She based her novel on Tantular’s Sutasoma as she mentions on the cover of her book. Readers who are interested in Jayāntaka may find a detailed depiction of him in a novel, which is also entitled Sutasoma, by the Balinese author Cok Sawitri and published by Kaki Langit Kencana in 2009. In the meantime, Sutasoma is described in detail starting from his mother’s pregnancy up to his re-transformation into a god. Sutasoma has been afforded more space than Jayāntaka, who, in the narration is presented as the King of Ratnakaṇḍa who conquered one hundred neighbouring countries killing all their kings in order to comply with his vow to Kāla. The story may be divided into three parts 93 cantos tell about Sutasoma as the protagonist 20 cantos tell about Jayāntaka as the antagonist and 35 cantos relate the conflicts and the encounters between Sutasoma and Jayāntaka. The number of verses per canto varies from 2 to 26. This edition of the kakawin consists of 148 cantos and numbers 1209 verses. However, in the present Kaliyuga era, Śrī Jinapati or the Buddha has descended into this world to eradicate human crime.

In the past, during the dwāpara, tretā, and kṛ tayuga eras, dharma (duty) had been incarnated into three gods namely Brahmā, Wiṣṇu, and Īśwara and they had become kings in the world of humans. Tantular informs us clearly about this on page 5 in canto 1 verse 4:įirstly, I need to say that the story I wrote derives from a story of Buddha’s life. 537) which is based on a story of the life of the Buddha. The Kakawin Sutasoma is also known under the title Puruṣ āḍ aśanta or The Conquest of King Puruṣ ā (see strophe 148, verse 1, p. Readers who understand Old Javanese can check directly whether the translation is correct or not, because the transliterated text and the translation are published on facing pages. As the base for their translation, they used the transliteration of the Kakawin Sutasomo Soewito Santoso published in 1975. However, nowadays, a more extensive readership has access to the contents of the text thanks to Dwi Woro Retno Mastuti and Hastho Bramantyo’s hard work as, together, they translated Tantular’s poem into Indonesian. So far, only few people have read this literary masterpiece because it is originally written in the Old-Javanese language. The Old Javanese Kakawin Sutasoma was written by Mpu Tantular in the late fourteenth century during the heydays of the Majapahit Empire.

Resensi buku sejarah islam