The most sacred are the sekar ageng (Low Javanese: tembang gedhé; "great songs").
The ancient forms of these, known as kakawin, use meters from Indian poetry, specifying the number of syllables in each line, their vowel length, and the location of caesurae.
The modern form of sekar ageng are always in stanzas of four lines, and the number of syllables in each (lampah) is fixed and divided into parts (pedhotan) by caesurae.
Indeed, many modern gendhing share common macapat texts, especially Kinanthi, fit into their individual melodic pattern.
Sumarsam believes that the singing of these forms led to the development of the early gendhing gerong, in the mid-19th century.
[4] Wayang performances make use of the Mahabharata and Ramayana in macapat form, created in the 18th and 19th centuries.