Documentarian Nyoman Kandjeng considers there to be six types of palm-leaf manuscripts currently housed at the Gedong Kirtya Library in Singaraja,[2] namely vedas, other religious texts, wariga, itihasas, babads, and tantris.
[11] Through these schools, Balinese students began studying the forms of novels, short stories, poetry, and dramas;[2] graduates continued to teach others and experiment with writing.
[12] Although several short stories in Balinese had been published, such as "Balian" by I Madé Pasek in 1913 and "Loba" and "Anak Ririh" by Mas Nitisastro in 1925, the modern period is commonly considered to have started in 1931 with the publication of I Wayan Gobiah's novel Nemoe Karma, the first in the language;[13][14] this is based on the fact that the novel was easier for readers to obtain than the short stories.
The first, a translation of Boris Pasternak's poem "Wind" by I Ketut Suwidja, was published in the daily Angkatan Bersenjata on 16 June.
The first original works were the results of a 1968 competition held by the National Language Institute, Singaraja Branch, which also included short stories and dramas.
From 1976 to 1980, the daily Bali Post dedicated a section to local literature,[18] and in 1978 the Sabha Sastra Foundation compiled Mlantjaran ka Sasak into a single novel.
[15] In 2008, three female writers – Anak Agung Sagung Mas Ruscitadewi, I Gusti Ayu Putu Mahindu Dewi Purbarini, and Ni Kadek Widiasih – published novels, making them the first women novelists writing in Balinese.
Literary critics I Gusti Ngurah Bagus and I Ketut Ginarsa divide the purwa literature into two categories based on the works' structures, namely satua (oral), which includes folklore, folk tales, mantras, gegendingan (children's songs), wewangsalan (riddles); and sesuratan, or written literature.
With the publication of Ni Rawit in 1935, I Gusti Nyoman Pandji Tisna became one of the first Balinese to write a novel in Indonesian.