132 
LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE OF 
not find ap ain in the Java-Balinese Ramayana the long 
stories of the Bala Kanda, the history of Unmet as a child, 
where Wasista the priest of the house tells him tales of the time 
of old. Those narratives, partly very beautiful, such as that 
of the Sagarides and the descent of the river-goddess Gahga 
on the earth (vid. A. W. von Schlegel’s Indian Bibliotheca,) 
are episodes not forming part of the Rama; they have how¬ 
ever so many charms, especially fora people like the Javanese 
and Balinese, who take every story for truth, that the absence 
of those tales in tl le Java-Balinese Ramayana is surprising. 
We ascribe the absence of those tales to the same reasons as 
the separation of the Uttara Kanda from the Hamayana. At 
the time when the Ratnayana found its way into Java, it was 
in India not yet so voluminous as at present, and comprised 
exclusively the history of Rama . As to the Mahabharata , 
it 1) as long sit.ee been discovered by European scholars from 
the contents, and the form of different parts, that in this 
work as it at present exists, we have before us a conglomer¬ 
ate of Indian myths, which have been interpolated partly in 
recent times The same seems to be the case with the Ra- 
mayana, though the interpolations are not met with so re¬ 
peatedly, and spread through the whole work. For a careful 
critical comparison of the Indian Hamayana with that of Bali 
I am at present in want of an edition of the Indian one. In 
Java up to this time there is only known a Javanese elabora¬ 
tion of the Kawi composition, the Romo; this is far behind 
the Balinese Kawi work both in language and style, and is 
looked upon by the Balinese as a corruption. The Romo pro¬ 
bably was not composed until the Mohamedan era, and pro¬ 
bably when, on the cooling of the religious zeal, the beautiful 
ancient literature was recollected, but the knowledge of the 
Kawi forgotten. 
I had borrowed a good manuscript of the Ramayana from 
the highest and most learned priest in Radong , the Padanda 
Made Aleng Kacheng in Taman Iritaran . It contains 
the Ramayana complete on 210 lontar-leaves, and is written 
very fairly, with great care in the use of the uncommon signs 
and attention to the euphonic laws. Of this manuscript the 
last leaf with the signature is wanting, so that it cannot be 
ascertained how old it is. For my use the little that was de¬ 
ficient has been transcribed from tiie text of another ma¬ 
nuscript. This latter was written in the year (of Saka ) 
1693, corresponding to the year of Christ 1771; and on Bali 
in Bandhanapura (the Sanskrit name of Badong.) Badong 
signifies as well the small kingdom of that name, as the resi- 
