Painting Myanmar’s transition

(91) and yet somehow a memory of older wisdom (15) is paradoxical, and the first claim is probably incorrect. A precedent can be seen in some of the items included in lists of sukhaduh khas (‘joys and sorrows’, misdeeds and accidents requiring legal inquiry and remedy) that appear in Old Javanese charters from as early as the ninth century. Hoadley makes some unsystematic remarks on such charters in Appendix IV: ‘Diverse Components’. In addition, several Old Javanese legal texts likely older than those discussed by Hoadley define technical terms of law, including some longer expressions resembling Hoadley’s slokas, in formulas ending in n aranya (or its Middle Javanese equivalent arane), meaning ‘its name is... , it is called... ’ – a practice to which Hoadley in fact alludes (170–72). Indeed, ‘the bedewed corpse’ so designated (and explained) in section 66 of the Kutāra Mānava (Hoadley’s ‘Agama’) and similar texts also appears in the lists in the inscriptions. The Pūrvādhigama Śāsana, an unpublished Old Javanese work detailing the rights and privileges of Śaiva priests, explains seven sloka-type expressions that designate various sorts of wrong-doer, to whom the priests are entitled to offer asylum – that is, the priests’ properties may constitute ‘open temple-gates’ (gopura mən ā). One of these expressions, celen bolotən (‘dirty pig’), appears with similar valence (to refer to a habitual cheat) in the modern Javanese expression ngadhepi cèlèng boloten (Suwarno 1999, 220). These examples show that thehistory of the ‘slokaphenomenon’ in textual form ismucholder than the eighteenth century, and that a thorough account of early modern Javanese legal concepts and practices requires a fuller investigation of older sources. It also requires that those sources be treated with philological acumen and historical sensitivity that are lacking in this volume. Hence, although Hoadley has identified a fascinating and important topic in legal history, the book has several serious flaws and limitations, and should be consultedwith caution.