[RAS Raffles Java 19] Dewa Mĕndu

ca. 1777?
Javanese
26 x 20.5 cm

175 pages, European paper with ‘LVG’ watermark. The manuscript contains a Javanese translation of the popular and romantic Malay literature entitled Hikayat Dewa Mandu. It is incomplete at the end of and is dated i sakala warsa ning anulis, putra tanayeng tres ing narya (AH 1191/AD1777?). This may be a copy of Palembang Kraton manuscript made for Raffles, judging from its clean pages. The f.1v after end paper bears a title in Jawi, reading “Ini Surat Dewa Mandu.” This MS was acquired by Raffles either from Sumatra during his time in Bengkulu (1818-1824) or Java (1812-1816)? It remained in his collection until donated to RAS in 1830 (cf. Drewes 1977:199; Rahardjo 2018:16; Ricklefs, Voorhoeve and Gallop 2004:79); microfilm in Leiden For. A 19 (2).