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Calendar of Pranata Mangsa and Sundanese Calendar
By admin | December 27, 2008
Beside the Javanese calendar, which is identical to the Hijriyya Calendar, the Javanese people also know a solar calendar of Pranata Mangsa (”Month Arrangement”) which was created by Sunan Paku Buwana VII (1830-1858) of Surakarta in 1855. The Pranata Mangsa calendar starts on 22 June and based on seasons in the Island of Java. That is why the number of days in its each month are varied: Kasa (41 days, starting June 22), Karo or Kalih (23 days, 2 August), Katelu or Katiga (24 days, 25 August), Kapat (25 days, 18 September) , Kalima (27 days, 13 October), Kanem (43 days, 9 November), Kapitu (43 days, 22 December), Kawalu (26 or 27 days, 3 February), Kasanga (25 days, 1 March), Kadasa or Kasapuluh (24 days, 26 March), Desta or Hapit Lemah (23 days, 19 April), and Sada or Hapit Kayu (41 days, 12 May).
Now we are in year 152 of Pranata Mangsa. New Year of 1 Kasa 153 fell on 22nd June 2007. Pranata Mangsa Calendar is usually used by Javanese farmers to determine the planting season and harvest season, and rarely used to calculate the day.
In early 2005, A Sudanese cultural expert, Ali Sastramidjaja (Abah Ali), introduced Kala Sunda. It is the lunar calendar of Sundanese which started from 122 years after CE. What historical event was occurred, that make it is taken as the initial calculation of years? This has not been answered. The historians also still try to find a historical event that explains whether the calendar had been used by the Sudanese community in the ancient period or not.
Kala Sunda calculation system is same as Javanese Hijriyya Calendar, for both are lunar calendars. In a windu, there are three leap years. So if, for example, the beginning of Windu (Indung poé) is Sunday of Manis, the beginning of next windu is also Sunday of Manis. In each cycle of 120 years (tunggul taun), a day is removed. So in every 120 years, indung poé shifts from Sunday of Manis to Saturday of Kliwon, and then to Friday of Wage, and so on. Then every 2,400 years, the indung poé will not move. Therefore, the Sudanese calendar has very high level of accuracy.
Name of the months are Kartika, Margasira, Posya, Maga, Palguna, Setra, Wesaka, Yesta, Asada, Srawana, Badra, Asuji. Name of the days are Radite, Soma, Anggara, Buda, Respati, Sukra, Tumpek. It is also recognizes division of month into suklapaksa and kresnapaksa, so there is no date of 16. They all are taken from the Saka calendar, except the dan name of Tumpek (Saturday), which is a native Sundanese term. But different to Saka calendar, Kala Sunda set the date one when the moon in half circle shape. Sanskrit term suklapaksa (paroterang in Sundanese), which is in the Saka calendar means “half moon to full moon,” have different meaning in Sudanese, it is namely “visible half of the moon (half-moon).” Other differences: Kartika, 8th month of Saka calendar, is the first month in Kala Sunda.
Day of Pasaran (pancawara) in the Kala Sunda is two-day difference from Javanese calendar. For example, Manis (Legi) in the Javanese calendar is Pon in the Kala Sunda. The Javanese calendar recognize year in a windu marked by numerology of Arabic letters (Alif-Ba-Jim-Dal-Ha-Waw-Zai). But the Kala Sunda it is marked with the name of animals: kebo (1 –Kebo means Buffalo), Keuyeup (2 –keyeup means river crab), Hurang (3 –hurang means river shrimp) , Embé (4 –embe means goat), Monyét (5 –Monyet means monkey), Cacing (6 –cacing means worm), and Kalabang (7 –kalabang means centipede).
We are now in 17th tunggul taun, the period of 1921-2040 of Kala Sunda (1985-2102 CE), in which the indung poé (1 Suklapaksa month of Kartika Year kebo) always fall on the day Tumpek (Saturday) Kaliwon.
New Year (1 Suklapaksa month of Kartika)
1937 Kebo: Tumpek (Saturday) Kaliwon 3rd March 2001
1938 Monyét: Buda (Wednesday) Wagé 20th February 2002
1939 Hurang: Soma (Monday) Wagé 10th February 2003
1940 Kalabang: Sukra (Friday) Pon 30th January 2004
1941 Embé: Anggara (Tuesday) Pahing 18th January 2005
1942 Keuyeup: Radité (Sunday) Pahing 8th January 2006
1943 Cacing: Respati (Thursday) Manis 28th December 2006
1944 Hurang: Soma (Monday) Kaliwon 17th December 2007
Topics: Science & Technology >< Sains & Teknologi, Social & History >< Sosial & Sejarah | No Comments »
