Arjunawijaya (A kakawin of Mpu Tantular)

The present translation of the kakawin Arjunawijaya appeared earlier as the author's Pd.D. thesis for the Australian National University in 1971. The poem under study only became better known to Western scholars in 1849, when R. Friederich described it. Although many scholars in the field have been familiar with the poem ever since, no separate study has been devoted to it. It is now published together with the translation and its explanatory notes. The punctuation marks which the author introduces in the body of the text are admittedly still tentative and experimental in nature. In the introduction to the text, the author discusses its dating and origins; and includes a comparison with the Old Javanese Uttar*a*kanda poem. Separate chapters are devoted to a description of contemporary life and ideas as reflected in this poem. According to the author, Tantular's poem is partly a reflection of the real world in which he lived, and is not to be seen merely as a tale, as Pigeaud has suggested in his Java in the 14th Century: a study in Cultural History (The Hague, 1960-1963).