Tom Hunter - The Ramayana in Indonesia

7/29/2019 Tom Hunter - The Ramayana in Indonesia

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The Ramayana in Indonesia

Hunter, Tom.

Asian Theatre Journal, Volume 22, Number 1, Spring 2005, pp.

161-163 (Review)

Published by University of Hawai'i Press

DOI: 10.1353/atj.2005.0008

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In summary, Cross-Dressing in Chinese Opera adds both empirical andanalytical inputs to our understanding of classic Chinese theatre. His radicallynew perspective and illuminating insights on Chinese cross-gender perfor-

mance have implications for cross-ism on the stage at large. Though theauthor could extend the scope of his theoretical references and present ideasmore fluidly and in greater detail (for instance, more analyses on the spec-tatorship of cinematic adaptations or any other genre transformation of thecross-dressing stage performance, and about how the theme has beenenriched and enlarged through genre transformations), this remains an excit-ing work and pathbreaking study of transgenres and the transgendered.

Ping Fu

Carleton College

THE RAMAYANA IN INDONESIA. By Malini Saran and Vinod C. Khanna.Delhi: Ravi Dayal and Orient Longman Ltd., 2004. 264 pp. Rs 900 (approx.$19.80).

In their survey of the Ramayana traditions of Indonesia, Malini Saran andVinod Khanna have created a volume notable for comprehensive coverage ofthe tale of Rama and Sita in the archipelago. It is simultaneously a balancedpresentation of a historical process that is all too often weighted too heavilyto one side, either toward Indianization or toward what Sheldon Pollack

(1996) termed defensive indigenism.The greatest contribution of this work arises from the sheer breadth

of knowledge of Ramayana traditions demonstrated by the authors. In thefirst chapter they survey standard works of the Indian tradition, including theepic Ramayanaof Valmiki and the Bhattikavyam,which is today understood asthe prototype for the Old Javanese Ramayana Kakawin. They also draw ourattention Vimalasuris PrakritPaumacariya, Kambans Tamil classic Iramavata-ram, and other retellings from the Bengali and Jaina traditions. These worksas well as theater traditions like the kathakalaksepaof South India, the chhauof Orissa, and thepatua sangitof Bengal, Bihar, and Orissaprovide a basis

for Saran and Khannas survey. Variations on the tale in Southeast Asia, suchas the MalayHikayat Seri Rama and the Javanese Serat Rama, can be illumi-nated with reference to these many Ramayana-s of India. In their first chap-ter Saran and Khanna also lay a firm basis for the Rama-Sita tale in narrativereliefs of Indonesia by surveying the history of Ramayana reliefs in India.They include the eighth-century reliefs at Paharpur temple in Nalanda, acenter of Buddhist learning whose influence on the archipelago in the firstmillennium ce was second only to its influence on Tibet.

With chapter 2, Saran and Khanna provide a background for the roleplayed by the Ramayana in Indonesia through a survey of the current knowl-edge on the penetration of Indian ideas into the archipelago. Two chapters

are then devoted to the literary work Kakawin Ramayanaand the Ramayanareliefs of Candi Prambanan, two testaments to the splendid blending of

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Indian and Javanese cultural elements that made the Central Javanese period(c. 720960) a classical culture in its own right. Saran and Khanna describethe historical and sociocultural setting of these works, then lead us through a

full set of illustrations of the reliefs at Prambanan and a discussion of theKakawin Ramayana. They draw attention to the resonances of the KakawinRamayanawith poetic works of the Indian tradition and to the large body oforal literature that later found its way into the MalayHikayat Seri Rama.

Chapter 5 introduces the unity ofkakawinliterature, the art of narra-tive relief, and the shadow-theater (wayang) that is represented in the Rama-yana reliefs of Candi Panataran, produced during the celebrated reign of theMajapahit dynasty (1292c. 1526 ce) in East Java. This chapter also intro-duces the Kakawin Arjunawijaya, a branch tale of the Ramayana that was laterreworked by the great court poet Yasadipura I (17291780 ce) as the Serat

Arjuna Sasrabau.With chapters 6 and 7, Saran and Khanna turn to the continuing rel-evance of Ramayana traditions as the archipelago converted to Islam. Whilecontinuing to provide a wealth of detail on the various forms taken by Rama-yana expressions during the premodern and colonial periods (the HikayatSeri Ramaof Malaysia, the Serat Kandaof coastal Java, the Serat Ramaof Yasa-dipura I, and a lively tradition of branch tales in the wayangtheater), Saranand Khanna distinguish themselves in these chapters by their sensitive ren-dering of how Ramayana stories were reinterpreted in the Sufi-influencedIslam of the Javanese court. The popular deities and heroes of the Hindu pasttransformed into historical heroes, albeit extraordinary ones, who were seen

as the ancestors of the Javanese kings (p. 154). Of special note are sectionson how the shadow-theater became a subtle metaphor for the relationship ofAllah to the created world, and how Yasadipuras Ramayana emphasized thereconciliation of warring states, a matter of great urgency when fraternalstrife in the royal family and the Dutch policy of divida et imperaspelled theend of a unified state in Central Java. These chapters close with the role thatRamayana stories played in the events of 19961998 that led to the fall ofPresident Suharto and his New Order political regime. Both sides drew onimages from the Ramayana to support their claims, By Suhartos allies todefend his rule and by his opponents to present sharp social and political

satire (p. 172).With chapter 8 Saran and Khanna turn to the long history of theRamayana in Bali. There the Kakawin Ramayanais still read and interpretedby literary clubs called pepaosanor pesantian, and the Ramayana in perfor-mance and visual arts has a long and illustrious history. The concluding chap-ter gives a succinct and well-organized summary. If we take into account thatthis volume was intended for an Indian audience, we can all the more appre-ciate the insights on the positive role the Ramayana has played in Indonesiansociety. As an example, Saran and Khanna point to Realizing Rama, an all-ASEAN project of 1997 aimed at discovering shared ASEAN cultural values(p. 211) between countries that are primarily Islamic, Buddhist, and Chris-

tian. The contrast with the highly charged Indian Babri Masjid-Ramjanma-

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bhumi controversy, where the Ramayana has been used as a wedge to divideIndian Hindus and Muslims, could not be greater. Saran and Khannas gentlereminder that much more can be achieved through synthesis, cooperation,

and reconciliation could not be more timely.Three appendices provide summaries of the epic Ramayanaof Val-

miki and the MalayHikayat Seri Rama, along with a brief survey of manifesta-tions of the Ramayana in genealogical tales of Aceh and the performing artsof southern Kalimantan. A generous bibliography and detailed footnotesguide the reader to studies that focus on particular aspects of the Ramayanatraditions of Indonesia. For students of the theater these might include thework of Edi Sedyawati (1993) and Cecilia Levin (1999) on the relationship ofthe Ramayana reliefs of Prambanan with the principles of the performing artsBharatas Natyashastraor Soedarsonos 1984 work on the evolution ofWayang

Wong in Java.There is some inconsistency in the quality of illustrations of Rama-yana reliefs at Prambanan, but not enough to prevent the reader from gain-ing a clear impression of each scene. Points a dedicated theorist might wantto problematize follow. Their spirited defense of legitimacy theory (p. 23),for example, is contra Pollocks (1996) claim that contemporary social the-ory has undermined the theoretical basis underpinning the functionalistexplanation. Pollocks phrase aestheticization of politics may thus be amore apt basis for understanding sociocultural ideas that allowed the Rama-yana to take center stage in the evolution of Southeast Asian political systems.These minor quibbles cannot detract from the contributions this volume

makes to our understanding of the important role the Ramayana story hasplayed, and continues to play, in the literary, visual, and performing arts ofthe archipelago. The generous information on Indonesian theatrical prac-tices around the Ramayana will make this volume especially attractive to thoseinterested in Asian theatre.

Tom Hunter

ACICIS, Gajah Mada University,

Yogyakarta

REFERENCE

Pollock, Sheldon. 1996The Sanskrit Cosmopolis 3001300: Transculturation, Vernacular-ization, and the Question of Ideology. In Ideology and Status of San-skrit: Contributions to the History of Sanskrit Language, ed. Jan Houben.Leiden: E. J. Brill.

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Tom Hunter - The Ramayana in Indonesia