In all sorts of texts, such as laudatory poems, chronicles, and travelogues, writers have interpreted the how and why of certain circumstances.
A characteristic of this kind of literature is that it is written in metrical form and is governed by a set of strict conventions.
This approach reflected the way in which literature was presented: text was not usually read in silence but, rather, was recited or sung to an audience.
The word babad means 'a story about past events', 'text on the clearing of (the land...)', i.e. 'story about the origin of this or that settlement'.
Kakawin are long epic poems in a defined metre inherited from Sanskrit poetic forms.