Hikayat Jaya Langkara, 



By E. 0. Winbtedt, 



This romance is included by Werndly in the list of Malay 

 books known to him in 1736 the date of the publication of his 

 ' k Maleische Spraakkunst." No MSS. of it exist in London, Lei- 

 den, Brussels or the Hague : I cannot say if copies are to be found 

 at Paris or Berlin. One MS. was presented by Mr. R. J. Wilkin- 

 son to the Cambridge University Library. G. K. Niemann read 

 'a borrowed MS. of 97 pp., written in 1847 and containing some 

 Javanese words like ingsun, kelir, gringsing wayang which do not 

 occur in the MS. I shall describe (Bij. T. L. en Vk. No. 1±, deel 3, 

 1879). There is a fragment of it in the Library of the "Batavia- 

 asch Genootschap," Bat. Gen. 53, summarized in van Ronkel's 

 " Catalogue," p. 162. Among the Hervey MSS. is a Hikayat 

 Makdam Makdum which may be a version of it. In Raffles' 

 Library Singapore there is a MS. of it (Logan Library No. 302) 

 copied on the 15th of Rabi u'l-awal A.H. 1279 (A.D.' 1863) and 

 formerly the property of one Muhaidin of Kampong Melaka. A 

 gloss on page 43 mentions the name of one Jaafar of Kampong 

 Penyengat, Riau. Another gloss on the cover mentions the name 

 of a Muhammad Idris of Kampong Rochoh. The size of the pages 

 is 8J + 6| inches and the number of pages 102. At page 28 there 

 is a lacuna and a space of If pages left empty. There are several 

 corrupt sentences and a few doubtful words: umu is found for 

 ungu. 



There is a Macassar version of the Malay romance from which 

 an extract is given in Matthes' " Makassaarsche Chrestomathie." 

 The Malay romance differs entirely from the Javanese Jaya Lang- 

 kara described bv. Cohen Stuart (Bij. T. L. en Vk. Dl. I bl. -4-k 

 and II bl. 150).' 



Below I give a summary of the contents of the Singapore MS. 

 As van Ronkel has pointed out ("Le Roman de la Rose dans la 

 litterature malaise,-' Tijd. v. Ind., T. L. en Vk., deel LIV, afd. 5 

 and 6) the quest for a flower or some other rare object to be used 

 as medicine is common in Malay romances. It is a motive borrow- 

 ed from Indian folk-lore (Parkers " Village Folk-Tales of Ceylon," 

 vol II, p. 329). Possibly the Malay love-charm made of the petals 

 of the chenduai, a flower to be found rarely in the mountains, is 

 associated with this motive in romantic literature. In the lit. 

 Eaja Kerang (van RonkePs Catalogue of the Batavian MSS. p. 

 180) the quest is for a manggo which brings offspring to a child- 

 less prince ; in the lit. Langlang Bnana for jasmine which gives 

 the prince a son; in the lit. Pekar Madi (ib. pp. 167-171) for a 

 fish whereof a sick prince had dreamed; in the lit. Laksana (lb. 



R. A. Soc, No. 82, 1920. 



