Abstract
The process of Javanization of Indian culture is strikingly illustrated by the transformation of Sutasoma, a Buddhist story about an incarnation of the Buddha who converted a cannibal, which is preserved in two Old Javanese texts and more than 20 Indian texts and Chinese translations. By comparing the structure and contents of the story found in one of the Old Javanese texts, written by the fourteenth-century poet Mpu Tantular, with the Indian and Chinese texts, it seems clear that what is seen as the Sutasoma story in the former could originate solely from the Pāli Sutasoma jātaka (No. 537), though the author utilized elements from other sources as well. Some significant changes in the second Old Javanese text (included as an abridged version in Cantakaparwa, which is believed to have been compiled in the fifteenth or sixteenth century), such as the dismantling of the intricate story-within-a-story structure into a chronological sequence of episodes, the replacement of the original theological teachings by down-to-earth preachings, and the employment of the Middle Javanese usage of personal pronouns, are suggested to be the result of an attempt to adapt the story for the wayang, though to what extent the text would actually have been used for this purpose requires further investigation.
