Friday, January 2, 2009

Ritual Mathematics

By Marsigit
In Javanese society all aspect of daily life or activities can be viewed as underpine from religious perspectives. It is not surprising that, for example, in a certain village, the people in one week get invitation to come to ritual activities for more than seven. Some of the important activities are the celebration of the 'fifth' and the 'thirty fifth' baby birthday, the ritual feast to mark some one's death in the 'seventh day', 'forthyth day', 'a hundreth day' and 'a thousanth day'. The problem is the people, specifically the man who are responsible of carrying out the ritual meal, should exactly decide that the death has long been whether seven days, forthy days, one hundreth days, or one thousand days. They do it well and they learn it for generations. The people, who are concerned about it, sometimes involves in the dialog informally to justify whether the counting the numbers of tha days is right or wrong. Most of them are relatively correct. They just use simple formula which is ussualy spoken and not ever written, e.g. 'nomosarmo', 'norosarmo', nonemsarmo', etc.
They use three kinds of numbers system at the same time : 10 based numbers system, 7 based numbers system and 5 based numbers system, in the frame work of position system. Position system for numbers was found by Indian and Javanese people knew it before the Europen because it directly was brought by Indian to Indonesia. They use Numbers System Basis 10 when they should decide the duration of time; 35 days, 40 days, 100 days and 1000 days. They use Numbers System Basis 7 (Week system) when they use the name orderly of the days : Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thuersday, Friday and Saturday. They use Numbers System Basis 5 (Dino Pasaran system) when Javanese people have been using system 'Dino Pasaran' for along time before Western system of callendar came to Indonesia. In this system there are only five days orderly in a cycle of period of time called 'Pasar'. Those are 'Legi', 'Pahing', 'Pon', 'Wage', 'Kliwon'. One day in this system is equals to one day in Week system, that is 24 hours. Thus one Dino Pasaran has five days, two Dino Pasaran has 10 days, three Dino Pasaran has 15 days, etc.
Mathematically, for all of the system numbers, the notation of numbers 'm' can be written as polynomial from 'b' such as follows : m = a0 bn-1 + a1 bn-2 + a2 bn-3 + ... + an-1 b + an
where, b is any numbers greater than 1, and a is the basis. According to this formula, we can write any number at any system using the same pattern i.e. for basis 10, basis 7 and basis 5. In Basis 10 we have the numbers : 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9. In Basis 7 we have the numbers : 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6
We can match the name of the day with those numbers orderly : 0 = Sunday 1 = Monday; 2 = Tuesday; 3 = Wednesday; 4 = Thuersday; 5 = Friday and 6 = Saturday. In Basis 5 we have the numbers : 0, 1, 2, 3, 4. We can match the name of the day in Dino Pasaran with those numbers orderly : 0 = Legi, 1 = Pahing, 2 = Pon, 3 = Wage, 4 = Kliwon. How can we write 35 of Basis 10 into Basis 7 ? The following is the formula 3510 = 5 x 71 + 0 x 70 = 507. How can we write 100 of Basis 10 into Basis 7 ? The formula is 10010 = 2 x 72 + 0 x 71 + 2 x 70 = 2027. How can we write 1000 of Basis 10 into Basis 7 ? The formula is 100010 = 2 x 73 + 6 x 72 + 2 x 71 + 6 x 70 = 26267
How can we write 35 of Basis 10 into Basis 5? The following is the formula 3510 = 7 x 51 + 0 x 50 = 705. How can we write 100 of Basis 10 into Basis 5? Thai is 10010 = 4 x 52 + 0 x 51 + 0 x 50 = 4005 How can we write 1000 of Basis 10 into Basis 5 ? That is 100010 = 1 x 54 + 3 x 53 + 0 x 52 + 0 x 51 + 0 x 50 = 130005
Javanese people always have two unseparated name for the day. For example : Sunda Legi, Sunday Kliwon, Monday Wage, Friday Pahing, Saturday Kliwon, Saturday Pon, etc. It is clear that the numbers of combinations is 35 names. If this day is Monday Pahing then the duration up to on the next Monday Pahing is 7 x 5 = 35 days. Thus when somebody wish to celebrate the 35 th of his son's birthday he just waiting for the next day with the same name. It is easy and he need not to do with mathematics at all in his mind. Forthyth days ritual feast to mark some one's death by transforming 4010 = 557 and 4010 = 805. Numbers 55 is ended by 5; it mean that 'the fourty days duration of time' will begin on the day i and ended on the day 5 th of Week System. Thus, if now is Sunday then forty days to come will be the fifth day from Sunday that is Thuersday. Javanese people called 'five' as 'limo' or briefly 'mo'. Number 80 is ended by 0; it mean that 'the fourty days duration of time' will begin on the day of Pasar j and ended on the day j + 0 or ended on the same day. Thus If this day is Sunday Kliwon then it will be 40 days on the next Thuersday Kliwon.
If this day is Friday Legi then it will be 40 days on the next Tuesday Legi. If this day is Wednesday Pahing then it will be 40 day on the next Sunday Pahing, etc. Javanese people just called 'no mo; sar mo' that mean : no = dino = day; mo = limo = five; and sar = Pasar = Basis 5. Thus, no mo means 'the fifth day of Week System' sar mo means 'the fifth day of Pasar System'
For one hundred days ritual feast to mark some one's death as I described that :10010 = 2027 and 10010 = 4005. Number 202 is ended by 2; its mean that 'the one hundred days duration of time' will begin on the day i and ended on the day 2 th of Week System . Thus, if now is Sunday then forty days to come will be the 2 nd day from Sunday that is Monday. Javanese people called 'two' as 'loro' or briefly 'ro'. Number 400 is ended by 0; it mean that 'the fourty days duration of time' will begin on the day of Pasar j and ended on the day j + 0 or ended on the same day. Thus If this day is Sunday Kliwon then the next 100 days will be on the next Monday Kliwon. If this day is Friday Legi then the next 100 days will be on Saturday Legi. If this day is Wednesday Pahing then the next 100 day will be on Sunday Pahing, etc. Javanese people just called 'no ro; sar mo' that mean : no = dino = day; ro = loro = dua; and sar = Pasar = Basis 5. Thus, no ro means 'the second day of Week System' sar mo means 'the fifth day of Pasar System'. One thousand days ritual feast to mark some one's death is calculated by the same way they use the formula 'no nem; sar mo' that mean 'the sixth day of Week Syatem and the fifth day of Pasar System'

4 comments:

mufarikhin said...

the javanese is rich of culture. mathematic can be tranformed to any language.especially, if we interact with the traditional people. in muslim tradition, after performing sholat (praying) usually do ritual mathematic. for example in their mistical teaching.Bravo Javanese, bravo Indonesia

Niken Wahyu Utami said...

Dalam perhitungan menggunakan formula menggunakan basis memberikan hasil yang relative benar. Akan tetapi apabila perhitungan yang dilakukan tersebut untuk menentukan hari atau tanggal pada beberapa waktu yang lampau tidak selalu menghasilkan hasil yang benar, apabila tidak memperhatikan sejarah tentang kalender.
Misalnya yang terjadi pada tahun 1582, Pope Gregory mengeset ulang kalender, 10 hari ditambahkan pada 5 Oktober 1582 menjadi 15 Oktober 1582. Tanggal 6 samapai tanggal 14 dianggap tidak ada.
Perubahan yang terjadi tidak semua sama pada tahun 1582, misalnya yang terjadi di United States terjadi pada tahun 1752 terjadi penambahan 11 hari, tanggal 3 September 1752 berubah menjadi tanggal 14 September 1752. Kemudian yang terjadi di Jepang pada tahun 1873, Rusia dan Negara tetangganya pada tahun 1917, dan sebagainya.
Kita tidak bisa begitu saja mengabaikan perubahan-perubahan yang terjadi dalam melakukan perhitungan hari dan tanggal di masa lampau. Akan tetapi memang untuk perhitungan tanggal dan hari maupun hari pasaran dalam kehidupan sehari-hari di jawa tidak terlalu terpengaruh oleh sejarah tersebut karena waktu perhitungan adalah waktu sekarang, yang tentu saja jarak waktunya tidak terlalu lama, yaitu 7 hari, 35 hari, 40 hari, 100 hari, dan 1000 hari.

REFERENCE:
H. Rosen, Kenneth, 1993,"Elementary Number Theory and Its Applications", New York:Addison-Wesley Publishing Company

Artika Christy said...

Good morning, Sir!!

Although I javanese but I always confuse to calculate the day to make a javanese ritual. For example "3dinan" I think "3dinan" ritual usually faster than the real three days. But, I'm very proud to have an unique culture that related in mathematics.

I like your article, Sir..

Artika (MatR08)

ety antikasari said...

good afternoon Mr.Marsigit.........
today, I get one of knowledge from Ritual Mathematics. Really, mathematics is very interesting. I want to learn mathematics more deep. Mathematics can count celebration someone. I want ask what the basic of Javanese people can decide pasaran? what principle is used to count celebration? Are they also use Mathematics? I'm sorry Mr, if there are my sentences is false because I still study to speak in English. Thanks you very much Mr