In this fascinating study the lives and mores of women in one of the least understood but most densely populated areas of the world are unveiled through the eyes of generations of court poets. For more than a millennium, the poets of the Indic courts of Java and Bali composed epic kakawin poems in which they recreated the court environment where they and their royal patrons lived. Major themes in this poetry form include war, love, and marriage. It is a rich source for the cultural and social history of Indonesia. Still being produced in Bali today, kakawin remain of interest and relevance to...

In this fascinating study the lives and mores of women in one of the least understood but most densely populated areas of the world are unveiled through the eyes of generations of court poets. For more than a millennium, the poets of the Indic courts of Java and Bali composed epic kakawin poems in which they recreated the court environment where they and their royal patrons lived. Major themes in this poetry form include war, love, and marriage. It is a rich source for the cultural and social history of Indonesia. Still being produced in Bali today, kakawin remain of interest and relevance to...

For more than a millennium, the poets of Java and Bali have celebrated their deities, their patrons and the cult of beauty and love through the writing of kakawin. The Parthayana ("The Journeying of Partha") is a kakawin written in Bali in the early eighteenth century in honour of the Dewa Agung of Klungkung, Surawirya (d.1736). It relates the physical and spiritual journey of the Pandawa hero, Arjuna, as he undertakes a period of exile lasting twelve years and describes his romantic adventures. This edition of the Parthayana, together with an English...