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Arjunawiwāha was the first kakawin to appear in the period of the Javanese classical Hindu-Buddhist era in the 11th-century. It was composed by Mpu Kanwa during the reign of King Airlangga, king of the Kahuripan Kingdom, circa 1019 to 1042 Common Era. Arjunawiwaha is estimated to have been finished in 1030.
Along this quest, Arjuna receives weapons - but conflicting sidelines occur with the basic story: some mention only one weapon, others mention several weapons. One of these sidelines tells of the appearance of a boar, that Arjuna shoots; then a hunter comes in who claims to have hit the boar first and therefore it belongs to him. A dispute breaks out until Arjuna realizes that the hunter is Shiva. Shiva then presents Pashupata to Arjuna.
Another version is that Arjuna received the weapon pashupatastra ( astra) twice from Shiva: the first time on the Indrakila mountain, where Arjuna also receives weapons from other gods — a club ( yama – dandastra or danda), a loop ( varuna – pasastra or pasa) and a weapon that gives invisibility ( kubera – antardhanastra or antardhana); and a second time, on the 14th day of the Kurukshetra war, Arjuna meets Krishna in a dream and both go to Shiva who leads them to a pond where there are two snakes that turn into a bow and arrow.
The morality in it is about not using the opportunity to obtain the highest benefit for oneself, such as liberation from the world (i.e. the cycle of reincarnations), but choosing to remain in the world in order to seek the welfare of others.
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Somewhat later, Islam as a new cultural force engendered a written literature in Malay.
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This historical hiatus is what makes Old Javanese literature quite special for its rarity.
No other Indianized countries of Southeast Asia have produced comparable literatures
Zoetmulder, P.J.
1974
Kalangwan; A survey of Old Javanese literature
The Hague
Nijhoff. KITLV,
Zoetmulder 1974:17). Cited in .
During the 10th century, the centre of the Javanese kingdom moved from Central Java to the lower valley of the Brantas River in East Java. There it came under severe attack, possibly from Srivijaya; At the time of the Arjunawiwaha writing (assuming that that is between 1028 and 1035), Airlangga has reasserted his position as king in East Java. Srivijaya and Java may have been competitors in the period leading up to this.
It also took the title Serat Wiwaha Jarwa, attributed to Yasadipura I but in fact written by , Sr. (1799–1859), and published by W. Palmer van den Broek in 1868. Wiryamartana, 1990:325. Cited in
Cited in .In 1990, Wiryamartana publishes an Indonesian translation and a lengthy discussion on the transformations of the original text along the centuries.
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Henry publishes a partial translation in 1981. Cited in .
Robson publishes a complete translation in 2008.
The Arjunawiwaha is preserved in many manuscripts in Bali.
But in the 1970's, Indonesion languages specialist Christiaan Hooykaas (1902-1979)
Balinese collections contain hundreds of texts but only a few were regularly mentioned as important: Ramayana, Arjunawiwaha, Bharatayuddha, Bhomantaka and Kakawin Sutasoma. These were deemed to convey edifying teachings; but this may be due to that the effort to preserve and define the Balinese spiritual heritage was led by the very active Parisadha Hindu Dharma movement, that produced books intended for study and containing moralistic texts or guides for worship; and he Old Javanese classics provide a base for the Hindu society of Bali, legitimized by its high antiquity and having the authority of Scripture.
Bas-reliefs depicting the Arjunawiwaha were carved on East Javanese candis (temples), such as Candi Kedaton in Probolinggo Regency, Surawana near Kediri, Candi Jago near Malang; and in Bali on Rambut Siwi in Mendoyo district, Jembrana Regency.
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