ient religion lingers
in Bali, a small island off the south-eastern coast. In Bali, therefore,
it is natural that we should find the fullest remains of such parts of
the Kavi literature as are most closely identified with that of
Continental India. Only fragments of the two great Indian epics, the
Mahabharata, or "Great War of the Sons of King Bharata," and the
Ramayana, or "Adventures of Rama," are found in Java; but in Bali Kavi
versions of both appear. Neither of these versions, however; bears the
Indian title of the original work. The Mahabharata, which, with its
220,000 lines, is the longest epic in the world, and which Sir Monier
Williams calls "a vast cyclopaedia of Hindu mythology," is known as "the
Parvas." Of the eighteen parvans, or divisions, of the original, eight
only are in existence in the Kavi version. Of these the first,
_Adiparva_, is the best preserved, says Dr. Van der Tuuk; "but this
also," he adds, "abounds in blunders, and especially the proper names
have been so altered from their Indian originals as to be hardly
recognizable."[23] As the name "War of the Bharatas" is applicable,
strictly speaking, to only one-fifth part of the whole poem, it is
probable that the great epic was not yet known under this title at the
time when it was transported from India to Java.

[Footnote 23: In the _Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society_,
xiii. N.S. 1881.]

The Ramayana appears in a slightly changed form in the Kavi version. The
original Indian epic is divided into seven _Kandas_, or volumes, which
are again subdivided into chapters. The Kavi version, entitled "the
Kandas," contains the narrative of the first six Kandas. The seventh,
the _Uttara-Kanda_, or supplementary volume, which gives an account of
the descendants of Rama after his death, appears in the Kavi as an
entirely separate work. It would appear, therefore, that neither of the
two Indian epics had reached their final form when they were carried by
Hindu colonists to Java. That part of the Mahabharata which afterwards
gave the poem its distinctive title had not yet been written, or at
least added to the central myth; and the Ramayana then contained only
the history of Rama. Both poems appear, however, to have acquired a
reputation for unusual sanctity. In Java and Bali both "the Kandas" and
"the Parvas" are used as synonymous terms, and mean "the Sacred Books."

The difference between the Kavi and Indian versions of these epics seems
to