Kakawin

Kakawin are long narrative poems composed in Old Javanese, also called "Kawi", written in verse form with rhythms an metres derived from Sanskrit literature.cite book |last=Taylor|first=Jean Gelman|title=Indonesia: Peoples and Histories|publisher=Yale University Press|date=2003 |location= New Haven and London|url= |doi= |pages=pages 32-33|id= ISBN 0-300-10518-5] Using a literary language, rather than daily spoken usage, they were composed and performed at the courts of central and east Java kings between the ninth and sixteenth centuries, and in Bali. [http://wwwsshe.murdoch.edu.au/intersections/issue5/creese.html (Helen Creese "Images of Women and Embodiment in Kakawin Literature" Intersections: Gender, History and Culture in the Asian Context Issue 5, May 2001)]

Although the poems themselves nominally depict events and characters from Hindu mythology, they are set in the landscapes of the islands on which they were composed, and therefore are a rich source of information about courtly society in Java and Bali. [http://coombs.anu.edu.au/SpecialProj/APM/TXT/creese-h-02-96.html (Helen Creese "Temples of Words: Balinese Literary Traditions" Asia-Pacific Magazine No. 2 May 1996 pp. 38-43.)]

Structure of a kakawin

A kakawin stanza consists of four lines. Each line has a set number of syllables per line, set in patterns of long and short syllables based on Sanskrit rules of prosody. A syllable which contains a long vowel is called "guru" (Sanskrit for "heavy') while a syllable which contains a short one is called "laghu" (Sanskrit for "light"). The term "guru laghu" denotes the structure of a line.

For example, each line of the "kakawin" metre Śardūlawikrīdita consists of 19 syllables. The "guru laghu" of this each line of this metre is as follows ---|UU-|U-U|UU-|--U|--U| U. A line - means that the syllable in question is long, while the U means that the syllable is short.

As an example, the opening stanza of the "Kakawin Arjunawiwaha", which is in the metre Śardūlawikrīdita, is taken:

:"IAST|ambĕk sang paramārthapaṇḍita huwus limpad sakêng śūnyatā":"IAST|tan sangkêng wiṣaya prayojñananira lwir sanggrahêng lokika":"IAST|siddhāning yaśawīrya donira sukhāning rāt kininkinira":"IAST|santoṣâhĕlĕtan kĕlir sira sakêng sang hyang Jagatkāraṇa"

:A tentative translation in English:The thought of the one who knows the Highest Knowledge has leapt from the emptiness. :It is not because he wishes to fulfill his senses, as if he only wants to have the worldly things.:The success of his virtuous and good deeds are his goals. He endeavours for the happiness the world.:He is steadfast and just a "wayang" screen away from the "Mover of the World".

A syllable which contains a long syllable is automatically long (ā, ī, ū, ö, e, o, ai, and au) and thus "guru". But on the other hand, a vowel which is followed by two consonants is also long. In addition to that the last syllable of a line may both contains a long or a short syllable. It is an "anceps".

List of some famous kakawin

* Inscription of Śivagŗha, 856
* Kakawin Ramayana ~ 870
* Kakawin Arjunawiwaha, by mpu Kanwa, ~ 1030
* Kakawin Krsnayana
* Kakawin Sumanasantaka
* Kakawin Smaradahana
* Kakawin Bhomakawya
* Kakawin Bharatayuddha, by mpu Sedah and mpu Panuluh, 1157
* Kakawin Hariwangsa
* Kakawin Gatotkacaśraya
* Kakawin Wrtasañcaya
* Kakawin Wṛttayana
* Kakawin Brahmandapurana
* Kakawin Kunjarakarna, by mpu "Dusun"
* Kakawin Nagarakrtagama/Kakawin Desawarnana, by mpu Prapañca, 1365
* Kakawin Arjunawijaya, by mpu Tantular
* Kakawin Sutasoma, by mpu Tantular
* Kakawin Siwaratrikalpa/Kakawin Lubdhaka
* Kakawin Parthayajña
* Kakawin Nitiśastra
* Kakawin Nirarthaprakṛta
* Kakawin Dharmaśunya
* Kakawin Hariśraya
* Kakawin Banawa Sekar Tanakung

ee also

* Javanese poetry

Further reading

*A. Teeuw, 1950, "Hariwangsa", Den Haag: Martinus Nijhoff. VKI 9. (Extracts of texts, in Dutch)
*Petrus Josephus Zoetmulder, 1974, "Kalangwan. A Survey of Old Javanese Literature", The Hague: Martinus Nijhoff.

References