afford additional evidence--if any such were needed--that neither the
Mahabharata nor the Ramayana is the work of a single mind, but that both
are a collection or compilation of myths.

It is noticeable also that, in spite of the love of dramatic
representation manifested so universally among the Javanese, the Indian
dramas were not transplanted to Java. Dr. Friederich[24] offers an
explanation of this. "Most of the Indian dramas," he says, "are of late
times, and perhaps, at the time the Brahmans came to Java, were
exclusively found at the courts of the princes."

[Footnote 24: In the _Journal of R. A. S._ vii. N.S.]

We come now to the consideration of what may be called, by
contradistinction to the direct versions of the Indian epics, the native
Kavi works. The character of these poems--for all the Kavi literature is
alike written in metre--is in the main mythological and romantic; but
there are also to be found among them certain ethical and religious
works. Although the subjects, the heroes, and even the metre in many
cases, are still Indian, these subjects and heroes have been so
completely identified with the local life that the poems are essentially
Javanese.

Of the native Kavi works the "Arjuna Vivaya," which gives an account of
the ascent of Arjuna to Indra, and of his love for the nymph Urvasi,
deserves to stand first from the purity of the dialect in which it is
composed. The Indian hero Arjuna, the son of Pandu, who is called by Sir
Monier Williams, "the real hero of the Mahabharata," was adopted by the
Javanese, and his name was given to one of their mountains. The metre of
the poem is Indian in form, and not Javanese, and the date of its
composition is fixed by Professor Kern in his "Kawistudien" as the first
half of the eleventh century of our era. The fact that it contains but
slight traces of Buddhistic thought is important as giving some hint of
the date at which Buddhism was introduced in the island. In this
respect it differs from the "Arjuna Vijaya," a later poem celebrating
the triumph of the same hero over Ravan, the demon king of Ceylon.

The "Bharata Yuddha," or war of the Bharatas, is so closely connected
with the sacred Parvas, that it is generally placed by the Javanese at
the head of the native Kavi works. It is esteemed the greatest work in
the Javanese literature, but it yields in point of antiquity to the
"Arjuna Vivaya." Its language also is less pure, and contains a certain
a