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insurgents who' had become converts to Islam. Many features of pre-Islamic culture remained intact. In West Java Islam was introduced by foreigners, who founded in dependent Javanese kingdoms on the North Coast, successively Cërbon, Jakarta and Banten (Sura Sowan). The Old Sundanese kingdom of Pajajaran was overturned and henceforth Sundanese culture was isolated and confined to the mountainous interior of West Java. In the course of time local rulers of Sundanese districts were forced to ac knowledge either the Javanese Kings of the North Coast kingdoms, or the Central Java nese Kings of Mataram, as suzerains. Still in the seventeenth century the Dutch East India Company of Batavia, successor of the Jakarta King, began to hold sway over the Sundanese districts, Cërbon and Bantën, though till the end of the eighteenth century semi-independent, were politically eclipsed by Batavia. In consequence of its isolation in the high lands of West Java, Sundanese culture could preserve several ancient features, and Sunda nese local traditions and mythical tales were not forgotten. Though partly Javanized and using the West Javanese idiom in writing, Sundanese local rulers prized their native legendary history and their old genealogies going back to ancient Sundanese forbears. West Javanese literature provides informa tion on indigenous Sundanese mythology and legendary history comparable with the information found in original Sundanese texts. Probably it was in the last decades of the eighteenth century that Sundanese authors began to write Sundanese again, after a long period of Javanese supremacy in litera

ture. In the nineteenth and especially in the twentieth century Sundanese literature ex panded and flourished, adjusting itself to the environment in the modern cities Bandurj and Batavia/Djakarta. Sundanese literature is not discussed in the present Synopsis. Uhlenbeek’s “Critical Survey of “studies on the languages of Java and Ma- “dura” (1964) contains much information on the subject. West Javanese-Sundanese historical liter ature exercised a remarkable influence on Central Pasisir letters. A mythic tale ascri bing the foundation of the East Javanese capital Majapahit to a prince of the Old Sundanese realm of Pajajaran found its way into Central Pasisir Universal Histories and Mataram Babads. It superseded the histo rically much more reliable record of the foundation by a prince who (probably) was related to the old House of Kadiri. The latter account of the foundation was accepted in the pre-Islamic period. In the Pasisir era, Majapahit had become a mythical concept: it was the residence of the great Kings of yore and the centre of the glorious pre- Islamic civilization. For that reason a tale which stressed the mythic origin of the founder of Majapahit seems to have super seded the historically true account of the foundation of the city. Under the present head manuscripts con taining texts on Cërbon history proper are registered. In the Islamic period Cërbon was the cultural centre of West Java (except Bantën) and a place of pilgrimage for pious believers, like Grësik (Giri) was in East Java. Gunuij Jati, near Gërbon, is the place of the grave of the apostle of Islam in West Java and his descendants, who were Sultans.