closer look at the history of black Africans in pre-Islamic Java. Though the presence of African slaves in Java before 1500 has for long been acknowledged by historians, hardly any research has been conducted on the subject. I use the epigraphical and literary evidence in Old Javanese as the major source, and contextualise it with much more comprehensive evidence on black Africans in Tang and Song China. Though it will not be…
Liquor in Glass Vessels: A Note on Glassware in pre-Islamic Java and on its Socio-Religious Symbolism
Textual evidence on glassware in Old Javanese kakavin poetry is discussed. Export of Middle Eastern and Chinese glass vessels to ancient Southeast Asia is documented in the archaeological and historical record, though – compared to the Malay Peninsula and Sumatra – reported finds of glass vessels and their fragments in Java are very limited. Old Javanese kakavins suggest that imported glass vessels, denoted by the term gәḍah, were associated in c…
The sling and the blowgun as combat weapons in pre-Islamic Java; Notes on Old Javanese terms gaṇḍi and tulup
Two Old Javanese terms, gaņḍi and tulup , are discussed in detail. While the term tulup appears to be unproblematic, gaņḍi has previously been identified with a score of weapons, including bow, club, war hammer, and sling. I argue that the original meaning of this enigmatic term is ‘projectile, pellet’, while its second, derived meaning refers in most cases to ‘sling’, and, occasionally, to ‘blowgun’. Both weapons are represented in the Old Javan…
The Iiterary motif of head-taking in Old Javanese court poems ( kakavin ): Cěṅěl and varagaṅ terms revisited
The contribution analyses the literary motif of acquiring trophy heads in the context of warfare practices depicted in kakavin, court poems composed in a literary register of Old Javanese. In the first part, two terms of unclear meaning, cәṅәl and varagaṅ, are discussed in detail. It is argued that Old Javanese cәṅәl denotes ‘trophy head’, a severed head rendered as a token of martial prowess. Evidence of the Navanatya, an Old Javanese account of…
The Loincloth, Trousers, and Horse-riders in Pre-Islamic Java: Notes on the Old Javanese Term Lañciṅan
The Old Javanese term lañcingan is analysed in detail. Considered by previous scholars to designate “trousers,” it is demonstrated that Old Javanese literary and epigraphical record does not preclude the possibility that in pre-Islamic Java lañcingan denoted an elaborate variety of loincloth, especially the loincloth used in the context of warfare. It is shown that only in the 14th century CE Javanese texts make a distinction between the loinclot…
Bhoma's Kitchen: Food Culture and Food Symbolism in Pre-Islamic Java
This article discusses the food symbolism in martial scenes of kakavin, narrative poems composed in Old Javanese between the ninth and fifteenth centuries CE. Starting from the hypothesis that Javanese conceived of a battle and a preparation of food with a common set of ideas and concepts, a striking food metaphor, found in the Bhāratayuddha, has been analyzed. The slaying of Kama, an epic hero who sided with the Pāndavas, is likened to the proce…
Bhoma's Kitchen: Food Culture and Food Symbolism in Pre-Islamic Java
This article discusses the food symbolism in martial scenes of kakavin, narrative poems composed in Old Javanese between the ninth and fifteenth centuries CE. Starting from the hypothesis that Javanese conceived of a battle and a preparation of food with a common set of ideas and concepts, a striking food metaphor, found in the Bhāratayuddha, has been analyzed. The slaying of Kama, an epic hero who sided with the Pāndavas, is likened to the proce…
The Kalaṅkyaṅ in Old Javanese Literature: From Bird of Prey to Mirror Image of the Poet
The article discusses an enigmatic Old Javanese bird named kalaṅkyaṅ. The avian species known by this name is identified as the white-bellied sea eagle, a bird common in the past in the coastal parts of Java. In the second section it is argued that the kalaṅkyaṅ bird is represented in Old Javanese poetry as the mirror image of the Javanese kawi (poet
The Rise of the Chef in Java
This study traces the professionalization of cooking in Southeast Asia, specifically in precolonial Java. We call attention to three different types of cooks documented in the island’s textual record: household cooks (including commercial cooks), cooks in religious establishments, and professional cooks. Women were in charge of the first category, whereas the second and third were controlled by men yet also featured women. Household cooks and rel…
The Figure of the Taṇḍa in Old Javanese Literary and Epigraphical Records
This article offers a detailed analysis of the category of men known as taṇḍa. Widely attested in literary records and known from Old Javanese inscriptions, the function and social status of taṇḍa has been a controversial issue. Two views pertaining to the identity of these men have been advanced so far. According to most scholars, taṇḍa were high-status officials, often interpreted as military 'officers'. According to an alternative view, they w…
The Loincloth, Trousers, and Horse-riders in Pre-Islamic Java: Notes on the Old Javanese Term Lañciṅan
The Old Javanese term lañcingan is analysed in detail. Considered by previous scholars to designate “trousers,” it is demonstrated that Old Javanese literary and epigraphical record does not preclude the possibility that in pre-Islamic Java lañcingan denoted an elaborate variety of loincloth, especially the loincloth used in the context of warfare. It is shown that only in the 14th century CE Javanese texts make a distinction between the loinclot…
Bhoma's Kitchen: Food Culture and Food Symbolism in Pre-Islamic Java
This article discusses the food symbolism in martial scenes of kakavin, narrative poems composed in Old Javanese between the ninth and fifteenth centuries CE. Starting from the hypothesis that Javanese conceived of a battle and a preparation of food with a common set of ideas and concepts, a striking food metaphor, found in the Bhāratayuddha, has been analyzed. The slaying of Kama, an epic hero who sided with the Pāndavas, is likened to the proce…
The Iiterary motif of head-taking in Old Javanese court poems ( kakavin ): Cěṅěl and varagaṅ terms revisited
The contribution analyses the literary motif of acquiring trophy heads in the context of warfare practices depicted in kakavin, court poems composed in a literary register of Old Javanese. In the first part, two terms of unclear meaning, cәṅәl and varagaṅ, are discussed in detail. It is argued that Old Javanese cәṅәl denotes ‘trophy head’, a severed head rendered as a token of martial prowess. Evidence of the Navanatya, an Old Javanese account of…
The Loincloth, Trousers, and Horse-riders in Pre-Islamic Java: Notes on the Old Javanese Term Lañciṅan
The Old Javanese term lañcingan is analysed in detail. Considered by previous scholars to designate “trousers,” it is demonstrated that Old Javanese literary and epigraphical record does not preclude the possibility that in pre-Islamic Java lañcingan denoted an elaborate variety of loincloth, especially the loincloth used in the context of warfare. It is shown that only in the 14th century CE Javanese texts make a distinction between the loinclot…
Black Africans on the maritime silk route: Jəŋgi in Old Javanese epigraphical and literary evidence
This article takes a closer look at the history of black Africans in pre-Islamic Java. Though the presence of African slaves in Java before 1500 has for long been acknowledged by historians, hardly any research has been conducted on the subject. I use the epigraphical and literary evidence in Old Javanese as the major source, and contextualise it with much more comprehensive evidence on black Africans in Tang and Song China. Though it will not be…
Liquor in Glass Vessels: A Note on Glassware in pre-Islamic Java and on its Socio-Religious Symbolism
Textual evidence on glassware in Old Javanese kakavin poetry is discussed. Export of Middle Eastern and Chinese glass vessels to ancient Southeast Asia is documented in the archaeological and historical record, though – compared to the Malay Peninsula and Sumatra – reported finds of glass vessels and their fragments in Java are very limited. Old Javanese kakavins suggest that imported glass vessels, denoted by the term gәḍah, were associated in c…
The sling and the blowgun as combat weapons in pre-Islamic Java; Notes on Old Javanese terms gaṇḍi and tulup
Two Old Javanese terms, gaņḍi and tulup , are discussed in detail. While the term tulup appears to be unproblematic, gaņḍi has previously been identified with a score of weapons, including bow, club, war hammer, and sling. I argue that the original meaning of this enigmatic term is ‘projectile, pellet’, while its second, derived meaning refers in most cases to ‘sling’, and, occasionally, to ‘blowgun’. Both weapons are represented in the Old Javan…
The Rise of the Chef in Java
This study traces the professionalization of cooking in Southeast Asia, specifically in precolonial Java. We call attention to three different types of cooks documented in the island’s textual record: household cooks (including commercial cooks), cooks in religious establishments, and professional cooks. Women were in charge of the first category, whereas the second and third were controlled by men yet also featured women. Household cooks and rel…
Pangolin, Rāma, and the garden in Laṅkā in the 9th century CE: A few notes on a symbolically powerful “anteater”
In ancient Java, pangolin was a symbolically loaded animal. Its representations in Old Javanese literature and visual art are, however, rare. The pangolin is mentioned four times in the Kakawin Rāmāyaṇa, composed between the middle of the 9th and the first quarter of the 10th century CE. A pangolin is also represented in a narrative relief of Caṇḍi Śiva, in Prambanan, and a very large skeleton of pangolin was found interred under the Caṇḍi Nandi …
Buddhist Law in Burma: A History of Dhammasattha Texts and Jurisprudence, 1250–1850, by Lammerts, D. Christian
The Figure of the Taṇḍa in Old Javanese Literary and Epigraphical Records
This article offers a detailed analysis of the category of men known as taṇḍa. Widely attested in literary records and known from Old Javanese inscriptions, the function and social status of taṇḍa has been a controversial issue. Two views pertaining to the identity of these men have been advanced so far. According to most scholars, taṇḍa were high-status officials, often interpreted as military 'officers'. According to an alternative view, they w…
The Sea and Seacoast in Old Javanese Court Poetry: Fishermen, Ports, Ships, and Shipwrecks in the Literary Imagination
This article analyses some of the less well-known passages in Old Javanese kakawin court poems, in which the sea and seacoast are represented. Unlike classical Malay literature, Old Javanese texts show little interest in the socio-cultural environment of the seacoast, and even less information is provided about the maritime environment of the open seas that enclose the island of Java. Yet, the seascape as a natural environment of substantial aest…
Writing for Eternity: A Survey of Epigraphy in Southeast Asia, by Daniel Perret (ed.)
This collection of eighteen essays is a welcome addition to the field of Southeast Asian epigraphy, which has experienced a revival in the last two decades after a long period of relative dormancy.In the preface, the editor envisages "non-specialists, especially students" (p.7) as its major readership; yet I am sure that scholars-including epigraphists-will find this book useful and will consult it regularly.This book covers both the mainland and…
The figure of "pañji" in Old Javanese sources; What is in a name
Literary and epigraphic references to the figure of pañji in Old Javanese texts are analysed, and contextualised with much better known references to the figure of Pañji in Middle Javanese texts. A hypothesis is offered that Old Javanese term pañji is best rendered as ‘court-name’. It is argued that young boys from elite families obtained their familiar court-name (pañji) at the very onset of their career at the court, where they served as pages …
Alcohol in Early Java: Its Social and Cultural Significance
In Alcohol in Early Java: Its Social and Cultural Significance, Jiří Jákl offers an account of the production, trade, and consumption of alcohol in Java before 1500 CE, and discusses a whole array of meanings the Javanese have ascribed to its use. Though alcohol is extremely controversial in contemporary Islamic Java, it had multiple, often surprising, uses in the pre-Islamic society.
Honey-bees, court ladies, and beekeeping in Java before 1500 CE
People have been interacting with bees in the Indo-Malay world for thousands of years. Though the practice of robbing bees of honey and wax is relatively well-documented, we know very little about the early history of beekeeping in Southeast Asia. In this study I will use Old Javanese evidence to demonstrate that providing honey bees with artificial cavities was a practice known in Java at least by the twelfth century CE, several centuries earlie…
The Kalaṅkyaṅ in Old Javanese Literature: From Bird of Prey to Mirror Image of the Poet
The article discusses an enigmatic Old Javanese bird named kalaṅkyaṅ. The avian species known by this name is identified as the white-bellied sea eagle, a bird common in the past in the coastal parts of Java. In the second section it is argued that the kalaṅkyaṅ bird is represented in Old Javanese poetry as the mirror image of the Javanese kawi (poet
Beds and Bed Pavilions in Java before 1500 CE
This article focuses on furniture, and more specifically beds and bed pavilions in pre-Islamic Java, hence before 1500 CE . In this way, it intends to contribute to the knowledge of an aspect of Javanese material culture that is still in need of comprehensive studies. Old Javanese and Malay texts read against the iconographic evidence on temple stone reliefs and metalware identify four types of “sleeping apparatus” in pre-Islamic Java: a mat unro…
Fletcher, Margaret: Transcending the Syllables. The Añaṅg Nirartha. (Ed. by Peter Worsley.)
Patterned Splendour: Textiles Presented on Javanese Metal and Stone Sculptures, Eighth to the Fifteenth Century , by Lesley S. Pullen
Fearsome Game, Popular Meat, Symbolic Wealth: Human-Pig Relations in Pre-Islamic Java
The Indonesian island of Java has been at the center of the world’s oldest interactions between humans and pigs. This article scrutinizes the complexities of human-pig relations through premodern texts. Philology remains uncommon in studying the past of nonhuman animals, yet its insights are highly relevant. Old Javanese poems and inscriptions differentiate two species: the Javan warty pig and the Eurasian wild pig. Both influenced human societie…
Ruminant Relations: Old Javanese Vignettes on Cattle Management and Milk Products
Java offers exciting opportunities to trace human-cattle relations in a Southeast Asian context. By foregrounding inscriptions, court poems (kakavin), and other textual and iconographic sources, we aim to unearth some historical and cultural aspects of pre-Islamic cattle management and milk consumption, paying special attention to the words used for different breeds, dairy products, and other bovine terminology. Contacts with the Indian subcontin…
Archery and target-shooting in pre-Islamic Java; What can be known
In Java today, archery survives as a traditional discipline called jemparingan. Javanese archery involves targeting a pendulum-like target from a shooting distance of 35 to 50 metres. The archers take aim from a cross-legged seated posture (bersila) and typically wear traditional Javanese attire during competitions. Though archery has been practiced in Java for long time, there has been surprisingly little effort to study its rich history. This s…
Healing in Premodern Java and Bali: Between Local and Translocal
This article presents and discusses key evidence on medicine, healing and herbal remedies in premodern Indonesia. It focuses on literature in Sanskrit and Old Javanese from the 8th to the 15th century, as well as epigraphic documents from the same period. While many of the concepts encountered testifies to the transregional "Indospheric" and Sanskritic culture that characterises Southeast Asia in this period, one detects strong elements of locali…
Javanese furniture before 1500 CE: A preliminary survey of its types and styles
This study focuses on furniture in Java before 1500 CE, a period of “classical” Hindu-Buddhist culture, before Islamic influences started to have a prominent impact upon the society, religion, and culture of the island. Even though very little in terms of actual wooden and bamboo furniture has survived, visual, textual, and linguistic sources can partially fill the evidential gap. The study intends to provide the first, and rather preliminary, su…
Asian Studies and History (19 works) · History (16 works) · History (13 works) · Art (12 works) · Islam (10 works) · Philosophy (10 works) · Java (9 works) · Literature (9 works) · Ancient history (8 works) · Philosophy (8 works)