In the fifteenth century the ritual called the Night af siwa was
well-known in South India, more specifically in the Empire of
Vijayanagara, which was flourishing at that time. A Javanese poet of
those days, Mpu Tanakun by name, who had become acquainted with the
ritual, wrote a didactic poem which aimed to make it known and have it
accepted in his own country. For this religious message he employed the
form of the kakawin, the court poem or kävya of Java, and in imitation
of Indian nxxlels he clad his message in the tale of the hunter,
Lubdhaka, who despite his sinful existence was able to share the bliss
af heaven through the simple fact that - by accident and unawares- he
fulfilled the essential elements af the ritual. It is not known whether
the poet's efforts met with success in Java itself; his poem did,
however, remain known in Bali, the preserver of so many items af
medieval Javanese culture. Not only have Balinese priests laid down and
elaborated in religions works the ritual which he proclaimed, but the
poem has also inspired Balinese artists to make paintings, in former
centuries as well as this. And so the story with its religious message
from India, by way of the inspiration of a Java- nese poet, has beoome
part af the Indonesian cultural heritage. Five centuries after Ta.