Kawi and Kawi Miring : old Javanese literature in eighteenth century Java

Abstract

The aim of this study is to examine the texts which Pigeaud (LIT.vol.I/237) has classified as kawi miring, the Arjuna Sasrabau, Bratayuda, Rama, Bima Suci (Dewa Ruci) and the Panitisastra. These poems have been loosely ascribed to Yasadipura I and authorship will be considered in relation to individual texts. The term kawi miring has been used to describe a particular genre of literature which emerged in the Central Javanese court of Surakarta in the late eighteenth century. As the term literally suggests, texts classified as kawi miring were considered to have been written in a poetic medium that 'inclined' towards the 'kawi' texts of the Old Javanese period, hence Pigeaud's definition: 'sloping kawi in contradistinction to the real kawi of the old texts' (LIT.vol.I/23). The genre remained in vogue for a brief period which corresponds with the so-termed literary 'renaissance' in the Surakarta court. The Modern Javanese versions of the kakawins are hardly representative of Javanese literary activity in the late eighteenth/early nineteenth century but the refashioning of classical literature has been the cornerstone upon which notions of a literary 'renaissance' were built. Focusing upon the Modern Javanese kakawin-based texts necessitates a closer examination of the Javanese tradition kakawin manuscripts and raises the question of the manner of transmission and the tradition of interpretation of the kakawins over the passage of literary history in Java. The Javanese tradition variations on the Balinese manuscripts are commonly considered as corruptions and the eighteenth century versions of the kakawins are subsequently cited as evidence of an inability to 'correctly' render the Old Javanese material into a Modern idiom. This study proposes the alternative view that the adjustments within the Javanese tradition manuscripts and the consistent tenor of the Modern Javanese versions argue for a continuity of interest and interpretation. The concept of a literary 'renaissance' should therefore be re-examined within the context of Javanese traditions rather than from a tabling of the many variations from the edited versions of the kakawins which were based on Balinese manuscripts. The evaluation of the kawi miring texts during the course of this study, with reference to the established metrical forms of kakawin and macapat, will not seek to defend or exaggerate the literary merits of the genre but rather to examine its relevance and function within eighteenth century court circles.