Parthayana

For more than a millennium, the poets of Java and Bali have celebrated their deities, their patrons and the cult of beauty and love through the writing of kakawin. The Parthayana (‘The Journeying of Partha‘) is a kakawin written in Bali in the early eighteenth century in honour of the Dewa Agung of Klungkung, Surawirya (d.1736). It relates the physical and spiritual journey of the Pandawa hero, Arjuna, as he undertakes a period of exile lasting twelve years and describes his romantic adventures. This edition of the Parthayana, together with an English translation and commentary provides insights into the practice of kakawin composition in Bali and places it in the wider context of Balinese literature. Helen Creese is currently a lecturer in Indonesian in the Department of Asian languages and studies at the University of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia.