Arjunawiwaha

The kakawin epic tells the story of Arjuna, an excellent archer and the third of the five legendary Pandawa brothers mentioned in the Mahabharata.

This failing to deter him from his meditation and ascetism, Arjuna is tested anew, this time to determine whether he seeks the welfare of others or only his own deliverance from the world.

[4] In 1025 the Indian Chola Empire attacked the Srivijaya confederation of kingdoms, centred at Palembang (present South Sumatra) according to archaeological findings.

There it came under severe attack, possibly from Srivijaya;[6] At the time of the Arjunawiwaha writing (assuming that that is between 1028 and 1035), Airlangga has reasserted his position as king in East Java.

[a] It also took the title Serat Wiwaha Jarwa, attributed to Yasadipura I but in fact written by Carel Frederik [id], Sr. (1799–1859), and published by W. Palmer van den Broek in 1868.

Among its students was a mabasan[c] group in the Pura Dalem in Pliatan, led by Ketut Lagas, who at that time worked on reading and interpreting the Arjunawiwaha.

These were deemed to convey edifying teachings; but this may be due to that the effort to preserve and define the Balinese spiritual heritage was led by the very active Parisadha Hindu Dharma movement, that produced books intended for study and containing moralistic texts or guides for worship; and he Old Javanese classics provide a base for the Hindu society of Bali, legitimized by its high antiquity and having the authority of Scripture.

As such, the “hymn to Siwa”, a passage from the Arjunawiwaha (10-11) that is also quoted in the Parisadha Hindu Dharma books, is part of a temple ritual.

sekaha mabasan clubs of modern Bali... are characterized by “extemporaneous glossing” using hermeneutical strategies that do not (primarily) involve analytical means, drawn from a systematic knowledge of morphology and grammar, or try to establish historical derivations and etymologies; they are mainly based on contemporary/popular lexical know-how, “folk etymology”, and associative thinking effected through homology, metaphor, and assonance.