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The tale turns on the adventures of some young men of Giri, the spiritual centre of Islam in East Java, who- were wandering about in the country after the fall of the town, a victim of the Mataram King’s greed of conquest. The wanderers are said to> be the children of the unfortunate last sunan of Giri, and therefore they were wanted by the King. Moreover they lost each other in the confusion of the sack of the town, and they tried to reunite. Cent ini is the name of a female servant of Tambai} Raras, the wife of Amor) Raga, who is the oldest and the wisest of the wan derers from. Giri. The reason why the whole book was given the name of the servant is not clear. It seems possible that the kernel of the present Centini book was a suluk Cëntini, a mystic poem (see 14.900), which long ago has disappeared in the over whelming mass of encyclopedic information. The Cëntini book has been discussed in the present author’s monograph (Verh. KBG vol. 72, 1933). Poerbatjaraka (“Kapustakan “Djawi”, 1953, p. 157) has some interesting notes on its origin. A very elaborate text W'as composed in the first decades of the nineteenth century in Surakarta by the Court-scholars Yasadipura II and Raqga Sutrasna, under the auspices of the Crown Prince, later King Paku Buwana V. It is a sample of the encyclopedic spirit in litera ture which was prevalent in the period of the Surakarta classical renaissance. Infor mation of all kinds on things Javanese, topography, art, music, magic, divination and erotics, but also religious speculation and mysticism, was collected by order of the Royal patron to be incorporated in the book.

The major version of the Centini book (cod. 1814) has been published (KBG, Batavia, 1912-’15). Several minor versions are known, some of them probably of East Javanese origin, and older than the printed text. Moreover, sequences and parallel texts were written in the nineteenth century, as so many proofs of the book’s popularity, mainly in the circles of old-fashioned religiously minded midde-class people. 30.801 Cëntini romance, short version: cod. 4584, 4585, 4586, 4895 (called Tam- baq Raras). 30.802 Cëntini romance, major version, published: cod. 1814 I-V. 30.803 Cëntini romance, sequences and ad ditions to the major text: cod. 6679 I-VII (= 10.593, 10.594, 10.595, 10.596 = BCB prtf 68 A-D). 30.804 Centini romance, Kuta Gëdé ver sions : cod. 6796 a. 30.805 Cëntini romance, variant versions: cod. 6796 b (Magëlaij), 10.802 (frag mentary) . 30.806 Cëntini romance, loose passages and notes: cod. 6517, 8580. 30.810 The M a d u J a y a tale appears to be another sample of the type of wan dering students’ romances with didactic in sertions. It was less well known than the Jatiswara and the Cëntini books. Probably the Madu Jaya is of West Javanese origin. 30.811 Madu Jaya romance: cod. 7547.