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cal expression. The great Old Javanese epic poems of Indian inspiration exercised a lasting influence on the development of Belles-Lettres up to the nineteenth century. The Indian custom of writing lengthy his torical, encyclopedic and didactic texts in verse survived in a modified form for a very long time in Java. It is a remarkable fact that in Javanese literature the Arabic prose style of Islamic religious texts, called kitabs, did not stim ulate writing in prose. A great number of Javanese Islamic religious books is in verse. This predilection for poetic style even with respect to Muslim texts is symptomatic for the self-reliance of Javanese authors. Proud of their ancient cultural heritage they suc ceeded in maintaining an independent posi tion against domineering Islam and the Arabic religious prose tradition. In Malay, however, prose is preponderant over verse. This fact is symptomatic for the general acceptance of Islam as a determinant factor of culture by Malay authors. Malay owes its expansion in the Archipelago and its modern dominating position (in the garb of Bahasa Indonesia) to its usefulness as a medium of initerinsular commerce and prop aganda of Islam in the fifteenth and six teenth centuries. Many differences between Javanese and Malay literature can be ex plained by the different attitudes of repre sentative Javanese and Malay authors to wards Islam in the past four hundred years. In the beginning of written Old Javanese literature some important prose texts made their appearance, however: the Old Javanese charters, and texts on religion, mythology and history. They are registered in Parts One and Two of the present Synopsis.

Perhaps the fact that they are in prose can be explained. Originally the charters (see 20010) were records of social and religious ceremonies performed with a view to establish a new order in land tenure. They contained long lists of names. Probably the exigencies of Old Javanese prosody were prohibitive for the redaction of charter texts in verse. As to the Old Javanese religious texts (see 10000), their prose might be a survival of the prose of the Javanese paraphrases of Sanskrit slokas which formed the be ginning of Old Javanese religious literature. A similar explanation of the prose of the Old Javanese Mahabharata Parwas and puranic texts might apply. Originally these books also contained Sanskrit quotations (see 20010). At present the fragmentary Sanskrit slokas in the texts which have come down to us seem to have only the function of rubrics. The lengthy Old Javanese prose paragraphs contain far more than para phrases of the Sanskrit words. In the present author’s opinion the Parwas and the Puranas were meant to be recited rhythmically on festive occasions, and their prose originally was rhythmic prose. If pronounced according to present day Javanese practice the Old Javanese prose tales seem to be quite well suited to the purpose of being used as recita tion texts. Probably the authors of later puranic texts, compendiums of epic tales and Old Javanese prose histories (see 20.200 ff.) imitated the prose style of the Old Javanese Parwas. Rhythmic prose meant for recitation is well-known in Javanese theatrical literature. A considerable part of the narratives of wayaq plays is in rhythmic prose, recited