The Iiterary motif of head-taking in Old Javanese court poems (kakavin): cenel and varagan terms revisited

Result code in IS VaVaI

<a href="https://www.isvavai.cz/riv?ss=detail&h=RIV%2F61989592%3A15210%2F17%3A73585481" target="_blank" >RIV/61989592:15210/17:73585481 - isvavai.cz</a>

Result on the web

<a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/13639811.2015.1133140" target="_blank" >http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/13639811.2015.1133140</a>

DOI - Digital Object Identifier

<a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/13639811.2015.1133140" target="_blank" >10.1080/13639811.2015.1133140</a>

Result language

angličtina

Original language name

The Iiterary motif of head-taking in Old Javanese court poems (kakavin): cenel and varagan terms revisited

Original language description

The contribution analyses the literary motif of acquiring trophy heads in the context of warfare practices depicted in kakavin, court poems composed in a literary register of Old Javanese. In the first part, two terms of unclear meaning, cenel and varagan, are discussed in detail. It is argued that Old Javanese cenel denotes &apos;trophy head&apos;, a severed head rendered as a token of martial prowess. Evidence of the Navanatya, an Old Javanese account of court etiquette composed in the 14th century, is used to support my claim that fictive kakavin do reflect the practice of head-taking as part of Javanese pre-Islamic warfare culture. It is demonstrated that the status of head-taking in kakavin is ambiguous. Though typically ascribed to the characters of adharma, the king, a protector of dharma, is represented in a couple of texts as a receiver of trophy heads. In the second and third parts of this article the category of combatants called varagan., associated in Old Javanese texts with predatory warfare and with adharma, is analysed. Fighting as individuals in a loosely dispersed swarm, the main objective of the strategy of varagan. was to harass enemy settlements, take captives, and spread terror. It is argued that the category of varagan. represented young men who had to prove themselves in battle and whose major objective was to display martial prowess in front of other warriors in one-to-one skirmishing.

Czech name

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Czech description

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Type

J_SC - Article in a specialist periodical, which is included in the SCOPUS database

CEP classification

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OECD FORD branch

50404 - Anthropology, ethnology

Project

—

Continuities

I - Institucionalni podpora na dlouhodoby koncepcni rozvoj vyzkumne organizace

Publication year

2017

Confidentiality

S - Úplné a pravdivé údaje o projektu nepodléhají ochraně podle zvláštních právních předpisů

Name of the periodical

Indonesia and the Malay World

ISSN

1363-9811

e-ISSN

—

Volume of the periodical

44

Issue of the periodical within the volume

129

Country of publishing house

GB - UNITED KINGDOM

Number of pages

23

Pages from-to

165-187

UT code for WoS article

000385561800004

EID of the result in the Scopus database

2-s2.0-84961219252