Hans Ras - The University of Leiden, Publications

The University of Leiden, Publications

After his return from Indonesia in 1971, Ras worked in the Department in Leiden. He concentrated more and more on Javanese and as associate of Professor Uhlenbeck took over part of the latter’s teaching load. When Uhlenbeck went into retirement, Ras was the obvious person to succeed him, So he was appointed professor of Javanese language and literature in 1985.

As an aid to the teaching of Javanese language, he wrote a Javanese grammar with a lengthy anthology of modern Javanese texts. Of special importance for the specialist scholar are a number of lengthy, in-depth studies of aspects of Javanese culture and literature. Two particular aspects of this culture enjoyed his special interest. In the first place he made a close study of the Indonesian wayang theatre and its historical development, translating the text of one play, The Abduction of Subadra, into Dutch. No less important are his studies on the origin, structure, function and reliability of Javanese historical texts, in particular the Babad Tanah Jawi. Ras’ most important studies were reprinted in the monograph The shadow of the Ivory Tree. Ras spent the last years of his life preparing a new edition of the Pararaton, one of the most complex Old Javanese texts from a philological and literary-historical point of view. This text had already drawn his attention while working on the Hikayat Banjar. Poor health prevented him from completing this project.

Ras did however publish his conclusions from a comparison of the Pararaton (1481 AD) with respectively the Sanskrit Canggal inscription (732 AD), the Śivagŗha (Siwagrha) inscription (856 AD), the Calcutta Stone (1041 AD) and the Babad Tanah Jawi (1836 AD). He finds clear similarities in character, structure and function of these texts. Also there is similarity with texts from the Malay historiography. On the ground of this, he concludes that from the whole Indonesian area one specific type of texts can be placed together in one literary genre, the ‘government chronicle’ or the ‘book of kings’: historiography at the service of the legitimity of kingship.

Ras occupies a rightful place in the Leiden tradition of Indonesian studies. The qualities for which his publications stand out most are painstaking factual research, mostly of manuscripts, combined with wide scholarly reading, critical acumen and keen intellect.