Arjunawiwaha
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S. Robson On translating the Arjunawiwaha In: Bijdragen tot de Taal-, Land- en Volkenkunde, Old Javanese texts and culture 157 (2001), no: 1, Leiden, 35-50 This PDF-file was downloaded from http://www.kitlv-journals.nl Downloaded from Brill.com10/01/2021 05:06:57PM via free access STUART ROBSON On Translating the Arjunawiwaha Introduction The name Arjunawiwaha ('Marriage of Arjuna') is familiar to all Old Javanists. It is the name of a tale of Arjuna, one of the five Pandawa brothers famous from the Mahabharata, set at the time when the brothers had lost all to their rivals and cousins, the Korawa. Arjuna is practising austerities on Mount Indrakila in order to obtain a boon from the gods in the form of a weapon with which to restore his family's fortunes'. At this time the gods themselves are being threatened by the demon Niwatakawaca, who can only be defeated by a powerful man. They decide to test Arjuna to find out whether he can be relied upon, and to this end Indra sends seven heavenly nymphs to tempt him (a popular scene in later paintings). Having resisted their charms, he is again tested by the god Siwa in order to find out whether Arjuna is willing to devote himself to the welfare of others, or if he only seeks his own deliverance from the world. When he has passed this test and uttered praises of Siwa, he is given the task of defeating Niwatakawaca. To make a long'story short, he succeeds in this and is rewarded with seven days in heaven and marriage to each of the said seven heavenly nymphs in turn. The text ends with the author, Mpu Kanwa, saying that he is about to accom- pany his king, Airlangga, into battle. This work is considered one of the great classics, and has long been listed as one of the kakawin that have already been 'done', in the sense of having been edited and translated, so that it can be passed over for the time being in favour of something fresh. The edition we all refer to is R.Ng. Poerbatjaraka's of 1926, with a Dutch translation containing a few regrettable gaps. Much more recently, we have Romo Kuntara's dissertation, containing an extensive discussion of the 'transformations' of the text and including an Indonesian translation (Wiryamartana 1990). It remains a fact, however, that there does not yet exist a complete English translation, but only a partial one (Henry 1981). So the question is, what useful purpose ; would be served by making one? • There is no pressing demand for an English translation of Arjunawiwaha Downloaded from Brill.com10/01/2021 05:06:57PM via free access 36 Stuart Robson at least from Australian students. Some of them know that Javanese exists, because I have a tendency to mention it from time to time, but they are resist- ant to anything with 'Old' in the name. To students such as these, Old Javanese might seem monumentally irrelevant - what they want is to be able to communicate in Indonesian, and perhaps to use the language for their careers. It is very much to the credit of 'Leiden', therefore, that it can still find the funds for a workshop oh the study of Old Javanese texts. An earlier generation of Old Javanists may have had a tendency to focus on their subject as if it were an isolated phenomenon, detached from any par- ticular cultural or historical setting, in other words, of interest merely for its own sake. A reassessment of its significance may involve trying to see it as part of a wider world, both at the time when the Old Javanese classics were created and later, when they were studied and preserved, including the pres- ent day. So there are several different contexts to consider. Each may have something to contribute. PJ. Zoetmulder made the point in Kalangwan that Old Javanese literature occupies a very special position, in that no comparable literatures are known from the other Indianized countries of Southeast Asia (Zoetmulder 1974:17). For example, there is no Old Khmer literature, although there are many inscriptions in Old Khmer. These contain a number of terms such as kavi 'poet' and kaviSvara 'lord of poets' (Pou 1992:98), suggesting that the practice of poetry must have been known. However, the earliest Khmer literature pre- served is the Reamker, a Cambodian version of the Ramayana, dating from no earlier than the 17th century. In a certain sense, Thailand was the 'Bali' of Cambodia, as Ayuthia (1350-1767) preserved much of the cultural inheritance of Angkor in such areas as music and drama'. Strangely, though, the textual history of the Thai Ramakien has not yet been explored (Wenk 1995:29). If we assume that the Arjunawiwaha was written some time between AD 1028 and 1035, when Airlangga had re-established his position as king in East Java, then the question is what is known about possible literary activities in other parts of Southeast Asia at that time. On the mainland, this was the time of the reign of Suryavarman I in Cambodia and Jayasinghavarman II in Champa. There is evidence of a Cham literature, but it seems to be later (Marrison 1985). Apart from these, what would later become Thailand was occupied by the Mon, of whom no literary work is known from this early time. As far as the Malay world is concerned, in 1025 the kingdom (or confed- eration of kingdoms) of Srivijaya had been attacked and seriously weakened by the Cholas. Srivijaya and Java may have been competitors in the period leading up to this. Although there is considerable archaeological evidence for the existence of Srivijaya, centred at Palembang (Manguin 1993), as was recently pointed out by S. Supomo, there does not seem to be an accom- Downloaded from Brill.com10/01/2021 05:06:57PM via free access On Translating the Arjunawiwaha 37 panying Malay literature comparable to-the Javanese (Supomo 1995:302-3). Perhaps we can speculate that the literary production in Srivijaya was in Sanskrit, as at a time immediately preceding the Chola raid the Buddhist teachers here were famous, attracting students even from India, and their works have been preserved in Tibetan translations (Schoterman 1986). As a result, when a written literature in Malay arose, this was the product of a new cultural force, Islam, and at a time somewhat later than the one under con- sideration here (Jones 1986). So it does seem that Zoetmulder was right with regard to the 11th century, and probably the following ones too: Old Javanese literature was something quite special. The rise and continuation of this literature for many centuries has to be seen in the context of the Indianization of this part of Southeast Asia. The contacts between India and Java constituted a process that fed the Hindu- Buddhist civilization of early Java, of which literature was one of the prod- ucts. It makes no sense to think of Old Javanese literature outside this setting. The literature is an expression of this particular cultural blend of the Javanese and Indian, and as such occupies a unique place. It shows how the particu- lar cultural and social milieu was a fertile one that could inspire cultural products of lasting interest and value. Although we focus our attention on the literary products, their language and form, we should always have in the back of our minds the civilization that nurtured them, because it is this setting that assists us to make sense of the products: and we are looking for meaning. We want to know what the ideas were that underlay the works, be they of an aesthetic, religious or social organizational nature, for example. Ideas change over time, but we are look- ing at a particular point in history, the one when our specific literary work was created - in this case when the Arjunawiwaha was written by Mpu Kanwa in East Java, namely about the middle of the 11th century. The centre of the Javanese kingdom had moved from Central to East Java a century earl- ier and was now established in the lower valley of the Brantas River. Here it had recently been devastated by an enemy (possibly Srivijaya) but had since been restored by King Airlangga. The Arjunawiwaha The act of translation involves an assessment of the significance of the text. While struggling with its words and structures, at the same time we will be wondering 'what it's all about'. Is it just the story as conveyed by the narrat- ive? However, there are so many ways of looking at this, depending on what one chooses to stress, that it could be claimed that there is no single signific- ance. Indeed, at least to some extent the text says what you want it to say. Downloaded from Brill.com10/01/2021 05:06:57PM via free access 38 Stuart Robson In 1971, having a spare six months on my hands, it seemed to me a legit- imate question to ask what the Baliriese heirs to Old Javanese literature did with their texts. Obviously they did not sit down and produce doctoral dis- sertations out of critical text editions, get them printed by Drukkerij Smits, and then push them onto a bookshelf. My approach was somewhat novel at the time. There was an article by Wajan Bhadra from 1937, but this had been largely ignored, and I was informed by no less an authority than the late C. Hooykaas that nobody in Bali knew anything about the t&ngahan metres any more, so that it would be pointless to go and ask.