IKAT TO BATIK ?

EPIGRAPHIC DATA ON TEXTILES IN JAVA

FROM THE NINTH TO THE FIFTEENTH CENTURIES
JAN WISSEMAN CHRISTIE
Introduction
Textiles have played a central role in both the material and the symbolic cultures of Java for centuries, and
the contents of the early indigenous texts of the island reflect this fact. Although references to textiles in
the metric Javanese literature remained vague as long as the works adhered closely to Indian models, those
found in the corpus of legal documents preserved on stone and copper plate - notably the sima tax-transfer
charters - are both more specific and more numerous. Several hundred of these sima charters have
survived, spanning the period from the early ninth to the late fifteenth centuries. Although the purpose of
these charters, and thus the core of these texts, remained essentially the same over the centuries, the focus
of the secondary contents tended to change over time, reflecting shifting economic and political
circumstances and social preoccupations.
In the ninth and early tenth centuries the secondary contents of the charters were dominated by lists of the
gifts presented at the ceremonies held to validate the creation of a sima grant. Textiles were the most
important of the items presented as gifts, and many of these charters contain descriptions of the colours,
patterns or quality of the pieces of cloth presented to each individual. During the tenth and early eleventh
centuries emphasis in the charters shifted away from these gifts and their recipients towards the regulations
concerning trade and economic activity in tax-transferred communities. In this period detailed gift lists
were replaced by lengthy lists of taxable commercial activities connected with local markets. Dyeing,
weaving and the trade in textiles, yarn, dyestuffs, and other adjuncts to the domestic textile industry were a
major focus of these tax regulations. By the middle of the eleventh century the focus of the secondary text
had shifted once more, and increasingly elaborate lists of regulations governing the use of insignia of rank
and ritual status began to displace the commercial tax lists. This new preoccupation involved, most
prominently, the restrictions placed upon the use of certain types of textile. Each of the three major
phases of secondary text formulation provides important data for the construction of a history of Javanese
textiles and the roles they played in Javanese society.
Textiles as Gifts
Within the body of surviving sima documents, the most persistent reference to textiles is found in lists of
gifts presented at ceremonies connected with the establishment of a sima, or permanent tax grant.
Although such lists occur sporadically from the early ninth until the late fourteenth century, they reached
their peak, not only in frequency of occurrence but also in the sheer quantity of goods involved and the
detail in which they were recorded, during the century between AD 840 and 940. Textiles presented to
individuals at sima ceremonies reflected not only the role and status of the recipient, but also the sex
Male recipients normally received wdihan, cloth for a man's wrapped garment. These cloths were
measured inyu, an abbreviation of the Sanskrit term yuga oryugala, meaning 'pair, set', or in hlai, a
Javanese term meaning 'piece, sheet', which appears to have been half ayugala. Use of an imported term
for the standard measurement of a male garment is interesting, particularly since the Old Khmer cloth
measure, yo oryau, in use in the same period, seems to have been derived from the same source. This may
reflect the impact of Indian fashion or Indian trade cloth in measured pieces upon local male dress styles.
Adult men depicted in reliefs on Central Javanese temples dating to the late eighth or ninth century are
normally shown wearing either a knee-length wrapped lower garment or one of thigh length, the end of
which is drawn up between the legs. Theyu and hlai measures may thus relate to the width of the cloth,
oneyu possibly being constructed of two hlai sewn together along their length. Women received kain
(ken), which were always measured in blah (wlah), a Javanese term meaning 'piece', which was also used
occasionally in connection with the measurement of sawah, or irrigated rice fields, and which was also
borrowed by the Cambodians.
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Over fifty named types of wdihan and about fifteen named kain are listed in Javanese charters, most in
charters dating to before AD 940. A provisional listing of these is provided in Appendix 1, arranged in
chronological order. Of the cloths listed by name, those called rangga (also raga and raff) and angsit are by
far the most common. Textiles of these types were presented to members of all status groups, although
most frequently to those below the highest ranks. The terms appear to have referred to the dominant
colour of the cloths, rangga meaning 'red' and angsit *blue'. Both of these terms were used solely for
colour on textiles and they appear to have been part of a well-developed technical vocabulary relating to
the colouring and decorating of cloth. Both of these terms appear to have been derived from Sanskrit
terms for the same colour: rangga, and the variant forms raga and ragi, derived from the Sanskrit term
ragay 'red', and angsit from the Sanskrit asita, 'dark-coloured, blue*. Neither of these terms appear to have
survived in the mainstream Javanese textile vocabulary.
Most of the other types of cloth listed in Appendix 1 were presented to persons of high status and with a
large stake in the proceeedings. The majority of these terms are rather obscure or unspecific, although it
is clear that several relate to specific patterns or classes of pattern. At least two of the patterns, the
siwakidang and the syani himihimi, seem to have involved human or animal forms, but they appear to have
been outnumbered by cloths with floral or vegetal patterns, or with geometric patterns of one sort or
another. A few of the terms relate to the origin of the cloth: "white cloth made in India', 'made in the
north', 'made in the east', and 'made in the interior'. Some describe the quality of the cloth: 'choice',
'distinguished', 'royal gift', 'princely'; some detail the price of the cloth. A couple of terms suggest the
function of the piece of cloth; singhel (loose wrapping for ritual occasions), salimut (possibly referring to a
shoulder blanket?). Others describe colours: white, possibly a rose-colour, possibly 'milky', and one with
yellow as part of the colouring. The overall impression derived from the list is that cloths presented as gifts
during the ninth and early tenth centuries, particularly in Central Java, were overwhelmingly of red or blue
colour, more special cloths being of a wider range of colours and falling into a number of design classes for
which there was a specialized technical vocabulary.
None of the descriptions of gift cloths indicate whether they were composed of cotton or silk. Most were
almost certainly cotton. Though only one piece of white cloth is specifically described as having come
from India, some patterns appearing commonly on ninth and tenth century statuary, particularly flowers or
circles of dots scattered across a plain ground, resemble patterns found on Indian statuary of the time.
Here the kakawin poetry provides only limited help, since descriptions of clothing in the earlier works are
less detailed than in later literature. It does seem, on the whole, however, that the heroes and heroines of
this period were partial to silk in white and a range of reds. None of the terminology of the gift lists
appears in the literary works of this period. Only much later do the terminologies begin to merge.
After the tenth century there was a marked decline in the use of textiles as gifts, and a concomitant growth
in emphasis upon the presentation of graded quantities of money. This trend may reflect several
developments within the Javanese economy and society. By this time there appears to have been far more
cash available, some of it in gold or base-metal silver and some in imported Chinese copper cash. East
Java, where the centre of the Javanese state settled early in the tenth century, was also far more open to
trade and the domestic commercial sector, including such village-based industries as textile production,
experienced a boom in the tenth and eleventh centuries as part of the knock-on effect of the more general
Asian trade boom, the main engines of which were the Chinese and the Colas of South India. Both these
states were major textile exporters, and the floods of cloth carried into island Southeast Asia must have
seriously destabilized the local systems of valuation of textiles.

Weaving and Dyeing in Early Javanese Communities

The reorganisation of the contents of sima documents very early in the tenth century brought the non-
agricultural activities of Javanese communities affected by tax transfers into sudden prominence. This
change appears to have occurred in response to the increase in the importance of the commercial sector of
the Javanese economy to state finances as the rapidly expanding Chinese market for imports created a
regional trade boom. A large number of the charters issued between the early tenth and the mid eleventh
centuries, particularly in the Brantas delta and adjacent regions of East Java, include lengthy and detailed
lists of commercial activities which were subject to state tax. The lists also changed over time, new
activities being added and occasionally older ones being dropped. After the mid eleventh century these
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lists continued to appear, but more frequently in an abbreviated form, as other concerns gained
prominence.
Taxable commercial activities in early East Javanese communities were divided in the charters into two
major categories, semi-professional and professional, the latter being further divided into two sub-groups.
Members of the semi-professional category in early tenth century charters dealt with a wide variety of
dyestuffs, which are discussed at some length in Appendix 2. Of these, the most important were indigo
and wungkudu, the major sources of blue and red dyes respectively. These two were also mentioned
regularly in the less detailed lists of Balinese charters of the same period. These were not the only dyes
processed, however. A dark dye or dyeing process called cambul also appears in most lists, along with red
dyes from three other sources: cawring (sappan wood), laka wood, and ubar wood. It is interesting that
within this range of available red or reddish dyes there is no mention of soga or kayu tinggi, which has more
recently provided the major vegetable red of the traditional Javanese batik industry. There is also no
mention of tegerang (Cudrania javanensis) being used as a source of yellow vegetable dye as has been the
case more recently. The colours worn by Javanese villagers of the early second millennium must have
been closer to those of more recent Nusa Tenggara Timur than to those of the later nineteenth and early
twentieth century in Java.
Others who were apparently connected in some way with the textile industry were the producers of pahang-
ash to be used as mordant and enhancer of red dyes, the producer of oil which was used to prepare cloth
for wungkudu -dyeing, and the burners of lime used both in betel chewing and in dyeing. There were also
makers of spindles (kisi), cotton bows (wusuwusu) and combs or reeds (sun). These small adjuncts to
spinning and weaving must have been used in most households. The kakawin poem Bhomakawya, of the
twelfth or thirteenth century (Zoetmulder 1974:320) places these items in their household context:
"... the honoured grandmother was inseparable from her soaking vessel (panucyan) and her loom (lenunan), and her
cotton-carding place (pamuswan), where there hung her cotton-bow (wusuwusu) and her swift (lawayari) ..." (12.5;
Zoetmulder 1982: 2337).
The most interesting member of the misra semi-professional category is the mangapus, a processor always
classed with the dye-workers. This term may hold the key to understanding the process by which most
households in Java produced patterned or decorated cloth during this period. The word apus in Old
Javanese meant 'a tie, a band, bond, a thread' (Wojowasito 1979:33; Juynboll 1902:27; Zoetmulder 1982:
117), and the verbs derived from the root meant 'to bind with string, to tie or bind together'. It is a
synonym for the word ikat(iket), a term used infrequently in Javanese charters, but appearing in parallel
contexts in Balinese inscriptions of the same period. Both terms appear to have referred to the process of
producing patterns in woven cloth by means of tie-dyeing the yarn before weaving - a process still called
ikat in many areas.
In the context of the class of semi-professional processors listed in early Javanese inscriptions, the term
mangapus probably referred to a person who tie-dyed the warp threads for someone else to weave, rather
than to the person who wove the cloth. The term normally used, both in early Java and early Bali, for the
act of weaving itself was tenun, and in any event, in both Java and Bali the mangapus was listed with dye-
processors or dyers. If tie-dyeing of yarn was indeed a semi-professional activity, as seems to have been the
case, and subject to tax, then one must assume that the product, like others in the list, was sold, at least
under certain circumstances. If there was a trade in pre-patterned yarns then this may indicate that by the
tenth century in Java the link between identified patterns and lineage groups was not the overriding factor
in choice of design, unlike the situation until recently in parts of Nusa Tenggara Timur.
The availability of pre-dyed and pre-patterned yarns almost certainly led to an increase in the individual
household's output of woven cloth, and probably enhanced considerably the sophistication of the designs
woven and worn by members of rural households, at least for ceremonial occasions. Most early Javanese
households must have produced the majority of the cloth that they consumed, using the type of body-
tension loom with a continuous warp still commonly used in some parts of Indonesia. Such a loom is
illustrated in a household scene in a fourteenth century relief found on a stone pillar base from Trawulan
in East Java (Bernet Kempers 1976: plate 152). Cloth of this type that was presented to participants of
sima ceremonies is more likely to have been collected by the donor from client households than to have
been bought at market.
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lists continued to appear, but more frequently in an abbreviated form, as other concerns gained
prominence.
Taxable commercial activities in early East Javanese communities were divided in the charters into two
major categories, semi-professional and professional, the latter being further divided into two sub-groups.
Members of the semi-professional category in early tenth century charters dealt with a wide variety of
dyestuffs, which are discussed at some length in Appendix 2. Of these, the most important were indigo
and wungkudu, the major sources of blue and red dyes respectively. These two were also mentioned
regularly in the less detailed lists of Balinese charters of the same period. These were not the only dyes
processed, however. A dark dye or dyeing process called cambul also appears in most lists, along with red
dyes from three other sources: cawring (sappan wood), laka wood, and ubar wood. It is interesting that
within this range of available red or reddish dyes there is no mention of soga or kayu tinggi, which has more
recently provided the major vegetable red of the traditional Javanese batik industry. There is also no
mention of tegerang (Cudrania javanensis) being used as a source of yellow vegetable dye as has been the
case more recently. The colours worn by Javanese villagers of the early second millennium must have
been closer to those of more recent Nusa Tenggara Timur than to those of the later nineteenth and early
twentieth century in Java.
Others who were apparently connected in some way with the textile industry were the producers of pahang-
ash to be used as mordant and enhancer of red dyes, the producer of oil which was used to prepare cloth
for wungkudu-dyeing, and the burners of lime used both in betel chewing and in dyeing. There were also
makers of spindles (kisi), cotton bows (wusuwusu) and combs or reeds (suri). These small adjuncts to
spinning and weaving must have been used in most households. The kakawin poem Bhomakawya, of the
twelfth or thirteenth century (Zoetmulder 1974:320) places these items in their household context:
"... the honoured grandmother was inseparable from her soaking vessel (panucyan) and her loom (tenunan), and her
cotton-carding place (pamuswan), where there hung her cotton-bow (wusuwusu) and her swift (lawayan) ..." (12.5;
Zoetmulder 1982: 2337).
The most interesting member of the misra semi-professional category is the mangapus, a processor always
classed with the dye-workers. This term may hold the key to understanding the process by which most
households in Java produced patterned or decorated cloth during this period. The word opus in Old
Javanese meant 'a tie, a band, bond, a thread* (Wojowasito 1979:33; Juynboll 1902:27; Zoetmulder 1982:
117), and the verbs derived from the root meant 'to bind with string, to tie or bind together'. It is a
synonym for the word ikat(iket), a term used infrequently in Javanese charters, but appearing in parallel
contexts in Balinese inscriptions of the same period. Both terms appear to have referred to the process of
producing patterns in woven cloth by means of tie-dyeing the yarn before weaving - a process still called
ikat in many areas.
In the context of the class of semi-professional processors listed in early Javanese inscriptions, the term
mangapus probably referred to a person who tie-dyed the warp threads for someone else to weave, rather
than to the person who wove the cloth. The term normally used, both in early Java and early Bali, for the
act of weaving itself was tenun, and in any event, in both Java and Bali the mangapus was listed with dye-
processors or dyers. If tie-dyeing of yarn was indeed a semi-professional activity, as seems to have been the
case, and subject to tax, then one must assume that the product, like others in the list, was sold, at least
under certain circumstances. If there was a trade in pre-patterned yarns then this may indicate that by the
tenth century in Java the link between identified patterns and lineage groups was not the overriding factor
in choice of design, unlike the situation until recently in parts of Nusa Tenggara Timur.
The availability of pre-dyed and pre-patterned yarns almost certainly led to an increase in the individual
household's output of woven cloth, and probably enhanced considerably the sophistication of the designs
woven and worn by members of rural households, at least for ceremonial occasions. Most early Javanese
households must have produced the majority of the cloth that they consumed, using the type of body-
tension loom with a continuous warp still commonly used in some parts of Indonesia. Such a loom is
illustrated in a household scene in a fourteenth century relief found on a stone pillar base from Trawulan
in East Java (Bernet Kempers 1976: plate 152). Cloth of this type that was presented to participants of
sima ceremonies is more likely to have been collected by the donor from client households than to have
been bought at market.
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The second broad category of commercial activity subject to state tax in early Java was more closely
identified with the periodic market that circulated amongst settlements on a five-day schedule. Those who
traded in the market as full-time professionals or who made their living as professional artisans were
divided for tax purposes into two sub-categories: one consisting of peddlars who moved from market to
market selling manufactured goods, raw materials and foodstuffs provided or produced by others. The
other sub-group comprised a variety of persons who either provided a service or who produced the goods
they sold (eg. herdsmen, smiths, weavers). Both of the groups of professionals included in their numbers
specialists connected in some manner with the textile trade.
Heading the list of vendors in the peddlar category was the abasana, vendor of clothing (basana, from the
Sanskrit wasana), whose position at the head of the list was maintained from the early tenth century to the
late fourteenth - an indication of the importance of this vendor. The abasana probably sold both cloth and
made-up clothing, and as early as the tenth century there appears to have been sufficient demand for such
items to support a specialist vendor in every village market whose taxes were subject to transfer under sima
provisions. Other goods were more often carried by general peddlars in the tenth century. These included
cotton, cotton yarn or thread, wungkudu roots for dyeing, and in East Javanese markets after AD 915,
safflower dye. Safflower may have been an import from South Asia, appearing much later than the cotton
plant and Indigofera tinctoria (the Indian indigo which replaced the less effective local indigo sources),
both of which must have been transplanted in Java by the early first millennium AD, if not before.
Safflower is not mentioned before the tenth century, but it rapidly became not only a standard feature of
Javanese markets, but also a major source of export income for both Java and Bali, and high on the list of
goods imported from the islands by the Chinese. Javanese response to the market opportunity was
paralleled, on a greater scale, by the transplantation from South India, and subsequent mass export, of
black pepper by the twelfth century.
The list of professional traders in Javanese markets, and of the range of goods in which they dealt, tended
to lengthen as time went on, particularly in the category of specialist dealers in particular items. By the
early eleventh century hanks of cotton yarn, which had previously been handled by general peddlars, began
to be carried by specialists. This seems to indicate that there was at the time an expanding market for finer,
professionally-spun cotton yarn. At the same time the general peddlars had begun not only to regularly
carry safflower, but also occasionally to carry skeins of silk. This addition of silk thread to market lists in
the eleventh century confirms Sung Chinese reports that the Javanese were at the time both raising and
weaving their own silk, as well as importing skeins of coloured silk from China (Wheatley 1959:97-98;
Hirth and Rockhill 1966:78). It is interesting to note that the term for silk used in the Javanese market
lists was not the Sanskrit word sutra, used so frequently in the kakawin poetry of the period, but rather the
indigenous term, bsar> which was also applied to spider's silk and other silky filaments. Although true
cotton was apparently introduced from South Asia at an early date, sericulture was probably introduced
from elsewhere, possibly from China via mainland Southeast Asia.
The other category of professional traders operating in early Javanese markets included those who made
the items they sold. By the tenth century, if not before, this group included at least one member connected
with the textile industry. This was the acadar - the cadar cloth weaver. The cloth produced by these
professional weavers was apparently finer than the textiles produced in most households. The term cadar
now refers to a type of gauze, and in one early gift list it was coupled with the term tapis, which means 'thin,
fine' and may have been connected with silk textiles. Cadar cloth was considered fine enough to be
presented to the ruler in the tenth century (see Appendix 1), and the cadar weaver was probably the main
customer for the professionally-spun cotton thread, and later for the skeins of silk thread sold in Javanese
markets. This weaver was a standard member of the professional artisan lists in both large and small
communities in Central and East Java, and the cadar weaver appeared regularly in parallel tax lists from
Bali during the same period. Since up to four cadar weavers were allowed to work free of state tax in any
one sima community, there must have been a relatively large number of these professionals operating at
any one time, and the textiles they produced must have been fairly widely available. The loom used by the
cadar weavers was called a pacadaran, or cadar loom, differentiating it from the type of loom used in most
households. The pacadaran must have had a discontinuous warp, to allow for the use of a comb or reed
needed to separate the fine cotton or silk warp threads. This type of loom is still used in parts of Indonesia
for the weaving of cloth requiring the use of techniques in which the weft yarn is allowed to ride on the
surface to act as the major pattern element (Gittinger 1979:13). This technique is now associated with the
weaving of plaids, with weft ikat in silk, and with gold and silk kain songket in Southern Sumatra and Bali,
the two areas most heavily influenced by Javanese material culture (Gittinger ibid: 230). Traditionally this
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type of loom has been associated with coastal and port areas and with court centres of high culture in most
parts of Indonesia. On Java and Bali the cadar loom was in fairly widespread use from the beginning of the
tenth century.
In the eleventh century another artisan connected with textiles was added to the list of professionals. This
was the amalanten or amananten (from the terms walanten and bananten, which seem to have become
conflated and appear inter-changeably in the market lists). It is clear from the later privilege lists that
bananten was a type of cloth, which called for special processing that involved both washing and pounding,
as is made clear by a passage in the Sumansantaka kakawin of.the twelfth century (29.2; Zoetmulder 1982:
2179):
"As (they) headed north and east, nearing thepamalantenan (balanten site) close by the potting site on the banks of
the deep river,
People were awakening, lighting their lamps, aware that the time for using their mallets was almost upon them.
Unpleasant is the hurried sound of the pottery paddle, which disturbs the listener,
Lovely, though, is the sound of the cheering clothes mallet (palu wastra), that sounds like the striking of the bark cloth
(dahtwang) beater..."
This passage appears to rule out the possibility that balanten was bark cloth, which appears consistently in
the literature under the term daluwang. Since it was something sold by professional peddlars, and since
bananten cloth was mentioned both in charters and in the literature, there seems little doubt that it formed
a class of woven cloth. Pigeaud (1960: III, 167) has suggested a translation of 'bleacher of textiles' for the
amalanten mentioned in the Biluluk charter of AD 1391, but the privilege lists of that and the previous
three centuries indicate that bananten cloth could be coloured. If bananten and walanten were indeed
variant spellings of the same word, or if the two original words became conflated in meaning and
interchangeable, which appears to have been the case, then the terms must relate to a method of
processing already-woven cloth, which required both access to water and the use of a heavy mallet. This
cloth was of importance in ceremonial display.
Textiles and Status
As the importance of textiles as ceremonial gifts declined, their use in other contexts was highlighted.
From the middle of the eleventh century onwards lists of privileges granted to members of sima
communities began to replace in part the financial benefits enjoyed by their earlier counterparts. These
privileges included permission to eat certain delicacies classed as 'royal food', to use certain ritual objects,
to build certain types of ritual ediface, to use boreh-type cosmetics in rituals, and to use certain classes of
cloth, cloths with named patterns, and cloths decorated in specific ways either in connection with ritual or
as insignia of rank.
The bananten cloth appears prominently in these privilege lists (see Appendix 3). It was used for
decorative hangings under the eaves of buildings, for screens, for cushion covers and covering-cloths for
siren containers and ritual receptacles, and, as long as it was not black in colour, for sitting upon. The
term bananten was not connected with clothing in epigraphic contexts, but several instances of the use of
this type of cloth for clothing are mentioned in the verse literature of the eleventh and later centuries.
The impression given by the literary and epigraphic references is that bananten cloth could be either
bleached or bear colours in patterns, that it was important in ritual contexts, and that, as noted above, the
processing of the cloth at some point involved both wetting and pounding. From the vocabularies of
groups within early Java's trade sphere, one finds that in Bima malanta referred to a white ceremonial
cloth, for the Iban apua belantan was a type of fine cloth, and that in the Malay of the Malacca Straits
belantan meant 'cudgel, club'. All of these surviving usages highlight one or another characteristic of
bananten (or balanten) cloth as it appears in early second millennium contexts in Java.
The only process still used in Indonesia which seems to fit the various descriptions of bananten cloth and
the manner in which it was produced is the procedure involved in preparing cloth to be drawn upon or to
have wax applied by canting as part of the batik process. This process of preparation of already-woven
cloth, as described by Gittinger (1979:117), involved the following:
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"The cotton piece was first washed, then rubbed and kneaded in vegetable oil to enable the fibres to accept the red
and brown vegetable dyes. Then the oil was removed in alkaline baths, and the cloth beaten with heavy wooden
mallets to prepare the surface for the wax..."
The pounding of the cloth is said to make its surface supple and fine, and to prevent snagging of the nib of
the canting (Warming and Gaworski 1981:153).
A number of named patterns appear in the privilege lists associated with garments to be worn on ritual
occasions. These patterns included the nagapuspa (the white flower of the nagasari tree, Mesua
Roxburghii),/?&7tfz galuh (jewelledpasilih), siwapatra (Siva's flower, ie. red lotus), tunjung siniwak (split
lotus), tunjung ijo. kunit (lotuses of green and ? turmeric-yellow), mawija kuning (yellow-seeded), askar
(flowered),pasilih tampung (rock-bodied, ie. immortal), and a number of others, the most frequently
mentioned being nawagraha (nine-planet). A striking feature of this list is that aside from one pattern -
the pasilih galuh - none of those mentioned in the privilege lists of the eleventh century and later appears
in the gift lists of the ninth and tenth centuries, although most are rooted in description of colour and
object represented, and should not, therefore, be ephemeral names. One must conclude either that these
patterned cloths of the privilege lists were, with one exception, considered inappropriate for presentation
to persons of high status on ceremonial occasions - which seems rather unlikely - or that a whole new class
of patterns entered the design repertoire after the middle of the tenth century, when the gift lists began to
appear in abbreviated and less specific forms. If the latter is correct, then it almost certainly indicates that
some fairly dramatic developments had occurred by the middle of the eleventh century.
By the twelfth century, changes had become more obvious. Late in this century charters began to mention
the term tulis in connection with techniques of decorating cloth to be worn as clothing. The word tulis
(writing, drawing, outlining) is now given to the process of free-hand batik decoration in which a canting is
used to apply wax to the surface of the cloth. In the twelfth through fourteenth centuries, however, tulis
appears to have encompassed three separate techniques of applying colour to textiles after they were
woven, at least two of which may have more recent analogues.
The first of the tulis techniques to be mentioned in datable charters occurs late in the twelfth century when
the residents of Ceker were granted the privilege of using cloth tulis (a) warnna (decorated with drawings in
colour) (Brandes 1913: 72.A9). Mention of tulis in connection with coloured cloth occurs slightly earlier
in literary contexts: the Arjunawiwaha kakawin, thought to date to the second quarter of the eleventh
century, mentions a cloth covering described as randi tinulis (red, with tulis decorations) (34.2, Zoetmulder
1982:1502). What the tulis patterns were is not stated either in the charters or in the literature, but it may
be more than coincidental that those privilege lists in which the term tulis warnna (coloured drawings) is
applied to clothing lack the detailed enumeration of patterns mentioned above, while those in which
patterns are listed by name lack this general descriptive classification. Since the total number of passages
involved is relatively small, this seeming alternative usage cannot be treated as conclusive evidence that the
new named patterns which began to appear in eleventh century charters were linked with the new
decorative technique. However, the connection does seem very likely. Whether this technique can be
linked with batik resist dyeing techniques is less clear, but since more primitive forms of free-hand batik
decoration than the relatively recent canting method do still exist in Indonesia - using a bamboo nib and
either wax or rice paste to exclude the dye - there is a good chance that tulis warnna of the twelfth and later
centuries was ancestral to modern batik.
By the end of the thirteenth or beginning of the fourteenth century, two other tulis techniques were
mentioned in the privilege lists of the charters. One was tulis weteng, a term which remains obscure. The
other tulis technique mentioned at this time had a greater impact on the history of textile decoration.
This was tulis mas (writing or drawing in gold). The Tuhaiiaru charter of AD 1323 (Boechari 1986: 77-85)
includes apparel tinulis ing mas (drawn upon in gold) along with a number of named textile patterns
amongst the insignia of rank the members of the community were allowed to display. As in the case of
tulis warnna, literary references to the technique in court settings appear to be earlier. The late twelfth
century Smaradahana kakawin mentions a headcloth tinulis mas (16.6, Zoetmulder 1982:2057), and the
Bhomakawya speaks of gilded patterns on clothing for both men and women (17.9,25.2, ibid). Cloth
gilded in this manner (probably through the attaching of gold leaf or powder to fine lines of glue drawn
onto the cloth, a method still used in Bali) became the favoured poetic image of luxury and elegance in the
courts of the verse romances, and it remained important in literature for centuries. The term used in later
16
literature for this decoration was parada (from the Sanskrit parada, 'quicksilver'), and it has survived in the
formprada, the term used to describe the type of cloth gilding still carried out on Bali, either on a plain
silk background or over Javanese batik to highlight the lines (Gittinger 1979:141).
Discussion
When one turns to the patterns illustrated on garments of statuary, the impression one gains from the
charters and verse romances that some fairly dramatic changes occurred between the early tenth and late
thirteenth centuries, in the fields of textile production and decoration, is reinforced. The assumption that
some form of Heat weaving was the dominant method of producing patterned cloth for all classes before the
turn of the millennium finds support not only in the written records but also in the patterns on the
garments of numerous small metal sculptures of the ninth and tenth centuries. These fall into two broad
classes. One appears to represent plain-coloured cloth decorated with a scattering of small six or eight-
petalled flowers, similar to those found on the stone Ganesa sculpture from the Central Javanese temple of
Banon (Bernet Kempers 1959: plate 39). On many of the small metal sculptures of this period, the flowers
are reduced to patterns of dots encircling central rings or dots. This pattern appears to be Indian in origin,
and the cloths represented were apparently meant to be identified as imports. The other major class of
pattern on statuary of the same period comprises a range of floral motifs arranged in bands of varying
width, separated by what look like warp stripes, presumably of contrasting colour. Some of the gold
statuary from Central Java illustrates these patterns most clearly, those from Banyumas held by the
Museum Negara in Jakarta (no. A29/664c) bearing slightly geometricised versions of the four-petalled
sandalwood flower also found stamped upon Javanese coinage of the period, here arranged in bands
between narrow stripes. While it is possible that these too were meant to be recognised as imports, this
general class of pattern is well established in the repertoire of designs still found in the warp ikat textiles of
Indonesia, notably in Nusa Tenggara Timur on the islands of Sawu, Roti, Timur, Lembata and Flores.
There is reason to suspect that these patterns on early statuary corresponded to those produced by
Javanese ikat weavers. When one couples this type of design with the palette of colours apparently
available to the ordinary household early in the tenth century - dominated by reds, browns, blues and black
- the effect would be very similar to that produced by traditional ikat weavers on Sawu and elsewhere in
Nusa Tenggara Timur: attractive, if somewhat sombre. For the upper classes there was probably more
use made of a range of reds and rose colours on bleached white backgrounds, judging from the cloths given
to high-status recipients at sima ceremonies. In terms of cloth produced locally, status differences appear
to have been expressed through the use of finer, more professionally woven, lighter or brighter coloured
textiles of the same mainstream ikat tradition.
If one compares the patterns on statuary of this period with those on statues of the late thirteenth and
fourteenth centuries, it becomes clear that real changes had occurred in the intervening decades. Not only
are the later patterns far more dense, elaborate and finely-drawn (and thus much closer in general style to
traditional batik patterns), but the designs appear by the later period to have lost the distinct linear
symmetry of many of the earlier patterns. The symmetry of all of the later patterns is clearly axial, closer to
the effect produced by block printing and traditional batik than warp ikat. Double ikat (called gringsing in
the literature) is not mentioned in literary contexts until some time after these new patterns appear on
statuary, the earliest mention occurring in the Nagarakrtagama of the mid fourteenth century (18.4;
Pigeaud 1960:1,16). In any event, gringsing cloth seems to have been used largely for sashes rather than
dodot or tapih garments, and none of the numerous named gringsing patterns (which appear to have
illustrated wayang scenes) correspond to any of the named patterns of the privilege lists in later charters.
It thus seems unlikely that these new patterns were produced by double ikat techniques.
These denser axial patterns began to appear on Javanese statuary in the late tenth or eleventh century, at
least some of them bearing a resemblance to some of the Indian textiles found amongst the remains of Old
Cairo. One of the most striking parallels is found between the pattern of interlocking circles with floral
infill dated to the later thirteenth and fourteenth centuries in Middle Eastern archaeological contexts
(Barnes 1991) and that illustrated on a number of statues of the same centuries in East Java. This
particular pattern is a clear ancestor of the kawung design so important in the traditional Javanese batik
repertoire. Most of the Indian fragments that have been tested, particularly those bearing red coloured
designs, appear to have been mordant-dyed, either by block printing or freehand painting. Some of the
textiles, in particular those of predominantly indigo blue colouring, seem to have been resist dyed. There
appears to be little doubt that these Indian textiles had a profound impact upon design preferences in Java
17
soon after the turn of the second millennium. There is some reason to believe that the textiles portrayed
on East Javanese statuary were not all meant to represent Indian imports, however. Javanese and Indian
aesthetics did diverge to a degree. The Javanese patterns are denser than the Indian counterparts, tend to
be more frequently and more realistically based upon floral and vegetal motifs, and lack the common
Indian border motifs. Most of the Javanese borders are narrower and owe much to border designs found
on relief panels in Javanese temples of the ninth or tenth centuries. Many of the cloths represented look
like Javanese interpretations of valued Indian designs.
If at least some of these textiles were produced by local artisans, then the charters and literature of the
early second millennium present us with only one technique for their production: that of the tulis workers,
dealing either in gold or in colours. The technique called tulis warna (drawing in colour) may have owed
its inspiration to borrowed Indian technology. If so, the borrowing was very selective. This transition in
design technology, possibly influenced by attempts to copy Indian designs, possibly also prompted by
Indian technology, seems to have been well under way by the eleventh century and to have gathered
momentum in the following centuries, each new valued import provoking reactions from local weavers and
dyers.
This impression of change, based upon the appearance of new patterns on statuary and a new vocabulary of
design in the charters, is reinforced by the fact that there seems at the same time to have been a shift in
colour preferences. Although red, blue and white remained the basic clothing colours, the range of reds
mentioned in the literature by the late fourteenth century had expanded to encompass at least nine
variations, with pinks, ruby red, vermillion, orange and saffron pink displacing the older, deeper reds in
elite clothing. Yellow became more prominent, being mentioned both in charters and the literature as a
preferred colour, and greens appeared soon afterwards. Purple seems to have been added only later,
probably when Indian patola silks became available. For the eleventh through fourteenth centuries, the
palette of colours used on valuable textiles seems to have been dominated by brighter reds, yellows, greens,
white and gold. Chinese accounts of the thirteenth century single out white and yellow silks as desirable
exports from Java and it seems that the shift in colour of the locally-woven lungsir silks, described in the
Ramayana kakawin as either red or white, to the yellow with which they were associated in the eighteenth
century (Andaya 1989:43), had been accomplished by this time.
These changes, not only in the technology and economics of textile production, but also in the aesthetics of
status, most of which appear to have occurred during a brief period in the eleventh and twelfth centuries,
were symptomatic of broader and more profound shifts in Javanese society at the time. They occurred
against a background of rapid population growth, increased trade wealth and overseas contact for a
broader spectrum of the Javanese populace, the breakdown of older village structures, and political
upheaval, all of which seem to have contributed to a certain degree of social fluidity, giving rise to a boom
in consumer demand for the new and the courtly in status markers which could be worn or displayed.
Rapid appropriation by a prosperous non-elite of goods and styles of the court seems to have provoked the
development of sumptuary rules in Java by the eleventh century, expressed in terms of the privilege lists in
charters of this and later centuries. This period may have seen not only the development of features
characteristics of later Javanese social and political systems, but also of the types of textiles and other
material appurtenances which graced them.
Acknowledgements
I wish to thank the British Academy for providing the funds that supported part of the research discussed above. I would also like to
express my gratitude to the members of the Pusat Penelitian Arkeologi Nasional for the aid and facilities provided. My sincere
gratitude goes to the late Drs. Boechari for sharing with me some of the epigraphic research in which he was engaged.
18
Appendix 1: Textiles mentioned in Gift Lists
A. wdihan (male cloth or wrapped lower garment)
1. takwang Central Java AD 821-24
2. siwakidang
3. hamarawu
4. putih
5. ganjarhaji
6. angsit
7. raga
8. rangga
9. singhel
10. buat kling putih
11. ganjarpatra
Central Java
Central Java
Central Java
Central Java
East Java
Central Java
Central Java
Central Java
East Java
Central Java
East Java
Central Java
Central Java
12. lunggar Central Java
13. buat waitan inmas ma 8 Central Java
14. pinakasinghel wdihan Central Java
rangga
AD 842
AD 842
AD 842-78
AD 862-79
AD 937-39
AD 862-81
AD 862
AD 875-919
AD 901-26
AD 875-76
AD 929
AD 876
AD 876-907
AD 876
AD 876
AD 877
general term for a piece of cloth used as
a wrapped lower garment; in literary
contexts translates the Sanskrit term
wasas (cloth, clothing)
name of a pattern incorporating the god
Siwa and the muncak deer
name of a pattern?
colour white
description of class or quality?; 'royal
gift-
colour dark coloured, black, blue;
Javanized pronunciation of the Sanskrit
term asita
colour red (Sanskrit: red, passion)
colour red; Javanized pronunciaton of
the Sanskrit term raga
term for a loose garment or wrapping;
in epigraphic contexts referring to cloth
wrapped around the kulumpang or teas
stones in village shrines; the literary use
is broader, referring to a loose, wrapped
lower garment, occasionally translating
the Sanskrit term wasas (cloth, clothing)
colour and origin: 'white (cloth) made
in India/Kalingga'
name of pattern and description of
class/quality: 'floral/vegetal (pattern)
gift (cloth)'
description of source and value: 'made
in the east, (value) 8 masa in gold'
colour, type of cloth and function: 'to
be used as singhel, a red wdihan';
received by the sang kudur who
performed the sima ceremony at the
village shrine, apparently to wrap the
stone
19
15. luir mayang Central Java AD 877
name of a pattern: mayang could refer
either to a fishing net or to the mayang
pinang (areca blossom), still important
in magic and wedding symbolism in
Malay societies
16. pasilih galuh Central Java AD 877
name of pattern and description of
class/type of cloth: 'jewelled pasilih
(ritual cloth) (Sansk. galu)
17. mas dua mas Central Java AD 877
description of value: masdomas = '2
masa in gold'
18. kafyaga Central Java AD 879-919
colour dawn-pink? (Sanskrit kafya:
dawn + aga; Balinese kaliyaga: red)
19. ron paribu ma 5 Central Java ADc.880
description of pattern and value:
'thousands of leaves (?), (value) 5 masa'
20. suswan bu[...] Central Java ADc.880
colour?/description of pattern?: suswan
could mean 'milky*, or may be a variant
spelling of susun, 'layered, striped?'
21. tadahan brat ma 5 Central Java ADc.880
description of class/quality and value:
'gift (cloth) (worth) the weight of 5
masa (in gold)'
22. syani (syami?)
himihimi brat ma 4
Central Java ADc.880
description of colour?, pattern and
value: 'dark (syami) Moluccan crab
design (worth) in weight 4 masa (of
gold)'; the himihimi, Moluccan or king
crab is a symbol of male and female
union
23. prama Central Java ADc.880
description of quality: 'highest, best'
(Sanskrit:parama 'best, supreme')
24. birafwira Central Java AD 879-81
description of class/quality of cloth?
(Sanskrit wira: 'heroic')
25. ran Central Java AD 879-908 colour red (Sanskrit: raga)
East Java AD 915-1030
26. silih Central Java AD 879
description of class of cloth?:
ceremonial (seepasilih)', it is just
conceivable that the term refers to
alternating colours, as in stripes
27. pilih angsit Central Java AD 881-82
description of quality and colour
'choice dark/blue'
28. alapnya salari laming Central Java AD 882
description of pattern? and colour
'collection in all directions?,
yellow/ivory coloured' (there is a
modern batik pattern called alap-alapan
which consists of a jumble of animal and
vegetal forms)
29. taturakyang Central Java
30. ganjar hajipatra sisi Central Java
East Java
31. pinilay Central Java
32. ganjar patra sisi
33. pilih magong
34. jaga
35. jaw
36. jaro gulunggulung
Central Java
Central Java
Central Java
Central Java
Central Java
37. maramu lawelawe East Java
38. ambayambay Central Java
39. sulasih Central Java
40. tapis East Java
AD 9th c. description of pattern and
colour/process of decoration:
'golden/gilded (a)kyangV; tatur, 'liquid
gold' occurs frequently in the literature
as a term for gold paint or leaf applied
to cloth (a form of prada); akyang may
refer to a marine animal or land snail
AD 901-3 description of quality, function and
pattern: 'royal gift (cloth), with
AD 901 floral/vegetal border/side'
AD 907 description of class of cloth?: pinilay
was a rank of official
AD 907 description of class/function and
pattern: 'gift (cloth) with floral border'
AD 907-919 description of quality: 'great choice'
AD 907 name of pattern?: 'emerging, guarding'
AD 905-8 name of a class of patterns?
AD 914 name of pattern?: 'jaro-type with
rolling/circle/wave/repeat design'
AD c.918 name of pattern: 'floating flower petals';
this term is reminiscent of the
description found in the 14th century
Sutasoma (105:8) referring to a
patterned cloth: cangwli mirir lawo
'Cauli (cloth) with gently blowing flower
petals'. The description of this cloth
from Caul in India could be applied to
patterns depicted on many 9th and 10th
century Javanese statues, in which floral
patterns are scattered on a plain
ground, and which look more Indian
than Javanese.
name of a pattern: flowers of Rafflesia
hasselti (also called pakma, kerubut),
which were once used to make love
potions in Java
name of a pattern: 'holy basil'
(Sanskrit: tulasi, surasi, Mod. J. selaseh);
the plant appears in Malay pantun as a
symbol of love; in Java it was used as an
ancestor-spirit offering
AD928-C.930 description of kind of cloth: thin cloth,
fine cloth, silk?; by the 19th century in
South Sumatra the term had come to
mean a high quality locally woven cloth
(silk?) selendang interwoven with gold
thread and embroidered.
AD 919
AD 919
21
41. tapis cadar East Java AD 928-30
description of type of cloth: fine cadar
cloth, silk gauze?
42. patilpadi East Java AD 929-30
description of quality or class of cloth:
'special, high ranking; lord'
43. mahan East Java AD 929-933
description of quality or status:
'distinguished, perfected, noble'
44. /... ] uttama East Java AD 943
probably description of quality or
status, though only the end of the word
is legible: 'best/highest...'
45. cadar East Java ADc.930
description of type of cloth: cadar gauze
(locally woven, high quality cloth made
by professional weavers - see market
lists)
46. jaro haji East Java AD 939 name of pattern: 'royal jaro*
47. songrah East Java AD 939
? name of pattern, colour?; possibly
'bright Wood red'
48. saUmut East Java AD 1030
type/function of cloth? colour?: Mod. J.
slimut. 'blanket'; O J. sa-limut. 'all
misty'
49. salawd East Java AD 12th c name of pattern: 'all flowered
Note: Wurjantoro (1986) mentions some 44 different types of wdihan in Central and East Javanese inscriptions, including rajayogya
('princely, fit for a king'), pamodana (from Sanskritpramodanal: 'delightful, joyful'), bwat Iwitan (?), and bwatpinilay ('for the
pinilay?'), which do not appear in the above listing. She does not, however, provide details of date or source, so they have not been
incorporated in the table. Jones (1984:46) includes bwat Iwitan in the list of 33 types of wdihan mentioned in inscriptions of the reign
of king Balitung and his immediate successors (AD 900-928). She mentions two other types not listed above: tangkalan (?) and buat
inghulu ('made in the interior*), but does not identify the sources. Other divergences from the above list in Jones appear to be due to
misreadings or printing errors: 1) angsit muangputih: 'blue and white', angsit muangrangga: 'blue and red', and rangga angsit: 'red
(and) blue', in the charters consulted for the above list appear in each case to refer to separate pieces of cloth rather than to cloth with
two colours. It is, however, possible that in charters not consulted the terms do appear as a description of a single piece of cloth. 2)
cadar siwa Hdang is a conflation of cadar and siwa kidang, which appear in different contexts; and luir and lunggar mayang should read
luir mayang and lunggar. 3) sadugala is a variant form oisayugala, a measure of cloth, more frequently found in the abbreviated form:
1 yu. Addition of those wdihan types identified by Wurjantoro and Jones which were not accessible when the above list was
constructed brings the total list to 55.
*
22
B. kain/ken (female cloth, wrapped lower garment)
1. atmaraksa Central Java AD 862
2. kalamwantan
3. buatingulu
4. putih
5. halangpakan
6. inmas ma 4
7. rangga
8. pangkat
9. buat wetan
10. jaro
11. pinilai
12. bwat lor
Central Java
Central Java
Central Java
Central Java
Central Java
Central Java
Central Java
East Java
Central Java
Central Java
East Java
AD 875
AD 876
AD 877
AD 877
AD 877
AD 878
AD 878
AD 901
AD 905
AD 905
AD 929
name of a pattern: Sanskrit atmaraksa:
'protection, protector', or Sanskrit
atmaraksa: 'snake gourd' (which has a
five-petalled flower)
name of a pattern: ?
description of origin: 'made in the
interior"
colour white
name of a pattern/description of type of
cloth?: halang. 'to lie athwart or across,
criss-cross, obstruct'; pakan:
"weft/woof (Crawfurd 1856: 445). One
possible interpretation of the name is
'obstructed weft', which might refer to
supplementary weft or tapestry weave.
description of value: '(worth) in gold 4
masa'
colour red (Javanized pronunciation of
Sanskrit raga. See wdihan list.
name of pattern: 'in rows, in lines'
striped?, patterns in bands?
description of origin: 'made in the east'.
See wdihan list.
name of a class of pattern; see wdihan
list.
description of class or status of cloth?
See wdihan list.
description of origin: 'made in the north'
Note: Wurjantoro (1986) adds two types otkain to this list: kafyaga (colour pink? See wdihan list) and laid ('man'). Jones' (1984
list also includes gahja(r) haji patra sisi ('royal gift cloth with floral border". See wdihan list). These bring the total to 15.
23
Appendix 2: Terms relating to Dyestuffs and Dyeing in Early Javanese Market Lists
1. manulawungkudu: 'processor of indigo and wungkudu dyes' (blue and red).
These two dyes were by far the most important dyestuffs used in Java and Bali during the late first millennium and early second
millennium, and they have continued until very recently to be the dominant vegetable dyes in Nusa Tenggara.
The first element of the compound refers to indigo (nula in Old Javanese inscriptions, nila in Old Balinese language inscriptions and
in Old Javanese metric literature; from the Sanskrit nila, tula). The fact that the borrowed Sanskrit term was used consistently instead
of the older native term tomltarum is interesting, and may provide some insight into the history of the use of the dyestuff. Several
plants have been used as a source of indigo dye in Indonesia: Indigofera arrecta and the more recently imported New World
Indigofera guatimalensis are still used in Java (Heringa 1989:113), and in Nusa Tenggara three plants are found: Indigofera hirsuta,
Indigofera sumatrana, and Indigofera tinctoria (Hitchcock 1983:115-16). Of these latter, the first two are indigenous to Indonesia
and the last, I. tinctoria, is apparently a native of southern India and Sri Lanka. Indigofera tinctoria is apparently far superior to the
native plants as a source of dye, and it must for this reason have been imported into Java and Bali some time late in the last millennium
p
BC or early in the first millennium AD, bringing its Indian name with it. This may explain why Rumphius stated that the plant never
grew wild, but was only found in cultivation (Heringa 1989:115).
According to Marsden (1811: 93-4) indigo was the principal dyestuff used in nineteenth century Sumatra, and the plant was to be
found in the fields of most villages. The dye was not processed into a solid substance, presumably because it was so universally grown
that it was available in all communities and was not, therefore, normally traded at any distance. The process used was laborious:
"The stalks and branches having lain for some days in water to soak and macerate, they then boil it, and work among it
with their hands a small quantity of chunam (quick lime, from shells), with the leaves olpaku sabba (a species of fern)
for fixing the colour." (ibid)
Raffles (1817:170) noted that other recipies for indigo decoctions included wine from the aren palm and various vegetable acids. A
number of other ingredients are still combined with indigo: quicklime andgula jawa (palm sugar) in Java (Heringa 1989:115), rye
from palm ash to help the indigo dissolve in water and jirak bark in Sumba (Warming and Gaworski 1981:68). In Bima the process is
much as described by Marsden. There the leaves of the indigo plant are pounded in a mortar and placed in an earthen pot, then left to
infuse for several days. Thread is then kneaded in the liquid, and hung out to dry, a process which is repeated until the desired shade is
produced. This may take up to two weeks of kneading and drying. No mordant is used, but lime is sometimes added to the liquid to
darken the colour (Hitchcock 1983:117). The process of kneading was so much a part of indigo dyeing that the term nula was
replaced in later Javanese inscriptions by the word medel (wedel), 'to squeeze, knead*.
The second element in the compound is wungkudu, the Old Javanese term for the mengkudu or kudhu tree (Morinda citrifolia, Linn.)
which has been the single most important source of red vegetable dye in the islands. Rumphius appears to have distinguished two
types of wungkudu, a wild variety growing near the coasts and preferred for dyes, and a cultivated type used medicinally (Heringa 1989:
118). Burkill (1966:1517) identifies the coastal tree as Morinda citrifolia, var. braceata, which once was cultivated near the coasts on
a large scale. The Indian dye source Morinda coreia (Morinda tinctoria) has apparently never supplanted the native species.
Wungkudu appears in early Javanese market lists as a dyestuff carried by professional traders, and it is mentioned amongst the local
products warehoused in East Javanese ports for export in the eleventh and twelfth centuries (Christie 1982: 506).
Raffles (1817:170) noted that wungkudu was used in the nineteenth century to produce a "beautiful and lasting scarlet and blood-red".
The process by which a good red is produced from wungkudu was evidently a lengthy one: the dye is derived from the bark on the
roots of the tree, which is crushed and pulped in water with rye or the bark of the jirak tree (Symplocos fasiculata, Zoll.), which,
because of its high alum content, has also been used as a mordant for sappan dye. According to Raffles (ibid), the cloth or yarn to be
dyed was first boiled in sesame or kamiri nut oil, then washed in a decoction of merang (rice chaff) ash, then dried and subsequently
immersed in the dye solution. Warming and Gaworski (1981:69-71) note that a very similar multi-stage process is still used in Nusa
Tenggara, and that, depending upon the hue desired, the process of soaking and drying can take up to three months. Heringa's (1989:
118-119) description of the process used in the past in Java is similar. She states that the ground wungkudu bark was apparently mixed
with powdered jirek bark in a ratio of two to one to form a paste, which could be diluted for dyeing. Here, though, the dye was
apparently used in batik dyeing by the process of pouring it onto the areas of cloth to be coloured and rubbing it in with a flat hand.
Wungkudu dye processing was also mentioned in Balinese charters of the late ninth century onwards (Goris 1954: 002, etc.), and it is
worth noting that in twelfth century Bali trees considered to be of special value included not only the wungkudu, but also jirak and
kamiri (Stein Callenfels 1926:1-6). In more recent times wuntfaidu has been supplanted in Java by soga (Peltophorum pterocarpum,
24
Backer), a tree the bark of which imparts a reddish or yellowish brown colour characteristic of the traditional batiks of Central Java
(Burkill 1966:1715-16), and by sappan (also called soga jawa) for red, apparently because wungkudu has become increasingly difficult
1 0 obtain. Since the tree is happiest near the coast, it may always have been expensive in the interior of Central Java.
1 mahambul (mahembut): 'processor of dark or black dyestuffs' (cambullcembuT).
There are several possible sources from which black dyes might have been obtained, all of them compounds rather than single-
substance dyes. According to Crawfurd (1856:135) black colour on cloth was commonly produced in Java early in the nineteenth
century from the rinds of the mangustin fruit and of the katapang (Terminalia catappan), mixed with sulphate of iron. Marsden (1811:
95) noted that during the same period Sumatrans used iron-rich mud as a source of iron sulphate, stamping indigo-blue cloth into lake
mud to deepen the hue to black. Raffles (1817:170) identified another source of black dye in early nineteenth century Java: "an
exotic bark called ting'i", used in combination with the rind of the mangustin fruit, with merang (rice chaff) ash acting as mordant. The
bark of the mangrove shrub kayu tinggi (Ceriops candolleana, Am.) is still used in Java by itself to provide a dark brownish red
(Heringa 1989:116), and the closely related tengar (Ceriops tagal) is used to turn indigo-dyed fabrics black (Burkill 1966: 522-23).
All of these processes for producing black on cloth or yam must have been fairly laborious and they probably called for semi-specialist
knowledge.
3. mahawring: 'processor of cawringlcangwring dye''. (red)
This dye has not yet been identified with certainty, but was probably derived from sappan or brazil wood (Caesalpina sappan), a
nineteenth century Malay term for which was nenering. Sappan wood dye was exported from Java to China by the early 13th century
(Hirth and Rockhill 1966: 78) and is still one of the important sources of vegetable dye in Indonesia. Sappan trees have been until
recently cultivated throughout the islands, largely as a source of tannin (Burkill 1966:394). Sappan was exported in quantity from
Bima to Java for the batik industry (Hitchcock 1983:117). Crawfurd (1856:135) listed it as a major source of red dye in nineteenth
century Java. According to Marsden (1811:135) the process of extracting and using the dye was laborious:
"The heart of this (sapang) being cut into chips, steeped for a considerable time in water, and then boiled, is used for
dyeing here, as in other countries. The cloth or thread is repeatedly dipped in this liquid, and hung to dry between
each wetting, till it is brought to the shade required. To fix the colour, alum is added in the boiling."
Alum was one of the industrial raw materials that the Javanese imported from China in the thirteenth century (Hirth and Rockhill,
ibid).
4. manglaka: 'processor of tate-wood dye', (brownish-red)
The laka (Emblica officinallis, Gaertn.) is a small tree found widely in the islands (Burkill 1966:935), frequently used as a source of
tannin and of a brownish-red dye, which can be turned to black with the use of iron-mordants (ibid: 936). Laka occurs regularly in Old
Javanese literature as a term for a particular shade of red on cloth.
5. mangubar. 'processor of ubar dye', (red)
The ubar (Euginia sp., Linn.) is a widespread family of trees, the bark of which imparts a red colour to cloth. If used with iron-
mordants, it will yield black (Burkill 1966: 974). Like laka, ubar has a high tannin content.
6. kasumbha (kasumu): 'safflower dye', (saffron-red, rose)
Safflower (Sanskrit: kasumbha; Carthamus tinctorius) is mentioned only in lists of dyestuffs carried by professional traders. It may
have been imported as a cultivar from India (hence the use of the Sanskrit term), and it does not appear to have been available in every
Javanese market. Balinese charters of the tenth century list safflower amongst the important export crops of the island, and it was
apparently planted only in some of the drier parts of the East Javanese lowlands. It appears, along with wungkudu, in warehouse lists
of eleventh and twelfth century East Javanese ports (Christie 1982:506; Stutterheim 1928:105-8), and Chinese texts record the
export of safflower from Java to China early in the thirteenth century (Hirth and Rockhill 1966: 78; Wheatley 1959: 93). The
Balinese court subjected safflower to compulsory purchase for export (Goris 1954:303) and encouraged its planting (ibid: 305).
The dyestuff was probably traded in the form of dried flowers or semi-processed cakes, as it was in the nineteenth century. Marsden
(1811: 95) states that the native safflower kasumba jawa (not to be confused with the kasumba kling or annotto later imported from
the New World) produces a lovely saffron-red or rose. The colour is, however, rather fugitive (Burkill 1966: 472). Despite this
drawback, it continues to be used in Nusa Tenggara Timur, where the plant grows readily. It is soluble in an alkaline solution, and lime
is used in the process of extracting the dye, as with indigo (Hitchcock 1983:121).
7. Yellow dyes are not mentioned in the tax lists, even after the eleventh century. This may have been due, in part, to the fact that tax
lists became rather abbreviated after this time. It may also have been due to the fact that kunit, or turmeric (Curcuma domestica,
Valentan.), which seems to have been the major source of yellow dye, is so easy to use and so universally available. The plant is to be
25
found in most house gardens in Indonesia, and it is a direct dye, needing no complicated processing, and so, possibly, no semi-
professional specialisation. Several variations on the process are listed by Burkill (1966: 718):

"For use [the roots] are... boiled and pounded into a paste, which dyes directly from water and this direct dyeing has
been its chief recommendation. It is only necessary to put the cotton, silk or wool to be dyed, into a boiling decoction
of the paste, and with appropriate treatment yellows, orange-yellows, olives and browns are obtained ... The Pattani
dyers use turmeric. They mix it with lime in equal proportions, and set it to ferment."
Other processes use acid and alum. The colour is rather fugitive, but it still has considerable ritual importance in parts of the
maritime region. This ritual importance may explain why it does not occur amongst the colours used for cloths woven for daily wear in
villages of early Java. Use of the colour may have been technically easy but socially restricted.
8. mangapus: 'apus oyer, ie. ikat dyer\ See text for discussion.
9. Other processors who were connected with the local dye-processing industries included the mapahangan or amahang ('processor of
pahang). Zoetmulder (1982:1232) has suggested that the termpahang refers to the lower stem of the ental or lontar palm flower, the
ash of which is still used as a mordant and an enhancer of red dyes. Lontar (Borassus flabellifera) produces ash which, like that of the
coconut palm and merang, is considered to be particularly effective in fixing colours on cloth. Another related processor was the
manglurung. 'processor of oil (lurung)\ The term lunmg now refers to castor oil, which is much used in the preparation of cloth for
wungkudu dyeing, but in the past kamiri nuts, sesame seeds and other sources were used. The product of the manghapu ('lime burner')
must have been used both in dyeing and in the consumption of betel.
26
Appendix 3: Textiles mentioned in wnang ('privilege') lists (llth-14th centuries)
The earliest original inscriptions (as opposed to 14th century reissues) bearing lists of wnang, or privileges related to status and ritual,
granted to recipients otsima charters, date to the mid 11th century. They continued to appear until the end of the 14th century, each
set of privileges granted being unique. No two appear to have been quite the same. The below represent a fair selection.
1. Ambang Putih (mid 11th century?) (Brandes 1913: cxviii): al8... may wear singkil (=singhel7) garments of white and yellow...
2. Garaman (AD 1053) (Boechari: unpublished) 4a5 ... in pros rituals (life crisis rituals) may wear pasilih galuh [cloth], may use
bananten as decorative hangings, may use bananten cloth awidanaga (?), may wear all sorts of ritual cloths: nawagraha (9-planet)
pattern, nagapuspa (white nagasari flower) pattern, etc...
3. Panumbangan (mid 12th century) (Brandes 1913: lxix) a9-10:... may use bananten cloth to cover sereh containers (?), may use
bananten cloth as decorative hangings ...
4. Ceker (AD 1185) (Brandes 1913: lxxii) a9A5:... may use [red] coloured anjing [cloth?] decorated with painted colours (tulisa
warnna)...
5. Kemulan (AD 1194) (Brandes 1913: lxxiii) a21/25; bll/12:... may use bananten cloth as decorative hangings... may wear yellow...
all sorts of clothing... may paint in colours (matulisa warnna)... may use bananten cloth on cushions, may wear dodot (ceremonial
sarong) which has been painted (tinulis) ...
6. Lawadan (early 13th century) (Brandes 1913: lxxvii) allA6/17:... may paint in colours (matulis warnna) may use bananten cloth as
decorative hangings... may paint in colours (matulisa warnna) ... may wear susu [...] dodot...
7. Waharu (14th century reissue of charter dated AD 931) (Boechari 1986: 59-65). iib3... may use to sit upon bananten cloth which is
not black, may use bananten cloth as decorative hangings... may wear insignia of rank (sand)... the foremost being nagapuspa (white
nagasari flower) pattern, nawagraha (9 planet) pattern ...
8. Kakurangan (14th century reissue of charter dated AD 1023) (Boechari 1986: 67-70) ivb5:... may wear insignia of rank and use
bananten cloth as decorative hangings, may use to sit upon bananten cloth which is not black ...
9. Kambang Sri (14th century reissue of charter dated AD 1042) (Boechari 1986: 72-5) ib4:... may use bananten cloth as decorative
hangings, may use bananten cloth awidanaga (?), may use bananten cloth on cushions, may use to sit upon bananten cloth, may wear
(?) [such patterns as:] ajon (?), locust/grasshopper, flowers, split lotus (?), yellow seed (?) as clothing (?); may use in wall (offering
rituals)... dodot (ceremonial garment) with green lotus and yellow, may wear as apparel nawagraha (9 planet) pattern, pasilih galuh
(pasilih jewel) pattern...
10. Tuhaharu (AD 1323) (Boechari 1986:77-85) viiia5:... may use bananten cloth as a screen ... may paint wteng (tulis wteng) ... viiibl:
... may wear insignia of rank: pasilih tamping (pasilih bordered),pasilih galuh (pasilih jewel), pasilih kambungan (?),pasilih hening kdi
(?) patterns ... may wear gold bracelets and anklets, may wear apparel painted in gold (tinulis ingmas) ...
11. Manguri (14th century copy of charter dated AD 937) (van Naerssen 1941: vii) 2b5 ... may use anjing [cloth?] of red ... 3a2/4:...
may use bananten lama [cloth](?), may use bananten cloth as decorative hangings... may wear dodot garments painted in tawar gold
(tinulis ring mas tawar) ...
12. Biluluk 2/4 (AD 1393) (Boechari 1986:174-5) va3:... may use insignia of rank:pasilih galuh, vegetal pattern, red lotus pattern, may
use all kinds of wali, the foremost being nagapuspa pattern, nawagraha pattern... flowers used by Hino, split lotus pattern... may use
bananten cloth as decorative hangings...
27
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