T. Behrend the Writings of KPH Suryanagara; Shifting Paradigms in Nineteenth-Century Javanese Thought and Letters In
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T. Behrend The writings of K.P.H. Suryanagara; Shifting paradigms in nineteenth-century Javanese thought and letters In: Bijdragen tot de Taal-, Land- en Volkenkunde, Encompassing knowledgeIndigenous encyclopedias from ninth-century Java to twentieth-century Riau 155 (1999), no: 3, Leiden, 388- 415 This PDF-file was downloaded from http://www.kitlv-journals.nl Downloaded from Brill.com10/02/2021 07:32:55AM via free access T.E. BEHREND The Writings of K.P.H. Suryanagara Shifting Paradigms in Nineteenth-Century Javanese Thought and Letters Introduction I have elsewhere on several occasions lamented the still limited success of the scholarly project in producing a detailed history of Javanese literature, one that even begins to look away from Surakarta and pay proper attention to all regions and eras.1 The same may be said, though much more emphatically, for Javanese intellectual history. Apart from the very interesting - though still somewhat inchoate - discourse on historiography (much of which has restricted itself to external issues of referentiality and reliability) we have very little in the way of a diachronic understanding of the development of Javanese ideas and science over the period for which we have good docu- mentary evidence.2 In order to encourage the articulation of a history of Javanese ideas, and at the same time fill a tiny part of the gaping void in Javanese literary histo- ry, in this artiele I will introducé a particularly significant Javanese writér of the mid nineteenth century, give an overview of his literary production, then look at his work specifically in terms of its organizational and intellectual underpinnings. In the process I will also make observations and comparisons of how this writer and his ideas might differ from other writers and works of similar theme from earlier times, then conclude with some general remarks on the place of this author in the history of Javanese,letters. Kangjeng Pangeran Harya Suryanagara, the last. and posthumous child of 1 Pigeaud's Literature of Java (1967-1970) gives an invaluable overview, but thirty years on, his sketches of the rich regional textures of Javanese writing have still tp be fleshed out. This sit: uation is beginning to change, however. Several scholars have made major, strides in recent years in displacing Surakarta as the défault centre of our understanding of the literature of Java. Ben Arps' contributions on the Joseph tale in East Java (1990, 1992), Matthew Cohén's fascinating work on wayang in the Cirebon region (1997), and Merle Ricklefs1 compelling introduction to some aspects of Kartasura letters (1998a) as well his earlier work on Yogyakarta court literature that arose in the course of his study of the founder of Yogyakarta (1974) all stand out in this regard. 2 Here, too, some recent publications have made significant contributions. I refer especially to Ricklefs' work on Kartasura (1993, 1998a) with much of releyance to bpth intellectual history and mentalité, as well as to Ann Kumar's wonderful miscellany on Javanese thought and litera- ture (1997). BK1155-3 (1999) Downloaded from Brill.com10/02/2021 07:32:55AM via free access The Writings of K.P.H. Suryanagara 389 the young king Hamengkubuwana IV, Sultan of Yogyakarta (b.1804, r.1814- 1822), was born on Christmas Day 18223 to Raden Widawati, a lesser wife (garwa ampeyan) of the newly deceased ruler, said to have been the daugh- ter of a renowned court dhalang of the period.4 Few details are yet known about his life except these: that he took a wife from the ranks of thePaku- alaman aristocracy;5 that he was a bibliophile, an avid copyist of manu- scripts, and an unusually prolific writer; and that he seems to have gained some prominence in letters both in Pakualaman and Kasultanan circles. There are indications that he was on quite friendly terms with local Eurasians and Dutch, particularly the planter C.W. Baumgarten.6 In 1856 this close 3 Wednesday Legi, Mandhasiya, 10 Rabingulakir, Je 1750 is the date given in YKM/W.7a, page 352 (Kandha Bedhaya Srimpi). This converts to 25 December 1822 in the Thursday Calendar. Throughout Lindsay, Soetanto and Feinstein (1994) (for instance page 83), however, 14 December 1822 is cited as Suryanagara's date of birth. There is a surprising amount of variety in published and manuscript sources about the number and order of children sired by Hamengkubuwana IV. In MSB/S.115:718 (Babad Ngayogyakarta Hamengkubuwana V), for instance, he is said to be the seventeenth of eighteen children, the tenth of ten to survive.infancy; in YKM/W.116d (Sarasilah Warni-warni) two separate sections name him the seventeenth child of nineteen (pages 19, 464); Padmasusastra (1902:299) corrobo- rates part of the information in YKM/W.116d, stating that Suryanagara was the tenth of ten to survive while nine others were stillborn 'or died in infancy; a published genealogy based on palace sources; Rajaputra (1938:35-6), places him eleventh out of eleven; while Suryanagara him- self, in a palacegenealogy he personally copied in 1849 (KBG 651, f. 179v) says he was the ninth of nine. In Mandoyokusumo (1988:37) he is the seventeenth of eighteen (seven having died as babies). A Serat Sejarah Leluhur (MSB/Sil.6, page 24) refers to his birth order as tenth out of ten and mentions Suryanagara's embryonic state at his father's death. '[Nalika soeroed dalem], tila- ranipun putra Sang Prabu. teksih timur sadhojo, pan sesongo kadjawi kang meksih dhipoen bobotaken.' Perhaps these citations should suffice, though others are available. Note in connection with Suryanagaran genealogy that there is at least one reference to a name other than that.by which he was known in later life: Mandoyokusuma (1988:37) states that Suryanagara's original birth name was B.P.H. Malayakusuma. 4 See Carey (1981:xxviii), who gives the name of Widawati's father as court dhalang Kyahi Jiwatenaya. His source is R.W. Dwidjosoegondo and R.S. Adisoetrisno, Serat Dharah inggih Seseboetan Raden (Kediri, 1941), page 105. 5 See, for instance, Carey (1981:xxviii); Pigeaud (1967-70,1:169) says of Suryanagara that he was 'related to the Pakualaman house'. I am beginning to waver on the accuracy of this associa- tion with the Pakualaman, however, as every search I have done of Pakualaman genealogical materials has failed to mention any female child 'being accepted into the household' (katrimak- en) of a Suryanagara. This includes both published genealogies of the Yogyakarta and Pakualaman courts such as Padmasusastra (1902) and Albiladiyah (1985/86), as well as manu- script and archive resources, including Arsip Pakualaman, n.d. (for a microfilm copy of this archive, see Behrend (1988:14-5), the Genealogical Society of Utah reel 1208627, items 1, 2. In addition, the Pakualaman library has neither manuscripts nor texts that can.be associated with Suryanagara, while the Kasultanan has several such manuscripts. As will be discussed below, however, Surya did'work extensively with the Serat Suryanalendra, a text that was politically and ritually central in the court of Natakusuma and his descendants. • 6 C.W. Baumgarten, a leaseholder in mid-nineteenth-century Yogyakarta, was a Eurasian who spoke Javanese fluently enough to be the trainee translateur in 'Djokjakarta' under CL. van Downloaded from Brill.com10/02/2021 07:32:55AM via free access 390 T.E. Behrend association with Europeans was formalized when he was awarded the hon- orary rank of Lieuteriant-Colonel on the Governor General's staff, though what distinction or accomplishment earned him this designation is unclear.7 Suryanagara seems to have taken great pride in this military honor, as he inevitably included it as part of his personal identification in the introducto- ry and closing lines of the manuscripts he wrote, copied, or had produced on his behalf. He was known in the colonial capital as well as locally. There he received the special distinction of being one of the few Indonesian members of the Batavian Society of Arts and Sciences. His membership in that prestigious research and scientific instirution was not simply a matter of being placed on the roll; his name also appears several times in the published record as a donor of manuscripts and other items.8 But his relationship with the Society was not always smooth. In November 1874 Suryanagara had an unpleasant run in with the administration over a matter of membership.9 Although repeatedly dunned to pay delinquent annual dues dating back to 1868, he adamantly refused, insisting that his membership was a bestowed honor. The secretariat of the Society rejected this claim, stating that he was a regular mèmber and liable for the dues. In March 1875 the Resident of Yogyakarta, A.J.B. Wattendorff, appears to have intervened and remitted ƒ 240 on Surya- nagara's behalf, who was then reinstated as a gewoon lid. Later that year Suryanagara was awarded a government medal of honor for his contribu- tions to Javanese literature.10 The timing of the award seems suspiciously den Berg in 1853-1854.. He seems to have been politically active against the policies of the Indies government, and Houben suggests he may have been involved in the 'conspiracy' that took place three years after the 1846 tumenggung selusin affair (Houben 1994:246). His connection with Suryanagara is established, or at least indicated, by the fact that his name is written in Javanese script on page 8 of a manuscript composed and copied by Suryanagara in 1860 (MS RAS Jav 46; see Ricklefs and Voorhoeve (1977:84)). In Tijdschrift voor Taal-, land- en Volkenkunde (TBC) 10 (1861:302), which contains the notulen for a 12 May 1860 bestuursver- gadering of the Bataviaasch Genootschap, a C.