Get to know the term ‘Alur Inheritance’ in Javanese and its meaning

KabarJawa.com – Javanese people are known to have a wealth of very detailed terms in various aspects of life, including when referring to family trees or lines of inheritance.

If in Indonesian we may only know the terms grandfather, great-grandfather and canggah, it turns out that in Javanese, the terms are much longer and more in-depth, covering up to a dozen generations up and down.

Based on data from the Yogyakarta Special Region Culture Service, this level of genealogy shows how much Javanese people value their origins and lineage.

Starting from parents to ancestors whose names may have been forgotten, everyone has a special title that is full of meaning.

From Mr to Mbah Wareng

In the Javanese nuclear family structure, we as the center or “Ego” call the male parent Father or Rama, and the female parent Simbok or Mother.

Rising one level above, we call the parents of father and mother Simbah or Eyang. This is the most common and familiar term in our everyday ears.

However, the genealogy journey does not stop there. Simbah’s parents are called Mbah Buyut. Above Mbah Buyut, there is Mbah Canggah.

Furthermore, Mbah Canggah’s parents were called Mbah Wareng. Usually, the collective memory of a modern Javanese family on average only reaches the level of Mbah Canggah or Mbah Wareng.

It is very rare for anyone to still remember the names of ancestors above the fifth level, except for royal families or certain breeds that strictly maintain genealogies.

Tracing Distant Ancestors

If we search further, the term begins to sound unique and has its own philosophy about mortality. Mbah Wareng’s parents were called Mbah Udheg-udheg, followed by Mbah Gantung Siwur in the seventh generation.

The term “Hanging Siwur” is often interpreted as the limit of a person’s knowledge of their ancestors, where the genealogy has begun to “hang” or become vague.

Above Gantung Siwur, the sequence becomes increasingly metaphorical. There are Mbah Gropak Senthe, Mbah Debog Bosok, Mbah Galih Asem, and Mbah Gropak Waton.

Names such as “Debog Bosok” (rotten banana stem) or “Gropak Waton” (brittle fence) imply that kinship relations or memories of them are very fragile, decayed, and almost lost to time.

This order continues upwards starting from Mbah Cendheng, Mbah Giyeng, Mbah Cumleng, Mbah Ampleng, Mbah Menyaman, to Mbah Menya-menya in seventeenth place.

Reflect Downward Lineage

Uniquely, the term for ancestors (up) has the same name as the term for descendants (down). If we have children, our children’s children are called Putu (grandchildren). Putu’s children are called Buyut (great-grandchildren). Henceforth, the children of Buyut were called Canggah, and the children of Canggah were called Wareng.

This pattern continues to repeat itself exactly like a series of ancestors. After Wareng, there are Udhek-udhek, Gantung Siwur, Gropak Senthe, Debog Bosok, Galih Asem, Gropak Waton, Cendheng, Giyeng, Cumpleng, Ampleng, Menyaman, and Menya-menya.

However, there is one final addition to the 18th breed which is called the Tumerah Breed. This last term describes flesh and blood that continues to flow and inherits the footsteps of its ancestors, an unbroken cycle of life.

So, that was an explanation of the various terms family tree or ‘Inheritance Line’ in Javanese, complete with their meanings.***