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longing to the Gèlgèl period can be distin guished from younger texts belonging to the subsequent eighteenth and nineteenth cen tury Klurjkuiy reigns by the growing promi nence of Balinese forms and vocabulary in the latter texts. Javanese-Balinese literature developed out of Old Javanese letters and Balinese tradi tion. No foreign influence was in evidence except Islam. Though the ruling classes of Bali, the Courts and the clergy, adhered to ancestral religious concepts and ritual, some how Javanese Islamic literature penetrated into mercantile middle-class communities in the country, and a small Muslim Javanese- Balinese literature developed. Its exact chro nology is unknown, but its relationship with seventeenth and eighteenth century Javanese Pasisir literature (era C) is indubitable. C. The third era of the chronological scheme introduced in the present Synopsis is the era of Javanese Pasisir literature of about three centuries, beginning about 1500 A.D. So it coincides with the first half of the era of Javanese-Balinese literature. Texts belonging to era C of the scheme were writ ten in the literary idioms of East Java, Madura and the North Coast districts (in 00030 registered as groups 3 and 4). In the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries Islam was in the ascendant in Java. Political power devolved from the inland Court of Majapahit to Muslim dynasts ruling in various maritime districts and trading cen tres on the North Coast. In these districts, from Surabaya and Grësik in the east up to Cërbon and Bantën in the west, a rejuvena ted Javanese literature developed under the influence of Islam. In the present Synopsis it is called with a Javanese name for those

coastal districts: Pasisir literature. In the period of Pasisir culture authors were very active in writing books on all sub jects belonging to the sphere of Muslim Javanese civilization. Far from ignoring pre- Islamic literature, however, they assimilated many elements of Old Javanese culture. The result was an amalgam of Muslim and pre- Islamic culture, in several respects showing survivals of ancient indigenous Javanese concepts. The three centres of Pasisir literature in Java were Surabaya (with Grësik), Dëmak (with Japara) and Cërbon (with Bantën). East Javanese Pasisir texts came first, for in East Java Muslim religious influence first became an important element in civilization. Starting from Java, Islamic Pasisir culture spread to some other islands of which the coasts are washed by the Java sea. The most important outlying cultural provin ces were Lombok and Palcmbary In the island of Lombok a remarkable Islamic Ja vanese-Balinese literature came into exist ence. The texts contain reminiscences of indigenous Sasak culture. The native Sasak language developed into a medium of literary' activity side by side with the Javanese-Bali nese idiom. Probably for centuries, even in the pre- Islamic period, the district of Palémbarj in South Sumatra was ruled by dynasts of Javanese extraction. In the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries Javanese Pasisir litera ture was cultivated at Court. In the nine teenth century Javanese cultural influence in Palémbat) declined in consequence of the fall of the dynasty. Malay took the place of Javanese. The important oversea expansions of Java-