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tristic texts is of foreign, mostly Indian, origin. In the pre-Islamic period Javanese authors of belletristic books borrowed their subjects from Indian epical literature. In the Muslim period they drew on the great Persian-Arabic narrative and epical works. In the case of Islamic tales Malay literature often was the intermediary. The foreign origin of a majority of Java nese belletristic books, especially the older ones, finds an explanation in the character of Court literature proper to Belles-Lettres in Java. Especially in the pre-Islamic period the great Old Javanese epic poems of Indian inspiration were written for the delectation of cultured Kings and courtiers. It seems probable that at the same time tales and poetry of a less sophisticated character were told and sung in the countryside, but these texts have not come down to us. In the pre-Islamic period belletristic Court literature consisted mainly in Old Javanese poetic adaptations of epic tales borrowed from Indian literature. The metres were also Indian. The poems were called kakazvins, and the literary idiom: kazvi. The connection with Sanskrit kazvi, poet, and kdzvya, poetical art, is evident (see the present author’s “Java in the XIVth Century”, vol. IV, p. 332). The Old Javanese kakazvins and related belletristic literature, which will be discussed in the following paragraphs (30.000—30.215), belong to Era A of Ja vanese cultural history (see 00020), and their literary idiom has been registered in 00030 as the idiom of group 1. It seems probable, on account of customs still prevailing in Bali and East Java (see 30.520), that Old Javanese kakazvins origi nally were meant to be recited or chanted

stanza by stanza, every stanza to be followed by a prose paraphrase or an explanation in the vernacular. The oldest kakawin which has come down to us is the R a m a y a n a, which was prob ably written in the period of the suzerainty of Central Javanese Kings residing in the old district of Mataram. In vocabulary the Ramayana resembles some of the oldest Royal charters which were issued in the eight, ninth and tenth centuries. The poem follows the Walmiki tradition in its develop ment of the plot, but it is not an adaptation of Walmlki’s Ramayana. Probably a shorter Sanskrit kdzvya was the Old Javanese au thor’s example (see Hooykaas, “The Old “Javanese Ramayana, an exemplary Kaka win”, Amsterdam 1958). The Old Javanese Ramayana kakazvin is written in a mannered style. The poet used many poetic embellishments. Probably on this point also he followed the example of a Sanskrit kdzvya. The close connection be tween the oldest Old Javanese Court litera ture and the art of Sanskrit kdzvya poets is a corroboration of the thesis that Indian civilization was introduced into Java by men belonging to the cultured classes of society. Rama tales apparently belonging to an other branch of Indian literary tradition were also introduced into Java, probably in an early period. The reliefs in stone on the walls of the well-known Prambanan temple in Central Java, almost contemporaneous with the Old Javanese Ramayana kakawin, represent a different version of the Rama tales (see Stutterheim, “Rama Legenden “und Rama Reliefs in Indonesien”, 1925). In Javanese literature of the Islamic period both branches of Rama tales, the Old Java-