Mpu Dusun was a
Javanese Buddhist
Buddhism, also known as Buddhadharma and Dharmavinaya, is an Indian religion and List of philosophies, philosophical tradition based on Pre-sectarian Buddhism, teachings attributed to the Buddha, a wandering teacher who lived in the 6th or ...
guru
Guru ( ; International Alphabet of Sanskrit Transliteration, IAST: ''guru'') is a Sanskrit term for a "mentor, guide, expert, or master" of certain knowledge or field. In pan-Indian religions, Indian traditions, a guru is more than a teacher: tr ...
and writer who lived in the later
Majapahit
Majapahit (; (eastern and central dialect) or (western dialect)), also known as Wilwatikta (; ), was a Javanese people, Javanese Hinduism, Hindu-Buddhism, Buddhist thalassocracy, thalassocratic empire in Southeast Asia based on the island o ...
period, in the late 14th to early 15th century period.
Personal life
The name Mpu Dusun is a
pen name
A pen name or nom-de-plume is a pseudonym (or, in some cases, a variant form of a real name) adopted by an author and printed on the title page or by-line of their works in place of their real name.
A pen name may be used to make the author's na ...
, his birth name is unknown. He is identified as Mpu Dusun in his work
Kakawin Kunjarakarna in the final stanza when he states "kīrti sira mpu Dusun" - this is a work of mpu Dusun. He is theorized to have come from a rural background, and did not spend much of his life in a court, unlike other poets of the time. He was a
Buddhist monk or a priest, but much of his work was syncretic with the dominant Hinduism of the time.
Works
*
Kakawin Kunjarakarna
References
Indonesian writers
Indonesian Buddhist monks
People from Majapahit
14th-century Japanese writers
Year of birth unknown
Year of death unknown
Indonesian Buddhists
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