The Hikajat Malém Diwa is the Atjehnese-language version of the Malay romance of Malim Déman — the story of the hero Malim Déman (called Malém Diwa in Atjehnese, with the hero named M. Déman until his seventh year). It is the principal evidence in Hooykaas’s survey for the literary exchange between the Atjehnese and the Malay romance traditions, and is the closest analogue — “in zijn aantrekkelijke eenvoud” (in its attractive simplicity) — to the Malay Hikajat Malim Déman.
The Romance Tradition across the Straits
Hooykaas treats the Hikajat Malim Déman (Malay) and its cognates as a pan-archipelago romance tradition, attested “zowel in het Maleis en Menangkabaus als ook in het Bataks en bij de Atjehers” (in Malay and Minangkabau, in Batak, and among the Atjehnese). The romance — the story of a prince who marries a fairy-princess and loses her through a breach of taboo, then sets out on a quest to recover her — is one of the most widely diffused romance cycles in the Malay-Indonesian world, and its Atjehnese form is the principal evidence for the participation of the Atjehnese literary tradition in this pan-archipelago cycle.
The question of the romance’s original home is, in Hooykaas’s reading, “nog niet uitgemaakt” (not yet settled). The Menangkabau version is “veel uitvoeriger” (much more extensive) and “wekt de indruk van te zijn een uitbreiding van een geliefd gegeven” (gives the impression of being an expansion of a beloved theme) — that is, the Menangkabau is the expanded derivative, not the original. The Batak versions likewise “maken die indruk” (make that impression). The Atjehnese Hikajat Malém Diwa, by contrast, “in zijn aantrekkelijke eenvoud vertoont nog de meeste overeenkomst met de Maleise bewerking” (in its attractive simplicity still shows the greatest resemblance to the Malay version). The Atjehnese and the Malay versions are thus the closest cousins in the family.
Atjehnese Literary Tradition
The closeness of the Atjehnese Hikajat Malém Diwa to the Malay Hikajat Malim Déman is, in Hooykaas’s reading, exactly what should be expected, “daar een zeer aanzienlijk deel der Atjehse letteren teruggaat op die van de concurrerende zeevaarders aan beide zijden van Straat Malakka, en niet op die van de berg-bewonende Ménangkabauers” (since a very considerable part of Atjehnese literature goes back to that of the competing seafarers on both sides of the Strait of Malacca, and not to that of the mountain-dwelling Minangkabau). The Atjehnese literary tradition — oriented to the maritime Malay world of the Strait of Malacca rather than to the highland Minangkabau world of the Sumatran interior — thus drew its romance material from the same Malay-language maritime tradition that produced the Hikajat Malim Déman itself.
The Hero and the Story
The hero of the romance is, in the Atjehnese form, called Malém Diwa — with the variant that, “de held heette tot zijn 7de jaar M. Déman” (the hero was called M. Déman until his seventh year). The story itself is the standard Malim Déman cycle: the prince marries the fairy-princess Putri Bungsu (the youngest of seven fairy-sisters), breaks the taboo against revealing her fairy garments, loses her, and sets out on the quest to recover her. The romance is one of the most beloved in the Atjehnese tradition.
Significance
For AcehWiki, the Hikajat Malém Diwa is significant as the principal evidence for the participation of the Atjehnese literary tradition in the pan-archipelago Malim Déman romance cycle. Its closeness to the Malay Hikajat Malim Déman — “de meeste overeenkomst met de Maleise bewerking” — is the principal literary evidence for Hooykaas’s thesis that “een zeer aanzienlijk deel der Atjehse letteren teruggaat op die van de concurrerende zeevaarders aan beide zijden van Straat Malakka” (a very considerable part of Atjehnese literature goes back to that of the competing seafarers on both sides of the Strait of Malacca).
See Also
- Hikajat Sultan Atjeh Marhoem
- Hikajat Malém Dagang
- Over Maleise Literatuur (1947)
- Acheh
- Malacca
- Sadjarah Malajoe
Source
Over Maleise Literatuur, by Dr. C. Hooykaas, Hoogleraarte Batavia; Tweede Druk (Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1947), chapter 7 (“Pénglipoer Lara; hij, die de zorgen verdrijft”), pp. 53-54.