^{page 531 note 1} The oldest MS extant dates from the beginning of the seventeenth century but is a comparatively late recension (see this page, II. 8–9).

^{page 531 note 2} The term ‘ Malay world ’, as here used, is a translation of alam Mělayu. By this is meant the areas in the Malay Peninsula and Archipelago where the Malay language was used—but not necessarily by the majority of the population. It therefore includes certain trading ports in Java, Acheh, etc., as well as places such as Malacca. Conversion of Malay governments to Islam was largely effected between the beginning of the fourteenth and the end of the sixteenth centuries. There is reason to believe that the missionaries were pantheistic Ṣūfīs (see Johns, A. H., ‘Sufism as a category in Indonesian literature and history’, Journal of SE Asian History, ii, 2, 1961, 10–23)Google Scholar.

^{page 531 note 3} Geschiedenis van Sri Rama, beroemd Indisch heroisch dichtgtuk, Amsterdam, 173 pp. There is a romanized and simplified version of this—Hikajat Seri Rama, first published by the Balai Poestaka at Batavia in 1938 (256 pp.).

^{page 531 note 4} The Marsden MS (No. 12902) in the Library of SOAS also starts at this point—so do Leiden Codex 3248 and Royal Batavia Society MSS 136 and 152. Other MSS start at an even later stage.

^{page 531 note 5} ‘lets over verschillende Maleische Redactiën van den Seri Rama’, Tijdschrift voor Indische Taal; Land- en Volkenkunde, xxxiv.

^{page 531 note 6} Catalogue van de Maleische en Sundaneesche handschriften der Leidsche Universiteits Bibliotheek, Leiden, p. 47 et seq.

^{page 531 note 7} ‘ HikayatSeri Rama’, Journal of the Straits Branch, Royal Asiatic Society, No.71, 285 Google Scholar pp. A romanized version was published in 1957 by the Malayan Education Department (355 pp.).

^{page 531 note 8} The MS was given by Archbishop Laud to the Bodleian Library in 1633. It would appear to have been brought to England soon after 1612 by an English sea-captain whose permit to trade in Acheh is also included in Laud's bequest to the library (see Shellabear, , ‘An account of some of the oldest Malay MSS now extant’, JSBRAS, No. 31, 1898, 107–51Google Scholar).

^{page 531 note 9} See Zieseniss, , Die Rāma–Sage, Hamburg, 1928, 113–14Google Scholar.

^{page 532 note 1} Rāma-Legenden und Rāma-Reliefs in Indonesien, Munich, Georg Müller Verlag.

^{page 532 note 2} Die Rama-Sage bei den Mataien, ihre Herlcunft und Gestaltung, Hamburg, Friedrichsen, de Gruyter. (It is understood that an English translation will appear in 1963 under the auspices of the Malaysian Sociological Research Institute, Singapore, Kuala Lumpur, Penang.)

^{page 532 note 3} ‘ Hikayat Maharaja Ravana’, Journal of the Malayan Branch, RAS, xi, 2, 1933, 111 Google Scholar–32.

^{page 532 note 4} In JRAS, 1944, Pts. 1–2, 62–73. I shall refer to this MS as ‘Raffles’, or ‘R’.

^{page 532 note 5} See p. 533, n. 4.

^{page 532 note 6} I have therefore referred to the MS as ‘Wilkinson’, or ‘W’, in the passages which follow.

^{page 532 note 7} . This could also be rendered‘North Beach Road’but I know of no street of this name in a town where the copyist is likely to have worked.

^{page 533 note 1} The identity of this family and the exact meaning of the sentence quoted require further investigation.

^{page 533 note 2} Sa-orang dewa-dewa

^{page 533 note 3} Etymologically the ‘Abode of Indra’ but usually regarded by latter-day Malays as merely a fairyland. Later in theHSR the word kĕinderaan is used to mean one of the four (not three) divisions of the universe—the one located in the sky. In the present passage the copyist seems to have in mind a heaven inhabited by gods inferior to those inhabiting the Heaven of the Highest Gods (Kĕyangan) so ‘Indra's Heaven’ would be an adequate translation here.

^{page 533 note 4} Here spelt but elsewhere always or . As will be seen later, Siranchak is, or is soon to become a raksasa, and he has a raksasa brother called Girandiwama (see p. 537, n. 6). He is later to be reborn as Rawana, and Girandiwama as Rawana's brother, Kumbakarna. As Father Camille Bulcke, author of Rāma-kathā, Allahabad, 1950, has pointed out in a letter, Siranchak appears to be Hiraṇyakaśipu (a name sometimes abbreviated in India to ‘Hiraṇyaka’) and his brother, Hiraṇyāksa. According to the late story in the Bhāgavata-purāṇa, vII, i, 35—46 (c.thirteenth century ?), Viṣṇu had two gate-keepers, Jaya and Vijaya, who were cursed by Sanaka and his brothers to be born three times as demons; the first time as Hiraṇyakaśipu and Hiraṇyākṣa, the second time as Rāvaṇa and Kumbhakarṇa, and the third time as Śiśupāa and Dantavaktra.

^{page 533 note 5} The reasons are (a) that no mention is made here of the fact that Siranchak is in the act of abducting a nymph whom Mahabisnu(i.e. Viṣṇu) wishes to free; (b) that clearly the antagonism between Siranchak and Mahabisnu is of long standing, and (c) that Girandiwama and his sister are later introduced to the reader as if already known to him. It would be idle to hazard what the still missing part of the beginning of the HSR can have contained but it may have been akin to: (a) the Indian stories of Hiraṇyakaśipu obtaining from Śiva the sovereignty of the three Worlds and persecuting his son Prahlada for worshipping Viṣṇu; and of Hiraṇyākṣa dragging the earth to the depths of the ocean; and (b) the Javanese story of Watu Gunung, King of Inderapuri who, like Hiraṇyakaśipu, is a previous incarnation of Rāvaṇa and is defeated by Viṣṇu.

^{page 533 note 6} Wilkinson's Malay-English dictionary defines this as: ‘The Deity All-glorious and Almighty: the God of non-Moslem heroes of romance’. On the fourteenth-century Trengganu Stone this hybrid Sanskrit expression is used for the God of the Muslims (see Paterson, H. S., ‘An early Malay inscription from Trengganu’, JMBRAS, II, 3, 1924, 252–8Google Scholar) and it seems probable that it was the first term so used by the early missionaries to the Malay world, who explained Muslim concepts in Hindu terms. Later, when the expression Allah taala came into current use, the expression Dewata Mulia Raya seems to have come to be used only for the God of non-Muslim heroes of romance-possibly essentially the same God as Allah taala but belonging to a period before the successive Muslim Prophets revealed Him fully. In the HSR which seems to have been conceived by its first Muslim adapter as belonging to the period of revelation of the Prophet Adam, Dewata Mulia Raya is set far above Brahmā, Viṣṇu, and Śiva who duly pray to Him.

^{page 534 note 1} The ‘Abode of the Yang (Highest Gods)’.

^{page 534 note 2} . As Dr. C. Hooykaas points out, it seems probable that this is a corruption of ‘Paramaisura’ (i.e. a Malay form of Parameśvara, one of the names of Śiva), for Śiva (later called by his more usual Malay name Bĕtara Guru) is clearly intended. Father Bulcke, in a letter, points out that, in the Śiva-mahāpurāṇa, Śiva sees Viṣṇu in the form of Mohini ‘the Charmer’ and experiences an effusio seminis; the Sages drop the semen into the ear of Añjanā, who later gives birth to Hanuman. It will be seen that the Malay story to follow is very similar.

^{page 534 note 3} The lady Siranchak is in the act of abducting may well be Dewi Sĕri (Śrī), wife of Mahabisnu, who is much chased by Rawana in the Javanese Serat handa ning ringgit purwa (Stutterheim, op. cit., ch. iii).

^{page 534 note 4} Two very literary words of Sanskrit origin (jagat, bhuvana) evidently juxtaposed to indicate ‘the Universe’.

^{page 534 note 5} The passage that follows is the same as on Raffles, 197, but there it is Mahabisnu himself and not Bĕtara Guru (or Paratusura) who becomes the father of Dewi Anjani's child, Hanoman. It is also the same as in Roorda and in Shellabear, but, in both those manuscripts, the incident is stated to take place later and Sěri Rama is the father (albeit, in Shellabear, he is temporarily in the form of a monkey). It is not clear why, in the Wilkinson MS. the birth of Hanoman is brought in so early.

^{page 534 note 6} In Vālmīki and other Indian versions Vāyu is the actual father of Hanuman.

^{page 534 note 7} Laut Sěmpadan. Evidently the sea that encircled the known world.

^{page 534 note 8} The Añjanā of the Indian stories. In the otherHSR MSS Dewi Anjani is the daughter of Gautama.

^{page 534 note 9}

^{page 535 note 1} In the Indian stories it is usually the gods of Indra's Heaven who are frightened by Rávana. In the HSR it is usually maharisi and other ascetics. Since Hindu terminology was used in the early days of Islam in the Malay world to denote Muslim concepts, it is possible that the adapter of the saga used such words as maharisi to mean ṢŪfī.

^{page 535 note 2} Brahmā.

^{page 535 note 3} Presumably Siranchak has taken on a new form.

^{page 535 note 4} Bisparupan: twice spelt but later always . A Malay name evidently derived from Viśvarūpa. After his unfortunate experiences with his seven wives, Bisparupan is to be reborn into the world as Maharisi Kisuberisu in order to help Sĕri Rama combat Rawana. While in the world, he curses Rawana when he is abducting Mandudari. He also begets the monstrous birds Jĕntayu, Sampati, and Garuda Mahabiru, all of whom also help Sĕri Rama. He is evidently the same as Kaśyapa in the Indian legends who had 13 wives and by them begat demons, nāgas, reptiles, and birds, including Garuḍa. See also p. 542, II. 3.

^{page 535 note 5} Once spelt (Gurudri) evidently in error, and later always . Presumably Rudra but evidently considered as distinct from Śiva.

^{page 535 note 6} Mĕrale Ęmas. In the Indian legends the body of Garuda was golden but nowhere there is he called a peacock. In view of the coming reincarnation as Sītā (see p. 536, II. 5) perhaps the genderless Malay word mĕrah should be translated‘peahen’!.

^{page 535 note 7} This incident and its aftermath is akin to Valmikī, vII, xvi, in which Rāvaṇa shakes a mountain but Śiva presses the mountain with his great toe and crushes him under it. Rāvaṇa praises Śiva for a thousand years, after which time Śiva releases him.

^{page 536 note 1} This expression seems to be peculiar to the HSR and to be used there only to designate supernatural beings that descend into the world to help Mahabisnu against Rawana. A Sanskrit derivation for the word zanggi (usually ; far less frequently danggi; twice on Raffles, 147, and once on Raffles, 718) is to be expected but I have not been able to trace one. At its face value zanggi would appear to mean ‘belonging to the land of Zanj’ on the East Coast of Africa, and it is possible that the beings in question are conceived as coming from beyond the ‘Encircling Sea’. It is also just possible that the word is an orthographic corruption of rijāl (vide the spellings and given above) and that the first Muslim adapter of the Hindu saga (who was probably a Ṣūfī) had the rijāl-al-ghaib—the ‘Hidden Ones’ of the Ṣūfis- in mind (‘the world is supposed to endure, thanks to the intercessions of a concerted hierarchy of “averting” saints, fixed in number …’, Encyclopaedia of Islam, s.v. Taṣawwuf, § 5b). Another possibility is derivation from the word janggi ‘warrior’ of Persian origin.

^{page 536 note 2} This council of the gods occurs also in Vālmīki, I, xv.

^{page 536 note 3} The figure 33 has presumably been taken from the original number of the Hindu gods. In Vālmīki, I, xvi, 7–8, the gods ‘caused warriors to be born in the monkey tribe from the wombs of countless celestial beings’ ( Shastri, Hari Prasad (tr.), The Ramayana of Valmiki, London, 1952 Google Scholar).

^{page 536 note 4} . Clearly the same as Vāsuki or Śeṣa but his future role has been changed from that of Lakṣmaṇa (as is to be expected from late Indian stories) to that of Rama's weapons. The Javanese /Serai kanda story (Stutterheim, 74–5) follows the Indian version: Viṣṇu and the nāga (called ‘Basuki’ and elsewhere ‘Pratala Naga’) are incarnated as the sons of DaŚaratha. The naga's name brings to mind naga puspa-a traditional dragon motif on batik cloth (vide Wilkinson's dictionary, p. 160

^{page 536 note 5} In other words the Golden Peacock (Garuḍa ?) is to be reincarnated as Sītā, a concept which Father Bulcke assures me is entirely absent from any Indian version of the Rāmāyaṇa. Nevertheless the idea is continuously worked out in the Wilkinson, Raffles, and Roorda MSS of the HSR, both in the passages dealt with in the present article and in the better-known part of the Hikayat (where, however, direct mention of the reincarnation of Mahabisnu and his companions in the story of Rama's birth has been suppressed, evidently for religious reasons). It is clear that, in the original version of the Malay (or Javanese) story, it is Dewi Sěri (i.e. Śrī) and not a Golden Peacock, who is to be reincarnated as Sita Dewi. The Javanese Serat kanda story, described elsewhere, confirms this.

^{page 536 note 6} (= Paraśurāma ?). This name is not used again, as Mahabisnu is to rename his companion ‘Kisna Dewa’ (= Kṛṣṇa ?). As pointed out in n. 4, above, it is surprising that it is not the naga who is destined in the HSR for the role of Laksamana. As mentioned on p. 541, n. 5, however, there seems to be an Indian precedent for the incarnation of Kṛṣṇa as Lakṣmaṇa.

^{page 537 note 1} Since Sita Dewi is to be the cause of the war between Sĕri Rama and Rawana.

^{page 537 note 2} . As will be seen on p. 541, n. 1, and p. 542, n. 4, there are other variations of this name.

^{page 537 note 3} In Wilkinson the full name is Indĕra Kisna Dewa (usually spelt but once ‘(K.shana Dewa) and once (K.sana Dewa). In Raffles it is Bĕtara Kisna Dewa (). See also p. 536, n. 6.

^{page 537 note 4} This seems to be the only occasion in the HSR in which Dewata Mulia Raya is made anthropomorphic—if indeed Dewata Mulia Raya and not a servant of His, such as the Prophet Adam, is considered to own the voice.

^{page 537 note 5} Here spelt but in Raffles usually See also p. 539, n. 4.

^{page 537 note 6} As Sir Richard Winstedt has pointed out in the passage quoted earlier, the spelling in Raffles is and( For the first name I have hazarded the form Girandiwama on the assumption that it comes from Hiraṇyākṣa (see p. 533, n. 4). In Wilkinson, Girandiwama figures as Gurindam Dewa () and Sura M.nak.h as Suramĕnigah (). Whatever their names may have been at this pre-incarnation stage, it is clear that the future Kumbakarna and Surapandiki (i.e. Śūrpaṇakhā) are intended. There appears to be no Indian legend regarding a previous life for Śūrpaṇakhā, and her other brother Vibhīṣaṇa (see p. 538, n. 1) but the Malay story has brought them into line in this respect with the other two members of the family, Rāvaṇa and Kumbhakarṇa.

^{page 538 note 1} On Raffles, p. 10, the name is (Sĕnamdiwama ?); on Wilkinson, p. 15, (Sĕmdi Dewa Ramah ?). Whatever this name is, it is clear that the future Bibusanam (Vībhīṣaṇa) is intended.

^{page 538 note 2} Evidently as one of Mahabisnu's, dewa zanggi, for, although Bibusanam is to be later incarnated as their brother, he is to help the future Sĕri Rama against them.

^{page 538 note 3} According to the genealogy given later in the HSR, Dasĕrat Raman is the son of Dasěrat and grandson of Adam. He is also (or is to become) the father of Dasĕrat Chakĕrawati, the grandfather of Dasĕrat Maharaja (the Daśaratha of the Indian stories) and the great-grandfather of Sĕri Rama.

^{page 538 note 4} This incident, like the story of Siranchak's previous defeat mentioned above, is reminiscent of Vālmīki, vII, xvi, in which it is a dwarf that stops Rāvaṇa climbing the mountain on which Śiva resides. As Dr. C. Hooykaas has pointed out, Javanese influence may also have been brought to bear. Hunchbacks and dwarfs were traditionally adopted as favourites by Javanese rulers.

^{page 538 note 5} Here again Javanese influence seems discernible. Cf. Dr. Hooykaas's, Jacoba‘ Upon a white stone under a Nagasari-tree’, BKI, cxIII, 4, 1957 Google Scholar: ‘Ataman in Bali, as late as the 19th century, could only belong to a king. And, we may add, to the gods…. The Balinese taman, belonging to the gods, is described as: “a rectangular tank in the midst of which a small shrine is installed like on a miniature island”…. The famous Taman Sari (“Waterkasteel”) of the Sultans of Jogja was built as late as the end of the 18th century, though earlier traditions may have influenced the outlay. A large, rectangular tank with streaming water and an island was one of its main features’.

^{page 539 note 1} Evidently Brahmā himself (usually called, in Malay, ‘Bĕtara Bĕrahma’) who, in Vālmīki, is Rāvaṇa's particular patron. In the HSR, Bĕtara Bĕrahma, through Bĕramaraja, is to become Siranchak's ancestor when he is reincarnated as Rawana.

^{page 539 note 2} This is to happen in the later part of the HSR when Laksamana is struck by one of Bawana's arrows.

^{page 539 note 3} The Overbeck MS (Hikayat Maharaja Rawana) records that when Rawana is born he has three arrows in his hand.

^{page 539 note 4} The Javanese Serat handa gives the previous history of this king. The demon king Kuwatja Indra conquers Giling Wĕsi (Indĕrapura) from Brama and is about to storm the Abode of the Gods. The gods send for three champions, Sritruṣṭ, Adiserat Anjakrawati (Dasĕrat Chakĕrawati in Malay), and Bramaradja (Bĕramaraja). The first is promised that his descendants will rule all Java, the second that he will rule Bruwaskandi, and the third that he will rule Indĕrapura. Kuwatja Indra is defeated and his body disappears. Adiserat Anjakrawati (grandfather of the future Rama) and Bramaradja duly take over the kingdoms promised to them. The details of Beramaraja's family in the Javanese and Malay stories are similar (Stutterheim, op. cit., 66–7).

^{page 539 note 5} i.e. Daitya Kuacha. According to the Javanese story quoted immediately above, ‘Niti Kuwatja’, Demon King of ‘Bruaspurwa’ is one of the three sons of Kuwatja Indra. (The other two sons are Daitja Sumangli and Djambu Mangli—clearly the Sumali and Mali of Vālmīki).

^{page 540 note 1} The reincarnation of Siranchak.

^{page 540 note 2} The story of the banishment of Rawana to Ceylon occurs in somewhat similar form in both the HSR and the Serat kanda. Zieseniss (op. cit., 66) shows that it is derived from the Māhdvarṃisa or ‘Great Chronicle of Ceylon’, in which Vijaya, the founder of the kingdom of Ceylon, is similarly treated.

^{page 540 note 3} From the Arabic for ‘Ceylon’, an island connected with the Muslim Prophet Adam as well as with Rāvaṇa. Adam is to act as the intermediary of Dewata Mulia Raya in granting Rawana overlordship of the Earth, the Kĕinderaan, the Underworld, and the Sea. Adam is the only Muslim personality to appear again and again in the HSR and it is possible that the original Muslim adapter of this very unislamic saga has intended to ascribe it to the Stage of Revelation of the first of the Prophets.

^{page 540 note 4} The nymphaea lotus (here called tunjong) of the Malay world is usually white but sometimes rose-coloured (Burkill, Dictionary of the economic products of the Malay Peninsula). The flower of differing hue is possibly to lead to the birth of Bibusanam who, in strong contrast to his brother and sister, is one of Mahabisnu's dewa zangg.

^{page 540 note 5} They fail to obey his instruction and duly die.

^{page 540 note 6} and . Reincarnations of Sura M.nak.h, Girandiwama, and Sĕnamdiwama respectively-i.e. Śūrpaṇakhā, Kumbhakarṇa, and Vibhīṣaṇa. (The usual form of these three names in Raffles has been shown. There are slight variations in other MSS.) See p. 537, n. 6, and p. 538, n. 1.

^{page 541 note 1} Another form of Indĕrapikrama mentioned on p. 537, n. 2.

^{page 541 note 2} In Vālmīki, Rāma's mother is Kausalyā. and Maṇḍodarī is the name of Rāvaṇa's wife (who does not give birth to Sītā). As will be seen above, there are in the HSR two Mandudaris, a real one and a magical copy of her.

^{page 541 note 3} In Shellabear, bezoar stones.

^{page 541 note 4} In Shellabear the bezoar stones are only four in number and appear to have no function other than to cause fertility. Only four children are born—two to Mandudari and two to Baliadari, mention of a girl being omitted. Mention of the Demon Crow is also omitted. It is clear that the story in Roorda and Raffles, or something similar to it, has been deliberately altered in Shellabear in order to avoid any hint of incarnation by a Hindu god or gods. Similar bowdlerization has taken place at several points in Shellabear where the Hindu religion has seemed to a Muslim copyist to obtrude itself too obviously. For the Indian origin of the story see Zieseniss, op. cit., 69; he says that, in Polier's Mythologie des Indous, Paris, 1809, Daśaratha receives from the ḳṣis a consecrated rice cake for Kausalyā (mother of the future Rāma) who shares it with the other wives.

^{page 541 note 5} As Father Bulcke has pointed out, in Vālmīki all four boys are incarnations of Viṣṇu in varying degrees, an effect obtained by the division of the payasa. As the Bhakti cult developed during the centuries that followed the tenth century, Rāma alone became a full incarnation of Viṣṇu and Lakṣmaṇa became an incarnation of Śeṣa-nāga. The HSR version is probably a further development of this-Sĕri Rama' alone is considered the incarnation of Mahabisnu, but a naga is incarnated as Sĕri Rama's magic arrows instead of as Laksamana, Laksamana becoming an incarnation of Bĕtara Kisna Dewa, i.e. Kṛṣṇa. This latter development may or may not be connected with the fact that, in the Pampa-Rámáyana (an ancient Jain poem published by Lewis Rice at Bangalore in 1882), Lakṣmaṇa is an incarnation of Vāsudeva-Kṛṣṇa, Rāma being an incarnation of his elder brother Baladeva.

^{page 542 note 1} To keep the story as simple as possible, I have not mentioned above that, in the HSR, Dasĕrat sleeps with the Pseudo-Mandudari before Rawana and thus secretly becomes the father of the child. This incident appears to be no more than an interpolation as Father Camille Bulcke has pointed out in the concluding paragraphs of ‘ La naissance de Sītā’, BEFEO, XLVI, 1, 1952, 107 Google Scholar–17. The incident occurs nowhere outside the HSR and the Serat kanda, and has evidently been inserted by someone who does not want the heroine to be born to the villain!

^{page 542 note 2} Mahabisnu seems to have intended that his wife Dewi Sĕri (or the Golden Peacock ?) be incarnated as a result of Mandudari eating her third lump of wheaten meal, but, since Rawana ate the lump in her place, she seems to have been inadvertently incarnated as his daughter. Father Bulcke (op. cit., 110) points out that there are many later Rāma stories, that give Rāvaṇa as the father of Sītā—in India, Tibet, Khotan, Siam, and Java. The Javanese Serai kanda version (Stutterheim, 74–5) is briefly as follows: Wisnu, Sri, and Basuki the Naga incarnate themselves-Wisnu and thenaga as sons of Dasarata, and Sri as the daughter of one Bibitsamuka. Rahwana chases the reincarnated Sri and she changes herself into an egg. Rahwana swallows the egg and later sleeps with the pseudo-;Bandondari to whom a beautiful daughter—Sinta—is accordingly born.

^{page 542 note 3} As pointed out on p. 535, n. 4, this is a reincarnation of Bĕgawan Bisparupan. Zieseniss (p. 70) derives the name Kisubĕrisu () from KaŚyapa + ṛṣi (which might be spelt (). His three sons all have a fairly big part to play in the Raffles version of the HSR.

^{page 542 note 4} . Yet another variation of ‘Mount Inderapikrama’.

^{page 542 note 5} Here called ‘Naga Sĕkanda Pĕrtala Dewa’.

^{page 542 note 6} , and as printed in Roorda. Only Gandewata is to take a prominent part in the story.

^{page 543 note 1} = Janaka, adoptive father of Sītā and owner of the Great Bow of Śiva. The name also occurs in the Javanese Serat kanda

^{page 543 note 2} Other pious sentiments are to follow in the copyist's introduction. All mention of Mahabisnu and other elements that the copyist has been able to recognize as definitely Hindu in the earlier part of the MS have been excised. He is more careless in the later part.

^{page 543 note 3} See Zieseniss, op. cit., 114