Praniti Raja Kapa-Kapa

Abstract

The text of the Ajar ing Rāja Kapa-kapa mentioned in the Nāg., canto 85, is unknown to the present author. Probably it was a text in Old Javanese prose resembling the Nawanatya, and dating from the same time, the 14th century. In the 18th century several Old Javanese texts that seemed of interest were rewritten in modern Javanese by scholars who were attached to the Court of Central Java. The prose was changed into poetry using the modern Javanese metres that were in vogue at the time. Two modern Javanese versions of the Ajar ing Rāja Kapa-kapa are known, one in the metre Ḋaṇḍang-gula the other in Asmaradana. Both have been published, but not translated, by Brandes as appendix III to his Register op de prosa-omzetting van de Babad Tanah Jawi, i.e. an index of names in the prose version of the Javanese History (Verh. Bat. Gen. 51, 1900). Brandes found both versions in a manuscript belonging to the Netherlands Bible Society, no 80 I.