{Penglipur Lara} Sri Rama: a Malay fairy tale founded on the Ramayana. {Jawi text with introd. and outline in English
W. E. Maxwell, an Assistant Resident in Perak, published this document in the Journal of the Straits Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society in 1886, presenting a verbatim Jawi transcription of a Malay oral romance called Sri Rama (or Penglipur Lara, “The Soother of Cares”) collected from a village storyteller named Mir Hassan of Kampar, accompanied by an English introduction and narrative outline. The work documents the profound and enduring influence of the Indian Rāmāyaṇa on Malay oral literary tradition, demonstrating how the great Hindu epic had been absorbed, transformed, and naturalised into a distinctly Malay narrative idiom through generations of professional penglipur lara (story-tellers).
Summary
Maxwell’s primary contribution is methodological and ethnographic as much as literary. He situates the penglipur lara within the broader ecology of Malay oral culture, describing how the professional story-teller—often illiterate—would perform romances at village festivals and domestic celebrations, intoning in a monotonous chant from dusk until deep into the night, with the audience of men outside the balei and women listening from behind curtains. The storyteller inherited his repertoire from his father and ancestors, and Maxwell draws a deliberate parallel to Homer wandering among the Greek cities. The text was taken down verbatim from Mir Hassan’s lips by native writers, with Maxwell subsequently reviewing it and obtaining explanations of obscure passages from the narrator himself (pp. 87–88).
The narrative itself follows a recognisable but heavily localised version of the Rāmāyaṇa plot. In the kingdom of Tanjong Bunga, the Raja Sri Rama and his consort Sakutum Bunga Satangkei are turned into monkeys after bathing in a magical lake; their son, Kra Kechil Imam Tergangga, is born as a monkey and banished to the forest. The monkey-prince (the Hanuman analogue) wanders, is found by the Princess Renek Jintan of Bandar Tahwil, and ultimately rescues his mother from the sorcerer Maharaja Duwana of Pulau Kachapuri. The story culminates in the monkey-prince’s transformation into the human Mambang Bongsu, his marriage to Renek Jintan, and his accession as Raja of Bandar Tahwil. Maxwell notes that while it may be difficult to trace the action of the great Hindu epic in this “somewhat childish narrative,” the influence of the Rāmāyaṇa and Mahābhārata on the Farther East is beyond doubt, with the wrongs of Sita Dewi, the might of Rawana, and the prowess of Hanuman being “household words everywhere” (p. 88).
The English outline is interspersed with extended quotations from the Malay text, which Maxwell uses to illustrate characteristic features of the oral style: the piling up of synonymous similes, the formulaic descriptions of palatial magnificence, the metrical passages describing tropical daybreak, and the elaborate ritual observances (langkah) that accompany a Raja’s journey. He also highlights the anachronistic presence of cannon and muskets in the narrative, noting that such incongruities “do not shock the taste of a Malay audience” (p. 97).
Key Findings
- The text was collected from Mir Hassan, a native of Kampar in south-eastern Perak, who was brought to Singapore in 1886 through the influence of Raja Idris of Perak; the transcription was completed by native writers working verbatim from the storyteller’s performance (p. 88).
- The romance is structured around the formulaic period of “three months and ten days” for periods of pondering or travel, and “seven days” for journeys or construction tasks—recurring temporal markers characteristic of Malay oral narrative (pp. 89, 93, 99).
- The magical lake that transforms the royal couple into monkeys is located on a hill at the sea-coast, with a river flowing down from a green lake and two tualang trees beside it; the transformation is instantaneous and irreversible without the intervention of a pawang (pp. 92–97).
- The monkey-prince’s army comprises named chiefs from four tribes: Janggit, Mabit, Baya Panglima Baya, Begar Hulubalang, Nila Kamala, Dardi, Malah Jambuana, Sang Kamala Sina, Raja Marjan Singa, and Marjan Singa Berantalawi (p. 104).
- Maharaja Duwana’s host at the final battle numbers seven thousand men, of whom only seven hundred survive the engagement (p. 112).
- Maxwell identifies the Andaman Islands as likely deriving their name from the Malay Pulau Handuman (Islands of Hanuman), a etymological claim he presents with some confidence (p. 88, n.).
Conclusion
Maxwell’s definitive historical takeaway is that the Rāmāyaṇa and Mahābhārata have exercised a “profound influence” across the Farther East—what he terms India extra Gangem and the islands beyond—so pervasive that no village stage in Siam, Malaya, or Java performs dramas not directly referable to these sources. The Sri Rama romance demonstrates that this influence operated not merely through written hikayat compiled by literate scribes but through a living oral tradition in which the epic was continuously reworked, naturalised, and transmitted by professional performers, preserving elements of interest that a written version might lack (p. 88).
Context
- Maxwell was serving as Assistant Resident in Perak at the time of collection; his colonial administrative position facilitated access to both the storyteller and Raja Idris, and his official duties initially interrupted the transcription work, which was only completed in 1886 when Mir Hassan visited Singapore (p. 88).
- The document represents an early example of systematic oral-text collection in the Straits Settlements and Malay States, predating most comparable ethnographic recordings. Maxwell notes that two further romances (Raja Ambong and Raja Donan) from the same narrator, and a third (Raja Budiman or Naga Mas) from a storyteller at Balik Pulau, Penang, had also been reduced to writing, indicating an ongoing programme of collection that he hoped others would continue before “the present generation of story-tellers dies out” (p. 113).