W. van der Molen I. Wiryamartana The Merapi-Merbabu manuscripts.

A neglected collection In: Bijdragen tot de Taal-, Land- en Volkenkunde, Old Javanese texts and culture 157 (2001), no: 1, Leiden, 51-64

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I. KUNTARA WIRYAMARTANA a n d W. VAN DER MOLEN

The Merapi-Merbabu Manuscripts

A Neglected Collection
Introduction The famous manuscript collection of the National Library of Indonesia in Jakarta, one of the major collections of Indonesian manuscripts in the world, consists of a main collection and a number of sub-collections. The sub-collections are mostly named after the scholars who brought them together. Abbreviations such as W and CS, referring to the nineteenth-century European philologists H. von de Wall and A.B. Cohen Stuart, are familiar codes to everyone working with manuscripts in the National Library.1 Almost unknown, however, is a sub-collection of Javanese manuscripts which are named the Merbabu or Merapi-Merbabu manuscripts, after their place of origin in Central Java. This will surprise no one, as this sub-collection no longer exists as a separate collection: the manuscripts which once belonged to it are not marked by a specific code like those of the other sub-collections, but have merged with the main collection and are marked with only a general call number. One has to know about these manuscripts to be, able to form an idea of the original sub-collection. The Merapi-Merbabu manuscripts, written exclusively on palm leaves, represent a library which was set up by Javanese scholars before the nineteenth century. They are much older than what is usually found. Whereas most Javanese manuscripts date from the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, the Merapi-Merbabu manuscripts go back to the eighteenth, seventeenth and even sixteenth centuries. (they are nevertheless in remarkably good shape). They are written for the greater part in a Javanese script which to this day, for lack of. a better term, is referred to-as aksara buda, that is, 'Buddhist (namely pre-Islamic) characters', or aksara gunung, 'mountain characters'. The collection reflects the Old as well as the Middle and Modern Javanese literary tradition, containing works of a religious, speculative philo1 See Behrend et al. 1998:xi-xxiii for an overview of the way the collections of the Perpustakaan Nasional are organized..

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sophical, belletristic and technical nature. Study of the individual manuscripts and of the collection as a whole will no doubt add significantly to our knowledge of the Javanese literary tradition. Not much is known about the background of the collection. Its very existence was first discovered around 1822. Down to this day, the grave of the eighteenth-century owner, of the manuscripts, one Windusana, high priest in \he.buda religion, can be found on the slopes of Mount Merbabu (see Figure 1). Windusana is reported to have owned a thousand-odd manuscripts, but when the Bataviaasch Genootschap laid hands on the manuscripts in about 1852, their number had Figure 1. Grave of Windusana. A visitor can be ' dwindled to some four hunseen meditating in front of the grave. Photograph dred. Most of them are now in the National Library; a courtesy of Kartika Setyawati, Yogyakarta. few dozen are in libraries in other parts of the world (Van der Molen 1983:109-18). Although in the eighteenth century the manuscripts belonged to a single person, their colophons reveal that they were produced in many different places scattered over the slopes not only of Mount Merbabu but also of Mounts Merapi, Telamaya, Telaga and Wilis (see Wiryamartana 1993:503-5). * Since the manuscripts were moved from Central Java to their present location, they have received scarcely any attention, although individual manuscripts have been used in text editionsfrom time to time (one example is Poerbatjaraka 1940). It was only in the 1980s that W. van der Molen (1983) and I. Kuntara Wiryamartana (1984,1990,1993) drew attention to the collection as such again. Van der Molen tried to distinguish the manuscripts of this collection from the other manuscripts of the Bataviaasch Genootschap col-

The Merapi-Merbabu Manuscripts lection - which it had entered at a time when there was still no regular registration -, to crack its chronological code, and to connect its script to other forms of the Javanese script. Kuntara Wiryamartana initiated the research into the various places where the manuscripts were produced. Being at present engaged in the preparation of a catalogue of these manuscripts, we would like to present in the following pages some of our findings. Here we will give special attention to the contents, chronology and script of these manuscripts.2 Contents The manuscripts of the Merbabu collection contain Javanese texts belonging to various genres and dating from different periods in the history of Javanese literature. ' Of the parwa books of the Mahabharata, the only one preserved in the Merbabu collection happens to be a book found only there. This is the Sabhaparwa, contained in palm-leaf manuscript 92, which was believed by P.J. Zoetmulder in 1974 to be lost since 1969, when he had last seen it (Zoetmulder 1974:97), though fortunately it is still here. According to Zoetmulder, the text of the Sabhaparwa is 'corrupt to an appalling degree', while 'the language seemed to be of quite a different nature, and to belong to a much later period [than the language of the other parwa books]' (Zoetmulder 1974:97, 98). Nevertheless, because the Sabhaparwa of the Merbabu collection is unique, this manuscript deserves our attention (manuscript Kirtya 2389 in Singaraja is a copy of palm-leaf manuscript 92). Of the prose divisions of the Ramayana, the Uttarakanda has survived in three manuscripts: 22, 51, and 80. The text of this'Uttarakanda is'similar to the text as preserved in Balinese manuscripts. The Merbabu manuscripts contain quite a few kakawin, such as the Ramayana, Arjunawiwaha, Bharatayuddha, and Arjiinawijaya. From the Ramayana text reproduced in Figure 7 (Ramayana 11.2-4b, taken from palm-

53

The origins of this article go back to the summer of 1993, when, at the invitation of Dr. Tim E. Behrend on behalf of the National Library of Indonesia to devote some time to the description of the manuscripts of this collection, the authors, together with Dra.- Kartika Setyawati, had the opportunity to take a closer look at some of these. We wish to thank the National Library and Dr. Behrend for giving us this opportunity to examine these manuscripts. A seminar on photographing manuscripts held in the National Library during the last days of our stay there enabled us to obtain excellent reproductions of a number of pages of the manuscripts to be discussed in this article. We would like to thank Mr. John McGlynn of the Lontar Foundation in Jakarta and Mrs. Annie Gilbert of the British Library in London for sharing their precious time and equipment with us.

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leaf manuscript 335) it. is clear that the copying was done carefully and that the spelling is accurate, that is, the distinction between long and short vowels is in agreement with the metre. In view of this example, it can be said that the Javanese tradition was still quite strong in a relatively late period and at a relatively advanced stage in the process of copying. Comparing the readings of palm-leaf manuscript 335 with Kern's edition of this kakawin. (Kern 1900) and taking into account the 'verschil in lezing' (variant readings), they appear sometimes to agree with those of the Balinese tradition (Ramayana 11.2b: winantwan), sometimes with those of the Javanese tradition (Ramayana 11.3c: wila has replaced maja) (see Kern 1900:7). The texts of the Arjunawiwaha kakawin include one Old Javanese version with a yerse-by-verse prose translation into Modern Javanese, contained in palm-leaf manuscript 181. Kuntara Wiryamartana has shown that this prose translation formed the basis of the Serat Wiwaha- Jarwa by Pakubuwana III (Wiryamartana 1990:264-71). If the translation was made somewhere in the Mount Merbabu area, then the contributionof this region to the literary life of the Solonese kraton was even greater than was hitherto believed. One Buddhist text found in the Merbabu manuscripts is the prose Kuftjarakarna. Two manuscripts of this collection containing this text (53 and 187) together with the Leiden manuscript LOr 2266 formed the subject of a special investigation by Van der Molen (1983). According to Kuntara, the Kuftjarakarna texts of the Merbabu collection constitute a ceremonial text with a consecrational or excorcistic function (Wiryamartana 1984:271). The kidung .texts in this collection include the Kidung Subrata, which is contained in.many of its manuscripts (7, 35, 65b, 1-33, 134, 15.0>.158, 183, 206, 304, 321, 373). According to their colophons, these manuscripts were .copied in several scriptoria scattered around Mounts Merapi, Merbabu and Tilamaya. The Kidung Subrata contains mystical lessons with a Siwaite character, focusing on yoga. This kidung is written in Modern Javanese (according to Poerbatjaraka (1964:76) Middle Javanese) verse in metres like Panjiprakasa, Darmaparita, Pamijil, Sinom and Witan. Poerbatjaraka deems its contents very elevated; saying: 'Filosofienipun kidung Subrata kenging dipun wastani inggil' (Poerbatjaraka 1964:76). He believes that there is a chronogram hidden in one of the opening stanzas, where 'tiga rasa dadijalma' probably stands for the year 1463 AS (1541 AD), which he supposes to be the year in which the Kidung Subrata was written (Poerbatjaraka 1964:77). An identical Kidung Subrata text is found in palm-leaf manuscript 1090 of the collection, which may come from Tengger, as it is written in Javanese characters much like the ones in palm-leaf manuscript 787, containing mantras from Tengger. It is quite possible that the Kidung Subrata forms a link between the Merbabu and the Tengger communities. Another kidung, the text of which is to be found exclusively in manu-

The Merapi-Merbabu Manuscripts scripts from the Merbabu collection, is the Kidung Surajaya (palm-leaf manuscripts 87,101,158, 208, 245, 262, 306, and 504). Like the Kidung Subrata, the Kidung Surajaya contains mystical lessons focusing on yoga, in the first place on how to control the senses. This kidung is also written in Modern Javanese verse, in metres like Dandanggula/Hartati, Witaning Panggalang, Bubhuksah (?), and Meswalangit. Islamic, texts are not absent either from the Merbabu collection. One example of such a text is the Tapel Adam, found in palm-leaf manuscripts 155,194, 217, 297, and 450. It relates the history of the prophets from the creation of Adam to the mission of Muhammad. From a cursory examination we have the impression that its language is similar to the language of the primbon edited by Drewes (1954)..-In the Tapel Adam, the prophet Adam is referred to as 'bagenda Hadam', as in the primbon, where the prophets are also referred to as 'baginda', for example baginda Muhammad, baginda Daud, and so on (see Drewes 1954:32, 36; see also Figures 7 and 8 below)... It may be clear from this.preliminary outline of the literary treasure contained in the Merapi-Merbabu manuscripts, limited though it is, that these manuscripts contain both works of a Hindu-Buddhist and an Islamic nature. This means, in our opinion, that Mount Merbabu and the surrounding mountains did not represent a refuge of last resort for people fleeing Islam. Rather, we imagine here a community of scholars settled along the mountain slopes, studying and copying texts at a'comfortable distance but by no means isolated from the outside world..Another hypothesis we venture to put forward (among other reasons because of certain palaeographic peculiarities and in view of the presence of a Ramayana manuscript here) is that literary activities began in this area as early. as:the time of Old Mataram and continued for centuries, the resultant works in their turn inspiring the production of the literary treasure of the kratons of Kartasura, Surakarta,and Yogyakarta.

55

Chronology The system of reckoning time that is followed in the Merapi-Merbabu manuscripts resembles the, &aka system, though with a number of variations. The main difference concerns the length of the year and consequently the numbering of the years: the Merapi-Merbabu year counts on average 360 days instead of slightly over 365. Less fundamental differences concern the use of (1) a windu cycle of five instead of eight years, whereby each year is given the name of a day of the five-day week, and (2) the nine-, eight-, four- and three-day weeks in addition to the more usual seven-, six- and five-day weeks. For further details the reader is referred to Van der Molen 1983:78-87, 297-300. Van der Molen's analysis brought to light the fact that the system

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I- Kuntara Wiryamartana and W. van der Molen

used in the Merapi-Merbabu manuscripts was the same as that found in the Tengger area in East Java. In Tengger there is a further distinction between two sub-systems: a Pasuruan and a Malang one. Although the year in both is of the same length, the beginning of the year and the number of years that have elapsed are different. For example, the year 1700 of the Malang calendar began on 12 March 1773 AD, and of the Pasuruan calendar on 20 February 1776 AD (Van der Molen 1983:297, 299). All Merapi-Merbabu manuscripts checked so far have turned out to follow the Pasuruan system. Several aspects of the Tengger/Merapi-Merbabu calendar remain puzzling. The most intriguing questions,of course are those concerning its origin and distribution. As yet, we have no answers to these questions. Another problem springs from the distinction which this calendar draws between two types of wuku: a wuku jaba and a wuku dal&m. What is called wuku jaba ('outer wuku'), or often simply wuku-, here is the same as the wuku known from elsewhere (see Damais [1990]:416-34).What is problematic is the wuku dalSm ('inner wuku'). The names used here are the same as those used in the wuku jaba, but to what reality they refer remains a mystery. Other problems waiting to be solved relate to the leap year and the correct order of the days of some of the weeks. A discussion of the date in one particular manuscript may illustrate how this chronological system actually works. We have chosen for this palm-leaf manuscript 208, containing a text of the Kidung Surajaya. The colophon of this manuscript informs us that it was completed in the year 1618 (the name Saka is not mentioned), in the wuku jaba Matal, in the wuku dal&m' &oma Kaliwon, on the combined days of Kerangan, Yama, Soma, Paniron, Pwan, Sri and Byantara (days in the weeks of nine to three days respectively). The name of the wuku dalSm, &oma Kaliwon, must be erroneous: we should have here one of the familiar wuku names, not a combination of names of two weekdays. Soma is actually the name of the day of the eightday week that is mentioned in the date of the manuscript, but Kaliwon is not the corresponding day of the five-day week (which actually is Pwan). Kaliwon happens to be the windu name of the relevant year, 1618, but this name is not used as such in manuscript 208.3 No month or day of a month is mentioned. This should not be considered a flaw in the dating of this manuscript. It is quite common in Old Javanese chronology for one or more elements to be omitted, and manuscript 208 is no exception to this practice. While one's calculation of the date as a whole will necessarily not be very exact, there can be no doubt about the year, as this has been recorded in four
3

1618 Kaliwon does not occur in the table in Van der Molen 1983:297, which starts with the year 1634 Anno Tengger (AT) Pasuruhan, but can easily be deduced from it.

The Merapi-Merbabu Manuscripts

57

different ways: in a sakala tnilwir, a sakala mSlok, a sakala koci, and a sakala dihyan (here spelled diyyan). By sakala milwir is meant a chronogram. This reads: gana, sa$i, hoySg, wulan ('shape, moon, in motion, moon', that is, 'the shape of the moon corresponds with its orbit'), which means 8161, being the normal order in Saka dates for 1618. Sakala mSlok stands for a representation by numerals: 8161, that is, 1618. Asakala koci is a diagram in which each part of the configuration 1618 is represented by the equivalent number of small bars inside a circle:

oo
Figure 2. Sakala koci.

Sakala dihyan poses a problem. It consists of a series of figures, grouped together in combinations of two, with pada lingsa (commas) in between and varying numbers of small circles over each figure. The effect is as follows:
o o o o 0
0

o oo

o o

o o

o
o

0 o o

o o

(ft

ori

'i

(ft

(an

i >

an

(ft

(ft

ion

Figure 3. Sakala dihyan.

(We have used the modern versions of the Javanese figures, as no gunung equivalent is available in print as yet.) From left to right these lines read: circles: figures: 53, 52, 32, 57, 35, 25, 32 57

So far, we have no idea how to interpret these figures. On the basis of these data, as far as we are able to understand them, and with the help of the tables in Damais [1990]:416-34, the following calculation can be made. The year 1618 AT of the Pasuruan system ran from 8 April 1695 to 27 March 1696 by the Gregorian calendar. A wuku cycle started on 30 January 1695, and again on 28 August 1695. Matal is the 21st week of this cycle, running from 19 to 25 June 1695, and again from 15 to 21 January 1696. The combination of the days Paniron, Pwan and Soma according to Damais indeed falls within Matal, where it is the 142nd combination, and is equivalent to Monday 20 June 1695 and to Monday 16 January 1696. So the writing of manuscript 208 may have been completed on either Monday 20 June 1695 or Monday 16 January 1696. Of course we cannot be certain about the cor-

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rectness of this calculation as long as we do not know exactly what awuku dalSm and sakala dihyan are.

Script

Mainly two types of script are used in the Merbabu-Merapi manuscripts: modern Javanese script and Buda or gunung script. Arabic script occurs here as well, but only on a very small scale. The Merapi-Merbabu variety of the modern Javanese script, used much less frequently than its counterpart from the mountains but by no means insignificant, is often far from easy to read. In point of fact, we find it more difficult to decipher than the Buda script. The interested reader is cordially invited to have a try at the letter reproduced in Figure 8. The Buda script is used in the overwhelming majority of manuscripts. This term does not refer to a single type of, script but to a set of scripts. A closer look at Figures 7 and 8 will show that this script may vary considerably from manuscript to manuscript. Regional differences, individual styles of handwriting, and perhaps also stylistic considerations may account for this variation to a certain extent. Moreover, the script has been subject to changes in the course of time (as is the case with any script that is actually used). With the present state of our knowledge, we are not able to say much about contemporaneous variations. The presence of quite a few dated manuscripts in the collection makes it possible to say slightly more about changes over time, however. For an illustration of this we have selected three manuscripts, from the years 1521, 1632 and 1710 AD respectively (palm-leaf manuscript 335, 65b and 53, containing a Ramayana, a Kidung Subrata and a Kunjarakarna text respectively). Together, they cover a span of almost two centuries. The character singled out for discussion is the s (the aksara sa). Examples of it can be found throughout the pages of each of the three manuscripts reproduced in Figures 7 and 8. The letter sa of 1521 consists of two parallel downward strokes ending in a hook curving upward towards the left. Including a serif over each of the vertical strokes, the form as a whole is written in four movements (see Figure 4).

7J
Figure 4. Perpustakaan Nasional palm-leaf manuscript 335. Form and structure of the aksara sa in 1521. In 1632 the shape of the sa is still very much like that of its predecessor of

Figure 7. Merapi-Merbabu manuscripts in the Perpustakaan Nasional, Jakarta. Photograph courtesy of John McGlynn, Jakarta. Top to bottom: 1. gunung script, 1521 AD (two leaves of manuscript 335, Ramayana); 2. gunung script, 1710 AD (two leaves of manuscript 53, Kunjarakarna); 3. polychrome illustration with caption, no date (two leaves of manuscript 215, Raspatikalpa).

at

Figure 8. Merapi-Merbabu manuscripts in the Perpustakaan Nasional, Jakarta. Photograph courtesy of John McGlynn, Jakarta. Top to bottom: 1. gunung script, 1632 AD (two leaves of manuscript 65b, Kidung Subrata); 2. gunung script, end 17th century (two leaves of manuscript 133, Kidung Subrata); 3. gunung script, no date (two leaves of manuscript 217, Tapel Adam); 4. Modern Javanese script, no date (one leaf of manuscript 150, a letter).

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/ Kuntara Wiryamartana andW. van der Molen

1521, but nevertheless has a different structure. It consists of a left-curving downward stroke including the former serif, and a parallel stroke curving upward to the left as far as almost half the height of the first stroke, which it almost touches, and topped with a serif. The entire form is written in three movements (see Figure 5).

JJ
Figure 5. Perpustakaan Nasional palm-leaf manuscript 65b. Form and structure of the aksara sa in 1632.

By the beginning of the eighteenth century the sa has undergone a further change. Now written from left to right in a U- or V-like form, it has an oblique stroke placed before it. Here two strokes of the pen suffice to complete the whole form (see Figure 6). -.

Figure 6. Perpustakaan Nasional palm-leaf manuscript 53. Form and structure of the aksara sa in 1710. Two conclusions can be drawn from this palaeographic survey.4 In the first place it shows that a process of simplification took place in the development of the script, to the effect that less effort needed to be expended in the writing.of a particular character (one of the major forces behind changes in writing, see De Casparis 1975:9). In the second place it testifies that the products of scribal activity on the slopes of Mt Merbabu and surrounding mountains represent a living tradition rather than some museum of dead objects from the past. . Further research ' .

In the above we have tried to give an impression of what the MerapiMerbabu manuscripts have to offer to the interested scholar. As it was our
4

That is, for the purposes of this article. We realize that an examination of only one isolated character of a particular script does not constitute a proper palaeographic analysis of that script.

. The Merapi-MerbabuManuscripts

63

intention to restrict ourselves to giving a survey, we have left out much that is also noteworthy. One of the subjects we have not touched on, for example, though it certainly deserves attention, if only because of the huge number of texts dealing with it,' is religion, bothin its speculative and in its more technical aspects (offerings, divination, mantras). Not a few of the technical religious texts are illustrated, some even in colour (see the reproductions in Kumar and McGJynn [1996]:20 and 21, Figures 19 and 20). , , " In order to make the contents of this collection available to a wider audience, the manuscripts belonging to it have first of all to be identified as such and distinguished from the main collection of the National Library'of Indonesia. Unless we know which manuscripts to look at, further research will remain impossible. Work on this is in progress at the moment. With the help of the information in the colophons of the different texts, and where they fail us, on the basis of particular features of the script, a list is being drawn up which in due course is to be published in the form of a catalogue.5 Once the catalogue is published; the Merapi-Merbabu collection will be accessible for whatever kind of research one wishes to undertake. Nevertheless, it will not be possible to have a true insight into this precious collection as long the texts remain unpublished. Mere transcriptions will not suffice, as these would only serve to reveal how really inaccessible these texts have become with the lapse of time. Given the characteristics of an age-old scribal tradition, text editions based on a meticulous comparison of the relevant manuscripts and a sound knowledge of the language, together with explanatory notes and translations, are the only reliable means of access to the Merapi-Merbabu collection.

So far, we do not know of any manuscripts from other areas using the same type of script as the Merapi-Merbabu manuscripts. However, there can be no doubt that this script once had a wide distribution. The Museum Tantular in Surabaya possesses a collection of small stones, found in Lumajang, in East-Java, with brief inscriptions written in this script.

REFERENCES

Behrend, T.E., et al., 1998, Perpustakaan Nasional Republik Indonesia, Jakarta: Obor Indonesia / Ecole Frangaise d'Extreme Orient. [Katalog Induk Naskah-Naskah Nusantara 4.] Casparis, J.G. de, 1975, Indonesian palaeography; A history of writing in Indonesia from the beginnings to c, A.D. 1500, Leiden/Koln: Brill. [Handbuch der Orientalistik 3.4.1.]

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Damais, Louis-Charles, [1990], tudes d 'epigraphie indonesienne, [Paris]:ficoleFrangaise d'Extreme-Orient. [Relmpression de l'Ecole Franchise d'Extreme-Orient.] Drewes, G.J.W., 1954, Een Javaanse primbon uit de zestiende eeuw; Opnieuw'uitgegeven en vertaald, Leiden: Brill. [Uitgaven van de Stichting de Goeje 15.] Kern, H., 1900, Ramayanakakawin; Rdmdyana; Oudjavaansch heldendicht, 's-Gravenhage: Nijhoff. Kumar, Ann, and John H. McGlynn (eds), [1996], Ilium inations; The writing traditions of Indonesia; Featuring manuscripts from the National Library of Indonesia, Jakarta: The Lontar Foundation / New York/Tokyo: Weatherhill. Molen, W. van der, 1983, Javaanse tekstkritiek; Een overzicht en een nieuwe benadering geillustreerd aan de Kunjarakarna, Dordrecht/Cinnaminson: Foris. [KITLV, Verhandelingen 102.] Poerbatjaraka, 1940, 'Dewa-Roetji', Djawa 20:5-55. . -, 1964, Kapustakan Djawi, [Djakarta/Amsterdam]: Djambatan. [Fourth edition.] Wiryamartana, I. Kuntara, 1984, 'Filologi Jawa dan Kunjarakarna prosa', Basis 33:25572. -, 1990, Arjunawiwaha; Transformasi teks Jawa Kuna lewat tanggapan dan penciptaan di lingkungan sastra Jawa, [Yogyakarta]: Duta Wacana University Press. -, 1993, 'The scriptoria in the Merbabu-Merapi area', Bijdragen totde Taal-, Land- en Volkenkunde 149:503-9. Zoetmulder, P.J., 1974, Kalangwan; A survey of Old Javanese literature, The Hague: Nijhoff. [KITLV, Translation Series 16.]