Djatisaripa — also Djatisaripah, variant Djatiswara — is the pasar (market) of the Soenan Kalidjaga legend at which Raden Sahid — the wild son of the tumenggong of Wilatikta — waited to rob travellers, and at which he was converted by Pangeran Bonang. The Babad Tanah Djawi places it in the forest of Djatisekar, to the north-east of Lasem; the Sadjarah Banten gives the alternative form Djatiswara. It is, in De Roo de la Faille’s reading, the bedekte taal form for the pasar of Kampi — the sacred islet of the bay of Aroe.
The conversion story
The Babad Tanah Djawi tells that Raden Sahid — “a wild fellow, given to gambling and idling” — came as far as the neighbourhood of Japara, and when he had lost at gambling, “went out robbing, waited for people in the forest of Djatisekar, to the north-east of Lasem”. One day Soenan Bonang came through that forest; Raden Sahid held him up to rob him, but Soenan Bonang told him: “if later someone passes here, dressed entirely in black and with a wora-wari flower behind his ear, a red kembang spatu, you must plunder him”. Three days later Soenan Bonang himself returned in that guise; Raden Sahid held him up; “Soenan Bonang became his sa-kawan — his companion”; Raden Sahid repented.
Decoding: djati-pa-sar d-ipa and the Heiland
The name Djatisaripa De Roo de la Faille decodes as djati-pa-sar d-ipa — “the Heiland with the pasar of the Heer des Rijkdoms” (the Lord of Riches). The variant Djatiswara he decodes as djati-iswara — “the Heiland is iswara” (the Lord). The pasar itself De Roo de la Faille identifies with the pasar of Kampi in the bay of Aroe — the Noesa-n-ta-ra of the Pararaton under the protection of the goddess Tara, at which the pabgjan (the toll-house at which ships paid import duties) stood.
The bonang decoding
The mysterious pangeran Bonang who converts Raden Sahid is named, in the Babad Tanah Djawi, after a desa Bonang in Rembang south of Lasem — but “meant was Worawari on Sumatra”, De Roo de la Faille argues. Rembang itself is the Javanese remembrance of the Ari-ke-mbang of the Sumatran Overwal — the land of the Kalang’s, Javanese people who were not “real” Javanese but djawa-ka of lang-ka, the Sumatran country from which they had been brought as war-booty.
The wora-wari and the tjempaka gonda
The wora-wari flower behind Pangeran Bonang’s ear — the sign by which Raden Sahid was to recognise the man he should plunder — is, in De Roo de la Faille’s reading, the wora-wari of mala-wora-wari, i.e. Mala-joe-wa-wor-a — “Malajoer-ora” — Malajoer. The same flower is the tjempaka gonda of the Taroema allegory — the “fragrant” (aroem) flower whose gonda (“fragrance”) encodes the ancestral land of Taroema.
Significance
For AcehWiki, Djatisaripa is the principal bedekte taal form by which De Roo de la Faille ties the Soenan Kalidjaga legend to the Kampi-Aroe sacred complex — the pasar of the sacred islet at which the conversion of the Javanese wali took place. Its identification, by De Roo de la Faille, with the pasar of Kampi also marks it as the principal Javanese link in the Pasej-Atjeh-Java triangle of the early sixteenth century.
See Also
- Soenan Kalidjaga
- Soenan Bonang
- Poelo Kampi
- Aroe-baai
- Worawari
- Rembang
- Lasem
- Kalang
- Taroema
- Cyama-Tara
- Bedekte taal
- 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. 43-46.