Indonesian "-karta" City Names?

[McComas Taylor]

*priyamitrANi

sarvebhyo namo namaH

My kind colleague Dr George Quinn, an outstanding Javanese scholar, 
offers these comments:
*
I'm not sure where "karta" (or its variants "kerta" and "kerto") comes 
from - I suspect from Sanskrit (is there a Sanskrit word "krta" or 
something like that?) - but the basic meaning of "karta/kerta" in the 
Javanese language is "ordered, peaceful" (not "city"). Javanese people 
often coin names consisting of one or two desirable qualities that they 
hope the person or place so named will possess. Thus Jakarta is a 
contraction of "jaya" (victorious) and "karta" (peaceful and ordered). 
Surakarta has "sura" (heroic - as your correspondent correctly says), 
Yogyakarta has "yogya" (proper, desirable, appropriate, refined etc.), 
Purwakarta has "purwa" (probably "full of authority" but maybe "the 
origin/source of"). Some towns even combine "kerta" with mundane terms 
identified with the locality e.g. Mojokerto ("mojo" is a kind of fruit) 
and Wonokerto ("wono" = forest).
The city of Yogyakarta is so-spelled in the Indonesian / Malay language 
(also Jogjakarta, and in Dutch times Djokdjakarta ), but in Javanese it 
has a characteristically Javanese initial nasalisation making it 
Ngayogyakarta. This name in turn has two variant forms (i) a short 
everyday form Ngayogya (pronounced "nga.YOO.jo"), and a long ceremonial 
form Ngayogyakarta Adiningrat which is still quite often heard in formal 
speeches in the Javanese language ("adiningrat" means something like 
"pre-eminent throughout the world"). Hope this helps. Yours, George

===============================
Dr McComas Taylor
Centre for Asian Societies and Histories
Faculty of Asian Studies
The Australian National University
ACTON ACT 0200

Tel: +61 2 6125 3179
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Email: mccomas.taylor at anu.edu.au

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