Kawi language

The names 'Kawi' (ꦨꦴꦰꦏꦮꦶ Bhāṣa Kawi), from Sanskrit: कवि kavi "poet", and 'Old Javanese' are often used interchangeably. Sometimes, however, 'Old Javanese' is used for the historical spoken language that was ancestral to modern Javanese, while the name 'Kawi' is restricted to the standardized written form of Old Javanese, still used to some extent as a literary language.

The name "kawi" is derived from the root ku, which in Sanskrit means “poet”, and, in derived forms, a “wise, educated man”. The syllabic meter of Kawi poetry is sekar kawi, which means “flowers of the language”, sekar itself deriving from the Sanskrit "sekhara" (“garland”).

While evidence of writing in Java dates to the Sanskrit "Tarumanegara inscription" of 450, the oldest example written entirely in Javanese, called the "Sukabumi inscription", is dated 25 March 804. This inscription, located in the district of Pare in the Kediri Regency of East Java, is actually a copy of the original, dated some 120 years earlier; only this copy has been preserved. Its contents concern the construction of a dam for an irrigation canal near the river Śrī Hariñjing (now shortened to Srinjing). This inscription is the last of its kind to be written using Pallava script; all consequent examples of Old Javanese are written using Javanese script.

Old Javanese was not static, and its usage covered a period of approximately 500 years – from the Sukabumi (Kediri, East Java) inscription until the founding of the Majapahit empire in 1292. The Javanese language which was spoken and written in the Majapahit era already underwent some changes and is therefore already closer to the Modern Javanese language.

The Kawi script is commonly called hanacaraka; the more correct term is Dentawiyanjana. It is a syllabic alphabet consisting of 20 letters and ten digits and a number of vowel and consonant modifiers. The script of the island of Bali, heavily influenced by neighboring Java, has a unique sub-form called Tulisan Bali. Prince Aji Caka (an Indian migrant) is credited with establishing the first known kingdom of Java, called Java Dvipa (Swarna Dvipa) and also introducing the Kawi language was and the twenty letters of the syllabic hanacaraka script.[3] The Javanese also credit the language to Aji Saka, a legendary hero of Medang Kamulan Kingdom. The earliest known inscription of Kawi is found at Gunung Wukir Temple in Magelang, Central Java, Indonesia.

Kawi is not truly extinct as a spoken language. It is commonly used in wayang golek, wayang wong and wayang kulit, in addition to high activities such as a Javanese wedding, especially for the stylised meeting ritual of bride's parents with groom's parents in the ceremonies of Peningsetan and Panggih. Archaically or for certain nobles very strongly attached to tradition, it is used for the Midodareni, Siraman and Sungkeman ceremonies of the Javanese wedding.

The island of Lombok has adopted Kawi as its regional language, reflecting the very strong influence of neighbouring East Java. Today, it is taught in primary school education as part of the compulsory secondary language unit of National curriculum. Traditionally, Kawi is written on lontar prepared palm leaves.

Kawi remains in occasional use as an archaic prose and literary language, in a similar fashion to Shakespeare-era English, which has such aesthetically and arguably more cultivated words as thy, thee, hast and so forth.

There are many important literary works written in Kawi, most notably Empu Tantular's epic poem, "Kakawin Sutasoma" (E.M. Uhlenbeck, 1964: "A Critical Survey of Studies on the Languages of Java and Madura", The Hague: Martinus Nijhoff), from which is taken the National motto of Indonesia: "Bhinneka Tunggal Ika". Although often glibly translated as "Unity in Diversity", it is more correctly rendered as "[although] scattered, remaining [as] one"— referring to the scattered islands of the archipelago nation, not as an expression of multicultural solidarity as may be perceived in modern times.

A more modern work is the poem "Susila Budhi Dharma", by Muhammad Subuh Sumohadiwidjojo, the founder of Subud. In this work, he provides a framework for understanding the experience of the latihan kejiwaan.

Famous poems, epics and other literature include:

• Kakawin Tertua Jawa, 856
• Kakawin Ramayana ~ 870
• Kakawin Arjunawiwaha, mpu Kanwa, ~ 1030
• Kakawin Kresnayana
• Kakawin Sumanasantaka
• Kakawin Smaradhana
• Kakawin Bhomakawya
• Kakawin Bharatayuddha, mpu Sedah dan mpu Panuluh, 1157
• Kakawin Hariwangsa
• Kakawin Gatotkacasraya
• Kakawin Wrettasañcaya
• Kakawin Wrettayana
• Kakawin Brahmandapurana
• Kakawin Kunjarakarna, mpu "Dusun"
• Kakawin Nagarakertagama, mpu Prapanca, 1365
• Kakawin Arjunawijaya, mpu Tantular
• Kakawin Sutasoma, mpu Tantular
• Kakawin Siwaratrikalpa, Kakawin Lubdhaka
• Kakawin Parthayajna
• Kakawin Nitisastra
• Kakawin Nirarthaprakreta
• Kakawin Dharmasunya
• Kakawin Harisraya
• Kakawin Banawa Sekar Tanakung

The first scholar to address Kawi in a serious academic manner was Wilhelm von Humboldt, who considered it the father of all Malay-Polynesian languages. Furthermore, he deprecated misconceptions about Kawi being wholly influenced by Sanskrit, finding that Kawi did not use verb inflexion, thus differing from Sanskrit's highly developed inflectional system. Kawi might have come from a very ancient settlement in the pacific side of Asia. In Kawi language, the meaning of a sentence must be grasped through word order and context. Humboldt further noted that Kawi utilizes tense distinctions, with past, present, and future, and differentiated moods via the imperative and subjunctive.

Numerous scholars have studied the language, including the Dutch expatriate Indonesian Prof. Dr. Petrus Josephus Zoetmulder S.J., who contributed an enormous quantity of original texts and serious scholarly study to the language, and his pupil and associate, Father Dr. Ignatius Kuntara Wiryamartana. Other eminent Indonesian scholars of the language include Poedjawijatna, Sumarti Suprayitna, Poerbatjaraka and Tardjan Hadiwidjaja.

• Bhinneka Tunggal Ika
• Johan Hendrik Caspar Kern
• Eugenius Marius Uhlenbeck
• Petrus Josephus Zoetmulder
• Old Malay

• De Casparis, J. G., Indonesian Palaeography : A History of Writing in Indonesia from the beginnings to c. AD 1500, Leiden/Koln, 1975
• Florida, Nancy K., Javanese Literature in Surakarta Manuscripts: Introduction and Manuscripts of the Karaton Surakarta, Cornell Univ Southeast Asia, 1993 ISBN 0-87727-603-X
• Wilhelm von Humboldt’s "Über die Kawi-Sprache (On the Kawi Language)": 1836 Vol 1, Vol 2, Vol 3
• Poerbatjaraka dan Tardjan Hadiwidjaja, 1952, Kepustakaan Djawa'. Djakarta/Amsterdam: Djambatan.
• Avenir Stepanovich Teselkin,Old Javanese (Kawi) Ithaca, N.Y., Modern Indonesia Project, Southeast Asia Program, Cornell University, 1972
• Teeuw, A. and S.O. Robson. 2005 edited and translated Bhomāntaka : the death of Bhoma Leiden: KITLV Press, Series:Bibliotheca Indonesica; 32. ISBN 90-6718-253-2
• E.M. Uhlenbeck, 1964, di dalam bukunya : "A Critical Survey of Studies on the Languages of Java and Madura", The Hague: Martinus Nijhoff
• Mary S. Zurbuchen, Introduction to Old Javanese Language and Literature: A Kawi Prose Anthology The University of Michigan, 1976
• P.J. Zoetmulder, S.O. Robson, Darusuprapta, 1995, Kamus Jawa Kuna–Indonesia, Jakarta: Gramedia dan Instituut voor Taal-, Land- en Volkenkunde (KITLV). Bekerja sama dengan S.O. Robson. Penerjemah: Darusuprapta dan Sumarti Suprayitna. ISBN 979-605-347-0
• 1992–1993, Bahasa parwa : tatabahasa Jawa Kuna: Yogyakarta: Gadjah Mada University Press. Bekerja sama dengan I.J. Poedjawijatna. Cetakan ulang dari edisi tahun 1954
• (in Dutch) Petrus Josephus Zoetmulder, 1950, De Taal van het Adiparwa, Bandung: Nix
• Petrus Josephus Zoetmulder, 1982, Old Javanese – English Dictionary, The Hague: Martinus Nijhoff. 2 v. (xxxi, 2368 p.) In collaboration with S.O. Robson. ISBN 90-247-6178-6
• (in Indonesian) Petrus Josephus Zoetmulder, 1995, Kamus Jawa Kuna – Indonesia In collaboration with S.O Robson. Translators, Darusuprapta, Sumarti Suprayitna. Jakarta: Hasil kerja sama Perwakilan Koninklijk Instituut voor Taal-, Land- en Volkenkunde dengan Penerbit PT Gramedia Pustaka Utama, 1995. 2 v. ; 1. A-0, 2. P-Y.

• About lontar (palmleaf manuscripts).]
• Zoetmulder's Dictionary of Old Javanese (SEAlang library)
• Old Javanese inscriptions (SEAlang library)
• An Introduction to Old Javanese at Tokyo University of Foreign Studies (A pdf primer in English, though the web page is in Japanese)