Van Stein Callenfels — full name Pieter Vincent van Stein Callenfels (Leeuwarden, 1877–1942) — was the Dutch Indological scholar whose doctoral dissertation De Sudamala (Leyden, 1919?), treated in the Verhandelingen van het Bataviaasch Genootschap (vol. LXVI), dismissed as “zuivere nonsens” the allegorical geography of the Old-Javanese romance Sang Satyawan — the passage in which the heroine Suwistri is instructed in the gedong pahoman (the place of offering) on the three “wonderbloemen” of the Narmada pleasure-garden and on the strange sequence of place-names that follows. De Roo de la Faille’s chapter “Zuivere Nonsens?” is the principal modern rejoinder, arguing that the passage is bedekte taal and that Van Stein Callenfels, “lettered in the sphere of Javanese poetry”, knew better than his published dismissal allowed.
The Sudamala dissertation
In his doctoral dissertation on the Sudamala — the Old-Javanese poem that survives in relief on Tjandi Téga-wangi and Tjandi Soekoeh — Van Stein Callenfels treated a passage in the Old-Javanese romance Sang Satyawan in which the heroine Suwistri is instructed in the gedong pahoman on the three “wonderbloemen” of the Narmada: Nagapoespa, Woeloeng and Kanigara, “flowers without roots, without trunks”, that “when they were created, the world was complete”, that “are not struck by withering” and “when there is wind, are not blown”. The passage that follows — oareng mdar, tanpéndah kadi kukunang, nghing kadik hangawroehi, pan anéng larmadda, hanèng noesa kambangan, hanéng tatar, hanéng boehwin, hana ri ngayah hanèng boemi kadiri — Van Stein Callenfels called “the strangest enumeration of geographical names, as: Larmadda (whether the Narmada, some great river, or a pleasure-garden is meant), Noesa Kambangan, China, the unknown Boehwin, South-Bagelen and Kediri also totally unintelligible”.
The “zuivere nonsens” dismissal
On the closing strophe of the passage — umon dinoeloe moeksah ring toengtoeng ing tinghal kapoedang tan wroeh nini sangkrebsinangkreban, hakelirkineliran, dopara kang ana wngi mongmong simoerka sijoeti hana wngi //hana manih — Van Stein Callenfels wrote: “He seems to suspect some connection with the posed question, since here is spoken of the pursuit of redemption, but … (the rest, which seems to be followed literally) is a riddle to me”. De Roo de la Faille comments: “He knew better, as he has further let it be understood; more than that to do was not permitted him, initiated in the sphere of Javanese poetry”. The dismissal was, in De Roo de la Faille’s reading, a bedekte taal form of its own — the public refusal of a lettered man to disclose what his initiation forbade him to disclose.
De Roo de la Faille’s rejoinder
De Roo de la Faille’s chapter “Zuivere Nonsens?” decodes the Sang Satyawan passage as a bedekte taal form for the ancestral land of Taroema at the bay of Aroe: the Narmada pleasure-garden is the tasik of the bay; the three “wonderbloemen” are the tjempaka gonda of Taroema; Noesa Kambangan is Kampi; tatar is Tji-na (i.e. soe-tji boewa-na, “holy land”); boehwin is em-boeh-ka-wing; boemi Kadiri is the ngayah (heerendienst) of Kadiri to the ancestral land. The whole passage is, in De Roo de la Faille’s reading, a riddling record of the east-coast sacred geography that Van Stein Callenfels, “lettered in the sphere of Javanese poetry”, knew but did not publish.
Significance
For AcehWiki, Van Stein Callenfels’s significance lies chiefly in his Sudamala dissertation — the scholarly dismissal that De Roo de la Faille’s “Zuivere Nonsens?” chapter rejoins, and that frames the bedekte taal reading of the Sang Satyawan passage as a scholarly problem rather than a fanciful conjecture. His relief-work on Tjandi Téga-wangi and Tjandi Soekoeh also fixes the material survivors of the Sudamala tradition whose chronology De Roo de la Faille ties to the Aru-Atjeh sphere.
See Also
- Historische Curiositeiten uit Malajoe en Java
- P. de Roo de la Faille
- Sang Satyawan
- Sudamala
- Candi Tegawangi
- Candi Sukuh
- Bedekte taal
- Taroema
- Aroe-baai
- Poelo Kampi
Source
Historische Curiositeiten uit Malajoe en Java, by P. de Roo de la Faille (Den Haag: Maart 1954), chapter “Zuivere Nonsens?”, pp. 13-17. Citing Van Stein Callenfels, De Sudamala (Leyden), in Verhandelingen van het Bataviaasch Genootschap, vol. LXVI.
Van Stein Callenfels — full name Pieter Vincent van Stein Callenfels (Leeuwarden, 1877–1942) — was the Dutch Indological scholar whose doctoral dissertation De Sudamala (Leyden, 1919?), treated in the Verhandelingen van het Bataviaasch Genootschap (vol. LXVI), dismissed as “zuivere nonsens” the allegorical geography of the Old-Javanese romance Sang Satyawan — the passage in which the heroine Suwistri is instructed in the gedong pahoman (the place of offering) on the three “wonderbloemen” of the Narmada pleasure-garden and on the strange sequence of place-names that follows. De Roo de la Faille’s chapter “Zuivere Nonsens?” is the principal modern rejoinder, arguing that the passage is bedekte taal and that Van Stein Callenfels, “lettered in the sphere of Javanese poetry”, knew better than his published dismissal allowed.
The Sudamala dissertation
In his doctoral dissertation on the Sudamala — the Old-Javanese poem that survives in relief on Tjandi Téga-wangi and Tjandi Soekoeh — Van Stein Callenfels treated a passage in the Old-Javanese romance Sang Satyawan in which the heroine Suwistri is instructed in the gedong pahoman on the three “wonderbloemen” of the Narmada: Nagapoespa, Woeloeng and Kanigara, “flowers without roots, without trunks”, that “when they were created, the world was complete”, that “are not struck by withering” and “when there is wind, are not blown”. The passage that follows — oareng mdar, tanpéndah kadi kukunang, nghing kadik hangawroehi, pan anéng larmadda, hanèng noesa kambangan, hanéng tatar, hanéng boehwin, hana ri ngayah hanèng boemi kadiri — Van Stein Callenfels called “the strangest enumeration of geographical names, as: Larmadda (whether the Narmada, some great river, or a pleasure-garden is meant), Noesa Kambangan, China, the unknown Boehwin, South-Bagelen and Kediri also totally unintelligible”.
The “zuivere nonsens” dismissal
On the closing strophe of the passage — umon dinoeloe moeksah ring toengtoeng ing tinghal kapoedang tan wroeh nini sangkrebsinangkreban, hakelirkineliran, dopara kang ana wngi mongmong simoerka sijoeti hana wngi //hana manih — Van Stein Callenfels wrote: “He seems to suspect some connection with the posed question, since here is spoken of the pursuit of redemption, but … (the rest, which seems to be followed literally) is a riddle to me”. De Roo de la Faille comments: “He knew better, as he has further let it be understood; more than that to do was not permitted him, initiated in the sphere of Javanese poetry”. The dismissal was, in De Roo de la Faille’s reading, a bedekte taal form of its own — the public refusal of a lettered man to disclose what his initiation forbade him to disclose.
De Roo de la Faille’s rejoinder
De Roo de la Faille’s chapter “Zuivere Nonsens?” decodes the Sang Satyawan passage as a bedekte taal form for the ancestral land of Taroema at the bay of Aroe: the Narmada pleasure-garden is the tasik of the bay; the three “wonderbloemen” are the tjempaka gonda of Taroema; Noesa Kambangan is Kampi; tatar is Tji-na (i.e. soe-tji boewa-na, “holy land”); boehwin is em-boeh-ka-wing; boemi Kadiri is the ngayah (heerendienst) of Kadiri to the ancestral land. The whole passage is, in De Roo de la Faille’s reading, a riddling record of the east-coast sacred geography that Van Stein Callenfels, “lettered in the sphere of Javanese poetry”, knew but did not publish.
Significance
For AcehWiki, Van Stein Callenfels’s significance lies chiefly in his Sudamala dissertation — the scholarly dismissal that De Roo de la Faille’s “Zuivere Nonsens?” chapter rejoins, and that frames the bedekte taal reading of the Sang Satyawan passage as a scholarly problem rather than a fanciful conjecture. His relief-work on Tjandi Téga-wangi and Tjandi Soekoeh also fixes the material survivors of the Sudamala tradition whose chronology De Roo de la Faille ties to the Aru-Atjeh sphere.
See Also
- Historische Curiositeiten uit Malajoe en Java
- P. de Roo de la Faille
- Sang Satyawan
- Sudamala
- Candi Tegawangi
- Candi Sukuh
- Bedekte taal
- Taroema
- Aroe-baai
- Poelo Kampi
Source
Historische Curiositeiten uit Malajoe en Java, by P. de Roo de la Faille (Den Haag: Maart 1954), chapter “Zuivere Nonsens?”, pp. 13-17. Citing Van Stein Callenfels, De Sudamala (Leyden), in Verhandelingen van het Bataviaasch Genootschap, vol. LXVI.