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Dance Periode

towards holy ceremonies. Apart from, its function as property for holy ceremonies, we can also regard the nekara as a holy musical instrument. That is to say, this musical instrument Would be sounded only in religious ceremonies to accompany religious dances that were magical and sacral in nature.

Dance drama, which was called wayang wwang, is the oldest dance drama form', mentioned in the twelfth-century book of Sumanasantaka performing stories from the Ramayana or the Mahabharata.
The wayang wwang (wayang means play and wwang means human being) developed further in the later Singhasari kingdom (1222-1292) and the Majapahit kingdom (1292- 1500). This can he seen from some sentences in the two great literary works preserved from Majapahit, the Negarakertagama and the Pararaton. In these two books, which are also sources of historical information for the Hindu-Indonesian (Hindu-Javanese) period mention is made of masked dance-drama. But it should be noted that since the 14th century it has been called by various terms: raket, sori-tekes, atanpukan, or patapelan, performing Panji legends. Now this masked ,dance-drama is called wayang topeng (topeng means mask).

The masked dance-drama, the stories of which are the famous Panji cycle, which originated at the East Javanese period and spread later to other parts of South-East Asia.
The Panji cycle tells of the love between Raden Panji and Dewi candrakirana,'which continues to meet with obstacle after obstacle, :-o that the lovers keep searching for each other without end. Meetings and partings follow one another with fresh adventures in hetween so that a cycle of stories is formed.

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I The masked dance-drama is a feudal product in that this dance- ,drama existed and developed only within the palace-walls, with inembers 6 f the aristocracy as actors. In the masked (lance-drama there is the role of a clown who is the servant of Raden Panji.
The clown-role was often played by the king himself, while the arts of Panji and Candrakirana were played 'by his wives. The dialogue of this dance-drama is sung.

n both the Nagarakertagama and Pararaton it is said that dan-, cing received much attention and was well cared for by the court of Majapahit. Both works even explain that the greatest king of Majapahit, Hayamwuruk (1350-1389), was very fond of dancing, and of other branches of art.

The Nagarakertagama mentions masked dance-drama performance called raket, saying that Hayarnwuruk usually acted the banyol (clown). The Nagarakertagama also informs us that Kertawardhana,. Hayamwuruk's father, was an expert dancer and musician, more

often playing in the accompanying gamelan orchestra. Kertawardhana was said play the drum, a Javanese musical instrument that leads.

the gamelan orchestra. The word gamelan itself, referring to a musical ensemble, was mentioned as early as 1365 in this court chronicle Nagarakertagama.

Besides the Nagarakertagama, the Pararaton states that when king Hayamwuruk danced the sori-tekes (masked dance-drama) he used the sacral name Dalang Tritaraju. From this circumstance came

the custom that the word dalang is used to refer to the mask usuall worn by Hayamwuruk, the Klana mask. Klana is a protagoni the sori-tekes masked dance-drama, being the name of a kini'

wanted to marry Dewi Candrakirana, but was eventually killed bi Raden Panji. Apart from that, Hayamwuruk often played the part of the clown. In this role he used the name Gagak-Ketawang. Apart from his delight in dancing, he was fond of a wayang (shadow play),

performance, and even actually operated the wayang himself, using the sacral name Gagak-Ketawang on such occasions. also.

In the Majapahir period, masked dance-drama,.perforrnatwer begun one evening and:continued on through th.at,night and' the next.day. So this masked dance-drama took up a very long time.