Hikayat Bayan Budiman

bibliography

index of stories

text notes

list of words

list of rhyme words

Bibliography

title:		Hikayat Bayan Budiman
edition:		R.O. Winstedt (ed.), Hikayat Bayan Budiman, Kuala Lumpur: Oxford University Press, 1966.
manuscripts:		L – Logan 296, Raffles Library (now Singapore National Library. [lost] R – Ref. 472, Raffles Library. [lost]
dates:		text:  1371;    manuscripts:  L – 1852;  R – 1849.
provenance:		text:  not known;    manuscripts:  not known, perhaps Singapore or Malacca.
words:		69378 words, including 12 verses
references:		to the pages (1-319) and lines of the OUP edition.

 

Editorial notes

This is the Malay version of a tradition that begins with the Sanskrit Sukasaptati, The Parrot's Seventy Tales.  Versions of this fine collection of popular tales were transported from Sankrit into Persian, and it is from one of these Persian adaptations that the Malay text was translated.  According to the Malay text, this translation was done by a certain Kadi Hassan in 773 AH (1371 AD).

The text of Hikayat Bayan Budiman is important for the history of Malay literature for a number of reasons.  Its date is very early indeed.  We have a manuscript fragment dating from the early 17th century, also a very early date.  And it seems to be the product of a mercantile environment -- so, for instance, it ignores the usages common in other Malay texts for referring to royalty.

Later manuscripts do not retain the archaic spellings of the Bodleian fragment, but they do preserve some interesting linguistic features, in particular a tendency to complex verbal morphology.  Those interested in this aspect of the text might peruse the list of words found in this edition of Hikayat Bayan Budiman.

 

Manuscripts of Hikayat Bayan Budiman are plentiful.  Winstedt has based his critical edition on two principal manuscripts, L and R, described above.  He also relies on A described below.  In addition, he occasionally adduces variant readings from certain other manuscripts. (These variants are generally noted in the MCP text.)  The manuscripts Winstedt draws upon are:

•  A. -- Van der Wall no.174, Perpustakaan Nasional Republik Indonesia, Jakarta.  Dated 1278 AH (1862 AD). Van Ronkel, Catalogus, no.70. This text was taken as the principal source for Brandes' study, and was also favoured by Winstedt.  It shares the same structure as R.

•  B. -- Brandes no.115, Perpustakaan Nasional Republik Indonesia, Jakarta. Van Ronkel no.67.  Previously owned by van Wijk.

•  Br. -- not identified by Winstedt, but presumably from the publication by Brandes mentioned under Bibliography below.

•  Bod. -- MS Pococke 433, Bodleian Library, Oxford University. A fragment of 14 pages, formerly owned by Pococke, and collected in 1630-1640 or earlier;  contains part of stories 1-3, and has many archaic features in spelling.

•  C. -- van der Tuuk, Cod.Or. 3208, Leiden University Library. Juynboll, Catalogus, no.106.  Copied in 28 8 1269 AH (1852 AD) in Barus, North Sumatra.

•  Cc. -- Brandes 545. Perpustakaan Nasional Republik Indonesia, Jakarta.  Van Ronkel no.68.  It is a copy of C.

•  D. -- probably van der Wall no.173, Perpustakaan Nasional Republik Indonesia, Jakarta.  Van Ronkel, Catalogus, no.69.  Winstedt says it is close to the Leiden manuscript Cod.Or. 1956(1), Juynboll, Catalogus, no.105.

•  IO.2604 -- Malay B.7 of the India Office collection, now in the British Library,London;  collected by John Leyden.

•  IO.2606 -- Malay B.9 of the India Office collection, now in the British Library;  also collected by John Leyden;  copied in Terengganu, 1223 AH (1808 AD).

•  Max.18 -- Maxwell 18, Royal Asiatic Society, London;  collected by W.E, Maxwell; copied in 1878 in Singapore.

 

Bibliography

J. Brandes, "Iets over het Papagaai-boek, zoals het bij de Maleiers voorkomt", Tijdschrift voor Indische Taal-, Land- en Volkenkunde [TBG], vol. 41 (1899), pp.431-497.
Hikayat Bayan Budiman, Jakarta: Balai Pustaka, 1993 (and earlier editions), BP no. 1154 -- based on Winstedt's edition, with some corrections against manuscripts in Perpustakaan Nasional Republik Indonesia.
Haji Wan Ali Wan Mamat, Katalog Manuskrip Melayu di Singapura, Kuala Lumpur: Perpustakaan Negara Malaysia, 1993. (Siri bibliografi manuskrip no.13).

 

Preparation

Added:  November 2001

The OUP 1966 edition was scanned for the MCP in Canberra using Recognita™ OCR, and its spelling modernised.