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Romance and Epic in Cambodian Tradition

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 February 2024

Solange Thierry
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The romance customarily termed “classical” occupies a special place within Cambodian literature as a whole. The term betrays a certain Eurocentrism and is justified only because the written language of this type of text is neither the old Khmer of epigraphic inscriptions, nor modern Khmer, but the form of the language known as “middle Khmer,” which in theory designates the period from the fourteenth century through the end of the nineteenth century, and of which we have written records from the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, in the romances as we know them. While these romances share one significant feature with Khmer literature as a whole, they are distinguished by other characteristics that are peculiar to them.

Type
Research Article
Information
Diogenes , Volume 46 , Issue 181 , March 1998 , pp. 43 - 56
Copyright
Copyright © 1998 Fédération Internationale des Sociétés de Philosophie / International Federation of Philosophical Societies (FISP)

References

Notes

1. S. Singaravelu, A Comparative Study of the Story of Râma in South India and South East Asia (Kuala Lumpur, 1966).

2. Râmker (Râmâyana khmer), ses formes artistiques et littéraires. Ses caractéristiques dans la culture khmèr, with a foreword by Hang Thun Hak and a preface by Vann Molyvann (Université royale des Beaux-Arts, Phnomh Penh, 1969), p. 11.

3. Ibid., p. 5.

4. Ibid., p. 6.

5. Ibid., p. 5.

6. Ibid., p. 33.

7. The storyteller Tâ Krut has been studied by Alain Daniel, Etude d'un fragment du Râmker (Râmâyana cambodgien) dit par un conteur (Doctoral thesis, Univer sité Paris-III, 1982, 2 vols.). The storyteller Mi Chak has been studied by François Bizot, Râmaker, l'amour symbolique de Râm et Seta (Paris, EFEO), vol. 155 (1989).

8. Edition printed in Cambodian alphabet, published in Phnom Penh in 1937 by the Royal Library, after two bundles of manuscripts (16 booklets numbered from 1 to 10 and from 75 to 80). See Ginette Martini, La Gloire de Râma. Râmak erti, Râmâyana cambodgien (Paris, 1978). For other versions, see Saveros Pou, trans. and commentator, Etudes sur le Râmakerti (XVI-XVIII) (Paris, EFEO, 1977) and Râmakerti (XVI-XVII) (Paris, EFEO, 1977).

9. Râmker, (see note 2 above), p. 39.

10. Equivalent to the Sanskrit nirvâna.

11. François Martini, “Note sur l'empreinte du bouddhisme dans la version cam bodgienne du Râmâyana,” Journal asiatique (1952), pp. 67-70; “En marge du Râmâyana cambodgien,” Bulletin de EFEO 38:2 (1938), pp. 285-295; and “Quelques notes sur le Râmker,” Artibus Asiae 24:3/4 (1961), pp. 351-361. Saveros Pou, “Les traits bouddhiques du Râmakerti,” Bulletin de l'EFEO 62 (1975), pp. 355-368.

12. Bernard Philippe Groslier, “Le Râmâyana dans l'ancien Cambodge,” in Râmker, (see note 2 above), p. 63.

13. Martini, La Gloire de Râma, Introduction, p. xxix.

14. Ibid, p. 19.

15. François Bizot, Râmaker, “Interprétation,” pp. 42-61.

16. Râmker, (see note 2 above), pp. 72-75.

17. Ibid., pp. 75-76.

18. Râmker, (see note 2 above), pp. 77-86.

19. Eveline Porée-Maspéro, “Le Râmâyana dans la vie des Cambodgiens,” Seksa Khmer 6 (1983), pp. 19-24.