 They are all believed to derive from the oral tradition of eastern and western India with the addition of motifs from the Javanese Panji romance.The name-forms show a distinct Dravidian influence, indicative of the role played by South Indians in disseminating the epic.Despite the high esteem in which the story of Rama was once held, since the Islamic revival of the 1980s the Hikayat Seri Rama has drastically decreased in popularity.