Traces of the Ramayana and Mahabharata in Javanese and Malay Literature, eds. Ding Choo Ming & Willem Van Der Mollen


Not sure if I should've spent my time on this. It's a bit technical; best for folks who already know Southeast Asian classical lit AND Indian epics inside out. 

In "Drona's Betrayal and Bima's Brutality: Javanaiserie in Malay Culture" by Bernard Arps, we do get the cool idea that Malay folks may have been purposefully using Javanese elements for exoticism, not just out of derivativeness. 

And in "The Death of Salya: Balinese Textual and Iconographic Representations of the Kakawin Bharatyuddha", we have some nice Balinese paintings of King Shalya reluctantly leaving his wife in bed (post-coitally snoozing) so he can go off and die in war.

Plus in "The Illustrated Astabrata in Pakualaman Manuscript Art" by Edwin P Wieringa, images of the Hindu gods Indra, Surya, Yama, Candra, Bayu, Wisnu and Baruna in Javanese wayang kulit art.

But not much that's useful for my project right now.

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