Page:The Pamphleteer (Volume 8).djvu/89

Rh character is in use; and it has not yet been traced whether the former ever had a separate written character or not; at a place, however, called Batu Tulis, on the site of the ancient capital of Pajajaran, is preserved an inscription on stone in very rude characters; and several similar inscriptions in the same character have been recently discovered at Kwali in Cheribon, where some of the descendants of the princes of Pajajaran took refuge. This character, till lately, appeared widely different from any other yet noticed in Java, but is now found to contain some of the letters and vowel marks in common with the Javanese. The date inscribed on the stone at Batu Tulis has fortunately been decyphered, and the character was doubtlessly used by the Sunda people, at the period of the destruction of the western government of Pajajaran.

No less than seven different characters are represented to have been in use at different periods of Javanese history; and although those at present adopted appear at first sight to be very different from the more ancient, yet, on examination, the one may without much difficulty be traced to the other, by observing the gradual alterations made from time to time. Specimens of these different characters, with the periods in which they were respectively used, are submitted to the inspection of the Society; and I regret that the absence of an engraver precludes them from appearing in the volume of our transactions.

The literature of Java, however much it may have declined in latter days, must be still considered as respectable. The more ancient historical compositions are mostly written in the Kawi language, to which frequently the meaning of each word, and a paraphrase of the whole in Javanese, is annexed. Of these compositions those most highly esteemed are the B'rata Yud'ha or Holy War, and a volume entitled Romo or Rama, the former descriptive of the exploits of Arjuno, and the principal heroes whose fame is recorded in the celebrated Indian poem of the Mahabarat, the latter of those who are distinguished in the Ramayan. These poems are held by the Javanese of the present day in about the same estimation as the Iliad and Odyssey of Homer are by Europeans. Until translations are made, and can be compared with the more extensive works in India, it would be premature to form any judgment on their relative excellence. The B'rata Yud'ha is contained in about two hundred verses; but, in rendering the Kawi into Javanese, it is found necessary, in order to convey anything like the meaning, to render one line of Kawi into at least three of the modern Javanese. I should not omit to mention that the belief is general among the Javanese, that the scene of this celebrated romance is on Java. They point out the different countries which are referred to, such as Hastina, Wirata, and others in different districts of the island, which have since assumed more modern