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Pieces In The Puzzle : The Dating of Several Kakawin from Bali and
Lombok
Helen Creese

Citer ce document / Cite this document :

Creese Helen. Pieces In The Puzzle : The Dating of Several Kakawin from Bali and Lombok. In: Archipel, volume 52, 1996. pp.
143-171;

doi : https://doi.org/10.3406/arch.1996.3360

https://www.persee.fr/doc/arch_0044-8613_1996_num_52_1_3360

Fichier pdf généré le 21/04/2018

 LITTERATURE BALINAISE

Helen CREESE

Pieces In The Puzzle : The Dating of

Several Kakawin from Bali and Lombok

Bali's past is closely linked with that of pre-Islamic Java. From at least the
eleventh century, Bali was incorporated into the cultural, social and,
occasionally, political world of Java. During the Majapahit period these links
were particularly close. According to both Javanese and Balinese historical
traditions, Bali was conquered by Majapahit forces sent from Java by Gajah
Mada in 1334. A Javanese noble, Kresna Kapakisan, was appointed to rule
Bali, and from that time the Balinese courts were based on the Majapahit
model. Among the most enduring cultural links was a shared love of the literary
traditions of Indian origin particularly in their quintessential Old Javanese
form, the kakawin or epic poem. In Bali, not only were Javanese kakawin read
and studied, but new works based on stories from the Mahâbhârata and
Râmâyana have continued to be enjoyed and created until the present.
Since the publication of the first fragments of an Old Javanese kakawin in
1817, with Raffles' excerpts from the twelfth century Bhâratayuddha, editions
of nearly all the major kakawin of Javanese origin written between the tenth
and fifteenth centuries have been published^1). Through the names of patrons
mentioned in both the literary texts and epigraphical sources, a more or less
reliable chronology has also been established for these kakawin. By contrast,
the study of this Balinese kakawin tradition has scarcely begun and there is
little more than a list of titles and a few brief descriptions of Balinese kakawin
works. Although the role of Balinese copyists in the preservation of this earlier

* A number of colleagues have commented on earlier drafts of this paper. I am grateful

to L. Parker, M.C. Ricklefs, S. Robson, R. Rubinstein, S. Supomo and A. Vickers.
1. T.S. Raffles, A History of Java, 2 vols, London, 1817.

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 144 Helen Creese

Javanese classical literary heritage has long been acknowledged, their creative
talents have either been down played or dismissed as markedly inferior to
those of the poets of pre-Islamic Java(2). In the absence of any kind of
chronological framework for the Balinese kakawin tradition, there has been a
tendency to view the more accomplished examples of this "offshoot" of
kakawin literature as being of Javanese origin from the late Majapahit period,
and to group the rest together as an amorphous mass of unknown and
uninteresting works &\ Nevertheless, there are clues in both Balinese texts and
external sources that do allow the construction of a more accurate
chronological framework to be started.
Few islands of certainty have so far been found, and only a handful of
Balinese kakawin have been reliably dated. The oldest extant Balinese kakawin
appears to be the Harisraya B ("Hari's Aid", Version B), which contains a
chronogram equivalent to 1574 (4). A gap of a century and a half then separates
the Harisraya B from the next dated work, the Pârthâyana ("The Journeying of
Pârtha"), which was written in Klungkung in the early decades of the
eighteenth century. Although the exact dating is uncertain, this kakawin must
have been written sometime before 1736, the year in which the poet's patron,
&rï Surawirya, the second Déwa Agung of Klungkung, died. There is also a
later version of the Pârthâyana called Subhadrâwiwâha ("Subhadrâ's
Marriage"), which must have been written sometime after its prototype,
probably in the late eighteenth or early nineteenth century (5). The dating of the
Subhadrâwiwâha will be discussed in more detail below. Another Balinese
kakawin work, the Krsnântaka ("Kresna's Death") appears to have been
composed in Bali some time prior to the mid-eighteenth century, since the sole
manuscript of this work contains a colophon stating that it was copied in Bali
on Wednesday, 29 November 1769 <6). The dating of these Balinese kakawin is

2. See, for example, Th. Pigeaud, Literature of Java : Catalogue Raisonné of Javanese
Manuscripts in the Library of the University of Leiden and other Public Collections in
the Netherlands, The Hague : Martinus Nijhoff, 3 vols, 1967-70 ;P.J. Zoetmulder,
Kalangwan: A Survey of Old Javanese Literature, The Hague : Martinus Nijhoff, 1974:
382-3.
3. Zoetmulder, Kalangwan, p. 383.
4. ibid. p. 497 ; see S. Supomo, Arjunawijaya : A Kakawin of Mpu Tantular, The
Hague : Martinus Nijhoff, 1977, pp. 10-14, who has argued for a Majapahit dating for
the Harisraya B.
5. See H. Creese, "Sri Surawirya, Déwa Agung of Klungkung (c. 1722-1736): The
Historical Context for Dating the Kakawin Pârthâyana" , Bijdragen tot de Taal-, Land-
en Volkenkunde (hereafter BKI) \A1 (1991): 402-19. In that article I chose to refer to
these two works as Pârthâyana A and Pârthâyana B respectively, on the grounds that
nowhere in the text does the author of the Pârthâyana B refer to his work as
Subhadrâwiwâha, the name by which it is more commonly known in Western academic
tradition. Such a pedantic view now seems inappropriate and, in order to avoid both
confusion and stylistic awkwardness, I refer to the later recension as Subhadrâwiwâha
and the earlier version as Pârthâyana.
6. See M. Ando, " Krsnântaka : An Old Javanese Kakawin", Ph.D. thesis, Australian
National University, 1991, p. 135.

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The Dating of Several Kakawin from Bali and Lombok 145
JOo
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03
Archipel 52, Paris, 1996
 146 Helen Creese

of some significance, since it renders Zoetmulder's notion of a possible

Javanese origin for such works as the Subhadrâwiwâha untenable and indicates
that kakawin works were still being produced in Bali long after literary ties
with Java had been severed (7).
The only systematic attempt to fill some of the gaps in the chronological
framework of Balinese kakawin literary history is Vickers' brief
communication on the dating of kakawin and kidung in Bali, in which he
suggested a mid-nineteenth century Balinese origin for a number of kakawin,
including the Àstikâyana ("Àstika's Adventures"), Pârthakarma ("Arjuna's
Destiny"), Éakraprajaya ("Indra's Victory") and Prthuwijaya ("Prthu's
Victory"). All were written under the patronage of a female ruler, whom
Vickers proposes was the Déwa Agung Istri who, from about 1815 ruled
Klungkung jointly with her half brother, the Déwa Agung Putra II until his
death in 1851, and then in her own right until 1868 (8). Vickers' proposed
dating can now be confirmed by internal evidence in at least two of these
works, the Prtuwijaya and Astikâyana, which appear to contain chronograms
referring to the saka years 1738 and 1773 (1816 and 1851 A.D.)
respectively (9).
This article is designed to fill yet a few more of these chronological gaps
by summarising some of the incidental findings that have arisen in the course
of my research on the Pârthâyana. The kakawin discussed here are therefore
linked either thematically of stylistically to the former. Most prominent is the
Subhadrâwiwâha, the later reworking of the Pârthâyana. Although displaying
direct thematic and textual dependence on the Pârthâyana, it is a different
work, a distinct account of the story of Arjuna's exile and marriages that also
forms the subject matter of the Pârthâyana. To the first group of thematically
related works also belong two other independent renderings of the same story.
These two works are the Khândaw aw anadahana ("The Burning of the
KMndawa Forest") and Kâlayawanântaka ("The Death of Kâlayawana")^10).
Both appear to be of Lombok origin.
The second group of kakawin to be discussed here comprises a number of
works that are stylistically closely related to the Pârthâyana, including not only
the Subhadrâwiwâha, but also the Hariwijaya ("Hari's Victory"),
Abhimanyuwiwâha ("Abhimanyu's Wedding"), and the two versions of the
Krsnândhaka ("Krsna of the Andhakas"), the Krsnândhaka A (or Kangsa) and
the Krsnândhaka B. Following the recent publication of Zoetmulder's Old

7. Zoetmulder, Kalangwan, p.384.

8. A. Vickers, "The Writing of Kakawin and Kidung on Bali", BKI 138 (1982): 493-5.
9. The texts are taken from Zoetmulder, Kalangwan, pp. 487, 493 '.Prthuwijaya
19,1b : sang asta (8) guna (3) panditêng (7) jagat (1) ; Àstikâyana 25,4b : ewuh ning tiga
(3) sapta (7) pandita (7) tumunggalaken (1). In view of the considerable gap of thirty-
five years between these two dates, the interpretation sang (9) astaguna (8) panditêng
(7) jagat (1) (1789 éaka or 1867 A.D.) for the Prthuwijaya may be preferable.
10. The interrelationships of these different versions of the Arjuna story are discussed
in greater detail in H. Creese, Pârthâyana - The Journeying of PârthatAn Eighteenth
Century Balinese Kakawin, Leiden : KITLV Press (forthcoming).

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 The Dating of Several Kakawin from Bali and Lombok 147

LOMBOK STRAIT WEST LOMBOK

Ampenanp j~~|' \j2Cakranagara

u pu

C^Pagesangan (Janggala)
OPagutan

Map 2 : Javanese Toponyms of West Lombok

Archipel 52, Paris, 1996

 148 Helen Creese

Javanese-English dictionary, with its chronologically ordered citations, a

preliminary attempt at the stylistic comparison of kakawin has become
feasible <n). In the course of translating the Pârthâyana, it became apparent
that in language and style the kakawin noted above were so closely parallel
that a common time of authorship, a "school" of Balinese kakawin writing,
seemed the only possible conclusion. The new findings on the dating of these
works to be discussed below tend to confirm this hypothesis. I will deal with
each of these works individually, but first a brief discussion of the new sources
of available data.

Histories and Colophons

Recent work on various Balinese literary genres, much of it concerned with
eighteenth and nineteenth century babad and kidung, has served to enrich our
knowledge of Balinese literature and its social and historical context (12). In
addition to this, a renewed interest in the history of Bali and Lombok in the
eighteenth and nineteenth centuries has also resulted in a considerable number
of new studies from both Balinese and Western writers (13). A re-examination
of textual data within this more reliable historical and social framework

11. PJ. Zoetmulder, Old Javanese-English Dictionary, The Hague : Martinus Nijhoff,
1982.
12. M. Ando, "Krsnântaka"; H. Creese, "Balinese Babad as Historical Sources: A
Reinterpretationof the Fall of Gèlgèl", BKI 147 (1991) : 236-60 ; H. Creese,
"Surawïrya";M. Fletcher, "Wargasari:A Middle Javanese Kidung", B.A. thesis,
University of Sydney, 1990;H. Hinzler, "The Balinese Babad", in Sartono Kartodirdjo
(ed) Profiles of Malay Culture, Historiography, Religion and Politics, Jakarta : Ministry
of Education and Culture, 1976 ;H. Hinzler, "The Usana Bali as a Source of History",
in Taufik Abdullah (ed), Papers of the Fourth Indonesian-Dutch History Conference,
Vol 2, Literature and History, Yogyakarta : Gadjah Mada University Press, 1983;Partini
Sarjono Pradotokusumo, Kakawin Gajah Mada:Sebuah Karya Sastra Kakawin Abad
Ke-20, Bandung : Binacipta, 1986 ;R. Rubinstein, "Beyond the Realm of the
Senses: The Balinese Ritual of Kekawin Composition", Ph.D. thesis, University of
Sydney, 1988 ;R. Rubinstein, "The Brahmana According to their Babad", in H. Geertz
(ed), Bali State and Society, Leiden : KITLV Press, 1991 ;R. Rubinstein, "Colophons as
a Tool for Mapping the Literary History of Bali: Ida Made Pedanda Sidemen - Poet,
Author and Scribe", Archipel 52 (1996) ;H. Schulte Nordholt, "Origin, Descent and
Destruction : Text and Context in Balinese Representations of the Past", Indonesia 54
(1992) : 27-58 ; I Made Suastika, "Kakawin Dimbhi Wicitra: Analasis, Struktur dan
Fungsi", Sarjana Utama thesis, Universitas Gajah Mada, 1985 ;I Made Suastika,
"Kakawin Dimbhiwicitra:Suntingan, Naskah, Struktur dan Fungsi", Fakultas Sastra,
Universitas Udayana, 1986; I Made Suastika, Ida Bagus Mayun, Ida Wayan Oka
Granoka, Transliterasi dan Kajian Nilai Kakawin Candraberawa, Denpasar:Proyek
Penelitian dan Pengkajian Kebudayaan Bali, 1986-7; A. Vickers, "The Desiring Prince:
A Study of the Kidung Malat as Text", Ph.D. thesis, University of Sydney, 1986; A.
Vickers, "Ritual Written: the Song of the Ligya, or The Killing of the Rhinoceros", in
H. Geertz, Bali;\ Wayan Warna, Babad Dalem:Teks dan Terjemahan, Badung:Dinas
Pendidikan dan Kebudayaan Propinsi Bali, 1986.
13. A. A. G. Agung, Bali pada Abad XIX : Perjuangan Rakyat Menentang Kolonialisme
Belanda 1808-1908, Yogyakarta: Gajah Mada University Press, 1989;Anak Agung Ketut

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 The Dating of Several Kakawin from Bali and Lombok 149

provides a fruitful source for new insights into Balinese literary chronology.
Briefly, the historical picture that has emerged is as follows.
Eighteenth and nineteenth century Balinese political history was dominated
by intra- and inter-kingdom rivalries that resulted in an almost permanent state
of conflict and saw the shifting of political ascendancy from one part of the
island to another. Throughout this period, the Déwa Agung of Klungkung, as
heir to the earlier Gèlgèl dynasty, continued to be acknowledged as paramount
ruler. At the same time, the other Balinese kingdoms maintained political
independence. This multi-centred Balinese polity bred a similarly multi-
centred literary and cultural life.
Both historically and textually, the island of Lombok is also part of this
story. In the early eighteenth century, the east Balinese kingdom of
Karangasem began a period of expansion which first saw it absorb the
neighbouring districts of Sidemen and Sibetan, and then, in 1740, the
neighbouring island of Lombok as well. For over a century, close dynastic ties
linked Karangasem-Bali with the Lombok court centres. For all practical
purposes, Western Lombok thus formed part of the Balinese cultural and
political world. In the Lombok courts too, new literary centres sprang up.
Through their on-going association with the Balinese courts, or perhaps
independently, literary activity flourished in this new setting - old works were
preserved, copied and studied, and new works were written. These Lombok
literary centres are among the most well documented and many of the new
insights into the dating of the kakawin draw on this "Lombok connection".
While similar literary centres undoubtedly existed in Bali itself, evidence for
these is more fragmentary and as yet largely unstudied.
New evidence for the dating of individual literary works is possible from
the conjunction of this general historical data and both internal and external
textual sources. Within Javanese and Balinese kakawin traditions, it was

Agung, Kupu-Kupu Kuning yang Terbang di Selat Lombok : Lintasan Sejarah Kerajaan
Karangasem (1661-1950), Denpasar : Upada Sastra, 1992; A. van der Kraan, Lombok:
Conquest, Colonization and Underdevelopment, 1870-1940, Singapore :Heinemann,
1980; A. van der Kraan, George Pockock King : Merchant Adventurer and Catalyst of
the Bali War, 1846-49, Hull: Centre for Southeast Asian Studies, [Occasional Papers,
Number 22], 1992;A. van der Kraan, Rajas, Bandars and Trade in Nineteenth Century
Bali, in J. Butcher and H. Dick (eds), The Rise and Fall of Revenue Farming : Business
Elites and the Emergence of the Modern State in Southeast Asia, London rMacmillan,
1993; A. van der Kraan, "Lombok under the Mataram Dynasty, 1839-94", Paper
presented to the 34th International Congress of Asian and North African Studies,
Hongkong, 1993 ;H. Schulte Nordholt, "The Mads Lange Connection. A Danish Trader
on Bali in the Middle of the 19th Century : Broker and Buffer", Indonesia 32: 17-47 ;H.
Schulte Nordholt, "Een Balische Dynastie: Hiérarchie en Conflict in de Negara
Mengwi, 1700-1940", Dissertation, Vrije Universiteit te Amsterdam, 1988 ;Ida Bagus
Sidemen et al., Sejarah Klungkung, Klungkung : Pemerintah Kabupaten Daerah Tingkat
II, 1983 ; A. Vickers, Bali: A Paradise Created, Ringwood: Penguin, 1989 ;M. Wiener, "
Visible and Invisible Realms : The Royal House of Klungkung and the Dutch Conquest
of Bali", Dissertation, University of Chicago, 1990.

Archipel 52, Paris, 1996

 150 Helen Creese

customary for poets to add an opening or closing statement in verse form in

which they decried their lack of skill, invoked their tutelary deity and extolled
their patron. Occasionally they also provided a clue to the time of writing of
the work concerned by means of a chronogram or date in words. The most
famous chronogram is found in the twelfth century Old Javanese rendering of
the story of the war between the Pàndawas and Korawas, the Bhâratayuddha
("The War of the Bhâratas"), in which the sixth stanza of the first canto
contains sufficient calendrical data for the exact time of composition to be
pinpointed to 6 September 1157(14). Kakawin dating references are often
hidden within the text itself and, so problematic is the translation of these
opening and closing stanzas, that many have undoubtedly either been
overlooked, as appears to have been the case for the Abhimanyuwiwâha
and Hariwijaya, or prove impossible to interpret with any degree of
certainty.
However, it was not only authors who left their mark on individual works.
Later generations of copyists also added information about the time and place
of copying and, at least in Balinese textual tradition, frequently also added
commemorative notes (pangeling-eling) in order to highlight the link between
the literary world of gods and heroes and the real world of human beings (15).
The existence of these colophons and notes has long been known to scholars,
but the data they provide have remained largely ignored by generations of
philologists whose main concern, the critical reconstruction of the archetypal
text, precluded any discussion of where the various manuscripts of these
kakawin and prose works of primarily Javanese origin may have ended up in
Bali. So little was known of the historical periods from which Javanese kakawin
originated that it was virtually impossible to set them in a historical context of
their own, or to consider them as anything but isolated cultural artefacts.
Zoetmulder's work on Old Javanese poets and their craft has been invaluable
for illuminating the social role of poets in Javanese courts, but reveals little of
specific times, places or events (16). On the other hand as soon as we turn to the
study of the more recent Balinese works from a more accessible historical
period, the colophon data take on considerable importance.
Our present knowledge of the Javanese and Balinese literary corpus stems
largely from the manuscript collections that found their way into European
libraries and public institutions, and thence to the attention of generations of
scholars. Thus it is less a reflection of the totality of the Balinese literary
corpus than a representation of the acquisition policies and idiosyncrasies of

14. S. Supomo, Bhâratayuddha : An Old Javanese Poem and its Indian Sources, New
Delhi : International Academy of Indian Culture/ Aditya Prakashan, 1993, p. 8. For a
general discussion of the difficulties of interpreting chronograms, see Supomo,
Arjunawijaya, pp. 10-14 and J. Noorduyn, "Some Remarks on Javanese Chronogram
Words : A Case of Localization", BKI 149 (1993) : 298-317.
15. A.Vickers, "Balinese Texts and Historiography", History and Theory 29,2
(1990):pp. 58-78.
16. P. J. Zoetmulder, "Kawi and Kakawin", BKI 113 (1957): 50-69 ;Zoetmulder,
Kalangwan, Chapter 4.

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 The Dating of Several Kakawin from Bali and Lombok 151

European collectors, both private collectors and Dutch government officials, of

the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Even the Gedong Kirtya
collection, the first major Balinese collection set up in 1928 as the Kirtya
Liefrinck-van der Tuuk in Singaraja, throws more light on European textual
interests than on Balinese ones, since it too was established under Dutch
control and sponsorship. More recently, the on-going Balinese manuscript
transcription project, begun by Prof. C. Hooykaas in 1972 and currently
continuing under the directorship of Prof. H. Hinzler, now numbers in excess
of six thousand individual transcriptions collected from all over Bali, and is
indicative of the wide dissemination of literature of all kinds particularly in
high caste Balinese families (17).
Pioneering European collectors of Balinese textual material, such as
Friederich, Van der Tuuk and Brandes, sought out works for specific
philological, lexicographical and scholarly purposes, making use of Balinese
assistants to acquire manuscripts from many different areas. On the whole, they
neglected to record where their manuscripts came from, so that when they finally
passed into European libraries, knowledge of the provenance of the manuscripts
was lost or has remained locked away within the manuscripts themselves.
One exception to this generally haphazard collection of manuscripts is the
Lombok Collection, the acquisition of which was motivated as much by political
as scholarly concerns. In the closing decades of the nineteenth and the first
decade of the twentieth century, the Dutch colonial forces swept away the last
vestiges of resistance and plucked off the Balinese kingdoms one by one. As part
of the expeditionary force that attacked and devastated the Lombok capital of
Cakranagara in 1894, the Dutch took with them the government philologist,
J.A.L. Brandes, who was charged with the task of acquiring palm-leaf
manuscripts (lontar) and other treasures from the defeated court. However harshly
later history may judge the ethics of this policy, the result was the preservation of
a large collection of manuscripts, known as the Lombok Collection, that is now
housed in the library of the University of Leiden. The Lombok collection
comprises over four hundred individual codices (LOr 5012-5435), many of which
contain scribal colophons, some dating back several centurie s (18).
Much valuable material for the dating of Balinese literary works is
contained in these colophons as well as invaluable information concerning the

17. See C. Hooykaas, "Preservation and Cataloguing of Manuscripts in Bali", BKI 135
( 1979): 347-353 ;H. Hinzler, "The Balinese Manuscript Project", South-east Asia
Library Group Newsletter 25 (1983): 7. The manuscripts transcribed between 1972 and
1979 are listed in Th. Pigeaud, Supplement to Literature of Java, Leiden: Leiden
University Press, 1980.
18. Brandes had the colophons of the manuscripts of the Lombok Collection copied
on paper in Balinese script but his plan to publish them was never fulfilled. The
transcriptions are found in the Leiden codices LOr 8392 and LOr 8393 (Pigeaud
Literature, Vol 1 p. 325 ; Vol 2 pp. 252-320. I am indebted to Adrian Vickers, who
first drew my attention to the existence of these codices and provided me with his
transcriptions of some of the materials used in this paper.

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 152 Helen Creese

role of texts and literacy in Bali and Lombok in the eighteenth and nineteenth
centuries. The importance of the recollections and commemorative notes
recorded in Balinese colophons has already been commented on by
Vickers^19). It is precisely this kind of apparently incidental and minor detail
which, when combined with internal textual evidence, can be pieced together
to unravel fragments of Balinese literary history. The usefulness of the
Lombok Collection for the purposes of studying Balinese literary history lies
in the fact that its seizure as part of the spoils of war means that the entire
collection has been preserved intact and allows a partial snapshot of the
literary concerns of a particular court centre at the end of the nineteenth
century. In the Lombok collection, we have a window into pre-colonial
Balinese literary concerns that is unparalleled by the other public
collections.
With this background I will now turn to the discussion of individual
kakawin, beginning with the two works related thematically rather than
stylistically to the Pârthâyana.

Khândawawanadahana
I will deal first of all with the most recent of the works to be discussed
here, the Khândawawanadahana ("The Burning of the Khândawa Forest").
The Khândawawanadahana retells in the form of a kakawin, the story related in
the final section of the Adiparwa, including the story of the demons Sunda and
Upasunda, the twelve-year period of Arjuna's exile, his amorous adventures
and his abduction and marriage of Subhadrâ. It concludes with the episode of
the burning of the Khândawa forest, the episode from which the poem derives
its name(20). The kakawin shows direct textual dependence on the Old
Javanese Âdiparwa, indicating that the tenth century Old Javanese prose work
was still being used in Lombok as a source of literary inspiration as recently as
the mid-nineteenth century.
The Khândawawanadahana provides one of the most straightforward cases
of dating, in which internal evidence found in the closing stanzas of the work
can be equated with specific historical events recorded in other sources. In the
opening eulogy and the briefer epilogue of the Khândawawanadahana, the
author, who calls himself Sang Anten ("Younger Brother"), provides
considerable information about the origins and the purpose of the work. The
epilogue is of particular relevance here. In the closing stanzas (41,12-14), the
author states that he composed his poem on the occasion of the departure for
Bali of the crown prince, who was to rule Amlapura (Karangasem) on behalf of
his father, now that the former ruler of Karangasem had been defeated and his
realm left unprotected :

19. Vickers, "Balinese Texts", 1990.

20. Zoetmulder, Kalangwan, p. 398.

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 The Dating of Several Kakawin from Bali and Lombok 153

12. Thus the story from the sublime Adiparwa is now complete, composed
at Pancaka.
Its purpose is none other than to serve as a memorial (?) on the occasion
of the departure of the royal prince,
Who is to go to the renowned island of Bali that has held sway from
former times, the object of fear of all the kings.
Now His Majesty, the King, has defeated and annihilated his rival ruler
and it has no protection in the world.
13. This is the reason the King's son has been summoned and chosen to be
the protector of that realm.
May the love of the gods accompany him as he journeys forth as the
refuge of the world.
Long may he reign, so too his sons and grandsons, as the umbrella of the
world.
May he know good fortune and stability as he establishes his own court
in the capital in the district of Amla.
14. This is the first time the one called Sang Antën has written a poem and
wielded the sharpened stylus,
Impelled to tell the story of the might of Lord Krsna, most illustrious
ally of the God of Fire,
With Arjuna as his protector in going forth to meet the powerful and
deadly excellent arrows.
Clearly destroying all remnants of the three (?), never more to encounter
them because the cuckoo (?) is now dead<21).

Assuming the work to have been written in Bali, Zoetmulder suggests that
the father of the prince sent to rule over Karangasem may have been the ruler
of Klungkung^22). However, from what is now known of the history of
Lombok, such an interpretation can be ruled out. In fact, the prince, or in this
case the princes, are Anak Agung Gedé Putu, Anak Agung Oka and Anak
Agung Jlantik, the three nephews of I Gusti Anglurah Ketut Karangasem, the
ruler of the Lombok kingdom of Mataram (1839-70).
Anglurah Ketut Karangasem succeeded to the Mataram throne in 1838,
after his father, also known as Anglurah Ketut Karangasem, died in the course
of his campaign to overthrow the main rival branch of the family, that of
Karangasem-Lombok (or Singasari). In 1839, Anglurah Ketut Karangasem
finally defeated the last ruler of Karangasem-Lombok, sacked the former
capital at Cakranagara, and united all the Balinese kingdoms of Lombok under
Mataram rule. He then ruled Lombok until 1870 when he was succeeded by his

21. My translation here is based on Zoetmulder's transcription of the text (Kalangwan,

p. 496 : ning tiga tan anëmu pituwi kuwong tëlas pëjati). The meaning of the last line is
pëjah:"
not clear.
the Athree
better
whoreading
have not
is encountered
perhaps ningthetiga
seven
tan seers,
anëmunow
pitudead"
wiku although
wong tëlas
the
meaning is still not any clearer. Perhaps the "three" refers to the three princes and the
" kuwong" to their father left behind sadly pining.
22. Zoetmulder, Kalangwan:p. 398.

Archipel 52, Paris, 1996

 154 Helen Creese

youngest brother, I Gusti Anglurah Gedé Ngurah Karangasem, the last

independent Lombok ruler, who eventually died in exile in Batavia in 1895, in
the wake of the Dutch conquest of Lombok in 1894<23).
In the early years of his reign Anglurah Ketut Karangasem forged close
economic and political ties with the Dutch, and during the Dutch military
expeditions against the Balinese kingdoms of Bulèlèng, Klungkung and
Karangasem that took place in 1848-9, he embraced the Dutch cause and took
up arms against Mataram's former allies including the senior branch of his
own family in Karangasem-Bali. In return for the eventual overlordship of
Karangasem-Bali, Anglurah Ketut Karangasem, agreed to provide troops to the
Dutch. Besieged by Dutch and Lombok forces, the ruler of Karangasem was
defeated in April 1849. His remaining lords soon surrendered to the leader of
the Lombok forces, Gusti Gedé Rai. However, when the Dutch then proceeded
to launch a direct attack on the supreme Balinese ruler, the Déwa Agung of
Klungkung, the Lombok contingent withdrew their assistance <24). Unable to
oppose the large contingent of Balinese warriors that had rallied to the Déwa
Agung's cause, the Dutch were eventually forced to negotiate a peaceful
settlement.
Concerned to realise their own political agenda, the Lombok leaders had
first ensured that their claims to Karangasem would continue to be ratified by
the Dutch. On 10 June 1849, on the very day on which the Dutch marched on
Klungkung, the newly appointed commander-in-chief of the Dutch expedition,
Duke Bernhard van Saksen- Weimar-Eisenach signed a memorandum on board
the ship Etna that was lying off the Klungkung coast, affirming Lombok
sovereignty over Karangasem <25). Following the eventual signing of the Kuta
peace in July 1849, Anglurah Ketut Karangasem then sent the three sons of his
younger brother to administer Karangasem-Bali on his behalf.
This historical background allows us to recognise that the final line of the
Khândawawanadahana conceals a chronogram referring to the saka year 1776
(1854 A.D) which contains sufficient calendrical elements to allow the
completion of the Khândawawanadahana to be acurately dated to September-
October, 1854 (26). This dating from literary sources suggests that an interval
of several years may have elapsed between the signing of the peace treaties of

23. As Old Javanese rarely distinguishes singular and plural, it is possible that more
than one prince is actually referred to in the text.
24. J. O. H. Arntzenius, De Derde Balische Expeditie, 's-Gravenhage:Belinfante
1874 ; Van der Kraan, George Pockock King.
25. The same clause was also included in the official treaty signed between the Dutch
and Karangasem on 21 July 1849. See, "Acte van Aanstelling van den vorst van
Karangasem dd. 10 Junij 1849;Contract met Karangasem dd. 21 Julij 1849", in Surat-
surat Perdjandjian antara Keradjaan-Keradjaan Bali/Lombok dengan Pemerintah
Hindia-Belanda 1841 s/d 1938, Arsip Nasional Republik Indonesia, 1964, pp. 127, 130.
26. The last line reads : byakta bhrasta saéesa ning tiga tan anëmu pituwi kuwong tëlas
pëjah. I have ascribed the following values to the elements of the chronogram: tiga is
taken as a reference to the third month (September-October), with anëmu (6) pitu (7)
wiku (7) wong (1) providing the year equivalent to 1776 éaka or 1854.

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 The Dating of Several Kakawin from Bali and Lombok 155

July 1849 and the establishment of Mataram control in Karangasem, but I have
not been able to find a clear reference in other historical sources to the exact
time of departure of the Lombok princes for Karangasem.
While alternative interpretations of the Khandawawanadahana chronogram are
possible, including 1851, a year chronologically much closer to the end of the
Bali wars, the reading 1854 A.D. appears to be confirmed by a second literary
source, also from the pen of Sang Antën (27\ In a colophon attached to a copy of
the fourteenth century kakawin, the Arjunawijaya, Sang Antën write (28) :
This is the story called 'Arjuna's victory' (Arjunawijaya), the work of mpu
Tantular, the foremost and most eminent poet of the island of Java. It was copied on
the island of Lombok, there in my final resting place in the kingdom of Jiwa<29) by
Sang Antën, the 'Younger Brother'. May those who are learned in literature, excuse
the
hand(3°)
poor form
for you
of the
to take
letters.
awayIn in
this[the
saka
year]
year:
feelings(6)-seven(7)-seers(7)-person(l)
Oh my son(s), this is the work of my
(1776 saka = 1854 A.D.). I am filled with longing, for all the world like a jangga
vine in the month of Wesakha (April-May), but devoid of fragrance ; these palm-
leaves are a symbol of the purity of my heart towards you. As I stay here in my
residence at Pancaka, clearly my heart now journeys with your worthy charms and

27. For this interpretation, it would be necessary to consider tiga as the final element of
the year rather than as a reference to the third month. Thus: ning tiga (3) pita (7) wiku (
7) wong (1), or 1773 saka, equivalent to 1851 A. D.
28. The colophon is reproduced but not translated in S. Supomo, Arjunawijaya: A
Kakawin of Mpu Tantular, The Hague : Martinus Nijhoff, 1977, p. 178. In this
colophon, there can be no doubt that the reading of the chronogram is 1854 (1776 saka).
The colophon reads :
Ity Arjunawijaya sangkathâ, kîrti nira mpu Tantular, uttama ning Kawlswara ring
Yawadipa. Puma linikita ring pulo Lombok, ngkânêng panglâhan ing râjya Jiwà de
Sang Hantën, paryantusakëna wirùpa ning âksara, de sang sudhy âmaca. I Éakàla iti :
Ah putrangkw iki hûryahastaku tâlapta rasa pitu wiku wwang anglëngông, sâksàt
jangga ri kâla Wesakamasa n tan awangi nika, patra kewala, kângkën cihna ni sûkla
ning twas aku ri kita n aku ri hanangkwa i Pancaka, byâktanyâr paran ing manahku ri
rarasta saphala tuhu gurwan ing manis. I rika diwasa ning pustaka putus. Ong
Saraswatye bho nama swahâ; ong siddhir astu, dirghayuh astu, tat astu, astu ya nama
swahâ.
29. I am grateful to R. Rubinstein for her help in deciphering the meaning of the
colophon.
For panglâhan, Zoetmulder gives the meaning "the place where one dies" (Old
Javanese -English Dictionary, The Hague : Martinus Nijhoff, 1982, p. 955). It is usually
used in the context of prefering to stay and die in the palace rather than flee. We can
perhaps assume that the author was either ill or dying of old age. However, since Jïwa
is presumably a variant of Jïwana and another name for Koripan, it is possible that the
reference is to the ruins of the former kingdom of Karangasem-Lombok, whose capital
located at Cakranagara, was destroyed in 1839, then rebuilt after the accession of I
Gusti Anglurah Gedé Ngurah Karangasem (r. 1870-94), probably sometime before 1877.
References to rebuilding the palace are found in colophons from Lombok dated 1877
and 1878.
30. For huryyâsta, Van der Tuuk (Kawi-Balineesch-Nederlaandsch-Woordenboek,
Batavia :Landsdrukkerij, 1897, Vol 1 p. 122) gives the meaning "signature" (on a
document such as a sima temple regulation), possibly a corrupt form of wirâsta
"writing, letters", thus in this context apparently a personally copied document.

Archipel 52, Paris, 1996

 156 Helen Creese

your sweetness so well-learned (31). Thus at this time is my manuscript finished.

Honour and homage to Saraswati !May there be success ! May there be long life ! So
be it ! Homage !

As the Arjunawijaya colophon makes clear, Sang Antën must have been an
elder relative of the princes who went to rule in Karangasem as he refers to
them as putra "sons". He is probably their father, although the word putra
need not be interpreted too literally, and may also refer to a nephew or other
younger male relative. Historical records indicate that the father of the three
princes - Anak Agung Gedé Putu, Anak Agung Oka and Anak Agung Jlantik -
was Anglurah Made Karangasem &2\ He was the second son of Anglurah
Këtut Karangasem (d. 1838), and brother of the reigning Lombok ruler,
Anglurah Ketut Karangasem (see Figure 1).

Anglurah Ketut Karangasem d.1838

1
1 1 1
Anglurah Ketut Karangasem Anglurah Made Karangasem Anglurah Gedé Ngurah Karangasem
r.1839-70 r. 1870- 1894
1
1 1
1

Anglurah Gede Putu Anglurah Made Oka Gusti Gedé Jlantik

Figure 1 : Mataram Dynasty Family relationships

Unlike his more illustrious brothers, little else is known of Anglurah Made
Karangasem. He died at Balekapal (Balik-kapal), although there is no
indication of the time of his death (33). Neither Balinese or Dutch historical
sources have anything more to say about this prince. The literary sources, on
the other hand, indicate that he felt the loss of his sons keenly, and took refuge
in literary activities to assuage his sorrow (34). He notes in the epilogue that the

31. The meaning is unclear. It is possible that gurwan "tutored, learned" should be considered
a variant of guy wan "smiling, laughing"; thus "your worthy charms and sweet smiles".
32. Both the Mataram and Karangasem-Lombok (Singasari) branches of the Lombok
dynasty came originally from Karangasem in Bali, and the number of similar names and
titles is sometimes confusing. This Anglurah Made Karangasem is to be distinguished
from a number of earlier rulers of Karangasem-Lombok prior to 1839 who also bore the
name Anglurah Made Karangasem.
33. For the discussion of Lombok in the nineteenth century, see W. Cool, De Lombok
Expeditie, The Hague :Kloff, 1896, and A. van der Kraan, Lombok : Conquest.
34. The possibility cannot be ruled out that, rather than being the father of the princes,
Sang Antën may have been their mother or other close elder female relative. At least
one female scribe is known to have copied manuscripts belonging to the royal library of
Cakranagara during this period.

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 The Dating of Several Kakawin from Bali and Lombok 157

Khândawawanadahana is his first poem, but the Arjunawijaya colophon shows

that he had wider literary interests, and was obviously an accomplished scribe
as well as a poet. As he refers to his final resting place he may have reached an
advanced age or was perhaps in poor health. Forgotten by historical sources,
he has nevertheless left his mark on the literary history of Lombok.

Kâlayawanântaka
The second kakawin to be considered is the Kâlayawanântaka ("The Death
of Kâlayawana"). Only the final part of this kakawin is thematically linked to
the Pârthâyana, for the poet has appended the story of Arjuna's abduction of
Subhadrâ to an entirely unrelated Krsna story dealing with the destruction of
the demon Kâlayawana. Zoetmulder who summarises the story briefly offers
no opinion on the dating of the work which is known from only one manuscript
of Lombok origin belonging to the Lombok Collection^35). Unlike the
Khândawawanadahana, it is not possible to pinpoint the exact time of the
composition of the Kâlayawanântaka, as the poem appears to contain none of
the dating elements such as those hidden in the Khândawawanadahana. A
possible clue to the dating of the work, however, can be found in the final
stanza of the poem (34,4), where the poet states :
Thus ends the tale composed by a lowly poet, covered in confusion.
It is not because I have talent that I write poetry, ignorant as I am of Knowledge, yet
I have composed this trifle.
It is because of the love of the Lord of Janggala who has commissioned me that I
am thus obliged to depict beauty.
For this reason alone, I seem to take heart and ply my sharpened stylus (36>.

The dating of the Kâlayawanântaka hinges on the identification of the

poet's patron, the Lord of Janggala (Janggalendra). In Old Javanese, janggala
means "uncultivated land, wilderness "(37). Thus Janggalendra may mean
something like "Lord of the Wilderness". On the other hand, it may be
interpreted as a specific reference to the ruler of the kingdom of Janggala.
In the Javanese context, Janggala is a well-known toponym, the name given
to the eastern portion of Erlangga's kingdom when, in the eleventh century, he
divided his realm between his two sons, fragmenting the state into two
independent polities, Janggala and Kadiri. By the late twelfth century Janggala

35. Zoetmulder, Kalangwan, pp. 387-8 (LOr 5104).

36. Kâlayawanântaka 34,4 : Nâhan hïngan ikang kathâ panulis ing mùdha prapancânaput
/tan sangkê wruh amarnana ng carita tan wring sâstra mâtrêniwô / wet ning sih nira
janggalendra n anûdi këdwâ lalangwôkëna/ nâhan hetu niki n Iwir anghëbang-hëbang
mamrih lungid ning tanah.
I am not entirely certain that janggala is the correct reading of the text which I have
taken from Zoetmulder (Kalangwan, p. 490). The same reading is found independently
in Zoetmulder's transcription of LOr 5104. The Brandes transcription in LOr 8392,
however, has the reading janggayendra, a reading which does not seem very plausible.
Only a close examination of the original lontar manuscript can resolve this issue.
37. Zoetmulder, Old Javanese, p. 727.

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 158 Helen Creese

had been absorbed by Kadiri which then dominated the thirteenth century
Javanese political and literary worlds until the collapse of the dynasty in 1222.
At that time political control shifted to a new centre when the legendary Ken
Angrok, or Rangga Râjasa, first incorporated Janggala into his own realm of
Tumapël, then took Kadiri by military force and reunited the two halves of
Erlangga's kingdom. The new dynasty flourished briefly to the east in
Singasari until it was eventually eclipsed by Majapahit in 1292. Even after the
Javanese political reality came to an end, these kingdoms, often known by one
of their many cognomens, lived on in the tradition of Panji stories, a tradition
which eventually made its way to many parts of Southeast Asia, including Bali.
Despite the strong Javanese connection with Janggala, it seems most
improbable that the Kâlayawanântaka is of Javanese origin (38). The language
and style point strongly to a recent origin, and the reference to Janggalendra
more specifically to a late nineteenth century Lombok origin, for it was not
just in historical and romantic poetry that names like Janggala, Singasari and
Kadiri continued to exist. Over six hundred years later, these kingdoms were to
flourish again, this time in Lombok^39).
When the Balinese kingdom of Karangasem sought and won hegemony
over the western part of the neighbouring island of Lombok in the early
eighteenth century, the court centres that were established there adopted the
names of these earlier Javanese kingdoms. That these names were thoroughly
integrated into Lombok courtly life is evident from the colophons attached to a
number of manuscripts from the Lombok Collection which refer to several of
these court centres. It was not only names that were adopted from Javanese
traditions. The parallels to thirteenth century Javanese political and literary
worlds are striking. Like those of their thirteenth century Javanese namesakes,
relationships between the different Lombok centres were fraught with conflict.
Nearly a century of internal dispute ensued before the consolidation of power
in a single centralised state in the second half of the nineteenth century under
Anglurah Ketut Karangasem, during whose reign from 1839 to 1870 the
Khândawawanadahana was written.
Although details of the earlier eighteenth century events are sketchy, by the
beginning of the nineteenth century four main court centres had emerged,
namely Karangasem-Lombok also known as Singasari, Mataram, Janggala and

38. The reference to the fourteenth century Javanese kakawin Dharmasiinya that
Juynboll (Supplement op den Catalogus van de Javaansche en Madoereesche
Handschriften der Leidsche Universiteits Bibliotheek, vol 2, Leiden: Brill, 1911, p.
154), and later Pigeaud (Literature, vol 2, p. 266), attribute to the Kâlayawanântaka is
an error. In the text (33,9), Krsna exhorts Arjuna to follow the advice of Dharmasunnu
(i.e. his brother Yudisthira), not the teachings of the Dharmasiinya. It seems most
unlikely that the Kâlayawanântaka could be of other than recent Lombok or Balinese
origin.
39. The discussion of the history of Lombok draws on a number of sources, including
W. Cool, De Lombok Expeditie; and Van der Kraan's series of works, Lombok ; George
Pockock King, "Rajas", "Lombok under the Mataram dynasty " ; Vickers, "The
Desiring Prince" and Ketut Agung, Kupu-Kupu.

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 The Dating of Several Kakawin from Bali and Lombok 159

Pagutan. Both Kadiri and Janggala, more commonly known in Lombok by its
cognomen Pagesangan, apparently existed as independent court centres
throughout the second half of the eighteenth century. One of the earliest
colophons from the Lombok Collection, a copy of the Élokântara dated 1753
A.D., refers to Pagesangan (= Janggala), as does the Atmaprasangsa copied in
1813 or 1814; while Kadiri is specifically mentioned in a colophon of a
Wariga text of 1760 A.D.<4°). The earlier dates fall during the reign of one of
the founding rulers of the Balinese Lombok kingdoms, Gusti Way an Tëgëh,
who, according to Balinese tradition, was the first Balinese lord sent by the
ruler of Karangasem to govern Lombok in 1740. This tradition records that
Gusti Wayan Tëgëh had a strong interest in literature and is believed to have
taken many literary works with him to Lombok, including the renowned codex
that contains the Nâgarakrtâgama, Kunjarakarna and £iwarâtrikalpa(4l\ His
death in 1775 is confirmed in Dutch records.
In the ensuing fratricidal strife for control of the realm, Pagesangan was
first defeated by Kadiri. Then, in 1804, the tables were reversed when Kadiri
was in its turn absorbed by Pagesangan. The victory was short lived as
political struggles between more powerful forces eventually overran the
smaller court centres in the 1830s. The two major contenders at that time were
the rival houses of Singasari (Karangasem-Lombok) and Mataram. During the
succession dispute that followed the death of the ruler of the Singasari line in
1835, Pagesangan (Janggala) was once again incorporated into a larger entity,
Singasari, while neighbouring Pagutan came under the influence of Mataram.
Eventually Mataram wrested sole power from Singasari and by 1839, all the former
court centres had been subsumed under the central rule of the Mataram dynasty.
This ongoing political turmoil is commemorated both in colophons from
the Lombok collection and other literary works. The conflict of 1804 is
recorded in the colophon of a copy of the Àdiparwa, and the final absorption of
Pagesangan in the late 1830s in both the Babad Karangasem-Sasak and Rereg
Pagesangan(42\ Even after they had been incorporated into the larger entity of
Mataram-Lombok, Janggala and Pagutan evidently continued to exist as court
centres. Pagutan is mentioned in a late nineteenth century manuscript of the
Pabratan which bears two dates, 1877 and 1879 (43>. Specific references to a
Lombok ruler of Janggala are found in two colophons attached to copies of the
Adipurana and Bhuwanakosa, dated 1877 and 1878 respectively (44>. In these

40. The texts cited are Élokântara (LOr 5047), Atmaprasangsa (LOr 5100) and Wariga
(LOr 5055). For the Atmaprasangsa, Pigeaud, Literature, vol 2, p. 26, erroneously
calculates the date 1735 saka as 1803 A.D. rather than 1813 A.D. A second date in the
same colophon reads saka 1736, equivalent to 1814 A.D.
41. For the discussion of Gusti Wayan Tëgëh see Vickers, "The Desiring Prince". The
codex is LOr 5023. See Pigeaud, Literature, vol 2, p.254.
42. Adiparwa (LOr 5046); Babad Karangasem-Sasak (Gedong Kirtya 778) and Rereg
Pagesangan (Gedong Kirtya 2238).
43. Pabratan (LOr 5041).
44. Adipurana (LOr 5019) and Bhuwanakosa (LOr 5022). I propose to discuss the
significance of these colophons in a forthcoming paper.

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 160 Helen Creese

colophons the patron, who commissioned the copies and bears the title of His
Majesty, the Excellent and Valorous King of Janggala and Amlapura (srî
mahârâjâdiwîryya Janggalâmlapura) , is Anglurah Gedé Ngurah Karangasem, the
last independent ruler of Lombok^45). These references indicate that, at least in
the late nineteenth century, Janggala was synonymous with Mataram (Lombok).
On the basis of this historical data alone, it is not possible to identify with
absolute certainty which of the Lombok kings may have been accorded the title
Janggalendra and served as the patron of the Kâlayawanântaka. For almost a
century, the power of the Lombok centres had fluctuated, first one gaining the
ascendancy then the next. Nevertheless, the specific references to the king of
Janggala in the late nineteenth century colophons discussed above, suggest that
Janggalendra, the patron of the Kâlayawanântaka was in fact Anglurah Gedé
Ngurah Karangasem, and the Kâlayawanântaka can therefore be dated to the
period of his reign between 1870 and 1894.
We now turn to the remaining kakawin of Balinese origin, those that
display stylistic similarities with the Pârthâyana. The citations in Zoetmulder's
dictionary indicate time and time again the same lexical items, expressions and
phrases, in a group of texts comprising the Subhadrâwiwâha, Hariwijaya,
Abhimanyuwiwâha, Krsnândhaka A (Kangsa), and Krsnândhaka B and
possibly also the Narakawijaya and Ramaparasuwijaya. The connections to
earlier Javanese classics, which I have suggested served as "text-books", the
use of the Old Javanese parwa as source material, the dedication of the poems
to the deity of beauty, and the almost identical phrasing of these dedications
also point to a particular "school" of kakawin composition (46\

45. LOr 5019 : Adipurâna

iti Hâddipurana, samâpta, pûrnna linikitta, ring wijila pisan râjya Matawun, ring wwe,
wu, 3, wre, wara dungulan, sûklapaksâ ring nawâmï bhadra wada mâsa, rudira nâwa,
nâwa sirsa, ri kâla, nâwa sanghâ sapta candra (1799 = A.D. 1877), dene hapanlah
Grhanugraha, tus ning Bhasmangkurâ, ring simâ Jala, lor ing pùrâ Cakranâgara, sângke
suruhan ira §rï Mahârâjadîwiryya Janggalâmlapura, sang prasidângdirî bhumi
Hasmapringgâ, pâryyântusâkna wirupa ning âksâra, pan inadibya, bâp kawnang,
kapajônghân de sang susastrîkâ, pilih mangdadyakna kâdîrttyayusajana priya,
kapalisêng ngawecchi siddhirastu, tatastu hastu.
LOr 5022 : Bhuwanakosa
iti Bhuwanakosan nâma, paramarahasya, jhânasiddhan wasâstrï, siwopadesl samâptam;
iti lontar drwya nira §ri Mahârâjâdiwlryya Janggalâmlapura, sang prasaddha
gumawayakën kadaton muwah, ikang wus sîrnna para wasa nguni, ginantyakën nâma,
hinaranan, ring Cakranâgara, saking nugraha nira sang hyang, sâksât Hayodhyapura
kahidëpanya, lëwih saking hilang, ira kapuput sinurat, i sâkawarsa akâsa sûnya tanu eka
(1800 = A.D. 1878), Karttikamâsa, pancadasl suklapaksa, mrttamâsa, kawyasiwa, ros
ning pujut, tatkâla srî bhûpâla kamadamël bratâmûjâsmara, ngawit sakêng sedëmpati;
om namasiwaya om, namowâgïswaraya, om namobhârggawâya ; om srî guru
bhyonamah.
46. Creese, Pârthâyana, Chapter 4.

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 The Dating of Several Kakawin from Bali and Lombok 161

Subhadrâwiwâha
The dating of the Subhadrâwiwâha presents an intriguing problem. As a
later reworking of the Pârthâyana, this kakawin is intimately connected to its
prototype, with the poet sometimes copying his model exactly and sometimes
going his own way. There is also a dynastic link between the patrons of the
two versions as the Subhadrâwiwâha is offered in homage to
Surawïryawangsaja, the descendant (wangsaja) of Surawïrya, the patron of the
earlier Pârthâyana. This link may not necessarily have been with the core
Déwa Agung line in Klungkung, nor is the descendant of Surawïrya
necessarily his direct or immediate descendant. Nevertheless, as a starting
point for the dating of the Subhadrâwiwâha, a terminus post quern of around
1736 can be posited on the basis of the dating of the earlier Pârthâyana to the
reign of Surawïrya (c. 1722-1736). At first glance, the close textual and
patronage links suggest that the later reworking may have been written shortly
after the Pârthâyana had been completed and was perhaps even the work of the
same poet(47). However, the Subhadrâwiwâha also has strong textual links to
later literary traditions, including the Lombok literary tradition. I will return to
the problem of this Lombok "connection" later.
On the basis of comparative textual information, it is possible to narrow
down the time of origin of the Subhadrâwiwâha to the late eighteenth or early
nineteenth century. However, this attempt to find a more positive dating for
the Subhadrâwiwâha takes us down a path fraught with uncertainty since it
must rely on the interpretation of textual references found in other literary
works, themselves also of uncertain dating and provenance.
The most important work for this purpose is the Kidung Pamahcangah, a
kidung version of the history of the kingdom of Gèlgèl that flourished in Bali
from the fourteenth to the end of the seventeenth century. The Kidung
Pamancangah is offered in homage to Wiryâtmaja (" Son of the Victorious
One"), a name synonymous with that of the patron of the Subhadrâwiwâha,
Surawïryawangsaja ("Scion of the Victorious Hero"). Wiryâtmaja has been
identified as Déwa Agung Putra II of Klungkung (r. c. 1815-51), a direct
descendant of Surawïrya the patron of the Pârthâyana, although there is some
evidence to suggest that he may instead be the former's father and predecessor,
namely Déwa Agung Putra I who died in battle against Bangli in 1809 (48\ If
Surawïryawangsaja is indeed to be identifed as Wiryâtmaja/Déwa Agung Putra
I, then the Subhadrâwiwâha can be dated with some certainty to the late
eighteenth century.
Other textual evidence tends to confirm this hypothesis. In a pioneering
article entitled "Notes on the Early Kidung Literature", Robson discussed a
number of Javanese kidung works (49>. In the first of these, the Panji
Margasmara, a number of other literary works are mentioned. The incidental

47. For a detailed discussion of the rewriting of the Pârthâyana as Subhadrâwiwâha, see
Creese, Pârthâyana, Chapter 6 and Appendix 6.
48. Vickers, Bali, p. 69 ; Creese, Pârthâyana.
49. S. O. Robson, "Notes on the Early Kidung Literature ",BKI 35 (1979): 300-22.

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 162 Helen Creese

naming of known works in this way naturally raises interesting possibilities for
the comparative dating of texts, and Robson has explored this issue with
respect to the works in the Panji Margasmara. The dating of the Panji
Margasmara is of some significance in determining the dating of the
Subhadrâwiwâha because amongst the literary works mentioned in the Panji
Margasmara is a kakawin entitled Subhadrâwiwâha. However, the opening line
of the Panji Margasmara contains a chronogram (windu ta(d?) dwiradanahut
sitangsu) referring to the year "dot (0) elephant (8) bites (3) moon (1)", or
1380 saka, a year equivalent to 1458 A.D.(5°). This dating suggests that not
only the Panji Margasmara but also all the works mentioned in it can be
assigned to the late Majapahit period. Thus, if the chronogram is accepted,
then the work referred to as Subhadrâwiwâha in the Panji Margasmara can
hardly be the extant kakawin of this name, which dates from the eighteenth
century at the earliest.
When Robson's article appeared in 1979, a fifteenth century Majapahit
origin for the Subhadrâwiwâha seemed quite feasible. The only available
opinion on the dating of this work at that time was Zoetmulder's conclusion
that there were " no convincing arguments against dating the work at the end of
the 15th or beginning of the 16th century "(51). The similarities between the
name of the patron of the Subhadrâwiwâha, Surawïryawangsaja, and that of the
patron of the Éiwarâtrikalpa, Suraprabhawa, ruler of Majapahit in the mid
fifteenth century, also tended to support this view. However, we now know
that the Subhadrâwiwâha was not written in Java in the late Majapahit period,
but in Bali, and no earlier than the mid-eighteenth century. Must we therefore
assume that the extant Subhadrâwiwâha is not the same kakawin as the one
mentioned in the Panji Margasmaral Such an interpretation is indeed possible,
for there is at least one other recorded case of two quite different kakawin
works having the same name. The Kidung Harsawijaya, for example, mentions
a kakawin called Arjunawijaya in which, it is said, the meeting of Abhimanyu
and Uttarï in Wirâta is related, and which therefore cannot be the same work as
the extant fourteenth century Arjunawijaya that tells of the defeat of
Dasamukha by the hero Arjuna Sahasrabàhu^52).
A second option, however, is to explore the possibility of a different
interpretation for the dating of the Panji Margasmara, at least in the version
that has come down to us. For this most recent version, a definite terminus ante
quern of 1811 A.D. can be posited, since the oldest known copy of the Panji
Margasmara was made in Karangasem in that year<53). Rather than reflecting
the date of composition of the extant version of the Panji Margasmara, the
chronogram date equivalent to 1458 A.D. may refer to an earlier, original
version of this work, perhaps of Javanese origin. The names of contemporary

50. ibid. p. 307.

51. Zoetmulder, Kalangwan, p. 384.
52. ibid, p 45 ;Supomo, Arjunawijaya.
53. LOr 4329. See Pigeaud, Literature, vol 2, p. 212-3.

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 The Dating of Several Kakawin from Bali and Lombok 1 63

eighteenth century Balinese works, such as the Subhadrâwiwâha, may have

been added at a later date, when the work was rewritten or revised. The dating
of the kidung Rangga Lawe provides an analogous case. This work contains a
chronogram equivalent to 1334 A.D., but the work itself, which contains
several neologisms including references to rifles, and in style is reminiscent of
later eighteenth or nineteenth century Balinese kidung such as the Kidung
Pamancangah, was apparently rewritten at a much later stage (54). The earlier
chronograms may even reflect later Balinese and Lombok historical knowledge
and traditions concerning the Kadiri and Majapahit periods, known not only in
Panji stories and romances but also from other Javanese kakawin works such
as the Nâgarakrtâgama and Éiwarâtrikalpa.
While the kidung genre probably has its origins in Java, many of the extant
Balinese works belonging to it appear to reflect Balinese literary practices (55).
The eighteenth and nineteenth century " Javanisation" of the Balinese and
Lombok courts described above was accompanied by a strong interest in
literary works describing the Javanese settings in which historical romances
and Panji stories are set(56). Two of the other literay works mentioned along
with the Subharâwiwâha in the Panji Margasmara are still extant, namely the
kidung Wargasari and the Jayendriya. Both are apparently of Balinese origin.
In her recent study of the Wargasari, Fletcher, for example, shows that many
of the social and cultural institutions described, particularly the marriage
ceremonies, appear to be Balinese (57). Even the Jayendriya, a short lyrical
poem, which concludes with the statement that it is dedicated to a king who
"unites under his sway both Janggala and Kadiri", could just as plausibly have
been offered to a Lombok king as an earlier Javanese one(58). Any one of a
number of Lombok rulers during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries might
have been said to have united both Janggala and Kadiri under his sway.
However, the existence of so few detailed studies and editions of kidung works
continues to hamper any generalisations about the literary works usually
described as being written in "Middle Javanese".
Balinese tradition also points to the existence of possible alternative
versions and datings of the Panji Margasmara. In the Candrasangkala, a
chronological list of significant events and dates, a reference is made to the
conclusion of the writing or recitation of a Kidung Panji Margasmara in the

54. L.C. Damais, "Études d'Épigraphie Indonésienne V : Dates de Manuscrits et

Documents Divers de Java, Bali et Lombok", Bulletin de l'École Française d'Extrême
Orient 49-1 (1958): 1-257. Robson," Notes", pp. 306-7.
55. See Pigeaud, Literature, vol 1, p. 125 and pp. 206-11 ;Zoetmulder, Kalangwan, p.
29.
56. For the discussion of the "Javanisation" of Balinese culture, see Vickers, "The
Desiring Prince", Chapter 8, and M. Zurbuchen, The Language of Balinese Shadow
Theater, Princeton : Princeton University Press, 1987.
57. Fletcher, Wargasari.
58. Cf. Robson, "Notes", p. 318, who concludes that this epithet could apply to any
ruler of Majapahit - but not to a Balinese king - and assigns it to the late Majapahit
period, prior to the writing of the Panji Margasmara in 1458.

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 164 Helen Creese

saka year "like a priest bearing the earth 1280", or 1358 A.D., a date exactly a
century earlier than the one found in the text of the Panji Margasmara text
itself (59). Moreover, this Candrasangkala chronogram can also also be read as
1680 saka (1758 A.D.), while recent Balinese oral tradition also assigns a mid-
eighteenth century date to the Panji Margasmara(60\
Taken together, all these textual fragments point to late eighteenth century
as the most probable time of origin of the Subhadrâwiwâha, the more so
because this period coincides with the composition of two other works that can
be dated to this period, the Hariwijaya and Abhimanyuwiwâha, works
stylistically so similar to the Subhadrâwiwâha that a common time of origin is
the only plausible conclusion. If we also accept that the Subhadrâwiwâha
mentioned in- the Panji Margasmara is indeed a reference to the extant work
known by this name, the dating can be narowed further to sometime between
1736, the latest possible date of completion for the Pârthâyana, and 1811, the
terminus ante quern of the Panji Margasmara.
Surawïryawangsaja, the descendant of Surâwirya and the patron of the
Subhadrâwiwâha, then is probably to be equated with Déwa Agung Putra I of
Klungkung (d. 1809). If this is indeed the case, several questions remain - namely
why would he choose to sponsor the writing of such a work, and how, more than
half a century later, did he come to have access to the literary heritage of his
ancestor. The upheavals in Bali that followed upon the death of Surawïrya in 1736
coincided with a series of events that led to a considerable movement of both
people and texts eastwards. This period saw the rise of Karangasem, the absorption
under Karangasem hegemony of adjoining areas including those traditionally
allied to Klungkung, particularly Sidemen, and the establishment of Balinese rule

59. HKS 2852:5b. The chronogram reads :"babad kidung panjimarga smara, sawang
(0) brahmana (8) nonggung (2) bumi (1), 1280".
60. Despite the figures 1280 given in the transcription of HKS 2852, it is also possible
to interpret this Candrasangkala chronogram which refers to the completion/recitation
(babadl) of the Panji Margasmara ("the brahmana who bears the burden of the world")
as 1680 saka (= 1758 A.D.). In particular, the value of nanggung "to carry, bear" is
uncertain. In the Candrasankala it is given a value of 2. However, in the Kunjarakarna
colophon
taste" or winâya
of LOr "leader;
5023 tinanggung
to have control
appearsover",
to be synonymous
the more usual
withwords
(pang)rasa
with a "feeling,
value of
six: Sâka, duk (0?) tinanggung (6) ripu (6)babad (1) pgat (0) pangrasa (6)winâya (6)
pisan (1) "in the Saka year when oppressed by the enemy..., 1660" (see A. Teeuw and
S. O. Robson Kunjarakarna Dharmakathana, The Hague : Martinus Nijhoff, 1981 pp.
200-1). A remarkably similar chronogram referring to the year 1685 saka (1763 A.D.)
and possibly even to the same event or person(s) as the Candrasangkala chronogram,
occurs in the Tantri Kadiri (LOr 4536 :lilima (5) sang brahmana (8) sang winaya (6)
bhumi (1) "the 5 brahmana who bear the burden of the world").
According to the late I Made Kanta, the chronogram of the Panji Margasmara itself was
to be interpreted as 1680 saka or 1758 A.D. rather than 1380 or 1458 A.D., but this
cannot be confirmed in other sources (A. Vickers, personal communication). In any
case, there is no doubt that the usual chronogram value for anahut "to bite" is three not
six, since it occurs with this value in, for example, the Pararaton. See, M.C. Ricklefs,
Modern Javanese Historical Tradition, London: School of Oriental and African Studies,
1978, Appendices I and II;Noorduyn, "Some remarks".

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 The Dating of Several Kakawin from Bali and Lombok 165

in West Lombok. A copy of the Pârthâyana could have been amongst the literary
works caught up in this realignment of political allegiances in East Bali.
Political intrigue characterised Klungkung politics throughout the
eighteenth century. Déwa Agung Putra I in particular struggled to establish his
position. His father, Déwa Agung Sakti was mad, and Déwa Agung Putra I and
his mother were forced to flee, taking refuge with her family at the
Karangasem court. Déwa Agung Putra I spent his childhood in exile in
Karangasem. When he reached maturity he sought to regain the Klungkung
throne, and after defeating his uncle in battle, Déwa Agung Putra eventually
set up his own palace in Kusamba, although his father, Déwa Agung Sakti,
continued to occupy the main palace in Klungkung until his death in 1815.
The Pârthâyana, written during a period of relative peace and prosperity in
Klungkung to celebrate the glorious deeds of Surawïrya, may have been
recognised as a core text in the Klungkung dynasty heritage. The setting up of
new court centres in eighteenth and nineteenth century Bali and Lombok usually
coincided with a burst of literary activity as part of the process of control and
legitimation. Old works were recopied and new ones written. The writing of a
new version of the Pârthâyana as the Subhadrâwiwâha can be seen as an ideal
step in the process of legitimation of authority for a royal patron, seeking to
establish his own somewhat tenuous claim to the Klungkung throne (61>. If that
patron were indeed Dewa Agung Putra I, the rewriting of the Pârthâyana may
have taken place not in Klungkung but in Karagasem or Kusamba.

Hariwijaya
The kakawin tradition is largely an anonymous one. One exception,
however, is the Hariwijaya. In the final stanza (58,3), the author records both
his name and the place where he wrote his poem :
Even though he may incur the wrath of the Master Poets, the one who is known as
Pinaputra shows no hesitation [in writing poetry],
here in the hermitage of Wija Widruma, which serves as the proper place for those
who are without recourse. It fails utterly in poetic expression.
Anxious, confused and perplexed, this is the reason I compose a kakawin that puts
forth tendrils of beauty.
Clearly it is fitting that it has as its goal the service of the king who desires the
destruction of his enemies (62\

61. The text of the Subhadrâwiwâha, as it has come down to us, indicates that the two
versions were in fact separated at an early stage of the transmission process, and that
each version was subsequently transmitted separately. All the manuscripts of the
Subhadrâwiwâha in fact go back to a hypothetical prototype of the Pârthâyana that
appears to predate the common ancestor of all the remaining extant copies of the earlier
recension. This conclusion is based on the fact that although all the extant manuscripts
of the Pârthâyana have a lacuna of approximately nine stanzas in Canto 47, the missing
passage is included in the Subhadrâwiwâha. See Creese, Pârthâyana, Chapter 6.
62. Cihnanya n Pinaputra tan magigu yadyapi kawuyungane kawiéwara/ngkânëng
asrama Wijawidruma makanggëh ing agati adoh ring inggita/hat ning bhrânta wimoha
hetu ning amarnana kakawin alunglungan langô/pintën yogya makaprayojana sumiwya
haji harëp i slrna ning musuh. Zoetmulder, Kalangwan, p. 489.

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166 Helen Creese

The same poet, this time in the role of copyist, was responsible for the
production of two kakawin manuscripts belonging to the Lombok Collection, a
copy of the Smaradahana made in 1815, and a copy of the Sumanasântaka
made the following year in 1816<63). According to their colophons, like the
Hariwijaya these two manuscripts were also copied at Wija Widruma. From
this, we can conclude that the author of the Hariwijaya was working both as
poet and scribe in the early nineteenth century and that the Hariwijaya can
therefore also be dated to this period. However, the king in whose service it is
written cannot be identified with certainty, nor is it clear if the hermitage or
brahmana residence of Wija Widruma where the poet worked is located in Bali
or Lombok. There are possibly some further clues to the actual date of
composition hidden in the penultimate stanza but I have been unable to
decipher them (64\
Nevertheless, a terminus ante quern for the Hariwijaya of 27 April 1826 can
be pinpointed by the colophon date found in the oldest extant copy of the
Hariwijaya, dated 27 April 1826(65). This copy, a manuscript from the Van der
Tuuk collection, appears to have been made in Bali, because the scribe living
at Bendu states he is unable to leave Kuramas (Kramas, Gianyar) and is sad.
On the basis of the Lombok colophon data concerning the scribal activities of
the author Pinaputra in the years 1815-6, it is reasonable to assume that the
Van der Tuuk copy of the Hariwijaya must have been made quite soon after the
composition of the work, perhaps even by the author himself.

63. LOr 5035; LOr 5021. The names Pinaputra and Pinasuta are synonymous. The
colophons are :
LOr 5021 : Iti Sumanasântaka samapta, i saka 1738 ra purnna ning Karttikamâsa, hâ, ka,
ra, wara madangkungan, rah 5, tënggëk 3, samangkana diwasa ning pustaka linikitâ,
ngkânêng airamâ Wîjawidruma, de sang anima Pinasuta, ndan antusâkna wirûpa ning
aksara de sang susâstrikâ, mwang bâp ksayanya, Span ulih ing antyan ta mûda, palar
mangdadyakna kaswâsta ning kulawangsa sang madrwya.
There is a discrepancy between the saka year (17)38 expressed in figures and the
year'35 expressed in the tens and units rah 5 tënggëk 3. The exact dating may therefore
be either 1735 or 1738 saka (= 1813 or 1816 A.D.).
LOr 5035 :Iti Smaradahana kathâ;i saka warsa 1737 ; samangkana puput ing pustaka
tinurun ring Wîjawidruma de sang Pinasuta, hantusâkna halpaka ning aksara de sang
suddyâmaca, apan pulih ing bhrânta mûdâpalarasan, matangyan almah sasar palar
mangdadyakna kaswasta ning sarlra, mwang kulawangsa.
64. 58 ,2 : Nirlajjenghulun angdawâkëna ri kâla ni kaputëran ing ghrtodadhi/epwâlôk
kadi safpade (6) lwang ing asoka limon (5) apëga rehnya sungkawa/medran prihkw
alangô masir wukir akung i pangëtër i mayang nikâmbabad/gëntër lwir amarah
daèendnya (10) ning ogha huwus asëmi tënggëk ing kapat (4).
If tënggëk ing kapat here refers to the fourth decade rather than the " middle of the
month of the fourth month, Karttika", then the reference is presumably to the decade
beginning (17)40 Saka, and the Hariwijaya can then also be internally dated to the
period 1818-27 A.D. This interpretation is supported by the dating of the Van der Tuuk
manuscript of the Hariwijaya (LOr 4239) to 1826.
65. See Damais ."Études", pp. 119-123 where he discusses at length the dates contained
in the colophon of this manuscript of the Hariwijaya (LOr 4239) and amends the saka
year from 1747 (1825 A.D.) to 1748 (1826 A.D.).

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 The Dating of Several Kakawin from Bali and Lombok 1 67

Abhhnanyuwiwâha
For the dating of the Abhimanyuwiwâha, the evidence is more tentative.
That it belongs to the same period as the Subhadrâwiwâha and Hariwijaya
seems highly probable. Stylistically and thematically, the three works have
much in common. In particular, the opening eulogies of both the
Abhimanyuwiwâha and Subhadrâwiwâha are so similar, that it can probably be
assumed that they are the work of the same poet. There also appear to be
dating elements hidden in the last stanza of the poem (75,2), which make
reference to the third month of the year 1700 saka, that is September-October
1778 A.D.<66).

Krsnândhaka and Rangea

The question of the dating of one or both recensions of the Krsnândhaka or
Kangsa is also raised by the dating of these other kakawin from Bali and
Lombok. As noted above, both these works are also stylistically very close to
the other kakawin discussed here. Of more significance, however, is the fact
that, apart from the Pârthâyana and Subhadrâwiwâha, this is the only other
"pair" of kakawin that has so far come to light^67). One recension of the
Krsnândhaka is a rewritten version of the other, although the problem of
exactly which one is the earlier version could only be resolved by a detailed
analysis of both works, since no clues are given in the texts themselves. The
rewriting of poetical works is relatively common in most Balinese and
Javanese poetical genres. By contrast, both the sacred nature of kakawin
literature and the strict requirements of the Indian-based metres in which it is
written have meant that kakawin have usually been faithfully preserved in their
original form down through the centuries. A time of composition similar to
that of the Subhadrâwiwâha for the later recension of the Krsnândhaka seems
the only plausible conclusion. The process of rewriting is identical, and they
must have formed part of the same writing project.
If a common origin is assumed for both the Subhadrâwiwâha and
Krsnândhaka, then the dating of the former to the late eighteenth or early
nineteenth century helps to resolve the puzzle concerning the dating of the
Krsnândhaka noted by Zoetmulder, who had been informed that it went back
no further than the nineteenth century. Zoetmulder found this information
difficult to accept in view of the similarities of style it displayed with works
such as the Subhadrâwiwâha and Abhimanyuwiwâha, works he believed to
date from the sixteenth century. He concluded that if this nineteenth century
dating were true the author must have been " a master of Old Javanese to a

66. Sakweh sang prawararya sajjana t upaksamakëna tang atlta duryasa/nora ng lajjita
këdwa mamrih angikct kidung ira sang anindyapandita/nghing prihnya n panëmu ng
warah patitis ing smrti sipat i patanggwan ing tiga/sampat (0) ring pati (0) sapta (7)
janma (1) mara ta tumama muwah i rehnya kâsyasih.
67. There also exists a 'short' version of the Kangsa (HKS 1440, HKS 5091, HKS
5302). However, it is not clear what relationship this has to either the long version of
the Kangsa or the Krsnândhaka B.

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168 Helen Creese

.
degree that was exceptional in his time"(68). The data presented here show that
rather than being unusual the Krsnândhaka is representative of the flourishing
state of kakawin composition in Bali in the eighteenth and nineteenth
centuries.

Textual Connections - Lombok and Bali

Beyond the thematic and stylistic links apparent between the kakawin
discussed here, there exist also a number of interconnections that intertwine
their textual histories. These links throw light on the complexities of textual
transmission and highlight the extent to which, through literary production, the
Balinese and Lombok courts came to share a cultural and political heritage.
Much of the previous discussion has centred on the history of Lombok in
the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, not only because this history is
relatively well documented, but because of the significant role the Lombok
courts played in literary affairs. Most of the works discussed above in fact
have links to both Bali and Lombok so that it is often difficult to trace the
textual history of individual works. Unique amongst the works discussed here,
the Kâlayawanântaka appears to have been known only in Lombok. There is
only one extant manuscript from the Lombok Collection, and this work was
therefore presumably part of the royal library at Cakranagara when the Dutch
attacked in 1894. As suggested above, the patron of the Kâlayawanântaka was
probably the last Lombok king, Anglurah Gedé Ngurah Karangasem.
The Hariwijaya, although possibly written in Bali since the sole manuscript
was copied in south central Bali, also has clear links to Lombok through its
author Pinaputra whose manuscript copies are found in the Lombok Collection
and whose work must therefore have been known in Lombok in the nineteenth
century.
The Subhadrâwiwâha provides a particularly interesting example of these
interconnections and the difficulties of tracing textual history with any
accuracy. As discussed above, this work appears to have been written in the
late eighteenth century, probably in Karangasem or Kusamba rather than in
Klungkung itself. At some point in its textual history prior to 1921, however,
the Subhadrâwiwâha must have made its way to Lombok for each of the extant
manuscripts of this work goes back to a single copy made recently in Lombok.
In 1921 Gusti Putu Jlantik, the Regent of Bulèlèng, commissioned a
Lombok scribe Uruju Waksa to make a copy of the Subhadrâwiwâha. The
original from which he worked is now lost, but no earlier copies of Balinese
provenance are known to exist. Uruju Waksa states that he carried out his task
at the hermitage of Saksâri, just north of Cakranagara in Lombok. Although we
cannot be certain that the manuscript from which he worked was also of
Lombok origin, this seems probable for at the same time he also made a copy

68. Zoetmulder, Kalangwan, p. 394.

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 The Dating of Several Kakawin from Bali and Lombok 169

of the Khândawawanadahana, a work with clear links to the Mataram court (69).
These two copies were presumably part of the same commission (7°). Thus as
well as being thematically linked to the Subhadrâwiwâha, the textual history of
the Khândawawanadahana is also linked to the latter. Recent Balinese
summaries of both these works in yet another Balinese manuscript belonging
to Gusti Putu Jlantik, the Gagimpësan Kakawin Pârthâyana, further highlights
both their shared history and Gusti Putu Jlantik' s obvious interest in the story
of Arjuna's adventures <71).
Although prior to the twentieth century, the Subhadrâwiwâha and
Khândawawanadahana seem to have been unknown in Bali, this does not
necessarily prove a Lombok origin for the Subhadrâwiwâha. Originally written
in Bali, the work may have gone to Lombok at any time in the century
following its composition. When this move actually took place remains a
puzzle. Several complicating factors must be taken into consideration. In the
first place, the close links between the Balinese courts, particularly
Karangasem-Lombok and Karangasem-Bali throughout the eighteenth and
nineteenth centuries undoubtedly included the movement of court officials and
considerable numbers of texts between the two islands. Poets living and
working in one centre may also have had free and ready access to parallel
literary activity in the other throughout this period. Many earlier works may
have made their way to Lombok via Karangasem. Given the close family
connections between Dewa Agung Putra I and the royal house of Karangasem,
it is quite possible that any work he may have commissioned may have
eventually crossed the Lombok Strait.
Secondly, in 1887, just a few years before the Dutch sacking of the
Mataram court at Cakranagara, the ruler of Lombok, Anglurah Gedé Ngurah
Karangasem, wishing to regulate access by sudra or low caste Balinese to
various categories of texts, conducted a census of all manuscripts. According

69. Gedong Kirtya 338 (CB 60), Pigeaud, Literature, vol 2, p. 769. The second
Khândawawanadahana manuscript (RtMLV 17544; Pigeaud, Literature, vol 2. p. 859)
contains no information on the provenance of the work. The Khândawawanadahana
colophon of Gedong Kirtya 338 reads :
Iti Kandawadahana carita, samapta ri kadigjayan ira bhattara Éiwagni, mwang sri
maharaja Krsnârjuna, makasraya ri kabhasmya ning alas. Saraswati bhyonamah, pascat
sinrat denira mpu Uruju Waksa tâsramêng Sëkskar, bhumi Éilaparang, ring panglong
sasih ka 7, rah...tenggek, 4, isaka, 1843, lontar kakawin Kandawawanadahana puniki,
kadruwe antuk ida i Gusti Putu Jlantik, lid rad kërta ring Singharaja, Bali Buleleng.
"70.
Subhadrâwiwâha
For the discussion
: an of
Old
theJavanese
manuscripts
Kakawin",
of the Subhadrâwiwâha,
Ph.D thesis, Australian
see H.M.National
Creese,
University, 1981. The Subhadrâwiwâha colophon is:
Iti lambang Pârthâyana Subhadrâwiwâha samapta, pascat sinurat ring dina.wa, ra, wâra
landëp, tithi, tang, ping, 14, sasih, ka, 8, rah, 3, tënggëk, 4, i saka 1843. Kasurat de nira
mpu Huruju Waksa, tâsramêng Saksârî, lor ing kota Cakranagara, bhumi
Éelâparang ; sangke suruhan ira sirârya Potraka Jalaja ri pura Candapinggala, lid rad
krëta ri prabhumyêng Bali Buleleng, 23 Januari 1921 .
The name Potraka Jalaja refers to Gusti Putu Jlantik.
71. HKS4213.

Archipel 52, Paris, 1996

 170 Helen Creese

to the royal edict, all texts were to be assessed and, if deemed inappropriate,
impounded. The result of this was that a large number of texts passed through
the Lombok court shortly before it was attacked and its libraries confiscated by
the Dutch. As royal edicts were also promulgated in the Mataram domains on
Bali, a considerable movement of texts between Bali and Lombok may also be
assumed at this time(72). The Subhadrâwiwâha, which as noted above may have
been written in Karangasem, may have been caught up in the literary census of
Karangasem and Lombok of 1887, and thus only recently taken to Lombok.
The obvious interest of Gusti Putu Jlantik in the Subhadrâwiwâha noted
above is also significant in seeking to unravel its textual history. Gusti Putu
Jlantik himself provides an important, if comparatively recent, link between
Bali and Lombok. He owned an extensive library and copied and composed
works himself (73). Many texts in his collection were subsequently incorporated
into the Kirtya collection of which he was founding curator. He had
accompanied most of the Dutch expeditions against the Balinese courts in
Lombok and Bali. Not all the manuscripts from Cakranagara ended up in
Dutch hands in the Lombok Collection. Instead many found their way to North
Bali, through Gusti Putu Jlantik' s offices. However, as he also took part in the
Dutch requisitioning of texts from the royal palaces of Badung and Klungkung
in 1906 and 1908 respectively, the origins of the manuscripts in his collection
are not entirely clear.
From this, it seems possible that along with a number of other kakawin
including the Khândawawanadahana, the Subhadrâwiwâha, which was
apparently written in Bali, but preserved in Lombok, may have been
reimported to Bali through Gusti Putu Jlantik's auspices in the years
immediately prior to the establishment of the Kirtya. There are no references
to the Subhadrâwiwâha in nineteenth century European sources. The first
recorded mention of the existence of this work came only in 1929, when it was
included in a list of known Balinese literary works published in the first
edition of the journal published by the Kirtya Liefrinck-van der Tuuk<74). The
conflation of the Pârthâyana and Subhadrâwiwâha in twentieth century
catalogues also serves to obscure the textual history of the Subhadrâwiwâha.
The remaining kakawin discussed above have yet to be studied in detail.
Only two manuscripts of the Abhimanyuwiwâha are extant. One, belonging to
the Gedong Kirtya collection originates from Badung, while a second comes
from Puri Gobraja in Bulèlèng, again a clear link to Gusti Putu Jlantik^75). There
are several manuscripts of the Krsnândhaka and Kangsa, including manuscripts
belonging to the Jlantik collection. It is not possible to draw any conclusions on
the textual histories of these works until further research has been completed.

72. Rubinstein, "Beyond the Realm", pp. 30-33.

73. H.I.R. Hinzler, " Balinese palm-leaf manuscripts ", BKI 149 (1993) : 438-473.
74. "Voorloopig Overzicht der op Bali Aanwezige Literatuurschat", Mededeelingen
van de Kirtya Liefrinck-van der Tuuk, Aflevering 1 (1929), Bijlage 1.
75. Gedong Kirtya 164 and HKS 5112.

Archipel 52, Paris, 1996

 The Dating of Several Kakawin from Bali and Lombok 171

Conclusion

This paper discusses new evidence for dating ten kakawin written in Bali
and Lombok in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. The findings are
summarised in Table 1 .

Kakawin Dating

Pârthàyana early 18th century before 1736

Subhadrâwiwâha late 18th century
Abhimanyuwiwàha September-October 1778
Hariwijaya early 18th century before 1826
Kangsa late 18th century (?)
Krsnândhaka late 18th century (?)
Prthuwijaya 1816
Âstikayana 1851
Khânda wa wanadahana September-October 1854
Kâlaya wanân taka 1870-94

Table 1 : Chronological Table of Dated Kakawin

There can be no doubt that skilled kakawin poets were indeed found in Bali
and Lombok until fairly recent times. The kakawin tradition to which they
devoted themselves and which endured for over one thousand years, is
testimony to the power of kakawin literature in the cultural life of trie people
of Java and Bali. Many undated works remain, and there are a considerable
number of Balinese kakawin that are not mentioned in Zoetmulder's survey
and which therefore are still largely unknown. However, in a field where
fragments of information only rarely coincide, each piece of the puzzle that
can be put in place adds to our overall picture of Indonesia's literary heritage.
The dating of the works discussed in this paper to the eighteenth and
nineteenth century, to court centres geographically located in Bali and Lombok
many centuries distant from the Javanese Majapahit period, radically alters the
story of "Javanese" literary history, and indicates that there are probably still
a few surprises in store.

Archipel 52, Paris, 1996