THE 463-page diary, written in Javanese gagrak anyar script, lies neglected among old books in the Mangkunegaran library, Rekso Poestoko, in Solo. All in photocopies, the pages are tied together into a bundle with raffia strings. The first four pages are detached loose in a brown carton.

That’s the lot of the diary written by Raden Mas Said, Mangkunegara I and founder of the dynasty, when he was 53. The diary in the form of tembang macapat wi