Four-line Yamaka in the Old Javanese Rāmāyaṇa

Extract

The variety of yamakas in the OJR is roughly restricted to seven main types. The number of yamaka-stanzas is very considerable, about 240. Their distribution over the whole poem seems to be rather unequal, but this lack of balance can be ascribed to the presence of three extended episodes. (1) Sarga XVI.1–14 describes the building of the damconnection (setubandha) between the continent of India and the island of Lĕṅkā, between Mount Mahendra and Mount Suwela; the rest of the sarga (15–47) counts some twenty yamaka-stanzas devoted to a description of the loveliness of Mount Suwela. (2) The description of The Paradise on Earth in Restored Lĕṅkā, XXIV.97–123, consists nearly exclusively of yamakas. (3) The Aerial Flight from Lĕṅkā, to Ayodhyā by Heavenly Chariot Puṣpaka (XXIV.253–XXVI.9) consists of nearly nothing else. Once these passages are lifted from the Table, yamakas appear to be scattered more or less equally over a majority of sargas; we find the yamaka-form often continued in some consecutive stanzas.