The Javanese theatre: Wayang Purwa and Wayang Gedog
R. van Beuningen van Helsdingen’s 1913 article in the Journal of the Straits Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society (Vol. 65) provides a systematic ethnographic account of two principal forms of Javanese shadow-puppet theatre—Wayang Purwa and Wayang Gedog—drawing on Javanese literary sources, Dutch colonial-era scholarship, and museum specimens to argue that the shadow-play is an indigenous Javanese institution of pre-Hindu origin that evolved from shamanic ritual into a codified theatrical art.
Summary
The article, which van Helsdingen explicitly identifies as an abstract of the “Tooneel” entry in the Encyclopaedie van Nederlandsch Indie, surveys the apparatus, repertoire, and ritual context of Javanese shadow theatre. The central historical problem it addresses is the origin and antiquity of wayang purwa: whether it is a native Javanese invention or a borrowing from Indian, Chinese, or other external traditions. Van Helsdingen sides decisively with Dr. Hazeu’s position that the shadow-play was invented in Java, citing the exclusively Javanese character of its technical vocabulary, the absence of any shadow-play tradition among the Hindus, and the marginal and unpopularity of the Chinese shadow-play as counter-evidence. He further argues, following Hazeu’s hypothesis, that the wayang originated as a component of ancestral religion in which the dalang functioned as a priest (widu mangidung or walyan) who summoned the spirits of forefathers for consultation, and that the grotesque puppet figures originally represented spirits rather than human beings.
The second major thread concerns the relationship between Wayang Purwa and Wayang Gedog. Van Helsdingen presents gedog as an offshoot (talutur) of purwa that emerged under the Majapahit princes, distinguished principally by its repertoire: where purwa draws on the Mahabharata and Ramayana, gedog is built around the indigenous Panji cycle. He catalogues the technical differences—gamelan pelog versus gamelan salendro, the presence of the kris, differences in puppet hair styling, and the substitution of Bugis soldiers for the monkey armies of purwa—while emphasising that the structural and performative conventions remain essentially the same.
A final section describes the gamelan orchestra in considerable detail, distinguishing the salendro and pelog tunings and enumerating the constituent instruments, before a vivid narrative of a full wayang performance from the talu (opening music) through the jejer (processional entrance) to the closing gunungan gesture. The account is grounded in the Uger pedalangan (rules for dalangs), Kawi literary citations, and the physical specimens held in the Raffles Museum, Singapore.
Key Findings
- A copper record from Bali dated 1058 A.D. mentions aringgit (= awayang, “performing the shadow-play”), and a record of Caka 782 references juru barata (actor), establishing the shadow-play’s presence in Java by the first half of the 11th century (pp. 13–14).
- Dr. Brandes places the wayang at approximately 700 Caka; Dr. Hazeu at approximately 800 Caka, arguing that the technical terms are pure Javanese and that the Hindus never had a shadow-play (p. 14).
- A complete gamelan requires approximately 24 players (nyogo); the bonang in salendro tuning consists of two rows of five kettles, while in pelog tuning it has two rows of seven (p. 19).
- The gunungan (a heart-shaped leather piece depicting a conical tree and two wild animals) is placed in the centre of the screen to signal that the performance has not yet begun, and is reinserted among the assembled Pandawas at the close to indicate the end (p. 20).
- At the court of Surakarta, Arjuna does not appear before midnight; the clowns (Semar, Petruk, Gareng) serve to keep spectators awake until that hour (p. 21).
- The gambong (a wooden puppet representing a ronggeng dancer) is the only wayang puppet made of wood rather than flat leather (p. 22).
Conclusion
Van Helsdingen’s definitive takeaway is that the Javanese shadow-play is a technically and culturally indigenous institution, originating in the pre-Brahmanical period as a shamanic ritual for consulting ancestral spirits, which gradually secularised into a codified theatrical art governed by strict rules (Uger pedalangan) and enriched—without being replaced—by the importation of Indian epic material. The wayang gedog, with its Panji repertoire, represents a later Javanese creative layer grafted onto the same performative structure.
Context
- The author was a colonial-era Dutch administrator and scholar writing for a Straits Settlements readership; the article is explicitly an abstract from the Encyclopaedie van Nederlandsch Indie, the standard reference work of the Dutch colonial government, and the plates are photographs of specimens in the Raffles Museum, Singapore, taken under the supervision of its Director, Dr. R. Hanitsch (p. 22).
- The article relies heavily on the scholarship of Dr. G. A. J. Hazeu, Prof. J. P. M. Vreede, and Mr. L. Serrurier, all of whom were active in Dutch colonial-era Javanese studies, and it draws on manuscript collections at Batavia, Leiden, and London.