Introduction

Summary

The text introduced here belongs to a category of prose literature composed during the so-called “age of transition” in Javanese history, spanning roughly the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. This was a time which saw the decline and collapse of the island's last and greatest Hindu-Buddhist kingdom, with its capital at Majapahit, and the rise to power of a confederacy of Muslim coastal states under the leadership of Demak. In marked contrast to the preceding era, which has left us a rich legacy in the form of royal edicts preserved on stone and metal, as well as a substantial body of classical literature, this transition period is remarkable for its scarcity of reliable historical data. The literary work under discussion is thus especially valuable for its ability to shed some light on this poorly documented age, and thereby help to strengthen the bonds linking the past to the present. The text is further unusual for its subject matter, which comprises principally an account of the origin and development of the Śaiwa cult on the island of Java, with a focus on the numerous ascetic communities scattered throughout the countryside. As such, it provides a rare glimpse of life outside the court environment during the pre-Islamic period.

The essential message, as well as the author's intent, are already encapsulated in the title of the work, Tantu Panggĕlaran, introduced immediately following the invocation. This has been very aptly translated by Stuart Robson as “Threads of the unfolding web”. As already explained in the introduction to the text, the web refers here to the network of Śiwaite institutions, while the threads (tantu) may be viewed as its manifold permutations, whether in the form of sacred sites, holy orders, or established “lines” of continuity. In the commentary to follow an attempt will be made to disentangle some of these threads and clear a path, as it were, through what one writer once described as an “encyclopedic jungle of Śivaitic traditions”.

The narrative itself is made up of a series of episodes, beginning with the creation of the first human beings, the origins of civilization and transport of the holy Mount Mahāmeru from the Himalaya, followed by the gradual establishment of the institutions supporting the ascetic community.