Notes on the early Kidung literature

Abstract

Here the vague yearnings that the scnes of nature, for example, arouse are the longings of love the plants and flowers remind one of the charms of a beloved's hair, eyebrows, breasts or calves, while the bees humming around the flowers are like lovers murmuring to pretty girls and of course the right place to express these feelings is in poetry, perhaps accompanying one's song on a musical instrument. The author of the kidung uses the pen-name Diwyajfiana, a name that is virtually identical with Dibyajnana, the author of the Kidung Witaraga. [...]we have the possibility that they were written by the same author, in the same period. [...]one cannot help wondering whether the abandoned sweetheart may have been the original Rara Kadiri, "Maid of Kadiri", after whom the well known metre is named, seeing that Dandang Gndis gave his name to Dandang Gula, still one of the best known macapat metres. [...]we have the Kidung Jayendriya, which is known from a nuraber of manuscripts in the Leiden University Library collection.