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Four-line Yamaka in the old Javanese Rāmáyaṇa
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 15 March 2011
Extract
When we know that the first 56 per cent of the tenth century OJR has been modelled after the first 65 per cent of BHAṬṬI's mahā-kāvya Rāvaṇavadha, the Bhaṭṭi-kāvya (BhK.), dating from the seventh century, it is possible to compare broadly their contents and form. The most conspicuous literary form in the BhK is that of the yamaka, of which BHAṬṬI, near the middle of his poem, demonstrates twenty different types, that (with the following stanzas on arthâlaṅkāra) interrupt his grammatical exercises. To show how far these examples haye been followed in the OJR, the BhK X.1–22 is printed here (stanza 1 on Anuprāsa, assonance, being included for the sake of continuity of narration). The technical terms added to BHAṬṬI's examples are those given to them by his commentators.
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- Copyright © The Royal Asiatic Society 1958
References
1 My booklet “The Old-Javanese Rāmāyaṇa Kakawin, with special reference to the problem of interpolation in kakawins”, Verh.Kon.Inst. T.L.Vkk. XVI, Nijhoff, 's-Gravenhage, 1955, quoted as VKI.XVI.
2 Caukhambā-edition. For making the translation I owe thanks to my colleague C. A. Eylands, M.A.
3 Râmâyaṇa, Oudjavaansch Heldendicht, uitgegeven door H. Kern, Nijhoff' 's-Gravenhage, 1900.
4 Sarga XI by Dr. H. H. Juynboll in Bijdr. T.L.Vkk. Kon.Inst.(BKI) 81 (1925) pp. 121–133.
5 See the appearance of two recent Ph.D. theses (Utrecht/New Delhi) on Skr/OJ texts, written in English; Dr. de Casparis' Prasasti Indonesia II and Dr. van Lohuizen's Beginnings of Old-Javanese Historical Literature in the BKI, etc.
6 R.Ng.Dr.Poerbatjaraka, Het Oud-Javaansche Rāmāyaṇa (Tijdschrift Ind T.L.Vkk. (TBG) 72/2, 1932, pp. 151–214, esp. pp. 206–7).
7 Dr.R.GorisinDjawa, Tijds.v.h.Java-Inst.7(1927), pp.268–9; Poerbatjaraka' refutation in TBG 72 (1932).
8 I introduced some interpunctuation.
9 Text: sěděnyâr.
10 Square brackets by H. Kern.
11 Open hall on pillars, Mod.Jav. pěṇḍapa.
12 Monkey-worship, so predominant in India, is rather rare in Indonesia, and throughout the OJR Hanūmān is seen as an extraordinary monkey, not as The Saviour—not to mention the other monkeys.
13 Only Rāwaṇa's palace can be meant here. Tripura was built by the Asura architect Maya; in OJR 11.57 Tripura is conquered by the bow which was a heirloom in the family of King Janaka, father to Sītā; Rāma manages to bend it; Sītā mentions this feat in OJR XVII.34. Tripura is also a name for Śiwa. Cp. Dr. J. G. de Casparis, Prasasti Indonesia II, Masa Baru, Bandung, 1956, pp. 266, 278, n. 150, 291, 298.
14 The pun śoha-aśoka necessarily gets lost in the translation.
15 Kāñci-yamaka (OJR 11.19) and pāda-madhya-yamaka (OJR XII.38, 40 and 45) in my paper “Love in Lěnkā”, shortly to appear in Pādâdi-yamaka (OJR XXIV.111) and puspa-yamaka (XXIV.115; nearly all the other stanzas of this episode are pāda-madhya-yamakas again) in my paper “The Paradise on Earth in Lenka”, shortly to appear in
16 [m] added by me. In present-day Balinese recital of “Sanskrit”, preference for nasalization in such cases is easily to be observed.
17 Name of the metre used. Throughout the OJR this practice is observed in forty-five out of 282 cases. Cp. n. 56.
18 Kern in his translation of the words kěmban hěmās (BKI.73, 1917, p. 494, reprinted in his Verspreide Geschriften X, 1922, p. 140), hesitated between “flowers and gold” and “goldenflowers”; the Skr. “mālām . . . hiraṇmayīm” decides for the latter.
19 I do not understand well this situation.
20 I do not feel happy wit h my endeavour to a translation; nor do I feel sure whether this las t syllable in the OJ text is correct.