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are discussed under the present head are called Niti Sruti (or Sunti), Niti Praja, Papali ki gëdé Séséla, and Sastra Gëndiij. Allegedly the author of the Niti Sruti was a patjéran Karat} Gayam who lived in the period of the Paj at} suzerainty in Central Java, in the last decades of the sixteenth century. Judging from his title par}éran he was an ecclesiastical gentleman of standing, and head of a local religious community of Karat} Gayam (situation uncertain, several places of the name being known, i.a. in the district of Këbumèn and in Panaraga). An other tradition, ascribing the authorship to the early seventeenth century parjéran Pëkik of Surabaya, may be founded on that au thor’s reputation as a literary intermediary between the culture of the East Pasisir districts (Grësik, Surabaya) and the un cultured interior of Central Java. Like the Paniti Sastra, the Niti Sruti was very much studied at Court by erudite gentlemen who took a pride in being well versed in classical Javanese literature. In the course of time paraphrases and adaptations in a more modem idiom were made. The poem con tains lessons, especially referring to good behaviour and statecraft. A prose para phrase by Rat}ga Warsita was published in Surakarta in 1871. The Niti Praja is even more than the Niti Sruti a didactic poem on good conduct of men in office. Its name reminds one of the Niti Praya, which is a Javanese-Balinese prose treatise on statecraft (see 13.210). According to' nineteenth century Javanese Court tradition the Niti Praja was written in the period of Sultan Agui} of Mataram, in the first half of the seventeenth century. The Papali stands in the name of ki gëdé

Séséla, a semi-legendary laird of a small domain, Séséla or Séla, in the district of Grobogan, in the Sëmarat} Residency, who is venerated as an ancestor of the sixteenth century Kings of Pajaiy According to nine teenth century Javanese Court tradition he lived in the period of the Dëmak suzerainty in Central Java, in the beginning of the sixteenth century. His authorship seems rather problematic. The Papali was pub lished in Surakarta in 1904. Even more problematic is the authorship of the Sastra Gendit}, a didactic and specu lative poem which is held in particular esteem ait the Yogyakarta Court. It is at tributed to Sultan Agui} of Mataram him self. In its present form it seems to be a product of the renaissance of Javanese letters of the conclusion of the eighteenth century. Manuscripts containing one or more of the four above mentioned texts have been registered in the General Index under the catchwords Niti Sruti, Surti, Niti Praja, Papali and Sastra Gëndiw,. 17.110 Niti Sruti, with notes: cod. 1811, 1872, 2040, 6374, 6420, NBS 81-III, IV, V (= 10.636, 10.637, 10.638 = BCB prtf 78). 17.120 Niti Praja, on statecraft: cod. 1809, 1873, 5779 a, b, 17.130 Papali ki gëdé Séséla, moralistic poem: cod. 1810, 5776 a, 5782 a, NBS 81-1 (= 10.634 = BCB prtf 78). 17.140 Sastra Gëndit}, moralistic poem: cod. 6413, 8624. 17.300 Didactic compendium on statecraft (still group F, 14.000). In the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, the