Bujangga Manik facts for kids

Bujangga Manik is a very old and special story from the Sundanese people in Java, Indonesia. It's written on palm leaves and kept safe in a famous library in England called the Bodleian Library at Oxford University. This manuscript arrived there around 1627 or 1629. This story is important because it tells us a lot about life and places in Java many centuries ago. The manuscript has 29 palm leaves, and each one has about 56 lines of text, written in a special style where each line has eight syllables. Some parts of the story are missing, especially near the end.

Who Was Bujangga Manik?

The main character of this story is a prince named Prabu Jaya Pakuan. But he's also known as Bujangga Manik. Even though he was a prince from the royal court of Pakuan Pajajaran (which was the capital city of the Sunda kingdom, located near modern-day Bogor), he chose a different path. He wanted to live like a rishi, which is a religious hermit or wise person.

As a hermit, Bujangga Manik went on two long journeys. He traveled from Pakuan Pajajaran across central and eastern Java. His second journey even included a visit to Bali. After these travels, he returned to western Java and lived as an ascetic on a mountain. This means he lived a very simple life, focusing on spiritual practices. The story describes his physical life ending there, and then it tells in great detail about his soul's journey to the heavens.

A big part of the story describes his travels. For example, it details the beginning and end of his first journey, from Pakuan Pajajaran to Brebes, and from Sunda Kalapa (which is now Jakarta) back to Pakuan Pajajaran. It also describes his entire second journey. These parts of the story mainly list the names of places, regions, rivers, and mountains that Bujangga Manik saw or passed by. There are about 450 such names mentioned, most of them in Java island. This makes the story a valuable record of old place names.

When and Where Did the Story Happen?

The story of Bujangga Manik is based on real places and events from its time. The detailed descriptions of locations prove this. This makes the story very important for understanding history, especially if we can figure out when it was written.

The text itself shows that it was written before Islam became widespread in West Java. It clearly comes from the time of the Hindu Sunda Kingdom. The writing style used in the manuscript is an old form of Sundanese script. This script stopped being used after Islam arrived in western Java. The language of the story is also an older version of Sundanese. It doesn't have any words that come from Arabic, which is the language of Islam. Also, the story itself doesn't mention Islam at all.

More specifically, the story mentions places like Majapahit, Malaka, and Demak. These mentions help us guess that the story was written in the 15th century, probably in the later part of it, or at the very latest, in the early 16th century. For example, when Bujangga Manik was returning from Pemalang to Kalapa, he rode on a trading ship from Malacca. The crew on this ship came from many different parts of the archipelago. This tells us the story happened before Malacca was captured by the Portuguese in 1511.

A Quick Look at the Story

The story begins with a short introduction. Then, around line 14, we meet the main character, Prince Jaya Pakuan. Interestingly, his princely name isn't used much after this. The name Bujangga Manik first appears much later, around line 456, and is regularly used from line 854 onwards to refer to him.

In lines 15–20, he says goodbye to his mother. He tells her he is going east but doesn't explain much more about why he's leaving. We learn that he wears a special cloth called a "haircloth" (saceundung kaen). This type of clothing might show that he is taking on a religious role for his journey. He also refuses to answer questions from people about why he is traveling.

See also

• Sunda kingdom
• West Java

Images for kids

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  A page from the Bujangga Manik manuscript.