Bujangga Manik

Bujangga Manik is one of the precious remnants of Old Sundanese literature. It is told in octosyllabic lines – the metrical form of Old Sundanese narrative poetry – in palm-leaf manuscript kept in the Bodleian Library of Oxford University in England, since 1627 or 1629 (MS Jav. b. 3 (R), cf. Noorduyn 1968:469, Ricklefs/Voorhoeve 1977:181). Bujangga Manik altogether consists of 29 palm leaves, each containing approximately some 56 lines of 8 syllables. The final part of the text has been transmitted in a lacunary form. Not only is the end lacking, there are two other lacunae. The first break occurs after leaf 26, line 1476.

The hero of the literature is Prabu (English: Prince) Jaya Pakuan alias Bujangga Manik, a Sundanese Hindu rishi, who, though a prince at the court of Pakuan Pajajaran (capital city of Sunda kingdom, which was located near present-day Bogor city in western part of Java island), preferred to live a life of a man of religion. As a hermit he made two journeys from Pakuan Pajajaran to central and eastern Java and back, the second one including a visit to Bali. After his return he practiced asceticism on a mountain in western Java, where his bodily existence came to an end; in the final part of the text the journey of his soul to the heavenly regions is described in great detail.

A considerable part of the text is devoted to a detailed description of the first and the last stretch of the first journey, i.e. from Pakuan Pajajaran to Brebes and from Sunda Kalapa (now: Jakarta) to Pakuan Pajajaran (about 125 lines out of the total of 1641 lines of the incomplete MS), and to the whole of the second journey (about 550 lines). These descriptions are restricted mainly to a mention of the names of places, regions, rivers and mountains situated on or near the route followed. The total number of such names, including those in other parts of the text, comes to some 450, most of them relating to Java island.

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