Traces of an Old Sundanese Ramayana Tradition

Abstract

The remarkable diversity among the several Ramayana versions which are to be found in Malay and Javanese literature has been one of the main problems in the field of Indonesian Ramayana studies. About forty-five years ago W. F. Stutterheim established that several different Ramayana traditions existed side by side in these literatures. His comparative study of these various Malay and Javanese Ramayana texts was a major contribution to the understanding of their relation to each other and to their Indian sources.1 Another major step toward relating the various Ramayana versions was the discovery twenty years ago that two-thirds of the Old Javanese Ramayana is a free translation of the Sanskrit Bhatti-k&vya, which meant that the major origin of one of the Javanese traaitions was found.2 Now it appears from an Old Sundanese manuscript recently found in Djakarta3 that there is a third Indonesian region, the Sundanese one of West Java, which once had its own Ramayana tradition. Here again one is faced with similar problems of divergency.