A NEW WAVE OF INDIAN INSPIRATION: Translations from Urdu in Malay Traditional Literature and Theatre

¹The authors are most grateful to Rosemary Robson-McKillop for her invaluable help in revising the English text of this article and to Dr Jan van der Putten for his useful comments on an earlier draft.

Abstract

In the late 19th century the Malay world experienced a new impact of artistic stimuli from Islamic India. This not only brought to life half a dozen literary works, translation-adaptations from Urdu (Hikayat Gul Bakawali, Syair Indra Sebaha, Hikayat Sultan Bustamam, Hikayat Ganja Mara and some others), but also considerably enriched histrionic culture of the region, in particular through the creation of the Wayang Bangsawan theatre. The influential Indo-Malay community, Jawi Peranakan, played the role of cultural brokers in this process; the Indian Parsi theatre was its major medium. By studying in detail the extant bio-data of translators from Urdu, prototypes and principles of their translations, the history of the Parsi theatre in the Malay world and literary-theatrical interactions within it, the article reveals the paradoxical nature of the new wave of Indian inspiration. On the one hand, this wave contributed a great number of innovations to Malay culture, thus stimulating its modernisation; on the other hand, together with the burgeoning number of lithographs, it marked the beginning of a new (if final) era of flowering of traditional Malay literature. Another issue discussed in the article is the significance of this relatively well-documented stage of the Indo-Malay cultural interface for a better understanding of its earlier stages (for instance in Malacca of the 15th to 16th century or in 17th century Aceh), information of which is still scarce and uncertain.

Notes

²The works or rather notes by van Ronkel (1901, 1912), Overbeck (1928, 1931), Siti Hawa Haji Salleh (1986: iii-xxxiv), Khalid Hussain (1992: xv-xxxi) and Wieringa (1994) – this is virtually all that we have at our disposal at present.

³For this synthesis, see Braginsky 2004: 324–30.

¹The authors are most grateful to Rosemary Robson-McKillop for her invaluable help in revising the English text of this article and to Dr Jan van der Putten for his useful comments on an earlier draft.

⁴This hikayat ran to four editions: this earliest one, the Penang editions of 1895 and 1900 and the Singapore edition of 1914 (Proudfoot 1993: 187–9).

⁵In the Malay original: Adalah asal ceriteranya dengan bahasa Hindustan, diubahkan oleh Dato' Saudagar Putih […] kepada bahasa Jawi (Overbeck 1931: 35); Proudfoot quotes from the Penang edition of 1895: Adalah asal khabaran ini dengan bahasa Hindustan (Proudfoot 1993: 187).

⁶These manuscripts are: Jakarta ML 509a (1913), ML 509b (1904) (Behrend 1998: 292); Cambridge Or.848 (Singapore, 1874), Add. 3766 (1879) (Ricklefs and Voorhoeve 1977: 113, 119).

⁷Achehnese manuscripts of Hikayat Sulutan Bèseutaman are: in Aceh INMA 33, 34, PDIA 48; in Leiden Cod.Or. 8067(2) dated 1899 (Voorhoeve 1994: 113–14).

⁸For a detailed synopsis of Hikayat Ganja Mara in English, see Overbeck 1928; for an even longer Malay summary of the work with a number of excerpts from it, see Hood b. Musa 1963.

⁹Besides the lithograph of 1886, there are two more, also Penang, editions which saw the light of day in one and the same 1897 (Proudfoot 1993: 237–38); for the Acehnese version of Hikayat Ganja Mara (manuscript INMA 142 which is kept in Aceh), see Voorhoeve 1994: 113.

¹⁰See Schimmel 1975: 199, 208; Suvorova 2000: 194–95; for the Persian versions, see Pertsch 1888: 1045–6, Browne 1922: 977. For the Fort William College, dastan translated in it, their printing and circulation, see Pritchett 1985. There are translations of Gul Bakawali into French (Garcin de Tassy 1835, 1858), English (Clouston 1889, Singh 1895) and Russian (Dekhtyar [Suvorova] 1975).

¹¹For the Jawi Peranakan newspapers, these two in particular, see Birch 1980, Roff 1967, 1972, 1994: 48–55.

¹²They are: Majmu' Haft Haikal ma'a Panjsurah wa Ganj al-'Arsh (1903) containing 25 prayers in Arabic with Malay translations and Panjsurah (1906) including ‘six chapters of the Qur'an with directions in Jawi for reading them [viz. surahs 1, 36, 48, 55, 112, 113]’ (Proudfoot 1993: 376–377). Both were ordered for printing in Bombay by a Singapore publisher.

¹³Besides the above-mentioned first publication, of which the place is unknown, they are: Singapore 1880 [joint Penang-Singapore edition], Penang 1892, Singapore 1893, and 1905 (Proudfoot 1993: 241–43). For a recent edition of Hikayat Gul Bakawali, see Salleh 1986.

¹⁴These manuscripts are: in Malay, Jakarta ML 451 dated 1889 (Behrend 1998: 291); in Acehnese, Jakarta Vt.82 dated 1882, Vt. 263 dated 1917, Leiden Cod.Or 8114 (Voorhoeve 1994: 130). Voorhoeve considers that the Acehnese version was translated from the Malay lithograph published in A.H. 1296 [1879]; however, as Proudfoot does not mention this edition, probably the Singapore edition of 1880 is meant.

¹⁵The manuscripts of the Acehnese version are: Amsterdam 674/870 (III); a transliteration and Dutch translation of the latter Leiden Cod.Or. 8737; Jakarta Dj. 20 dated A.H. 1334 (1916) (Voorhoeve 1994: 128).

¹⁶Singapore-Penang publications of 1889 and 1896, Singapore publications of 1891 and 1901 (Proudfoot 1993: 273–74). For the recent romanised edition provided with the facsimile of the Singapore lithograph of 1891, see Hussain 1992.

¹⁷About his life, poetry and the creation of Indar Sabha, see Schimmel 1975: 213–14 (with an extensive bibliography), Suvorova 1985: 29–30, Hansen 1998: 4–6.

¹⁸About Indian editions of the play, its dissemination in India and beyond, its printing history and illustrations to it, see Gallop 1990: 108, Hansen 1998: 11–27.

¹⁹For Mir Hasan and his mathnawi, see Schimmel (1975: 184–85) and a special study of the Urdu mathnawi by Suvorova (2000: 106–63).

²⁰This hikayat reproduces the Arabic original from the Arabian Nights accurately and shows a superficial resemblance to the play of the Parsi theatre Hawai Majlis, urf Qamar az-Zaman-o Mahliqa (The heavenly assembly, or Qamar az-Zaman and Mahliqa), written by Mihrwanji Nuserwanji Aram in 1873 (Suvorova 1985: 229). The play is based on the plot about a prince who falls in love with a peri, typical of the Parsi theatre, and corresponds to the Arabic fairy tale only in general features: in both the prince falls in love with the belle in his sleep, sets off in search of her, experiences many hardships while seeking her and, in the end, is united with his beloved one (see Appendix 3). One cannot, however, rule out that the success of the play staged in 1887 and 1892 in Singapore may have stimulated interest in the Arabic tale with the hero bearing the same name. The Malay adaptation of the Qamar az-Zaman story was later translated into Acehnese (see Snouck Hurgronje 1906, 2: 15; Voorhoeve 1994: 108–9).

²¹About this genre, its origins, aesthetics and poetics, see Braginsky 1993: 44–54, 76–91; 2004: 319–39.

²²Such as: al-kisah maka tersebutlah perkataan, sebermula maka, kalakian maka, arakian setelah, etc.

²³All the Urdu excerpts in prose quoted below have been translated from the Lahori 1923 edition.

²⁴Italics ours, in the original the rhymed prose (saj').

²⁵In the original: anggota - ‘members of the body’.

²⁶In the original: laksa - ‘ten thousand’, but sometimes meaning simply ‘many’ or ‘thousand’ (for instance 1000 dirhem, see Wilkinson 1932, II: 6 with the reference to precisely Hikayat Gul Bakawali).

²⁷Urdu verses are quoted in the translation by Singh (1895: 37) as their obsolete English show stylistic differences between Urdu and Malay versions in sharp relief.

²⁸A tethered calf symbolises helplessness (cf. Wilkinson 1932, II: 524), while its sudden death is, in this context, an allusion to an unexpected meeting of the lovers.

²⁹Such is, for instance, the framework of the narrative in Hikayat Indraputra.

³⁰Remarkably, among them we find the formula hilang riwayat timbul cerita (‘the tale finishes and the story appears’, e.g. Hussain 1992: 15), which is atypical of the syair tradition, but is frequently encountered in plays of the Wayang Siam (see Sweeney 1972). In Syair Indra Sebaha this formula, alongside its variant berhentilah kisah dengan cerita (‘the tale and story finish’), is used to mark changes of relatively long narrative units.

³¹Or ‘to pay homage’ as menyembah means both; the word ‘worship’ has been chosen by the analogy with the Urdu original, moreover Indra is a deity.

³³Literature in Urdu and Hindi on the Parsi theatre, published in India and Pakistan, is considerable and includes, first and foremost, Imtiyaz Ali Taj's 12-volume publication of Urdu plays staged by Parsis during the period between 1860s–1910s (Taj 1969–75), as well as two most authoritative secondary sources on this theatre: the collection Natak sagar by Nur Ilahi and Muhammad ‘Umar (1981, first published in 1924) and four volumes of Urdu thitar by Abdul Alim Nami (1962–73; first published in 1956), see also Nishat 1973, Gupta 1981 and literature quoted in Suvorova 1985: 242–43. For literature on the Parsi theatre in European languages, see Suvorova 1985, Gupta 2005 and the data scattered over histories of the Indian theatre, for instance, Yajnik 1933, Gargi 1962, etc.; one of the earlier publications is Ali 1917. For recent general surveys of the Parsi theatre, see Hansen 1992: 79–85, Hansen 2001 and Cohen 2001: 315–23 (with a special emphasis on its perception in Southeast Asia).

³⁴Similar painted backdrops were found in the Malay version of the Parsi theatre, the Wayang Bangsawan. They represented a street, an interior of a house, an audience hall of a palace, a park, a forest, and a landscape (Bujang 1989: 14).

³⁵Similar equipment and devices were also used in the Wayang Bangsawan. For instance in 1893, when one of its companies visited Surabaya, the spectators ‘were flabbergasted by visions of actors disappearing into pits beneath the stage, flying nymphs (peris; V.B., A.S.) picking flowers in a sky-garden, and dragons emerging from mouths of actors’ (Cohen 2002: 105).

³⁶According to the assumptions of some researchers, the Parsi theatre first arrived in Malaya at the invitation of local Parsis (Cohen 2002: 102).

³⁷In spite of its significant role, economically and culturally, the study of the Jawi Peranakan community has been most unsatisfactory. Some notes about early Indian settlers and their descendants in Penang can be found in Vaughan (1857). For a general characteristic of the community, see Roff 1964 (particularly p. 86); for the Jawi Peranakan newspapers and journalism, see Birch 1880, Roff 1972 (particularly pp. 3–6), 1994: 47–55; for their lithographic presses and literary and theatrical activities, see, respectively, Proudfoot 1993 (particularly pp. 39–42, 47–49), Za'ba 1939: 144–46, Camoens 1982 (particularly pp. 16–9).

³⁸The history of the Parsi theatre is rich in similar episodes: for instance, the company Benazir Star of India was completely ruined financially after its five-year stay in Burma and had to sell the business to a Burmese manager (see Nur Ilahi and Muhammad ‘Umar 1982: 360).

³⁹Empress Victoria and Jawi Peranakan Theatrical Company among others.

⁴⁰As is easy to appreciate by consulting Appendix 2, Nur Ilahi's and Muhammad ‘Umar's data on Malay tours of the Parsi theatre are incomplete. At the same time, the most reliable information about these tours, gleaned by Camoens (1982) from Singapore newspapers, refers only to the period after 1886, as issues of Jawi Peranakan published between 1876 and 1886 remain unavailable so far. When the first professional company of the Wayang Bangsawan did appear is not quite clear either. Two companies (one from Penang and one from Singapore) which toured Java in 1893 claimed to have existed for 13 and 12 years respectively, which, provided their claims were justified, means that they were organised in 1880 and 1881. If it is true that Mamak Pusyi's company was the first professional troupe of the Wayang Bangsawan, it must have appeared earlier, not in 1885, but in the late 1870s.

⁴¹We shall not discuss the Wayang Bangsawan in detail here, as its origin, history, dissemination, theatrical principles, and dramaturgy are described, by and large, satisfactorily in the works by Edrus (1960), Bujang (1975, 1989), Camoens (1982), Kadir (1988), Tan Sooi Beng (1993), Cohen (2002); below we proceed from their data.

⁴²See Skeat 1966: 516–21, van Kerckhoff 1886, Camoens 1982: 14–15, Dumas 2000. It seems likely that all these forms were related to each other and that one of the earliest among them, the Wayang Mendu, appeared in Pontianak, being influenced by both the Chinese and the Parsi theatre (van Kerckhoff 1886: 304, Skeat 1966: 520). Its actors played classical Malay works widely availabe at that time in the form of lithographs (see Proudfoot 1993, under respective titles): hikayat of Saif al-Ya'zan, Marakarma, Dewa Mandu (who becomes the eponym of this theatre), and syair of Ken Tambuhan, Bidasari, Abdulmuluk, but also the Indian Hikayat Bustamam (for these works, see Braginsky 2004 passim, Chambert-Loir 1980).

⁴³About them, see Iskandar 1995: 476–95, 532–46; Matheson 1983; Braginsky 2004: 314, 504–7.

⁴⁴The drama by a famous playwright of the Parsi theatre, Hafiz Abdullah, Sakuntala Urdu (1890), was most probably the prototype of this play of the Wayang Bangsawan. Besides, Hafiz Abdullah was the author of Laili-o Majnun (1885) and Ali Baba (1887) (see Suvorova 1985: 234–35), which were also performed by the Parsi theatre companies in Singapore (see Appendix 2, Camoens 1982: 10, 12) and had its Wayang Bangsawan ‘double’ (Bujang 1975: 149).

⁴⁵Besides, as Cohen (2002: 109) notes, at least in Java, they ‘were regularly adapted and serialized in newspapers’.

⁴⁶As Camoens (1982: 19) notes: ‘with the introduction of the wayang Parsi into this region, the involvement of the Penang peranakan community assured the rapid propagation of the theatrical style. Not only did the peranakan act as sponsors, they built upon what was foreign to create their own identifiable theatre in the tiruan wayang Parsi. That most of the tiruan troupes initially originated from Penang stands as a credit to the activities of the peranakan’.

⁴⁷This mental substitution is necessitated by our lack of knowledge about whether some forms of the Indian theatre of the Islamic era existed in the Malay world, which does not mean that they did not exist in Indian quarters of Malay littoral cities.

⁴⁸For instance one of the advertisements explains: ‘Although they speak Parsi language (actually Urdu is meant; V.B., A.S.), we can understand the story by watching how they play [it]’ (Bintang Timor 20 July 1894, quoted in Kadir 1988: 39–40). Camoens (1982: 11) remarks (on the basis of another advertisement): ‘[…] despite the Hindi language medium, the competent acting and good comic scenes had allowed the play to be easily comprehended’. The general meaning of the numerous songs performed in Parsi dramas was also more or less comprehensible from the acting and tonality; it was precisely these songs that were particularly loved and first translated into Malay: ‘The performance of the Parsi theatre drew attention of the Pinang [Malay] community by songs with stamping [to their rhythm], which people sang with Malay words’ (Kadir 1988: 40).

⁴⁹Here is one of such advertisements, although for the Wayang Bangsawan. The play advertised is the ‘Talisman of Sulaiman’: ‘There was a princess, Kamarzat. When her father was dying he entrusted her to her brother and ordered him to take good care of her. He also gave him a magical box. Then follows a story of three brothers who experienced many hardships and sufferings because of their meetings with jinns and peris of the jungle and mountains, as well as many other miraculous events. Its (the play; V.B., A.S.) story is beautiful and any spectator will like it’ (quoted in Tan 1993: 17). For more synopses from such advertisements, see Camoens 1982: 13–4, Cohen 2002: 108. All these synopses are not dissimilar to those frequently found at the beginning of hikayat, see Mulyadi 1983: 49–50.

⁵⁰For instance, the patronage of the princes of Kedah and Perlis and the Sultan of Deli (Kadir 1988: 40).

⁵¹Such were, for instance, the Tarian Saba in Dungun (Trengganu) or the Permainan Dul Muluk in the Musi Valley, which included archaic ‘prologues’, were accompanied by magic ceremonies, and were staged on the occasion of rites of passage (Hussain 1992: xxiii–iv, Hasjim 1984). Incidentally, the activity of the Wayang Bangsawan itself was also shrouded in magical rituals typical of traditional Malay performances. Most of the troupes had their pawang (shaman), who recited special incantations and prayers, sprinkling water around the stage (Edrus 1960: 103), and its plays were often performed at weddings (Camoens 1982: 19).

⁵²We mentioned above translations of Urdu works (via the Malay intermediary in most cases) into Acehnese (incidentally, from the beginning of the 19th century there were stable, though not always unclouded, relations between Penang and Aceh, see Zainol 1999). It cannot be ruled out that such translations will be found in other literatures of the Archipelago too.

⁵³Here is only one example. Prince Nadir's wife, Zuhra, from the play Zulm-e Vahshi (1890) finds herself ‘in a dangerous place teeming with ghul and bhuta (evil spirits and ogres; V.B., A.S.)’. However, this abode of monsters proves to be … a railway station, where the heroine finds her father, tied to the rails by a perfidious maidservant, and saves him from inevitable death under the wheels of the train (Taj 1969–75, IX: 89ff ).

⁵⁴Commercial, just as the Parsi theatre and the Wayang Bangsawan, see Chambert-Loir 1984, 1991, Kratz 1977, Iskandar 1981.

⁵⁵The newspaper Bintang Timor (Camoens 1982: 12) mentions Rustomji as the manager of this company which performed the play Farsani Ajaib or Janealum dan Anjo Manara. At the end of the 19th century, a certain Rustamji was the manager of the Jubilee Theatrical Company which staged the Fasana-e Ajaib urf Janalam-o Anjuman Ara.

⁵⁷Judging by the advertisement for the Wayang Bangsawan version of the play, quoted by Camoens, it differs to some degree from the Indian prototype (the heroine is a daughter of a rich merchant, the king of the jinns is replaced by Indra who is functionally identical to him); however, the prototype is still easily discernible.

⁵⁶All the plays summarised below are mentioned (with the date and place of performance) in Appendix 2.