Journal of the Straits Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society/Volume 85/Hikayat Si-Miskin or Marakarma
Hikayat Si-Miskin or Marakarma.
BY R. O. WINSTEDT, D. LITT. (OXON.)
There are 5 MSS. of this tale at Batavia (van Ronkel's Catalogus," CXL-CXLIV): two at Leiden (Juynboll's "Catalogus," CXII and van Ronkel's Supplement-Catalogus (1921) 13); one in the possession of the Royal Asiatic Society, London ("Essays on Indo-China," Second series, vol. II, p. 35). It has been twice (1857 and 1894) lithographed and once (1915) printed in Malay characters at Singapore. It is the printed version I have used for this paper. Newbold mentions the romance and gives a brief synopsis—"British Settlements in the Straits of Malacca," vol. II, pp.328-330 (1839).
Many writers have quoted Professor Snouck Hurgronje's dictum on the home of most Malay romances being "that part of South India which is also the source whence are derived the popular mysticism and the popular religious legends of the Muslim peoples of the East Indian Archipelago" ("The Achehnese," vol. II, p. 122). At the same time few English scholars have adopted his method of analyzing and giving an outline of a tale, so that it may be accessible to students of comparative folk-lore most of whom are ignorant of Malay. Outlines in English are especially likely to be of value, because so many European and Oriental experts in the folklore of British India will have little acquaintance with Dutch; and it is those experts particularly who should be in a position to identify the sources of Malay borrowings.
I give first an outline of the romanec of Marakarma, to use its more apposite title, and I add comparative notes.
In Anta Bĕranta, a land ruled by Maharaja Indra Dewa, lived a poor vagabond couple, Si-Miskin and his wife, erstwhile rajas from the heaven of Indra but exiled by the curse of Betara Indra. They were driven away with sticks and stones from palace and cottage and market-place, so that to allay their hunger they fed on plant-shoots and picked bundles of rice (kětupat) and sugar-sticks from dust-heaps on the highway. When Si-Miskin's wife had gone three months with child, she longed for a manggo (ĕmpĕlam) from the royal orchard, and the Maharaja granted her husband's supplication for the fruit. Three months later she longed for a jack-fruit and again the ruler was gracious. She bore a son and named him Marakarma, because he was born in poverty. Digging a site for a hut her husband found a jar (tajok) full of gold. He went to the town and ordered shoes, a staff, clothes, horse and trappings, creese, sword and shield (olar-olar). Then after bathing he prayed to the dewa that a town might be raised up in the forest. His prayer was heard. He ruled over this town, Puspa Sari, with the title Maharaja Indra Angkasa, and his consort was styled Ratna Dewi. She bore a daughter Nila Kesoma. The merchants from Anta Beranta brought fans, water-kettles, shoes, shields, creeses, spears, saddles and umbrellas. Incited by the jealous ruler of Anta Beranta lying astrologers tell Maharaja Indra Angkasa that his two children will work his ruin. They are driven into exile, with no possessions save a ring, a magic stone (gĕmala) and seven bundles of rice, the parting gifts of their heart- broken mother.
After the departure of the two children, Puspa Sari is com- sumed by fire and its ruler with his consort left poor and homeless again in the forest.
In his exile Marakarma learns magic (kĕsaktian) from genies, botas, raksasas, dragons and snakes. The children come to a re- volving hill where dewas play, and they sit down under a waringin tree. The boy catches a bird for his little sister. She wants it roasted. Her brother hearing the crowing of cocks goes in search of a house where he can get fire. The householder mistaking him for a thief, boats the young prince and throws him bound into the sea.
Now the land to which the two children had come was Pelinggam Chahaya. Its ruler Raja Puspa Indra and his queen (language characters) had a son, Mengindra Sari, who refused to wed. Hunt- ing, Mengindra Sari finds Nila Kesoma under the waringin tree, weeping and holding a wild bird in her hand. His parents adopt her and call her Princess Unfolding Palm-blossom (Mayang Mĕngurai). Finally she marries Mengindra Sari, There is a dramatic passage describing how in his wooing the infatuated prince teases his young mistress over permission to enter his garden.
One day the young princess laments the loss of her brother Marakarma. In vain they search for him. Cast into the sea he had been borne by the tide to the shore of a land where a Raksasa and his wife lived in a house of hair and bones and batu hidup. This Raksasa had carried off Chahaya Khirani, daughter of Maha- raja Malai ((language characters)) Kisna, and was keeping her till she should grow big enough to cat. Three months at a time the demon travelled in search of food; three months at a time he abode in his hut. During his absence Chahaya Khirani finds Marakarma on the shore, and revives him. He woos her and promises to slay her demon captor. They bandy love verses (pantun). When the demon returns, Marakarma hides under his mistress' bed. The demon declares he can smell man but the captive princess denies it. The Raksasa lights a fire as big as a burning town, pours rice on to a mat 300 feet wide, and eats it along with spiders, centi- pedes, lizards, rats, flies and mosquitoes which overcome by the steam drop into the rice. He drinks a well of water, hiccups like thunder, picks from his teeth with a log chunks of food so big that they kill cat, goose or fowl by their impact. Then he sings so that the beasts in the forest flee. He asks his captive if her liver is big enough for him to eat. Instructed beforehand by her lover, she declares it will never grow big enough unless he gives her the livers of 100 animals to eat. The demon bids her kill the lice in his hair. With pincers and hammer she kills centipedes and scorpions which the demon has mistaken for lice; and eating fried beans and maize she pretends the noise she makes is the cracking of the eggs. of the lice. The Raksasa and his wife go to get the livers of 100 animals but all have fled far from his singing. Marakarma digs a pit near the demon's hut, and sets it with caltrops. He piles up rubbish and lights an ijok fuse which will take three days to burn. He and his bride escape with the demon's property in a passing ship. Three days later the Raksasa seeing flames rushes home, falls into the pit and is killed.
Lustful for his wife and riches, the captain of the ship pushes Marakarma into the sea. A shark, asked by Marakarma to put him out of his misery, does obeisance and carries the prince in his belly in the wake of the ship till it reaches Pelinggam Chahaya. The shark sprawls on the beach by the jetty of the Fairy God- mother (Ninek Kĕbayan). An eagle instructs the old lady to put rice-grass (daun padi) on the shark's belly, whereupon Marakarma steps out. Ninek Kebayan tells him of the country, its ruler and the royal family. Marakarma guesses that Princess Unfolding Palm-Blossom must be his sister. IIe arranges cut flowers in posies. Ninek Kebayan sells one to Marakarma's wife on the ship, containing the hero's ring and a letter graved on flower-petals, bidding her go to the palace and tell Princess Unfolding Palm- Blossom of their straits. (The first posy she sold, Ninek Ke- bayan pretended was arranged by herself. Chahaya Khirani wants to be taught the art. To keep the old lady in countenance Mara- karma sends a green fly with her on her next visit which buzzes over the bunch and settles wherever flowers should be stuck!)
Chahaya Khirani is invited to the palace, shows her husband's ring and tells of his plight. The king summons all people to a farewell feast to the wicked ship's captain. Miraculously pro- vided with a steed a prince's attire and 40 followers, by means of a magic stone (gĕmale) given him by a bota, Marakarma goes to the feast. The householder who first cast him into the sea and the ship's captain are both executed (salangkan).
Transported to Puspa Sari by the help of a magic stone, the hero finds his father's kingdom desolate forest. He meets his mother gathering firewood and stays with his parents in their forest hut. He reveals himself and prays that Puspa Sari be restored. His prayer is heard. He returns to Pelinggam Chahaya and fetches his sister and her husband and his own wife. Ninek Ke- bayan is twitted with her inability to walk and advised to get a young husband to carry her. The royal party set out for Puspa Sari in glass sedans (mongkor kacha) and on horseback and are met on the plain Tinjau-maya ((language characters)). Maharaja Indra Dewa fearful lest the importance of Puspa Sari eclipse that of Anta Beranta attacks Marakarma. Marakarma invokes the aid of seven genies, whom in his early exile he had met at lake Indra Semandra,—Raja Mengindra Dewa, Dekar Agas Pri, Raja Kisna Indra Dewa, Raja Mengerna Lela, Raja Chindra lela and his wife's brother Raja Bujangga Indra. A great battle ensues. Raja Gerdan Shah slays Raja Berma Gangga. Raja Rum Shah is captured and put to scorch in the sun, whereupon firing an arrow that brings rain and mist Raja Shah Pri releases him and ties Raja Bahrum Dewa in his place. The hero causes a town with fort and palace to arise by virtue of a magic stone given to him by Maharaja Dewa Angkasa on the revolving mountain. He en- counters his jealous rival, the ruler of Anta Beranta. Each shoots arrows, that turn to fire and to rain that dout the fire, to dragons and to countless demons that devour the dragons. "Thunder rumbled and crackled faintly in the distance; a rainbow stretched across the heavens; stormy sunset clouds arose everywhere; rain drizzled; scale-like clouds were in the sky; the rain-bow was hard- ly visible; a breeze blew softly; the sunlight was yellow, and lightning now and again streaked the sky; black clouds gathered: portents all of a great prince's death." Maharaja Indra Dewa, ruler of Anta Beranta, fell slain, charging the victor with his last breath to have mercy on his daughter, Nila Chahaya. His wife and daughter and their women hurry on to the field. The wife stabs herself on her husband's body. Nila Chahaya is married to Raja Bujangga Indra and the young couple rule Anta Beranta. "Where are we going now?" asks Ninek Kebayan. "To marry you to a vizier," laughs her mistress. "Well," croaks the old dame, "I did dream last night I was bitten by a snake."
Raja Bujangga Indra takes his sister and Marakarma and a royal party to visit his father, Maharaja Malai Kisna, in the land Merchu Indra. The Maharaja takes his daughter and son-in-law seven times round the country on a seventeen-tiered throne (pancha-pĕrsada). Marakarma becomes Sultan of Merchu Indra.
Mengindra Sari becomes ruler of Pelinggam Chahaya.
The episode of lying astrologers is paralleled in the Hikayat Jaya Langkara, and the folk-tales Raja Budiman and Raja Denan. The episode of two children exiled, separated under a tree, the girl being found and married by a hunter prince and reluctant to tell of the loss of her brother until after her wedding, is found in a Sinhalese tale (Paker's "Village Folk-Tales of Ceylon," vol. II, No. 155 (a)), though details and conclusion differ. A packet of cooked rice is commonly a parting present to a banished child or prince in Sinhalese tales (ib. I, No. 7; II, 146 (a)). The incident of a prince incognito marrying a girl and taking her on a ship, being thrown overboard but rescued, and coming to a land where he is recognized and honoured, is found in numerous Indian tales (Steel and Temple's "Wide-Awake Stories," p. 138; F. A. Steel's "Tales of the Punjab," p. 129; Swynnerton's "Indian Nights' En- tertainment," p. 276; Knowles "Folk-Tales of Kashmir," p. 167) which all commence with the banishment of two princes owing to a step-mother's cruelty. In a Sinhalese tale with a similar beginning (Parker op. cit. I, No. 7) it is a dried fish he had restored to the water which rescues the prince and put him on a sand-bank near "flower-mother's" house; the flower-mother discovers that the fellow who threw the prince overboard is about to marry the princess the prince interrupts the wedding: his oppressor is quartered and the prince becomes a king. It is pretty clear that this Indian tale with its many variants is connected with the more elaborate composite Malay romance.
The comic interludes, in which Ninek Kebayau "the flower- mother" is twitted, remind one of a passage in Raja Donan (J. R. A. S., S. B. XVIII, p. 242) and of the passage in the Hikayat Maharaja Bikrama Sakti (or Nakhoda Muda) where the princess' maids are frightened by the parroquet. The description of the demon Raksasa is spirited.
There are a few pantun in the romance, but to discuss the occurrence of such verse profitably it is necessary always to collate all available MSS. and determine if copyists have followed one original or preferred to substitute verses they happened to fancy.
In quoting parallels from Sinhalese folk-lore, one must re- member that stories which are current in central India, or the lower part of the Ganges Valley, or even the Panjab, as well as tales of Indian animals such as the lion, may have been brought direct to Ceylon by immigrants from Kalinga or Magadha or Bengal. Apparently it is in this manner that the evident con- nexion between the tales of Ceylon and Kashmir is to be explained, the stories passing from Magadha or neighbouring districts, to Kashmir on the one side, and from Magadlia or Kalinga to Ceylon on the other" (Parker, op. cit. vol. I, pp. 38-39).
It will be of interest to students of local folk-lore to learn that according to Perak legend Marakarma, the hero of the romance dealt with in this paper, built a fort of cockle-shells on the plain Anta-Beranta at the mouth of the Bruas River (cf. McNair's "Perak and the Malaya," pp. 23-24)! A Chinaman is said to have removed the shells to Penang and burnt them for lime.