A CHAIN OF KINGS - Books and Journals

62 A measurement equal to 20 katti, or 1/20th of a pikul.
III The Gowa chronicle 57
63 The meaning of kakana is not clear, though it apparently is relating the amount of the tariff
the ruler of Gowa charged visiting ships. This sense is strengthened by SBPK 85-6, which adds
‘per gantang’ (nasigantang) to this passage.
64 Cense 1979:536 notes that patung is a unit of measurement (for rice and other goods) equal
to a gantang, which as noted above is 20 katti or 1/20th of a pikul. Koyang was a unit of measurement
too, though we cannot be sure how large. Cense again notes (1979:338) that in Makassar
a ‘small koyang’ (koyang caqdi) was equal to thirty pikul, and a ‘large koyang’ (koyang lompo) was
equal to one hundred pikul, implying that a ‘regular’ koyang would be equal to about sixty-five
pikul. CM 155 omits ‘ship tariffs of forty kakana; to clarify what would be known as a patung, the
measure of a koyang’.
65 VT 59 adds what has the feel of a later explanation or clarification: ‘[This] karaeng bricked
[the fortifications at] Gowa and Somba Opu. Karaeng Tumapaqrisiq Kallonna, he built with
earth’ (karaeng ambata nideqdeki Gowa siagang Sombopu Karaenga Tumapaqrisiq Kallonna naambatabatai
iatommi). CM 155 inserts virtually the same explanation: ‘He was also the karaeng who
bricked [the fortifications at] Gowa and Somba Opu. The karaeng Tumapaqrisiq Kallonna built
with earth’ (iatommi karaeng ambata nideqdeki Goa siagang Somba Opu anjo karaeng Tumapaqrisiq
Kallonna ambata buttai). CM n10 states that NBG 15 has ambatai for these last two words, which
makes the passage slightly less explicit but maintains the same basic meaning.
66 KIT 4, SBPK 86, VT 59, and CM 155 add the term Jawa to this passage so it reads ‘a Javanese
named Anakoda Bonang’. Makassarese used the term ‘Javanese’ to describe people from the
western seas, most often Malays, not to designate an ethnic group.
67 SBPK 86 has ‘eighty-six ornamented blunderbusses’ (kaleti belo sagantuju pulona angannang)
for the first item on the list. KIT 4, VT 59, and CM 155 appear to have two items here: ‘one
ornamented blunderbuss’ (kamaleti sibatu belo) in all three is followed by ‘eighty soongana’ (KIT),
‘eighty songana’ (VIT), or ‘eighty sowongang’ (CM). What soongana in its diverse spellings refers
to remains unclear. As it is used today it refers to a load carried on a person’s head. Possibly
this is the result of a mis-writing in which ‘sa’ replaced an ‘a’ in a source text, for the two letters
are nearly identical in the jangang-jangang script. Moreover, other items in the list first mention
the object (such as cloth) and then the amount (one piece), but with the elusive phrase ‘eighty
soongana’ this word structure is reversed. This too suggests that a mistake may well be involved
here.
68 This refers to a Makassarese practice in which, if a man and woman divorced, and there
was an odd number of children, one parent paid the other a sum of gold in compensation for
taking the youngest child. Anakoda Bonang’s request implies a strong Malay identity and the
concomitant desire to not be forced to live by Makassarese social strictures.
69 In slightly different forms, two versions replace this question with ‘who is included in your
words?’ (nupailalang kanaa in VT 59 and nupailalang kana-kana in CM 156). It could be argued that
this is the kind of transformation one might expect in the chronicles over time as Makassarese
increasingly became aware of literacy and ‒ speculatively ‒ more liable to conceptualize speech
as a container for words analagous to a written manuscript.
70 Cense (1979:332) believes this is some kind of musical instrument.
71 Apparently babuq refers to a kind of clothing.
72 According to Cense (1979:504), palembang refers to a kind of long-barreled firearm in use
at the time. At this point, KIT 5, VT 59-60, and CM 156 insert a significant section not found
in BL 30r. KIT 5 reads ‘He was also the first to conquer Bila-Bila. The main great ruler among
the Mandar was Bila. He made slaves of all Mandarese throughout Mandar. In Bila the karaeng
made bound followers of those in the four communities of Bungka, Mapilli, Poda-Poda,
Campalagiang. There before the karaeng the four communities were declared bound followers.
Then were enslaved all the Mandarese throughout Mandar by the karaeng. After the war