Around 18 months ago I published a study of Old Javanese Metres which listed the main metres found in the verse works of Old Javanese, which include both Hindu and Buddhist texts.
At that time, however, I was unable to include any examples to illustrate the metres. Now I have added in examples from the Rāmāyaṇa Kakawin, which is a metrical tour-de-force from the Old Javanese literary tradition.
The Rāmāyaṇa Kakawin was edited and published by Soewito Santoso in 3 volumes in 1980, and I have extracted the verses from there. I have also included the translation as this is sure to be of interest to all Sanskritists, with Old Javanese having around 50% of its words rooted in Sanskrit.
There are around 80 examples now added to the text, out of around 200 metres. This is not entirely satisfactory, but getting hold of publications of Old Javanese texts in Romanised format is very problematic, and some transliterations are still held in manuscript form, never having been published.
For those interested in the spread of Sanskrit and Indian culture outside the sub-continent, I do hope this will be a valuable addition to their knowledge, and perhaps will spur others to do more work in this long-neglected area.
