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'Kakawin' are long narrative poems composed in Old Javanese, written in verse form with rhythms an metres derived from Sanskrit literature.^[1] 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.^[2]
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.^[3]

Contents

Structure of a kakawin

List of some famous kakawin

See also

Further reading

References

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:
:''ambĕk sang paramārthapaṇḍita huwus limpad sakêng śūnyatā''
:''tan sangkêng wiṣaya prayojñananira lwir sanggrahêng lokika''
:''siddhāning yaśawīrya donira sukhāning rāt kininkinira''
:''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

See 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

1. Indonesia: Peoples and Histories, , Jean Gelman, Taylor, Yale University Press, , ISBN 0-300-10518-5
2. 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)
3. 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.)