The figure of "pañji" in Old Javanese sources; What is in a name

Bibliographic Data

ID6174381
AuthorsJiří Jákl (The University of Queensland, corresponding author)
Year2020
Volume21
Issue1
Pages28-28
Publication date2020-04-09
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueWacana Journal of the Humanities of Indonesia (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1411-2272 • E-ISSN: 2407-6899
PublisherWacana Journal of the Humanities of Indonesia (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.17510/wacana.v21i1.874
OpenAlexW3021153759
LanguageEN
References cited6

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 and attendants of the royal family. They were also trained in arms, religious lore, and arts. Being since their childhood close to the king, they were trusted persons, and some of them made careers as high-ranking court officials, such as Dəmung or Kanuruhan. Others, denoted ācārya, were trained as ‘masters of divine weapons’, Tantric ritual specialists, who were in charge of the so-called ‘divine weaponry’ (diwyāstra), mantra-infused ordinary weapons, an arsenal well-known in Old and Middle Javanese texts. Vestiges of this ritual lore have survived in Java until modern times

Art · Elite · Literature · Mantra · Political science · Theology · Asian Studies and History · Classics · Cultural and Religious Practices in Indonesia · History · Law · Philosophy

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