Page 69 - Hikayat-Patani-The-Story-Of-Patani 1

60 HIKAYAT PATANI

and elaborate royal pageantry. It is reminiscent of the Emperor
Akbar ... 3
The author of the part of the text describing this orchestra cannot
have been too remote in time from the actual existence of this orchestra,
so we may perhaps assume that he committed these matters to writing
during the reign of the last great queen Raja Kuning, or in any case in
the 17th century. Such a long tradition and consequently such repeated
copying would also account for the numerous mistakes which have crept
into this part of the text. As no comparable Malay text to which part VI
can be linked has so far been found to be in existence, it is difficult to
say anything more specific about its position within the whole frame­
work of Malay court traditions. It deserves special treatment by a music­
ologist who has specialized in Southeast Asian music.
As a summary of what has been said so far the following may be
stated. Our text as preserved in the Abdullah MS. consists of a number
of parts which represent partly different traditions, and which may have
been written by different authors; clearly discernible as such different
parts are I, II, IV, V and VI; with regard to the matter-of-fact
enumeration in part III, specification is difficult. It is possible that one
or more of the parts mentioned are themselves composed of different
parts or were written partly on the basis of earlier versions; this is
particularly true of parts I, II and V; however, the present version of
the texts provides insufficient information for distinguishing such com­
ponent elements. It is also possible, on the other hand, that two or more
of the parts were welded together at an earlier stage in the textual
history than the remainder of the text; III may have belonged to II as
an appendix from the very beginning, or may have been added to parts
I and II by the author who combined these two parts. I and II may
even have been written by the same author, in spite of the apparent
differences between them.

AUTHORS AND CHRONOLOGY OF THE VARIOUS PARTS
In any case, if the above in true in the main, it follows that in trying
to collect data and establish facts about the author(s) we need to treat
separately the parts thus distinguished in the text.
What, then, can be said about the author of part I? The following
would seem relevant. He was a Malay from Patani, and as such he was

3 Letter from Tan Sri Hj. Mubin Sheppard to A. Teeuw, dated 25th March, 1969.