Kakawin are long narrative poems composed in Old Javanese. Writers used a literary language, rather than the way it was spoken daily.The poems are in verse form with rhythms and meters derived from Sanskrit literature. Kakawins were composed at the courts of central and east Java kings between the ninth and the sixteenth centuries. The stories, drawn from India’s Ramayana andMahabharata, told of gods, goddesses, demons, holy men, and royals transplanted into a Javanese landscape. Commoners rarely appear in these stories. Royal men, or men who are incarnations of gods, undertake quests for objects, for missing relatives, or for special knowledge. In their wanderings they have erotic adventures,fight in great battles, and receive instruction from gods on the meaning of human existence, which they later pass on to wives and followers. The authors of kakawins compare their royal patrons to the gods, apologize for their weaknesses in composition, and describe the act of writing as a spiritual journey they hope will lead them to ultimate knowledge.Royal marriage is a dominant theme of many kakawins, which givesinsight into prevailing customs and values. The ideal royal marriage was between cousins; the bride should be a virgin. As a wife she should be a virtuous role model for other women through loyalty and faithfulness to her husband. Queens are praised for following their husbands on to the funeral pyre. Kakawins depict princes making love in gardens, sighing for a lost love, feasting, enjoying jewels, gold, and fine textiles. Princes have many women who openly display their passions. Kakawins from this era of Java place illicit love affairs in a world of elite literacy, where love poems and letters are royal pastimes. Women are celebrated as devoting their thoughts, their confidences, and their actions to men; they are not praised as mothers.

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