Parvez Dewan
The reverence of Indonesian Muslims for the two Hindu epics is as old as Islam in Indonesia.
Sunan Kalijaga (born Raden Mas Said; c.1450-1513) ranks at the very top of Indonesia ‘s Islamic hierarchy. He was one of the nine highest Sufis of Indonesia. His admirers believe that it was he, and not Valmiki, who wrote the world’s first Ramayan. (In fact, he was not even the first to write an Indonesian Ramayan.)
By around A. D. 1518, most of the people of Java were Muslims. However, their attachment to The Mahabharat and The Ramayan remained unchanged.
The masses, especially children, learnt the story of these two epics through puppet plays.
But educated Muslims wanted written texts as well. So, the tradition of the Muslims of Java writing a new Ramayan for each era began on this island, which accounts for 56 per cent of the population of Indonesia.
Kalijaga laid the foundations of Indonesia’s renowned tradition of practising Islam and reading, performing, and respecting the Hindu scriptures at the same time.
His title Raden Mas indicates that he was a prince, being the son of the regent of Tuban.
Lay Muslims in Indonesia often say that Yudistira, the king of Amarta and the eldest of the Pandawas, had personally dictated the stories that Sunan would later perform in puppet shows.
Some scholars feel that Muslim saints like Sunan chose ‘Hindu’ puppet shows and plays because the Ramayan taught Islamic virtues like purity, faithfulness and loyalty. So, by promoting the Hindu-epics they were actually taking Islamic values to the public.
Hindu-Islamic integration in Indonesia peaked with annual performances of Vanar tales during Ramzan evening gatherings, after royals and courtiers had broken their fast. These performances took place between 1877 and 1988, during the reigns of three sultans of Yogyakarta: Hamangku Buwana VII, Hamangku Buwana VIII, and Hamangku Buwana IX.
In the 1950s and 1960s, most Indonesians, beginning with President ‘Achmed’ Sukarno, wanted to base Indonesia’s identity on its ‘national personality’ (kepribadian nasional).
Raden Ahmad Kosasih (1919- 2012) was one of the pioneers of this nationalist movement.
In 1954, Kosasih created very popular comic books starring the female superhero, Sri Asih. She was a modern young lady descended from Welas Asih, a Buddhist Dewi.
Then, between 1957 and 1959, Kosasih serialised the main story of Seri [Shri] Mahabharata in 37 comic-book volumes, with another four volumes about Sri Kresna (1983).
Most significantly, instead of using the Indonesian version of The Ramayan for his illustrated series based on the epic, he turned to the Valmiki original. Because of the enormous popularity of his comics, many Indonesian puppeteers, too, started relying on Indian versions, abandoning the ones that they had been using since at least A.D. 907.
In Indonesia, the generations that grew up after 1957 now had access to the entire plots of these two epics in a child-friendly format.
Madoka Fukuoka, the Japanese authority on the Kosasih phenomenon, writes, “many intellectuals required their children” to read these comics. They wanted to make sure that the children not only knew the entire plots of the Hindu epics but also knew “the characters’ moral consciousness.”
The parents’ investment paid off.
Muslims, including writers Umar Kayam (1932-2002) and Ajip Rosidi (1938-2020), and choreographer Sardono Walyo Kusumo, as well as non-Muslim Indonesians like cartoonist G. M. Sudarta (1945-), all credited their detailed knowledge of the Hindu epics to Kosasih.
The New York Times called Sardono Walyo Kusumo (1945-) Indonesia’s “most famous but also most rebellious choreographer and dancer.’ He “developed characters from the Mahabarata and Ramayana epics under the guidance of renowned Indonesian dancer Kusumo Kesowo.”
Kosasih’s interest in Indian culture went further; he learned how to play the sitar and the flute. All his biographies mention a famous incident where, while in the Bogor library, he found an Indonesian version of the Bhagavad Gita published by Balai Pustaka. This became the basis of his comic book, Bagawad Gita.
By 1998 Indonesia was gripped by the worst economic crisis in its history.
Because of the gravity of the situation, the then king of Java, Paku Buwono XII, got a ruwatan performed in the Surakarta palace, for the first time since A.D. 1735. This is a syncretic Hindu- Islamic ritual to get rid of bad luck. During the ceremony a divine power told the king, a Muslim, to get Rama Tambak [Ram Setu] staged to bail Indonesia out.
The Government provided 150 million rupiah for a spectacular, high-technology series of shows, premiered on a gigantic stage in Jakarta in February 1998 and telecast live. Ki Manteb Sudharsono of Surakarta, the greatest dalang of his time, was appointed the director. (A dalang ustad is a puppeteer-cum-Islamic teacher.)
Ki Manteb fasted for 48 hours before the show, which he later said was the highest point of his career, already legendary. He did that to purify himself for the performance. (Ram Leela performers in Indian towns like Basohli cleanse themselves similarly.)
(The author is the founder of Indpaedia.com, India’s own free encyclopaedia. He has earlier served as Deputy Commissioner, Jammu-Samba; Secretary, Ministry of Tourism, Government of India; and Advisor to the Governor of Jammu and Kashmir)
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