Pigafetta — Antonio Pigafetta (c. 1491–1534) — was the Italian chronicler of the Magellan voyage whose Relazione del primo viaggio intorno al mondo records, on the authority of Moorish merchants whom he met on Timor in 1521, the principal external account of Java Major and its cities in the immediate aftermath of the fall of Pasej to the Portuguese. His record of the city Magepaher / Magepahor — which Rouffaer read as Madjapahit of East Java — De Roo de la Faille decodes as a bedekte taal form for the Sumatran Madjapahit of Langsar, and his record of the king Raia Pati Unus as a bedekte taal form for the raja (not radja) Pati Oenoes of 1546.
The 1521 record of Java Major
Pigafetta, on Timor in 1521, was told by Moorish merchants of the largest cities of Java Major — Madjapait (which his manuscripts spell Magepaher or Magepahor), Sunda, Daha, Demak, Gadjahmada, Mentaraman/Minutaranghan, Djapara, Sidajoe, Toeban, Gresik, Soerabaja, and Bali — and of the king whose name was Raia Pati Unus. Rouffaer read Magepaher/Magepahor as Madjapahit of East Java and Raia Pati Unus as the radja Pati Oenoes of 1513.
De Roo de la Faille’s rejoinder
De Roo de la Faille demurs. Magepaher/Magepahor is, in his reading, Madjapah-it-l-èr or Madjapah-it-l-or — the Madjapahit “in the north” (i.e. on Sumatra’s east coast, at Langsar), not the Madjapahit of East Java. Raia Pati Unus is raja (not radja) Pati Unus — “the glorious Pati Unus” of the 1546 attack on Pasoeroewan, i.e. the king of Demak whose name Castanheda had recorded as the attacker of Malacca in 1513.
The Minutaranghan reading
The same Moorish merchants, Pigafetta records, gave the name Minutaranghan for one of the cities of Java. Rouffaer read this as Mentaraman — “old-fashioned” for the realm of Mataram-Mentaraman. De Roo de la Faille demurs: the spelling “mi-nu-taranghan” is, in his reading, a contraction of sa-mi nu-sa tara-ng-an — “like the island, the name of which savours of tara-wangan” — i.e. Kampi in the bay of Aroe. The same Tarawangan, De Roo de la Faille notes, survives in the pralambang tradition recorded by Brandes (TBG 32, p. 382): “an islet at the wangan which leads into the bay of Aroe”.
The garuda tree
The Moorish merchants of Burne on Pigafetta’s ship, Pigafetta records, told him of “a very huge tree found below Java Major towards the gulf of China, in which live birds called garuda”. The tree’s place was called Puzathaer, the tree cam panganghi, its fruit bua pangananghi (which Pigafetta’s vocabulary explains as caui, i.e. kawi — “poet-language”). De Roo de la Faille decodes this as a bedekte taal form for the ancestral land of Taroema at the bay of Aroe — the “tree” being taroe maha (“the great tree”), the garuda being the bird of god Wisnu (ka-wis-noe-sa, “king of the birds” — pek-si, alias si-kep’s).
Significance
For AcehWiki, Pigafetta’s importance lies chiefly in his 1521 record of Java Major — the principal external account of the Javanese cities in the immediate aftermath of the fall of Pasej to the Portuguese — and in his record of the Moorish merchants’ bedekte taal account of the Taroema-Kampi-Aroe sacred complex. His Magepaher/Magepahor reading, decoded by De Roo de la Faille as the Sumatran Madjapahit, also fixes the chronology of the Sumatran Madjapahit’s reduction by the Atjehnese age.
See Also
- Pati Oenoes
- Madjapahit in Langsar
- Demak’s attack on Pasoeroewan (1546)
- Taroema
- Poelo Kampi
- Aroe-baai
- G. P. Rouffaer
- Dr. J. Brandes
- Bedekte taal
- P. de Roo de la Faille
- Historische Curiositeiten uit Malajoe en Java
Source
Historische Curiositeiten uit Malajoe en Java, by P. de Roo de la Faille (Den Haag: Maart 1954), chapter “Over Soenan Kalidjaga”, pp. 47-49.
Pigafetta — Antonio Pigafetta (c. 1491–1534) — was the Italian chronicler of the Magellan voyage whose Relazione del primo viaggio intorno al mondo records, on the authority of Moorish merchants whom he met on Timor in 1521, the principal external account of Java Major and its cities in the immediate aftermath of the fall of Pasej to the Portuguese. His record of the city Magepaher / Magepahor — which Rouffaer read as Madjapahit of East Java — De Roo de la Faille decodes as a bedekte taal form for the Sumatran Madjapahit of Langsar, and his record of the king Raia Pati Unus as a bedekte taal form for the raja (not radja) Pati Oenoes of 1546.
The 1521 record of Java Major
Pigafetta, on Timor in 1521, was told by Moorish merchants of the largest cities of Java Major — Madjapait (which his manuscripts spell Magepaher or Magepahor), Sunda, Daha, Demak, Gadjahmada, Mentaraman/Minutaranghan, Djapara, Sidajoe, Toeban, Gresik, Soerabaja, and Bali — and of the king whose name was Raia Pati Unus. Rouffaer read Magepaher/Magepahor as Madjapahit of East Java and Raia Pati Unus as the radja Pati Oenoes of 1513.
De Roo de la Faille’s rejoinder
De Roo de la Faille demurs. Magepaher/Magepahor is, in his reading, Madjapah-it-l-èr or Madjapah-it-l-or — the Madjapahit “in the north” (i.e. on Sumatra’s east coast, at Langsar), not the Madjapahit of East Java. Raia Pati Unus is raja (not radja) Pati Unus — “the glorious Pati Unus” of the 1546 attack on Pasoeroewan, i.e. the king of Demak whose name Castanheda had recorded as the attacker of Malacca in 1513.
The Minutaranghan reading
The same Moorish merchants, Pigafetta records, gave the name Minutaranghan for one of the cities of Java. Rouffaer read this as Mentaraman — “old-fashioned” for the realm of Mataram-Mentaraman. De Roo de la Faille demurs: the spelling “mi-nu-taranghan” is, in his reading, a contraction of sa-mi nu-sa tara-ng-an — “like the island, the name of which savours of tara-wangan” — i.e. Kampi in the bay of Aroe. The same Tarawangan, De Roo de la Faille notes, survives in the pralambang tradition recorded by Brandes (TBG 32, p. 382): “an islet at the wangan which leads into the bay of Aroe”.
The garuda tree
The Moorish merchants of Burne on Pigafetta’s ship, Pigafetta records, told him of “a very huge tree found below Java Major towards the gulf of China, in which live birds called garuda”. The tree’s place was called Puzathaer, the tree cam panganghi, its fruit bua pangananghi (which Pigafetta’s vocabulary explains as caui, i.e. kawi — “poet-language”). De Roo de la Faille decodes this as a bedekte taal form for the ancestral land of Taroema at the bay of Aroe — the “tree” being taroe maha (“the great tree”), the garuda being the bird of god Wisnu (ka-wis-noe-sa, “king of the birds” — pek-si, alias si-kep’s).
Significance
For AcehWiki, Pigafetta’s importance lies chiefly in his 1521 record of Java Major — the principal external account of the Javanese cities in the immediate aftermath of the fall of Pasej to the Portuguese — and in his record of the Moorish merchants’ bedekte taal account of the Taroema-Kampi-Aroe sacred complex. His Magepaher/Magepahor reading, decoded by De Roo de la Faille as the Sumatran Madjapahit, also fixes the chronology of the Sumatran Madjapahit’s reduction by the Atjehnese age.
See Also
- Pati Oenoes
- Madjapahit in Langsar
- Demak’s attack on Pasoeroewan (1546)
- Taroema
- Poelo Kampi
- Aroe-baai
- G. P. Rouffaer
- Dr. J. Brandes
- Bedekte taal
- P. de Roo de la Faille
- Historische Curiositeiten uit Malajoe en Java
Source
Historische Curiositeiten uit Malajoe en Java, by P. de Roo de la Faille (Den Haag: Maart 1954), chapter “Over Soenan Kalidjaga”, pp. 47-49.