ABSTRACT
In 1995, while working in the Reksopustoko, the library of the Mangkunagaran palace in Surakarta, one's attention was drawn by a recent product of the library's on-going transliteration project of its manuscript collection. The Suluk Aspiya is a Javanese poem of eight cantos in tembang macapat, which tells about Pakubuwana IV's quest for mystical knowledge, culminating in the teachings of Kyai Sayang from his funeral pyre. As is the case with so many writers/copyists in traditional Javanese literature, we do not have much more information beyond a sheer name. From descriptions of manuscripts in public collections we learn that Raden Mas Atmasutirta apparently had a certain predilection for poems with a mystical tinge. The story begins with Pakubuwana IV 'when he utters the wish to study the secret wisdom concerning statecraft'. He tells this to patih Sasradiningrat who refers him to Kyai Amat Jamkasari.
