Is gold or suasa 'better'?

[kai]

Hello Alan,

The word "Susuhunan" is a Javanese word, it is the word that is used to refer to the Ruler of Surakarta, as far as I can ascertain, this word does not exist in Old Javanese, so it would appear to be unlikely that this word was used in reference to any ruler prior to the establishment of the Karaton of Surakarta Hadiningrat. The Karaton of Surakarta Hadiningrat was established in 1745 (or 1742) by Pakubuwana II. However, supposedly this word "Susuhunan" appears in text that was written some time prior to 1700.

Rumpf's text mentions susuhunan several times; in the middle of page 206 he specifically mentions "Sussuhunam Amancurat" when reporting on a military episode in April 25th, 1680. [This fits well with the Dutch helping to reinstall Sunan Amangkurat II during this period and also his adversary "rebel troenajaja" aka Raden Trunajaya is mentioned.]

While it is possible that one of the editors of Rumpf's work did sneak in the title susuhunan before its publishing in 1705, I believe this to be pretty unlikely. Are there really no other sources on the use of this title during late Mataram reigns?

Regards,
Kai