Hikayat Maharaja Ravana
H. Overbeck published his synopsis of the Hikayat cheritera Maharaja Ravana in 1933, presenting a previously overlooked Malay manuscript held in the Preussische Staatsbibliothek, Berlin, as a late but textually significant variant of the Hikayat Seri Rama tradition. Writing in the wake of Stutterheim’s and Zieseniss’s major monographs on the Indonesian Ramayana, Overbeck’s central contribution is the identification and detailed narrative reconstruction of a manuscript that, while anachronistic in its material culture references, preserves distinctive mythological elements—particularly concerning the monkey-king Bali—that he argues may derive from a pre-Hindu Indian or Siamese stratum of the Ramayana tradition.
Summary
Overbeck’s article is fundamentally an editorial and philological exercise: he provides a running synopsis of an undated, carelessly copied Malay manuscript that he identifies as probably identical with cod. 1936 in Leiden, of which Juynboll had given only a brief catalogue description. The manuscript is written in a Malay that shows Javanese lexical intrusion (gegaman, upachara, anom, likor, ilat, siwalan, Ratu Mas, Raden), a slight Mohamedan varnish, occasional Minangkabau orthography, and a sprinkling of Arabic words, placing it within the broad Malay literary tradition while marking it as a late copy made by a mechanical scribe who frequently misdivided words and left gaps (pp. 111–112). Overbeck renders well-known passages from the published Hikayat Seri Rama versions as briefly as possible, deviating in detail only where the Berlin text offers something new or peculiar.
The narrative itself follows the standard Ramayana arc—Ravana’s austerities and divine covenant, the abduction of Sita, the alliance with the monkey-king, the war, the trial by fire, the exile of Sita—but Overbeck flags several points of genuine textual interest. Most notably, the manuscript contains an extended episode in which Bali Raja, after granting Rama his kingdom and army, is killed by Rama’s arrow yet is subsequently revived by Bibisana and re-enters the story to possess Anggada and check Rama’s authority, a feature Overbeck cannot trace to any known Indian source and which he speculates may reflect a cult of the monkey-king Bali predating or reacting against the Sanskrit Ramayana’s dwarf-avatar narrative (p. 132, n. 9). The manuscript also “explains” the marriage of Rama and Sita as a sacred sibling union, a point Overbeck connects to comparative mythology (p. 115, n. 5).
The article thus functions less as a work of comparative literature than as a documentary recovery: Overbeck’s value lies in making accessible a manuscript that earlier scholars had missed or mentioned only in passing, and in drawing attention to the few passages that resist easy assimilation to the known corpus of Malay Ramayana versions.
Key Findings
- The Berlin manuscript (Nr. Sch. V, 4) is undated and bears no colophon; Overbeck identifies it as probably identical with Leiden cod. 1936, described by Juynboll (p. 47) but not examined in detail by Stutterheim (I, p. 247) (p. 111).
- The text contains anachronistic material-culture references: Hanuman’s tail is drenched with petroleum (minyak tanah) and saltpetre (sendawan) before being set alight, and the battle against Kumbakarna involves matchlocks, muskets, swivel-guns, and cannons (pp. 124, 127).
- Ravana’s covenant with Allah, delivered by Adam after twelve years of austerities, grants him rule over the four worlds (earth, air, water, nether world) on the condition that he angers no one and steals no women; Adam omits the second condition when delivering the message (p. 112).
- The city of Langkapura is surrounded by seven concentric walls, each at a distance of three days’ journey from the next, and is peopled by rakshas and jins (pp. 112–113).
- Sita’s marriage price is set at forty siwalan (lontar-palm) trees in a row, to be pierced by a single arrow; princes from 39 (or 40) countries fail the trial before Rama succeeds (p. 115).
- The manuscript’s most distinctive mythological feature is Bali’s post-mortem agency: after being killed by Rama’s arrow, Bali is revived by Bibisana, re-enters the narrative by possessing Anggada, and ultimately reclaims the kingdom of Ligur, a feature Overbeck cannot trace to any known Indian source (pp. 130–132).
Conclusion
Overbeck’s definitive takeaway is that the Berlin manuscript, despite its evident lateness and scribbled quality, preserves at least one element—the immortal, controlling presence of the monkey-king Bali—that cannot be derived from the Sanskrit Ramayana or from any known Malay or Indonesian variant he could identify, and which may point to a pre-Hindu or non-Sanskrit Indian (possibly Siamese) tradition of monkey-king worship that was absorbed into the Malay Ramayana at an early stage of its formation.
Context
- The primary source is a single undated Malay manuscript in the Preussische Staatsbibliothek, Berlin (Nr. Sch. V, 4), listed by Overbeck in JMBRAS vol. IV, part II (1926), p. 235; its probable twin, Leiden cod. 1936, was not available to him for collation (p. 111).
- Historiographically, the article occupies a gap between Stutterheim’s 1925 two-volume study and Zieseniss’s 1928 Hamburg monograph, both of which had surveyed the known editions and manuscripts but had overlooked or only briefly mentioned this text; Overbeck’s contribution is thus one of documentary recovery rather than theoretical argument.