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the Books of Tales, the Sërat Kandas of the Pasisir period (see 22.900) and afterwards in the Major Javanese Histories (27.000). Led on by their Javanese predecessors, the first Dutch scholars who were interested in Java held the opinion that the romances could be used as sources of information on dynastic history. However, the search for events in Old Javanese political history which might have been dramatized in the Damar Wulan romance has not had satis factory results. The same is the case with the Pahji romances, for that matter. Both Damar Wulan and Panji romances have a purely romantic kernel of ancient mythic origin. Historical references to Majapahit and Kadiri Kings are secondary additions, though dating from the seventeenth century or even earlier. The Damar Wulan romance is of East Javanese origin, but in the seventeenth cen tury it was already known in Central Java, and in West Java it was read also. The presentation of the tale by means of the puppet theatre made for a wide spread in the districts along the North Coast where the wayat3 theatre first became popular. A special kind of wayat} puppet called wayat} klitik or wayar} krucil, flat wooden boards, profiled and supplied with flexible arms, were used for preference in Damar Wulan performances. This does not mean, though, that Damar Wulan romances could not be played with other kinds of wayat}, puppets, or that wayat} klitik could not be used to stage other tales. The Damar Wulan romance is known in different versions, but the principal features of the tale always remained the same. The extraordinary popularity of the original East

Javanese romance stimulated later authors to write sequences. In these additional tales trustworthy information on political history is no more to be expected than in the origi nal tale. Poerbatjaraka distinguished no less than eight different versions among the Damar Wulan manuscripts in the KBG col lection (Jaarboek KBG vol. 8, 1941, p. 227). It is also a proof of the popularity that several manuscripts of the Damar Wulan romance were illustrated. In the nineteenth century in Surakarta a prose version was made by C. F. Winter. It was published (Verh. KBG vol. 30 and vol. 64, 1922). The second edition was pro vided in part with a free translation in Dutch by van Hinloopen Labberton. Poetic versions were published repeatedly by local printers in Java. In the second half of the nineteenth century in Surakarta the Damar Wulan ro mance was dramatized and used as a script of a Javanese musical play in verse, sung and danced by female dancers of the Court of Prince Mapku Nagara IV and his suc cessors. The performance was called Larjën Driya. It was much admired (see 31.150). Under the present head Damar Wulan manuscripts of different versions, tentatively distinguished according to van der Tuuk’s opinion (found in Brandes’ Catalogue of his collection), are collected. 30.851 Damar Wulan romance, version A, van der Tuuk: cod. 1797, 1838, 1845 (= BCB prtf 28), 2117, 4170 (= 10.537 = BCB prtf 36), 4171, 5817, 10.543 (KBG, CS coll. no. 5, = BCB prtf 38-III), NBS 25, KITLV Or 18. 30.852 Damar Wulan romance, extensive version: