Early Javanese Inscriptions: A New Dating Method (Handbook of Oriental Studies/Handbuch Der Orientalistik)

In spite of its being one of the cornerstones of historical research, even the historical expert is - understandably - terrified by the complications involved in the calculation of dates. Early Javanese Inscriptions puts the study of Indonesian epigraphical dating on a completely new footing, both in terms of speed and reliability of the analytical procedures.
No luni-solar calendrical system can be properly accounted for unless the system of intercalation is properly understood. This study examines the early Javanese inscriptions, taking account for the first time of the detailed astronomical information so routinely presented in the texts. A computer analysis, using a program specially developed for the purpose, facilitates confirmation or correction of much of the material. It also makes possible for the first time a description of the intercalation (insertion of extra lunar months) employed in that version of the luni-solar calendar.
Authors have made use of the advanced Calendrical Computer Program, presenting all the astronomical data and the Indian and indigenous Indonesian dating system data.
Early Javanese Inscriptions may serve as a model for any historian working on complex dating problems. A reliable and, after some practice, easily accessible guide to the calculation of (Javanese) dates.

J. C. Eade, Ph.D. (1973) in English, Australian National University, is a Visiting Research Fellow in the Asian History Centre at the ANU. His recent studies include The Calendrical Systems of Mainland South-East Asia (Brill, 1995) and The Thai Historical Record: A Computer Analysis (Tokyo, 1996).

Lars Gislén, born September 19, 1938. Studies in France, Faculté des Sciences, Orsay 1970-71. Ph.D. in 1972 in theoretical elementary particle physics. At present lecturing professor (lector) at the department of theoretical physics, research department Complex Systems, Lund University, Sweden.