175

SYNOPSIS, PART THREE BELLES - LETTRES

30.000 Old Javanese belletristic epic poetry of Indian inspiration.

The late professor Poerbatjaraka’s Java nese book on Javanese literature (“Ka- “pustakan Djawi”, in the Bahasa Indonesia edition called “Kepustakaan Djawa”, Djam- batan, Amsterdam 1952) contains an ad mirable summary of the most important pro ducts of Javanese authors, both pre-Islamic and Muslim. Trying to establish a chrono^ logical order in the mass of Javanese wri tings, Poerbatjaraka did not make a dis tinction between heterogeneous texts, As a matter of fact the learned Javanese scholar was more interested in belletristic and his torical works than in any other genre. In the present Synopsis, however, chronological order is relegated to the second plan. The present author has tried to cover the whole of Javanese literary production, and with that end in view he has divided the mass of Javanese writings into the four specifi cally distinct Parts which have been men tioned before (see 00010). In several cases it has been difficult to make a clear distinction between texts to be registered in Part One, Part Two and Part Three of the present Synopsis, Starting from the principle that all Javanese writings belong to literature, the present author has collected all texts dealing with religion and

ethics in Part One, and all texts referring to history and mythology in Part Two, be cause on the whole religious and historical books are the most representative exponents of Javanese culture. As a result purely belle tristic works are relegated to the third place. However, belletristic literature is not de void of the Javanese spirit. In the period of the classical renaissance of Javanese letters, in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, the literature of original wayaij plays as sumed enormous proportions. The genius of Javanese civilization found in those plays a wonderful stage. The Cëntini and related narrative poems of Javanese origin, written in the eighteenth century, also are remark able literary products. Both wayaij plays and narrative poems of the Cëntini genre are closely related to works belonging to Parts One and Two, Religion and Mythology, of the present Synopsis. Many poetical ro mances written in various periods have close connections with Javanese history. In fact, in Javanese civilization the fun damental concept of social and cosmic Order pervades all original literature. Belles-Let tres, in the sense of literature written only to please and for pastime, of autochthonous origin, is scarce. The majority of belle-