Balinese Manuscript Collection Index > Guide >
by Helen Creese (h.creese@uq.edu.au), University of Queensland
This Index provides a searchable index to the Balinese Manuscript Collection housed in the Menzies Library of the Australian National University Library. The Balinese Manuscript Project, the Hooykaas-Ketut Sangka (HKS) Project, was set up by Professor C.C. Hooykaas and his Balinese colleague Ketut Sangka in the early 1970s to produce romanised transliterations of the Balinese manuscript corpus. The project, which was conceived by Hooykaas as a way to preserve the Balinese literary heritage before it was irretrievably lost, continued after his death in 1979 under the leadership of Dr Hedi Hinzler of Leiden University, and is still continuing.
Between March 1973 and June 1992, the Department of Indonesian at the University of Sydney participated in the Balinese Manuscript Project, and copies of the transcriptions were dispatched to Sydney on a monthly basis in bundles of between about 10 and 50 transcriptions. The Sydney Collection, now the ANU collection, comprises 5,219 transcriptions which have been registered in this Index. Copies of the HKS Project collection, some incomplete, can be found in the libraries of the University of Leiden, Cornell University, British Library, and the National Library (Perpustakaan Nasional), Jakarta.
The Balinese manuscript tradition incorporates a vast range of texts of all kinds written in a number of languages including Sanskrit, Old Javanese, Middle Javanese, Literary Balinese and Balinese. The Balinese Manuscript Project has made visible the vast extent and widespread dispersal of religious, epic and secular literature throughout the Balinese world. Many of the manuscripts transcribed belong to private collections in Bali and have not previously been recorded.
The Balinese manuscript corpus covers a number of broad thematic categories which include works belonging to a variety of different genres:
These broad categories have been described by Th. Pigeaud in his catalogue of Javanese manuscript traditions, Literature of Java: Catalogue raisonné of Javanese manuscripts in the library of the University of Leiden and other public collections in the Netherlands (The Hague: Nijhoff. 1967-1970; 3 vols) and Literature of Java: Catalogue raisonné of Javanese manuscripts in the library of the University of Leiden and other public collections in the Netherlands Supplement (1980. LOJ 4). Although Pigeaud's catalogue is a catalogue of "Javanese" literature, a significant proportion of the manuscripts described are in fact of Balinese origin. Pigeaud's principal criterion was a linguistic one. He therefore included Balinese manuscripts written in Old Javanese, Middle Javanese and what he termed Javano-Balinese, a language he defined as the successor of Old Javanese which covered texts written in a mixture of (Old) Javanese and Balinese, but he excluded all works and genres written entirely in Balinese language. Earlier Dutch descriptions of Balinese language manuscripts are available and include J.L.A. Brandes' 4-volume description of the H.N. Van der Tuuk Collection, Beschrijving der Javaansche, Balineesche en Sasaksche handschriften aangetroffen in de nalatenschap van Dr H. N. van der Tuuk (Batavia: Landsdrukkerij, 1901-1926), and H.H. Juynboll Supplement op de Catalogus van de Sundaneesche Handschriften en catalogues van de Balineesche en Sasaksche Handschriften der Leidsche Universiteits Bibliohteek (Leiden: Brill, 1912). These earlier Dutch language catalogues, however, date from the early twentieth century when knowledge of Balinese literary traditions was relatively underdeveloped. The current Index, which covers all linguistic and genre categories, therefore incorporates a considerable amount of new information concerning Balinese literary practices and interests.
The Index comprises six categories: HKS dispatch number, Sydney University Bundle Number, Leiden Codex Number, Title, Collection, Genre (see also above) and Number of pages. Each is described below.
The HKS number indicates the number allocated to the individual transcriptions made for the Hooykaas Ketut Sangka project between June 1974 and June 1992. Transcriptions registered before 1980 (up to HKS1871) are described in Pigeaud's Supplement under the headings Bali Project I (LOJ 4: 169-198; LOr13.659-14.000) and Bali Project II (LOJ 4 1980: 212-241; LOr 14.701-15.014). Pigeaud (LOJ 4: 386-390) also provides a reference list of HKS numbers and LOr numbers. The remaining HKS transcriptions (HKS1872-HKS5684) have not been described.
The Balinese manuscript transcriptions received in Sydney were dispatched from Bali in bundles and were allocated Bundle Numbers (Bundles 1-225). Within these Bundles, each transcription was registered with an individual number; thus 1.01 indicates Bundle 1 Number 1; 16.05, Bundle 16, Number 5; 36.22, Bundle 36 Number 22 and so on. A number of transcriptions were received in Sydney between March 1973 and May 1974 before the HKS Project was formally established. These early transcriptions were provided only with Bundle Numbers (Bundle 1.1-Bundle 19.33). From Bundle 20 to Bundle 225, the transcriptions in the ANU Library collection have both a Sydney Bundle Number and an HKS number. In the ANU Menzies Library, the transcriptions are currently stored in filing cabinets in individual folders labelled with a Bundle Number and/or HKS number. In most cases, individual manuscripts can most easily be located by Bundle Number, but both the HKS number and the Bundle Number should be noted in order to locate a specific text.
This category provides a concordance to the Leiden University codex numbers described in Pigeaud's supplementary catalogue Literature of Java: catalogue raisonné of Javanese manuscripts in the Library of the University of Leiden and other public collections in the Netherlands. Supplement (Leiden: Leiden University Press, 1980). Pigeaud (LOJ 4 94-241) provides an overall description of the Bali Manuscript Project and brief descriptions of the first 1,420 transcriptions registered in the current Index-namely Bundle 1.1-Bundle 19.33 (LOr 12.657-13.658) and HKS1201-HKS1871 (LOr 13.659-14.000; LOr 14.701-15.041) His catalogue is a valuable adjunct to the Balinese manuscript collection, as well as to the broad categories used in the genre column in the current Index. No Leiden codex numbers are given for transcriptions after HKS 1871.
The full title of the work as recorded on each transcription is provided; inconsistencies in spelling have been removed. Keywords in the title can also be used as a search category.
The genre indicated in the Index for each manuscript is intended to be a rough guide only. In many cases the title of a work has been used to determine the genre of a work. In other cases, use has been made of classifications used in published catalogues and in public collections in Bali, including those of the Gedong Kirtya in Singaraja and the Pusat Dokumentasi in Denpasar. In compiling this index it has not been possible to check each transcription individually. In a number of cases, the genre is therefore listed as "unknown", either because the work is not described in the available catalogues and indexes, or because works belonging to different genres bear the same title. Sixty-five different designations have been used in the genre column of the index to provide an indication of the nature of individual texts, twenty of them are English terms, the remainder are Old Javanese/ Balinese genre or textual designations. A gloss of the Old Javanese/Balinese terms used in the genre column is given below.
| Agama | religion |
| Aji | instructions, teachings |
| Aksara | ritual use of letters |
| Awig-awig | village regulation |
| Babad | history |
| Cacingkraman | lullaby |
| Dharma | morals and religious instructions |
| Gaguritan | poems in macapat metres |
| Indik | Instructions |
| Kakawin | poems in Indian metres |
| Kanda | prose treatises |
| Kaputusan | resolutions and teachings |
| Kawisesan | teachings |
| Kawitan | genealogies |
| Kawruhan | religious instruction |
| Kidung | poems in tengahan metres |
| Krakah | ritual use of letters |
| Krama | customs and manners |
| Lalampahan | performance scripts |
| Lalintih | genealogy |
| Maarti | interlinear translation |
| Mantra | formulas and prayers |
| Niti | statecraft |
| Pamancangah | histories in prose and poetry |
| Panerang | fair weather magic |
| Pangayam | science of cock-fighting |
| Pangeling | commemorative notes |
| Pangujanan | fair weather magic |
| Parikan | Narrative summary in Balinese |
| Parwa | prose narratives |
| Puja | hymns and prayers |
| Purana | religious treatises |
| Sasana | behaviour and morals |
| Satua | folk tales |
| Siksan | auspicious signs |
| Silakrama | behaviour and morals |
| Tatwa | philosophical treatises |
| Teges | exegesis |
| Tenung | fortune-telling and horoscopes |
| Tingkah | behaviour and morals |
| Tutur | religious treatise |
| Usada | medicines |
| Usana | histories in prose |
| Wariga | divination |
| Wayang | shadow puppet plays and ritual practices |
This category indicates the geographic locations, and sometimes ownership, of the original manuscripts from which the HKS transcriptions were made. The major private collections belong to priestly houses (gria) and high-caste ruling satria familles (puri). The collection of the Kirtya Institute in Singaraja established in 1928 is strongly represented in this index; it incorporates manuscripts from all over Bali and Lombok but the origins of the manuscripts are not recorded.
This category indicates the number of typescript pages in each transcription.
The compilation of this Index was supported by an Australian Research Council Large Research Grant (2000-2002). The contributions of Sue Collier, Michael Barr, Jo Sbeghen, Annie Pohlman and Mark Huppert are gratefully acknowledged.