Novel
Hikayat Indraputra
Not translated into English
Anonymous · 1600
Synopsis
Indraputra, son of King Bikrama Puspa of Semanta Puri, is one day carried far from his country by a golden peacock; an old woman, Nenek Kebayan, takes him in. Grown up, he serves King Syahsian, who desires an heir, and sets out to seek a remedy from the hermit Berma Sakti, on a distant mountain, through a world of giants and marvels. On his return, he cures Princess Mengindra Sri Bulan, but must face the hostility of the court.
Context
The tale was probably composed in the last decades of the sixteenth century: the theologian Nuruddin al-Raniri already ranked it among the tales of no religious value. It belongs to the literature of transition between Hinduism and Islam, and also circulates in Makassarese, Bugis, Acehnese and Cham; the Cham version suggests that it reached Indochina before the Islamisation of the archipelago. Rujiati Mulyadi gave a scholarly edition of it in 1983 and studied its Islamic colouring.
Who it is for
A long marvellous tale, in episodes, easy to follow; no French or English translation has been recorded.
Prizes and reception
One of the most widely circulated court narratives of the Malay world, adapted into several languages of the archipelago and beyond.
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