Beginning in the 1630s, a series of annalists at the main courts of Makassar began keeping records with dated entries that recorded a wide variety of specific historical information about a wide variety of topics, including the births and deaths of notable individuals, the actions of rulers, the spread of Islam, trade and diplomacy, the built environment, ritual activity, warfare, internal political struggles, social and kinship relations, eclipses and comets, and more. These Lontaraq bilang were a clear departure in form and function from the genealogically-structured chronicles being...

Mpu Monaguṇa's early thirteenth century epic poem Sumanasāntaka is a vernacular rendering of Kālidāsa's story of Prince Aja and Princess Indumatī told in the Raghuvaṃśa. In it the poet exploits his source narrative to describe and comment on the Javanese world of his times. In Mpu Monaguṇa's Sumanasāntaka the authors offer an edited text and translation of Mpu Monaguṇa's epic kakawin and extensive commentary on the editing of the manuscripts and history of the poem and its story, the relationship between the Old...

Text and translation of a hitherto unpublished chronicle of the most important Malay colony in Borneo. Hikayat Bandjar is a highly valuable body of material for the study of Indonesian cultural history. The author gives a textual and philological analysis of its contents. In the introduction he discusses earlier publications on the Hikajat Bandjar, the condition of the manuscripts, the language in which the text is written, and the (scholarly) appreciation expressed for Malay chronicles in the past. In the following chapter Ras gives summaries and comparisons of recensions I and...

Texts about the nocturnal journey of the Prophet Muḥammad (Mi'rāj) abound in the Muslim world and outside. International attention has never been afforded to any version of text in any language of the Indonesian archipelago. One old version of the text from the area, the Malay Hikayat Mir'āj Nabi Muḥammad is presented here in Malay and English translation. The introductory chapters place the text in a wider context in Indonesian literatures while the manuscript of the text (Cod.Or. Leiden 1713) is described in detail. The text and translation purport to enhance...

This edition of the Classical Malay prose work, the Hikajat Andaken Penurat includes an English translation and an Introduction explaining the place of the work in Malay literature. The Hikajat Andaken Penurat tells the story of the prince Raden Andaken Penurat and his beloved, Ken Tambuhan. It is closely related to the Shair Ken Tambuhan, a poem that has appeared in several editions. The story is relatively short and well written; it is representative of its genre. The book is especially intended for readers who have little or no knowledge of Malay.