ABSTRACT
These reliefs are in essence a form of story-telling expressed in stone. Meanwhile, in ancient Javanese society oral story-telling was also known. An inscription of the early tenth century mentions the term macarita (to tell a story), of which the stories told were Bhimma Kumara and .2 The latter story is also depicted in rows of reliefs at the Lara Jonggrang temple, which was built probably in the second part of the ninth century.3 A written poetic rendering of the story in Old Javanese is also known. This literary work is considered to have been written either at the time when the temple complex of Lara Jonggrang was built4 or during the reign of the king who issued the inscription mentioned earlier.5 A survey of dance
reliefs and written sources has also shown that performing arts flourished during the Central Javanese era.6 The question is whether there was some kind of relationship between the different forms of art, namely the narrative art in stone, oral literature, written literature, and the performing arts.
