Literature

It can be argued that Javanese literature started in Central Java. The oldest known literary work in the Javanese language is the Inscription of Sivagrha from Kedu Plain. This inscription which is from 856 AD, is written as a kakawin or Javanese poetry with Indian metres.[22] Then the oldest of narrative poems, Kakawin Ramayana, which tells the well-known story of Ramayana is believed to have come from Central Java. It can be safely assumed that this kakawin must have been written in Central Java in the 9th century.[23]

After the shift of Javanese power to East Java, it had been quiet from Central Java for several centuries, concerning Javanese literature until the 16th century. At this time the centre of power was shifted back to Central Java. The oldest work written in Modern Javanese language concerning Islam is the so-called "Book of Bonang" or also "The Admonitions of Seh Bari". This work is extant in just one manuscript, now kept in the University Library in Leiden, The Netherlands as codex Orientalis 1928. It is assumed that this manuscript originates from Tuban, in East Java and was taken to the Netherlands after 1598.[24] However this work is attributed to Sunan Bonang, one of the nine Javanese saints who spread Islam in Java (Wali Songo) and Sunan Bonang came from Bonang, a place in Demak Regency, Central Java. So it can be argued that this work also mark the beginning of Islamic literature in Central Java.

However the pinnacle of Central Javanese literature was created at the courts of the kings of Mataram in Kartasura and later in Surakarta and Yogyakarta, mostly attributed to the Yasadipura family. The most famous member of this family is Rangga Warsita who lived in the 19th century. He is the best known of all Javanese writers and also one of the most prolific. He is also known as bujangga panutup or "the last court poet".

After the Indonesian independence, the Javanese language as a medium was pushed to the background. Still one of the greatest contemporary Indonesian author, Pramoedya Ananta Toer was born in 1925 in Blora, Central Java. He was an Indonesian author of novels, short stories, essays, polemics, and histories of his homeland and its people. A well-regarded writer in the West, Pramoedya's outspoken and often politically charged writings faced censorship in his native land during the pre-reformation era. For opposing the policies of both founding president Soekarno, as well as those of its successor, the New Order regime of Soeharto, he faced extrajudicial punishment. During the many years in which he suffered imprisonment and house arrest, he became a cause célèbre for advocates of freedom of expression and human rights. In his works he writes much about life and social problems in Java.

source by en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Central_Java#Architecture