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| Lokapala - The Guardians of the Directions |
In part 1 I have reviewed the information that has so far surfaced in our literature regarding the origin of the name "Java". Such as the opinion that carries a Sanskrit chronicle source which mentions the existence of an island called Yavadvip(a) ( dvipa means "island", and yava means "barley" or also "grain"), and several other opinions. In this second part, I will focus on discussing the origin of the name Java according to the concept of Lokapala (guardian of the wind).
In the Hindu tradition, the concept of "Lokapala" is known, which is about the gods who guard the cardinal directions. These gods are:
- Indra (East)
- Kubera (North)
- Varuna (West)
- Yama (South)
In my previous writings, I emphasized a lot that those referred to as gods in many ancient mythologies were actually personifications of great people, saints, or even prophets who lived in ancient times.
Efforts to identify or interpret this kind of personification have even been carried out since ancient Greece. This is known as the period of syncretism – or “interpretatio graeca ” meaning “Greek translation” or “interpretation using the Greek [model]”.
Which is basically an attempt to interpret or try to understand the mythology and religion of another culture, by comparing it with ancient Greek concepts in terms of religious practices, gods and myths, to see similarities and similar characteristics. [Mark S. Smith: God in Translation: Deities in Cross-Cultural Discourse in the Biblical World , 2008: 39]
I have also discussed this kind of interpretation in the article " The Figure of the Prophet Idris in Various Religious Traditions and Mythologies, and the Secrets That Cover Him".
In the article I reviewed that in ancient times, the Prophet Idris was known as Changjie in Chinese mythology, God Varuna in Indian mythology, God Thoth in ancient Egyptian mythology, and God Hermes in ancient Greek mythology.
One of the interpretations of these similarities was conveyed by Abu'l-Faraj (Abulpharagius), a Syrian bishop, philosopher, poet, historian and theologian, who said in his book Ta'rih muhtasar ed-duwal (ed. Salhani, p. 11) that , Enoch (Idris) is identical with Hermes Trismegistus, whom the Arabs called Idris. (For more details, please read this article "The Figure of the Prophet Idris in Various Religious Traditions and Mythologies, and the Secrets That Cover Him" ).
If God Varuna is the personification of the prophet Idris, then who is interpreted as Indra, Kubera, and Yama?
God Indra, Guardian of the East
In the lokapala concept, it is stated that the Graha (celestial body) occupied by God Indra is the Sun (Surya).
Meanwhile, in many literature Surya is called a synonym or related to Batara Guru, and that Batara Guru is another name for Lord Shiva.
In the oldest Vedic hymns, such as hymn 1115 of the Rigveda, it is mentioned, Surya as a special tribute to the “rising sun” with its symbolism as the remover of darkness, the one who empowers knowledge, goodness and all life. (Samuel D. Atkins, A Vedic Hymn to the Sun-God Surya . 1938, p. 419).
It could be said that this philosophy "like the morning sun that comes to dispel the darkness of the night" actually underlies the principles of the spiritual concept of the solar nation or solar dynasty in ancient times.
Rajeshwari Ghose in his book Saivism in Indonesia during the Hindu-Javanese period (1966, pp. 129-131), says that in the ancient Javanese book, Tantu Panggelaran, Bhattara Guru is described as the first teacher from the earliest (oldest) school, He is said to be the teacher of the gods (divine teacher). He is represented as a speech teacher and language teacher.
From this description, it can be assumed that Indra or Surya or Shiva or Batara Guru, is the personification of the Prophet Adam, the earliest Prophet presented by God on earth. I have discussed this interpretation in more detail in the article entitled " Interpretation of the Similarities of Adam, Fuxi, and Batara Guru".
Regarding the placement of Prophet Adam as guardian of the east, there are many things that can be taken into consideration.
One of them is that because it was revealed in the east. His presence, which first brought light (enlightenment or knowledge) to the east, was interpreted metaphorically by Wanga Surya with the expression: "like the morning sun that comes to dispel the darkness of the night".
The emergence or rise of science or human civilization on the easternmost side is interpreted philosophically as the sun rising in the east and then moving westward.
So, when the Surya Dynasty or Sun Nation migrated or spread to the west to bring civilization, it was indeed based on the spirit of spirituality that they promoted as the first nation to gain enlightenment, and they believed they had the responsibility to spread this enlightenment to the west in the direction of the sun's movement.
The fact that the morning area is the area where the sun first rises is basically very related and can be said to be the etymology of the word "timor" in Indonesian language (meaning "east" in English).
I strongly suspect that the word "timor" or "Timor" or "Temor" actually comes from the word "Mori" which means: Morning. I have discussed this in an article entitled: Traces of the Goddess of Dawn in the Latimojong Mountains , here are some of the excerpts...
To understand the true meaning of the word 'mori' one review that is worth considering is the word 'mrena' which is a good morning greeting in the language of the Maori people (the indigenous people of New Zealand). 'Mrena', is identical to the form 'morning' which, on the merriam-webster.com site explains that the basic form of the word 'morning' is: 'morn' which gets the suffix-ing. From this review it can be assumed that the word 'mori' probably means "morning".
Meanwhile, the syllable "ti" or "te" in front of the word "ti (te) - mor" is basically the same as the form "the" in English, or "de" in Dutch, whose function is used to refer to someone, place, or thing that is unique.
"Te-luk" is a word in Indonesian which also uses the attribute "te" as found in the word "Te-mor". We know that the word "teluk" in Indonesian today is defined as: the part of the sea that juts out onto land - or it can also be described as an arch or depression formed between the land and the sea. The synonym for the word curved or concave is "luk". The word "Luk" is a very ancient word. Today we generally only find the application of the word "luk" when referring to the curve on a keris. Thus, the word "teluk" comes from the basic word "luk" which has the form "te" or "the" or "de" in front of it.
We continue...
The word "mori" which means "morning" is a very ancient word. present in the early days of human civilization on earth. We can find traces of the meaning of "mori" which means "morning" in the word "Murai" which means a bird that sings in the morning, or in the greeting "Mrena" which is a good morning greeting in the language of the Maori people (the native people of New Zealand).
In fact, the word "morning" in English can be said to come from this form of "mori". On the merriam-webster.com site, it is explained that the basic form of the word "morning" is: "morn" which has the suffix -ing.
Through the method of examining language morphology using an alticulatory phonetic approach, we can see that the various forms that can emerge from the morphology of the word "Mori" are: poni - poli - pori - podi - poti - boni - boli - bori - body - boti - woni - woli – wori – wodi – woti – moni – moli – mori – modi – moti. (I have reviewed the alticulatory phonetic approach method in other articles. in the article " Key Formula for Unraveling History" and also in the article Genetic Aksara Nusantara, Key Formula for Unraveling History )
One of these variations is "PONI" which is the basic form of the name of the Phonecian.
The form of the name Phenicia in ancient Greek is "Phoinikes", while in Latin it is "Poeni". From these two shapes, we can assume the simple form is "PONI" or "BONI".
The identity of the Phoenicians which is related to the "image of the morning sun" is clearly reflected in the name of the area where they lived at the eastern end of the Mediterranean Sea, facing west, which is called the "Sea of the Rising Sun".
Gulf of Boni, which is located on the island of Sulawesi, is basically related to the meaning of "morning". However, for more details, please read my other article: "Morning Country", the Identity of the Nusantara in Ancient Times.
Thus, Prophet Adam or in the Lokapala tradition is personified as God Indra, as the guardian god of the east, the "morning" side of human civilization on earth.
God Kubera Guardian of the North
In the Lokapala tradition, Dewa Kubera occupies Graha (celestial body) or the planet Mercury. while on the other hand, in ancient Egyptian mythology the name of the god Set is known, which according to ancient Egyptian astronomy, is generally associated with the planet Mercury. Both occupying Mercury indicate the similarities between Kubera and Set.
As for the name Set, I think it is related to the name of the son of the Prophet Adam, namely the Prophet Seth.
Which is interesting because if I identify the name Seth according to Hanzi characters, the result consists of three letters, namely: "se" means "color"; “tu” means “earth”; and “huang” which means “yellow”. (see description below).
色 Sè = Color
土 Tǔ = Earth
黃 Huáng = Yellow
The identification of the name "Seth" which more or less means "yellow earth" is at least related to the identity of the god Kubera, who in mythology is familiar with the identity of the color yellow or gold.
Even in Vettam Mani's book "Puranic Encyclopaedia: A Comprehensive Dictionary With Special Reference to the Epic and Puranic Literature (1975: 434) it is stated that Kubera has the name Ekaksipingala which means "one who has one yellow eye".
From these facts, I suspect that God Kubera is the personification of Prophet Seth (son of Prophet Adam).
Taking into account that Kubera is the ruler or guardian of the north, then, the meaning of the name Seth (ie "yellow earth"), as well as the meaning of another name Kubera (Ekaksipingala = "one who has one yellow eye"), then, I strongly suspect that the country in the north what is meant is China. Because we know, the first emperor, or mythological emperor of China, was known as "Huang Di" which means "yellow emperor".
From the name of the Yellow Emperor, the term Yellow River emerged. And it seems likely that Emperor Huang Di has another title from Kubera or Prophet Seth.
Lord Varuna, Guardian of the West
As I have mentioned above, Varuna is the personification of Prophet Idris. I have discussed this at length in the article "The Figure of Prophet Idris in Various Religious Traditions and Mythologies, and the Secrets That Cover Him " , therefore for a discussion about Varuna or Prophet Idris, please read that article.
In Indonesian, we know the word "barat" (west in english) as one of the cardinal directions. But actually, "Bharat" is an ancient name for the region in South Asia, which today we know as India.
Lord Yama, Guardian of the South
In Hinduism, Yama is also referred to as Yamaraja. It is one of the names of gods in the Rigveda text. He is known as the ruler of the realm of the dead.
His status in Lokapla as the Guardian of the Direction which represents the southern direction, can be said to be in harmony with the southern direction which in ancient cosmological concepts represents the underworld or the realm of death or hell. Many historians even consider it an analogy of Hades, the Greek god who rules the underworld.
I strongly suspect that the southern region, which is the domain of the god Yama, is not only interpreted as "the underworld", more than that, it refers to a certain geographical area, such as the god Kubera who occupies China in the north, and the god Varuna who occupies Bharat what we know as India today.
To identify the southern region belonging to Lord Yama, there is some information from the past that can be the basis for our consideration.
one of them is the term "Celate" or "Cellate" given by people in the west to sailors who came from the Indonesia archipelago in ancient times. The word "celate" or "Cellate" is clearly synonymous with the word Selat.
In geography we know the term "Sunda Shelf" for the name of the continental shelf of western Indonesia (covering the islands of Java, Kalimantan, Sumatra). But do you know what the name "Sunda" really means?
In Old Norse (Old Scandinavian or North Germanic language spoken by Scandinavian people around the 7th to 15th centuries), the word “sund” can mean “a strait” ("selat" in Indonesia language). (You can read the explanation here ), then, there is also the word "sunthaz" in Proto-Germanic which means "south" ("selatan" in Indonesia language). ( source here )
In ancient times, people in mainland China called the Indonesia archipelago region "nan-hai" which means "southern sea".
Apart from that, the name of the plain "kedu" in Central Java actually means "south". We can trace it to the etymology of the word "ketu" (Sanskrit: केतु, IAST: Ketú ) which means the descending node of the moon, which means "south" in the Hindu astrological tradition found in the Veda. ( source here )
Thus, the word "selatan" (eng: south) which we know today as one of the names of the cardinal directions, basically comes from the word "selat" which gets the suffix -an.
And it seems that the term "Cellate" (for the Portuguese), or "Saleeters" (for the British), refers to the "People of the Straits", namely "sea people", or "Bajou people" who actually live in various sea waters. in the Indonesia archipelago since ancient times.
We will find the connection between Dewa Yama as the ruler of the South, and the Bajou people who were called "strait people" in ancient times after we dig deeper into the identity of both.
In Sanskrit, Yama means "twin" or it could also mean "same". [Thomas Egenes. Introduction to Sanskrit – Part 2 , 2000: p. 132]
The Bajo or Bajau tribe call themselves “Sama People”. [Adrian B. Lapian. Sea People, Pirates, Sea Kings: History of the Nineteenth Century Sulawesi Sea Region , 2009: p. 80]
One of the reasons that appears to be given for the origin of the name "sama", is that they believe they are descendants of Sam bin Nuh.
Thus, Yama could indeed be the personification of Sam bin Nuh.
In a history, when the Prophet Isa revived Sam bin Nuh, Jesus asked about Sam's lifespan. Sam answered that he lived for 4000 years, and was appointed a prophet at the age of 2000 years. So from this history, we can know that Sam bin Nuh was also a prophet.
Phonetic changes between the forms 'sama' and 'saba' are very possible, where m and b are part of the labial articulatory phonetic group which in many language cases we often encounter interchangeably with each other. Like the name of King Namrud, which in Hebrew is called Nimrod, while the Greek form is Nebrod.
We can also see that phonetic changes between 'sama' and 'yama' have the potential to occur. The transition is through the phoneme /s/ which sometimes sounds /c/ and /j/, and /j/ which sometimes sounds /y/.
Thus, the various phonetic changes that can occur in the word 'yama' include:
yama, jama, cama, sama
yaba, jaba, caba, saba
yawa, java , cawa, sawa
yapa, japa, capa, sapa
Among the variations above we can see that there are the words 'saba' and 'java'.
From this, we can conclude that the name 'Java' appears to come from the name of God Yama. The status of Dewa Yama as ruler of the south is in line with the fact that the meaning of the Sunda name in ancient times was actually "south". Meanwhile, we know that the island of Java is also called "Great Sunda".
One other form of variation of 'yama' that deserves attention is 'jama'. I see the possibility that the form 'jama' is an anagram and is closely related to the form of the word 'maja'. This could be the answer to why there are many toponyms on the island of Java that use the word 'maja'. Such as: Majalengka, Majalaya, Mojokuto, Mojokerto, and many more.
The toponyms Mojokuto and Mojokerto, which literally mean "maja city", certainly tickle our minds to assume that it could be that the region on the island of Java with such toponyms, in very ancient times, might have been the place where Yama or Sam reigned.
The existence of the Yamadipati character in Javanese wayang is certainly in line or, let's say, supports this assumption. The word 'Dipati' can mean "ruler", so Yamadipati more or less means: Lord of Yama.
Another aspect that also needs attention is the name Yama which means "twin" in Sanskrit, it could be said to be synonymous with the meaning of the word 'sama' which in Indonesian means "similar".
If we look at regional languages in the Indonesia archipelago, the word "sama" is called "padha" in Javanese and also in the Tae language used by South Sulawesi people.
What is interesting is that the word "padha" is found in the concept of Javanese mythology which states that there are 3 worlds, namely: Mayapada (the world of the gods or heaven), Madyapada (the human world or earth), Arcapada (the underworld or hell).
The meaning of Arcapada as the underworld or hell is of course in line with Yama's status as ruler of the underworld, the realm of the dead, or Hell in the Lokapala concept.
Thus, the description of the meaning of the words "Yama, Sama, and Padha" above clearly shows that they are related to each other.
This kind of cycle of connection can be said to be a fact of "cosmological unity". This teaches us that: “A mythological puzzle originating from the same “cosmological unity” will always show genetic relationships in this way.”
***
Thus, from all the descriptions above we can see that the four Gods in the Lokapala concept are the personification of 4 prophets in ancient times. What is interesting is the arrangement of the positions of East (Adam), North (Seth), West (Idris), and South (Sam). Apart from being in the direction of the sun's rising cycle (counterclockwise), these formations also appear to be arranged according to the generational order between them. .
That's all I have to say. Hope it is useful. Regards.