Hikayat

Hikayat (Jawi: حكاية‎; Gurmukhi: ਹਿਕਾਇਤਾ, romanized: Hikā'itā) (or hikajat), which may be translated as "Romances", represent a genre of literature popular in Malay and Sikh literature and can be written in both verse and prose.

Hikayat often mix past- and present-tense such that past events appear to be prophesied.

Texts in this genre are meant to be publicly performed and are also often self-referential, in which they record examples of the recitation of other hikayat.

[1] Malay hikayats relate the adventures of heroes from kingdoms across the Malay Archipelago (spanning modern Indonesia and Malaysia, especially in Sumatra) or chronicles of their royalty.

[3] Hikayats also appear in Sikh literature of the Indian subcontinent, of which 11 or 12 are associated with Guru Gobind Singh.