So exclusively have the Indian elements of the Javanese history and archæology riveted the attention of scholars, that the Mahometan influence on one side, and the remains of the primitive Malay development, have been thrown in the back ground.
The Indian elements still extant, are referable to the three following heads. 1. Language. 2. Literature. 3. Art.
1. Language.—Notice has been taken of the existence in Java of a court dialect, the Bhasa Krama or Bhasa Bhilem. This, perhaps, is a phenomenon more redolent of Hindostan, than of the proper Malay kingdoms. The Bhasa krama, however, is by no means the preeminently Indianized portion of the Javanese language. The Archaic Javanese is the famous Kawi language. The Kawi language was described by Sir Stamford Raffles as Sanskrit, that had taken a Javanese form in respect to its grammar; and it is from the notices of Raffles and Crawford that the details of the Kawi language were first made known. This view has been reversed by Wilhelm von Humboldt. His great work on the Kawi language supplies reasons for considering the Kawi, as ancient Javanese, loaded with Sanskrit vocables.
2. Literature.—The Kawi language, an Indianized archaic, or poetical dialect, is the vehicle for that portion of the older Javanese literature which is most based upon Sanskrit models. The great poem in Kawi is the Bhrata Yuddha, an imitation of the Mahabharata. The Javanese annals, whether in Kawi, or Javan, in all probability deserve the low opinion that Mr. Crawford entertains of them; as there is no department in literature where a Sanskrit model would be more out of place, than for historical composition.
3. Remains of ancient art.—Palaces, tombs, images of Hindu gods, are all numerous in Java, and all evidence of a previous Hinduism. Some of the inscriptions are not only Kawi, but Sanskrit.
To these may be added, the still living witnesses to the original Hindu worship. The Bédui of Bantam, and the people of the Teng'ger mountains still retain it, although in a corrupted form. Of the latter, the following is a description taken from Sir S. Raffles' History of Java.
"To the eastward of Surabáya, and on the range of hills connected with Gúnung Dasar, and lying partly in the district of Pasúruan, and partly in that of Probolingo, known by the name of the Teng'ger mountain, we find the remnant of a people still following the Hindu worship, who merit attention, not only on account of their being (if we except the Bédui of Bantam) the sole depositaries of the rites and doctrines of that religion existing at this day on Java, but as exhibiting an interesting singularity and simplicity of character.
"These people occupy about forty villages, scattered along this range of hills, in the neighbourhood of what is termed the Sandy Sea. The site of their villages, as well as the construction of their houses, is peculiar, and differ entirely from what is elsewhere observed on Java. They are not shaded by trees but built on spacious open terraces, rising one above the other, each house occupying a terrace, and being in length from thirty to seventy, and even eighty feet. The door is invariably in one corner, at the end of the building, opposite to that in which the fire-place is built. The building appears to be constructed with the ordinary roof, having along the front an enclosed veranda or gallery, about eight feet broad. The fire-place is built of brick, and is so highly venerated that it is considered a sacrilege for any stranger to touch it. Across the upper part of the building rafters are run, so as to form a kind of attic story, in which are deposited the most valuable property and implements of husbandry.
"The head of the village takes the title of Peting'gi, as in the low-lands, and is generally assisted by a Kabâyan, both elected by the people from their own village. There are four priests who are here termed Dúkuns (a term elsewhere only applied to doctors and midwives), having charge of the state records and the sacred books.