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Mythology and the Tolerance of the Javanese
Mythology and the Tolerance of the Javanese iTOKT Jl. DC. flNMWDM MILL mOION INDONfUfl MOJUT Southeast Asia Program Cornell University Ithaca, New York 1996
Editorial Board Benedict Anderson George Kahin Stanley O’Connor Keith Taylor Oliver Wolters Cornell Modern Indonesia Project 640 Stewart Avenue, Ithaca, NY 14850-3857 Cornell Modern Indonesia Project No. 37 © 1965,1996 Cornell Modern Indonesia Project. All rights reserved. Published 1965. Second Edition 1996. Reprinted 2004. Except for brief quotations in a review, no part of this book may be reproduced or utilized in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying and recording, or by any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the Cornell Modern Indonesia Project. Printed in the United States of America ISBN 0-87763-041-0 Cover: Buta arrives at the battleground to face Hanoman. From the Rama reliefs at Panataran.
Preface All of those who are interested in contemporary Indonesian society, its organization and social and political articulation, sooner or later come to realize that in order to achieve any real depth of understanding for these phenomena it is first necessary to appreciate the enduring and frequently manifest residuum of traditional, pre-Western culture in Indonesia. Certainly this is true with respect to Java, whose culture has of course had an impact far beyond the shores of that island. In many cases these legacies of traditional culture help to explain current phenomena; in addition they make much more understandable the Javanese approach to religion—not only to Islam but also to Hinduism and Buddhism, which were introduced to the island earlier. For they have conditioned the way in which all outside ideas, Western and non-Western, have been received, and they help to account for the particular patterns of synthesis which are woven into the Javanese milieu. Most striking is the way in which persisting elements of old Javanese culture affect contemporary values. An ability to accommodate to and tolerate conflicting norms and ideas, the capacity to entertain in coexistence ideas and values that would seem incompatible in many Western settings, an unusual capacity for sympathetic toleration in social behavior—these are all attributes of contemporary Javanese society deriving from old Javanese culture. For the outsider, such elements are probably most easily approached and understood through the traditional artistic medium of the wayang—the Javanese shadow-plays based upon adaptations and developments of major themes and episodes in the Ramayana and the Mahabharata. These wayang plays, performed with flat leather puppets which throw their sharply etched shadows against a screen which is viewed from the other side, are as important a part of contemporary Javanese culture as they were of the old. To discern this relationship between the wayang plays and Javanese society, to achieve an insight into the values which have been conveyed by wayang over the centuries, and then to perceive these patterns of social conduct and morality in a dy- namic phase of interaction and adjustment with the new values and social concepts born in Indonesia of the Japanese occupation, the Revolution, and the rapid change of a post-revolutionary society, is an accomplishment few non-Indonesians would be capable of. Nor, indeed, would it be possible for most Indonesians, for their in- volvement in the culture and the society is so close that they miss the perspective necessary to appraise and describe these phenomena to an outside audience. Mr. Benedict Anderson's study of the wayang and its sociological and psychological significance is, I believe, a real contribution to our understanding of Javanese culture and values. A political scientist by training (he has recently returned from Indonesia after three years of research there, primarily on the Revolutionary period),
6 Mythology and the Tolerance of the Javanese he has long been interested in Javanese art, drama, and music and has achieved un- usually deep insights into these aspects of the Javanese civilization. Mr. Anderson wishes to emphasize that this study is exploratory in nature and that the conclusions he reaches are tentative. He would welcome comments and criticism on the material he is presenting. George McT. Kahin Director Ithaca, New York August 24,1965
Table of Contents Preface5 Contents7 List of Illustrations9 Introduction11 Mythology and the Tolerance of the Javanese13 Appendix I: Supplementary Characters47 Appendix II: Mahabharata: A Javanese Version According to the Lakons 75 Appendix III: Genealogies of the Mahabharata (Javanese Version)85 Appendix IV: Ramayana: A Javanese Version According tothe Lakons89 Glossary101
List of Illustrations Figure1Prabu Salya19 Figure2Dewi Satyawati20 Figure3Begawan Bagaspati21 Figure4Raden Abimanju22 Figure5Prabu Judistira23 Figure6Raden Wrekudara (Bima)24 Figure7Raden Ardjuna25 Figure8Prabu Kresna26 Figure9Prabu Baladewa27 Figure10Adipati Kama28 Figure11Raden Kumbakarna30 Figure12Dahjang Durna32 Figure13Raden Drestadjumena33 Figure14Prabu Sujudana34 Figure15Dewi Sumbadra35 Figure16Dewi Srikandi36 Figure17Kjai Lurah Semar37 Figure18Batara Guru38 Figure19Raden Samba41 Figure20Raden Gatutkatja44 Figure21Betari Durga47 Figure22Batara Narada48 Figure23Batara Surya49 Figure24Sang Hyang Baju50 Figure25Prabu Matswapati51 Figure26Begawan Abjasa52 Figure27Resi Bhisma53 Figure28Prabu Drupada54 Figure29Bambang Aswatama55 Figure30Dewi Banowati56 Figure31Raden Lesmana Mandrakumara57 Figure32Patih Arja Sangkuni58 Figure33Raden Dursasana59 Figure34Raden Djajadrata60 Figure35Raden Burisrawa61 Figure36Raden Nangkula-Raden Sadewa62 Figure37Raden Setyaki63 Figure38Togog64
10 Mythology and the Tolerance of the Javanese Figure39Gareng65 Figure40Petruk66 Figure41Bagong67 Figure42Tjangik68 Figure43Limbuk69 Figure44Buta Tjakil70 Figure45Buta Terong71 Figure46Garuda72 Figure47Djurumeja73 Figure48Brahala74 Figure49Prabu Drestarata76 Figure50Raden Widura76 Figure51Dewi Kunti Nalibrata77 Figure52Dewi Drupadi77 Figure53Prabu Parikesit84 Figure54Prabu Dasamuka89 Figure55Raden Wibisana90 Figure56Dewi Sinta91 Figure57Raden Indradjit91 Figure58Prabu Rama92 Figure59Raden Lesmana93 Figure60Dewi Sarpakenaka94 Figure61Raden Hanoman95 Figure62Prabu Sugriwa96 Figure63Dewi Tridjata97 Figure64Patih Prahast&98 Figure65Kekajon (Gunungan)105 These illustrations are drawn from J. Kats, Het Javaansche Tooneel, J, Wajang Purwa, Weltevreden, 1923, and Hardjowirogo, Sedjarah Wajang Purwa, Perpustakaan Perguruan Kementerian P. P. & K., Djakarta, 1955. For technical reasons, it has not proved possible to reproduce them all to scale.
Introduction I would like to make it clear that the following essay is essentially exploratory, designed to raise certain questions about Javanese culture and values. The main idea has been to take wayang out of the framework of drama and literary studies in which it has traditionally been confined and try to put it in a wider sociological and psychological context, to see what clues it may provide for a deeper understanding of Javanese society. What I have said is in no sense to be taken as anything more than a preliminary and very incomplete attempt to explain a small part of this vast subject. I am aware that many opinions and judgments have been expressed with what will seem to be excessive assertiveness and perhaps unnecessary acerbity, but this has been done at least partly on purpose, in the hope thereby of arousing interest and discussion in an area of Indonesia studies largely neglected in our time. I realize only too well the superficiality of my own knowledge of the immense complexities of Javanese civilization and can therefore only hope that the inadequacies of this essay will earn at least the tolerance of Indonesian readers. Some of the basic ideas of this essay I owe to talks in Djakarta with Professor G. J. Resink in 1964, though it goes without saying that anything said here is entirely my own responsibility. I would like to acknowledge with gratitude the help of Mrs. Claire Holt, Mrs. Arlene Lev, Mr. N. Tirtaamidjaja, and Mr. Pandam Guritno Siswoharsojo, who read parts of the text and made many invaluable suggestions. I would like also to thank Mrs. Susan Finch for her contribution towards whatever order and clarity the final version of this manuscript has. Benedict R. O'G. Anderson Ithaca, New York August 7,1965
Mythology AND THE Tolerance of the Javanese I Most Europeans and Americans who have lived long in Java sooner or later fall under the spell of her ancient civilization. Yet the specific quality of Javanese life and culture which impresses the foreigner seems regularly to elude description. In earlier decades observers were fond of referring to 'Javanese syncretism" and the "Javanese sense of relativism." But especially since the outbreak of Indonesia's national revolution, it has become popular to speak of the "tolerance" of the Javanese as their quintessential characteristic. Whether or not the Javanese themselves traditionally regarded tolerance as one of their salient ethnic traits, nowadays they too are likely to take a quiet pride in their reputation for broadmindedness and savoir vivre. The growing unanimity of devoted foreigners and of the educated Javanese on the wide prevalence of tolerance in Javanese society can be accounted for by a large number of psychological, political, and historical factors which need not concern us here. Nonetheless this unanimity has tended to shield the idea of Javanese tolerance from even friendly scrutiny and analysis. It is therefore the hope of shedding some light on the concrete social and cultural aspects of this "tolerance" that guides the highly tentative discussion that follows. II It should be said first of all that the "Javanese sense of relativism" should in no sense be understood as a generalized tolerance of differences regardless of race, color, or creed. It does not, as a rule, extend unconditionally to the other ethnic groups in Indonesia, to whom the Javanese normally feel a little superior. Nor does it include the Chinese and Europeans, the other significant alien groups in Java. Both these communities wear an ambiguous prestige, inherited from the colonial age. The Javanese advise against marriage with Chinese, observing that "their ashes are older"—in other words, that the children are likely to prove more Chinese than Javanese. Yet certainly the Chinese are more generally accepted in Javanese society than, for example, among the Sundanese. But this is largely because Chinese settlement in Central and East Java goes back for many generations, and the local Chinese have largely assimilated to Javanese culture. In the Priangan, from which the Chinese were barred till the early part of this century, immigration is new; and the clash of contrasting cultures still stirs enmity and distrust. As for the Americans and Europeans, even today they profit from the residues of colonial racism. White
14 Mythology and the Tolerance of the Javanese visitors, especially those from the intellectual and official class, are usually treated with high deference. Eccentricities are accepted gracefully, but as part of an alien order without direct relevance for Javanese life. If, then, tolerance is not strikingly evident in the relationships of the Javanese with outsiders, in what does it consist? What do the Javanese themselves have in mind when they speak of this characteristic of their culture? There can be little doubt that for the average Javanese the idea of toleransi, as such, is inextricably associated with the peculiar nature of religion in Java. Somewhere at the back (or front) of his mind will be lurking the problem of his relationship to Islam. A typical Javanese formulation might well be: "Of course I am a Moslem, but not a fanatical Moslem like the Atjehnese. We Javanese can get along with Christians and Buddhists. We see truth in all religions and are not exclusive in our beliefs." Yet behind this theological broadmindedness and rational sophistication there is evident a certain disingenuousness. For the fact is that though the Javanese are overwhelmingly an Islamic people on paper, the real spiritual commitment of the great majority to this religion is little more than nominal. The voting strength of the confessional Islamic parties on Java is to be found primarily among the alien Sundanese of West Java and the Madurese of Madura and the Oosthoek. Islam among the ethnic Javanese is strongest in the commercial townships of the Pasisir (North coast), which historically have been most influenced by foreign cultures— Chinese, Arabic, and European—and which, politically and socially, are most remote from the geographic heartland of Javanese civilization in South Central Java. Since a majority of Javanese do not feel themselves to be Islamic in any profound sense, their tolerance of non-Islamic religious beliefs is scarcely a matter of high principle. In many cases it is simply a useful defense against the political and moral claims of an aggressive and orthodox Islamic minority. In the classical opposition within Javanese communities between santri (committed Islamic) and abangan (nominally Islamic) groups, "tolerance" is basically a weapon to deny ascendancy to the santri and assure the continued legitimacy of traditional abangan domination. This becomes all the clearer when one looks at the attitude of many abangan Javanese towards Christianity. In various areas of East and Central Java, Protestant and Catholic sects have played an important historical role. Like Islam, Christianity offered a release for those who suffered too cruelly from the frustrations generated by a static, traditional society. Becoming a Christian removed a man from the established hierarchies of the Javanese community, in which rank and religion were inextricably intertwined since the highest spiritual powers were attributed to the temporal rulers of Java, such as the Susuhunan of Surakarta and the Sultan of Jogjakarta. Of the rival Christian sects, it has been the Catholics who have made the most spectacular progress in Java, since their clergy are mostly Javanese, and they have generally shown a sophisticated willingness to make the necessary adjustments to traditional Javanese ideas and prejudices. Nevertheless, there has always been an inescapable loss of caste involved in a Javanese becoming a Christian. In the colonial period, to be sure, Javanese Christians won a certain position in the community through sharing a religion with their colonial rulers. Since the revolution, this ambiguous prestige has naturally vanished. But it is not simply the previous colonial associations which underlie the widespread feeling that Javanese Christians, even Javanese Catholics, do not really belong to the Javanese family in the fullest sense. Like the strongly Islamic santris, Christians are felt to threaten the stability of the traditional order by making claims to social honor
Mythology and the Tolerance of the Javanese 15 which cannot be justified within that order. Such feelings tend to be especially strong at the present time, when the grave problems of Javanese and even Indonesian identity are intimately bound up with the disintegration of traditional society. Even in the strictly theological sphere, Christianity usually wins approval only in a very limited sense. The Javanese sees "truth/' but not "the truth," in all religions. In other words, he looks for and approves those Christian ideas which are felt to be tjotjog (in harmony) with the Javanese Weltanschauung. The rest are completely ignored. Christianity is valid to the extent that it approximates to the Javanese religion. Many non-Christian Javanese send their children to the excellent Catholic schools in the larger cities. But it is usually with the firm, if unstated, understanding that they will not become Catholics. The schools are popular insofar as they offer access to the secular Western education which is increasingly the sine qua non of social mobility and an honorable career. Christianity, then, and particularly its Catholic variant, is tolerated for quite specific social and political reasons. In institutional form it offers a widely respected means of access to modernity; as a religious organization it provides a highly respectable pretext for fending off the political, social, and moral claims of orthodox Islam. Where Christianity acquires prestige in itself, it is insofar as it conforms to a Javanese ethos and a Javanese conception of life. Another illustration of the Javanese idea of religious tolerance is the Javanese attitude towards Buddhism. On Java, the Buddhists are a very small group indeed; yet they have considerable prestige for a variety of reasons. Their numbers are drawn almost exclusively from metropolitan and provincial elite circles—high army officers, government officials, and wealthy, established Chinese. Moreover, in the collective Javanese memory Buddhism is associated with the Tantric religion of the pre-Islamic epoch in which the great Javanese empire of Modjopahit reached the apogee of its glory. The fact that Modjopahit was finally humbled by a coalition of North coast Islamic states, led by Demak, ushering in the so-called Dark Ages of Javanese history and eventually Dutch colonial rule, is nowhere forgotten. For the largely abangan Javanese ruling class, which is pleased to trace its political and familial ancestry back to Modjopahit, an ill-defined "Buddhism" has thus very favorable connotations. Moreover, in the traditionalist abangan religious culture, which has been engaged in an ill-concealed competition with Islam for many centuries, there are undoubtedly still existent many Tantric Buddhist-derived elements. Yet on the other hand, the Balinese religion, which also contains Buddhist as well as Hindu (Shivaitic) and animist elements and probably approximates reasonably closely to the historical Tantric religion of Modjopahit, is regarded with scant respect. It is clear that this is because the Javanese, as an ethnic group, look upon the Balinese and their way of life as kasar (coarse), rame (noisy), and desa (peasant, primitive). To this day, the agama Bali (Balinese religion) has not been accorded full recognition by the Javanese-dominated government in Djakarta. In brief, the crucial factors to be taken into account if one is assessing the degree of real religious tolerance in any particular case are the ethnic and class associations of the relevant religious group. One should not argue that the Javanese are tolerant of Christianity and "Buddhism" as such, but insofar as these religious systems have been assimilated to "Javanism" and to the extent that their adherents are respectable Javanese.
16 Mythology and the Tolerance of the Javanese III It may appear from the foregoing discussion that what has been widely regarded as an admirable broadmindedness among the Javanese is simply a rather subtle form of cultural chauvinism. Yet in fact nothing could be further from the truth. But only when certain generalized misconceptions have been dispelled can one perceive clearly the real and, it seems to me, admirably wide dimensions of the Javanese respect for human variety. For the real character of Javanese "tolerance" should be sought not in any abstract "humanist" acceptance of conflicting ethical or religious systems, but rather in the Javanese people's sense of their own personality and traditions. The immense strength of Javanese cultural self-consciousness is illustrated by the fact that immature children are said to be durung Djawd—"not yet Javanese"— rather than, as we might put it, "not yet adult." But it is just this proud self- confidence which forms the emotional and psychological underpinning for the "real" Javanese tolerance. So deeply ingrained is this pride that almost anything is tolerated, provided that it can be adapted to or explained in terms of the Javanese way of life. One of the most striking contrasts between Western society and that of Java is the general absence in the first as compared with the pervasive presence in the second of a compelling religious mythology. This one could define as a set of national or cultural symbols commanding allegiance reasonably uniformly over a whole society, both horizontally through every region and vertically through every social class. Certainly in contemporary Western society there are no religious myths which have this kind of universal grip and relevancy. The traditional Christian myths survive largely as imposing, melancholy ruins in the flat landscape of our secular civilization. It is, of course, evident that much of our behavior is still regulated by the residues of Christian norms and values. Nevertheless, these values increasingly lack a convincing imagery of persuasive symbolism to give them urgency. If one refrains from committing adultery it is likely to be because one feels it "wouldn't be fair," or because one is too lazy, busy, or timid, rather than because Paris suffered bitterly for his rape of Helen or because Moses brought down his graven tablets from Mount Sinai, Our morality grows steadily more pragmatic— without poetry or metaphysics. In Java, for historical reasons which are too complicated to enter into here, there is still an almost universally accepted religious mythology which commands deep emotional and intellectual adherence. This is what I shall call, for convenience, the wayang tradition, from the much loved shadow-play of that name which is the main preserver and transmitter of that tradition. Wayang, like any other metaphysical and ethical "system," is concerned to explain the universe. Though partially based on the Indian epics Mahabharata and Ramayana, the Javanese wayang mythology is yet an attempt to explore poetically the existential position of Javanese man, his relationships to the natural and supernatural order, to his fellow-men—and to himself. In contrast to the great religions of the Near East, however, the religion of wayang has no prophet, no message, no Bible, and no Redeemer. It does not conceive the world as moving in any linear trajectory, nor does it preach a universal message of salvation. It does not offer the ecstasies of the Christian apocalypse, merely the inexorable flux. The world-view expressed in this religious tradition has been aptly epitomized by Mrs. Claire Holt as "a stable world based on conflict." Yet the sense of underlying instability is no less important than the sense of permanence. If a wheel spins eternally on a fixed axis, is it changing or unchanged?
Mythology and the Tolerance of the Javanese 17 IV The endless variety and sharp individuality of its dramatis personae indicates that wayang reflects the variegation of human life as it is felt by the Javanese. Nevertheless, this teeming multiplicity is ordered by clearly marked dichotomies. There is, for example, the fundamental cleavage between Left and Right, Sepuh and Nem (Old and Young), Kurawa and Pendawa, which at bottom grows out of a sense of the obvious dualities of the Universe: male and female, sun and earth, mountain and sea, night and day, age and youth. All are necessary and complementary to one another. Day is not day without night, and youth is not youth without age peering over its shoulder. The harmonious tension and energetic stability of this Weltanschauung are in essential opposition to the cosmologies of Christianity and Islam in which the Supreme Being is quite unambiguous, representing only one set of "poles" (maleness, goodness, light, and reason). It must be acknowledged that recently, under Christian, European influences, probably dating back to the end of the last century, there has been a tendency in Java to simplify the older, complicated interrelationships. Tolerance of ambiguity has begun to decline, and wayang has tended to be devalued towards a commonplace morality play between Good and Evil.1 The growing popularity of this type of interpretation reflects an attempt to assimilate Javanese to Western civilization. But it should always be stressed that this is not the older, subtler Javanese tradition and not the relativistic religious conception which has suffused Javanese life, religion, and art for hundreds of years. The division on the kelir (wayang screen) between Kurawa and Pendawa is often today taken to represent the conflict between Evil and Good. Yet the deeper complementarities and ambiguous interconnections of human existence are cunningly exposed by the irony that Left and Right are not absolute. Depending whether, at a wayang performance, one watches the puppets or their shadows, right becomes left and left right. Both are merely in the eye of the beholder. The other important division in the wayang world stems from the close relationship between Javanese religious thinking and a particular historically determined social order. "Javanism" is a world-outlook inconceivable in an egalitarian and meritocratic society. The ancient Southeast Asian conception of the God-King, by which the temporal ruler represented divine power incarnate and the king's subjects partook of this power in exact proportion to their proximity to the throne, permeates the wayang world. Both symbolically and in everyday practice, the Javanese social hierarchy reflected a cosmological perspective in direct contrast to that of Islam and Christianity. These religions present a stark contrast between Man and God, engaged in direct dialogue across the infinite and silent spaces which so terrified Pascal. For the Javanese, however, the cosmos is not only teeming with life and living energy but is also elaborately ranked and ordered. Java has never had a caste system. Yet something of the pure idea of caste, shorn of its rigid Indian barbarities and with greater emphasis upon function than on birth, struck and 1 This kind of interpretation has unluckily been encouraged by transient foreign commentators, who have too often imposed their own moral conceptions on a tradition they failed fully to comprehend.
18 Mythology and the Tolerance of the Javanese maintained strong roots as the appropriate symbolic expression of an hierarchical community.2 Implicit in an unequal hierarchical social order is the idea that each rank or level has its own peculiar functions within the social structure. Each order is dependent on all the others. If one fails to function, all the others suffer the consequences. Thus, the King communicates with the supernatural powers and secures their benevolence; the brahmand perform the rituals of state and transmit the culture of the community to the next generation; the satryd have the duty of administering the government and protecting the state from external attack; the traders maintain economic prosperity, while the artisans construct the material apparatus of the civilization. Out of the concept of function there now emerges the idea of morality. Precisely because all functions are interrelated, and because each order is essential to all the others, social approval for individuals within each order depends on how adequately they fulfill their order's functions. Thus, a satryd who behaves perfectly in the artisan "manner" is a bad satryd, regardless of the good work that he may in fact do. A trader who lives as a trader is a better member of society than the trader who leads the life of an ascetic brahmand.3 So there develops a stratification of moralities according to caste and class, each of which may be in contrast or conflict with the others. The harshnesses of this conception are mitigated by Buddhist influences, which prevent any absolute value being attached to a particular class or its morality. The final goal is not earthly morality but absorption into the Infinite. The ideal mode of behavior is to acquit oneself appropriately according to the "rank" to which one's nasib (fate) has assigned one, without attaching any permanent importance to it. This moral pluralism suffuses the whole world of wayang. For example, the criticism leveled at the Kurawa is not that they are bad men but bad satryd. The hero Adipati Kama fights on the Kurawa side but is approved of because he lives and dies as a real satryd should. In one early lakon, or play, when Kama's high satryd origins are still unknown, he enters and is about to win an archery contest when he is stopped and roundly abused by the Pendawa. They sneer at him for abandoning the appropriate life-style he inherited from his supposed father, a charioteer. The Javanese audience watching the lakon will undoubtedly feel disturbed at this point. But they will be upset not on the general grounds that such arrogant abuse is, humanly speaking, reprehensible, whoever the target, but because they know that all the time Kama is really a satryd. Thus the Pendawa's behavior is inappropriate, or, as the Javanese put it, ora pantes. In this idea of "appropriateness" we discover a concept central to Javanese ethical theory. And this ide,' is itself rooted in the inter-dependencies of a complex and sophisticated hierarchk 1 civilization. Thus although the ethical requirements of each life-style in the wayang may be rigid and austere, the existence of a plurality of such life-styles, each with its own code of behavior, gives the wayang world a wide variety of psychological contrasts, a sumptuous array of characters, and, on occasion, an unmatched moral poignancy. 2This hierarchical feeling is fundamental to the unique structure of the Javanese language, which employs two radically different basic vocabularies—called kramd and ngoko—according to whether the person addressed is higher or lower on the social ladder than the speaker. 3Such is the general rule. Of course individuals with exceptional talents or magical powers may transcend these social norms. But these individuals, insofar as they successfully reveal their powers, are taken by society to be "really" members of the group to which they aspire behind the surface appearance of, say, simple traders.
Mythology and the Tolerance of the Javanese 19 In one well-known lakon, the young, handsome, and virtuous Salya discovers that his bride, Dewi Satyawati, is the daughter of a raseksd^ (monstrous giant) hermit known as Begawan Bagaspati. The young couple are deeply in love. Satyawati and her widowed father are strongly attached to one another. Salya himself has, personally, nothing but respect for his father-in-law. Nevertheless, it is felt to be "inappropriate" for Salya, a prominent satrya, to have a raseksd in his family. It is understood by all parties that Salya and Satyawati's marriage cannot be fulfilled so long as Bagaspati remains alive. Thereupon, Bagaspati orders Salya to kill him, since he himself wishes the marriage to endure for his child's sake. And as a marriage-gift he bestows on the young man the celebrated and invincible magical weapon Tjandabirawa. Salya agrees to carry out the old raseksd's wishes, though he is well aware that this murder is in its own way a violation of the satrya code and that he will eventually have to pay the price with his own life. The deed is done, and Salya rides off with Satyawati to his family's palace in Mandraka.
Fig. 1 Salya
4 The raseksd are the traditional enemies of the satrya in most wayang stories. They are often taken to represent the demonic forces, where the satrya represent the powers of reason and order.
20 Mythology and the Tolerance of the Javanese For the Javanese audience, the moral ambi- guities of this simple episode are a matter of endless debate. What was Salya's real duty? Where should Satyawati's loyalty have lain? What were Bagaspati's real designs? Which of the three showed the deepest nobility of character? Was it Salya, who agreed to murder to keep the honor of his satryd family undefiled and accepted his own violent end as a just retribution? Was it Satyawati, who sacrificed her father for her beloved husband? Or was it Bagaspati, who put his daughter and her lover before himself yet, as he lay dying, proph-
Fig. 2 Satyawatiesied that he would return
to wreak vengeance on both? Or another well-known example. At the height of the Last War between the Kurawa and the Pendawa, known as the Brat&juda Djajabinangun, Ardjuna (see Fig. 7, page 25), the best-loved of the Pendawa, is about to engage in single combat with his elder half-brother Adipati Kama (see Fig. 10, page 28). In great anxiety of mind, he turns to his spiritual mentor, Prabu Kresna (see Fig. 8, page 26), and confides his deep unwillingness to fight. The Kurawa, in spite of everything, are his brothers and cousins, and in such a fratricidal slaughter the victors will be more wretched than the vanquished. At least the latter will attain the real goal of every satryd, an honorable death on the field of battle. Kresna answers briefly that the true satryd is never swayed from the path of duty by personal sentiment or family feeling. In any case, it has long since been fated that Ardjuna shall destroy his brother Karnd. Kama himself knows that he is destined to die at Ardjuna's hands; yet he does not flinch from the struggle. As a real satryd, Ardjuna must pursue his destiny without complaint or useless lamentation. Again the morality of the traditional ruling class is displayed in its most austere form. Feelings of family solidarity and piety, which might be indulged with propriety by members of another social group, are forbidden to the satryd. In such a world, one can only judge a man's moral worth when one knows who he is. This sense of loyalty to a caste code should not, however, be seen in isolation, as merely the selfish vanity and empty posturing of a privileged group. In the mysterious and sacred lakon, Semar Papa, the Pendawa kingdom of NgamartS is
Mythology and the Tolerance of the Javanese 21
Fig. 3 Bagaspati
22 Mythology and the Tolerance of the Javanese
Fig. 4 Abimanju
struck by an inexplicable plague. A seer warns that the pestilence can only be dispelled by the death of Semar (see Fig. 17, page 37), the loyal servant of the Pendawa who has waited on them from birth and rescued them from countless difficulties. Deeply troubled, Prabu Judistira (see Fig. 5, page 23), eldest of the Pendawa, calls his brothers into council. After long debate, they decide that the state and community, which they as satrya are pledged to defend, must take precedence even over the life of their beloved retainer. Accordingly, Judistira orders his nephew, the young prince Abimanju, Ardjuna's eldest son, to lead the old man into the neighboring forest and there put him to death. But when Abimanju and Semar are alone together, the tender-hearted young prince cannot bring himself to carry out his uncle's command. He releases Semar and hurries away. Sentiment has begun to change in Java today. But traditionally Abimanju's behavior was regarded as a lapse from real satrya morality. The young man acts like a woman or a child, not as a satrya.. The really moral men are Semar, who, as a retainer, agrees to die for his master, and Judistira, who, though devoted to Semar, sacrifices his personal feelings for the welfare of his subjects.
Mythology and the Tolerance of the Javanese 23 V Having now considered the deep Javanese recognition of the logical and social necessity of a moral pluralism, along "caste" lines, some attention should perhaps be given to structural variations within these "castes." For the characters of wayang are not simply divided into Left and Right, Kurawa and Pendawa, gods, kings, brahmana, satrya, princesses, giants, apes, and clowns, each with their own style and way of life. Each of these general categories contains within itself a wide range of personalities, which must be analyzed, however summarily, in their aspect as human types and as bearers of contrasting values. Judistira The eldest of the five Pendawa is Prabu Judistira. He is the pure type of the Good King. The blood in his veins is white. He never raises his voice in anger, never fights, and never rejects a request from anyone, however humble. His time is spent in meditation and the accumulation of wisdom. Unlike the other heroes, whose chief magical attributes are weapons, Judistira's sacred heirloom is the mysterious Kalimasada, a holy text containing the secrets of religion and the universe. He is, above all, the disinterested intellectual, ruling his kingdom with perfect justice and aloof benevolence. In the complete lack of ostentatious ornament, the gentle, introspective inclination of the head, and the aristocratic refinement of feature, one recognizes the ideal portrait of the passionless Panditd Ratu (Priest-King).
24 Mythology and the Tolerance of the Javanese
Fig. 6 Wrekudara
Wrekudara (Bitna) Wrekudara is the most feared of warriors, creating havoc with his terrible club and atrocious fingernails (the Pantjanaka). He disdains to ride in a chariot and strides through forests and deserts and over mountains and seas without any difficulty. He scorns pomp and finery. He bows to no one. Even to the gods he speaks in ngoko, the form of Javanese used to social inferiors. Merciless to his enemies, gigantic, ungainly, heavily muscled, hairy, with protruding eyes and thunderous voice, he is the complete contrast to his elder brother. Nevertheless, his unswerving honesty, loyalty, fortitude, and military skill make him among the most admired figures in wayang.
Mythology and the Tolerance of the Javanese 25
Fig. 7 Ardjuna
Ardjuna What is one to say of Ardjuna? Unequaled warrior on the battlefield, yet physically delicate and beautiful as a girl, tender-hearted yet iron-willed, a hero whose wives and mistresses are legion yet who is capable of the most extreme discipline and self-denial, a satrya with a deep feeling for family loyalty who yet forces himself to kill his own half-brother, he is, to the older generation of Javanese, the epitome of the whole man. In contrast to Judistira, he is joyfully at home in the world. His amorous adventures never cease to delight the Javanese, yet in a strange way he is in complete contrast to Don Juan. So great is his physical beauty and refinement, that princesses and maid-ser- vants alike hurry to offer themselves to him. It is they who are honored, not Ardjuna. And in contrast to Wrekudara he represents the physical grace and gentleness of heart which generations of Javanese have so highly prized. Kresna Kresna and his brother Baladewa are first cousins to the Pendawa. Kresna is part God, an incarnation of the mighty Wisnu. He is the consummate politician, diplomat, and strategist of war. By far the most intellectually brilliant of the Pendawa faction, it is Kresna who makes their final victory possible. On the other hand, he is a conscienceless liar and an unscrupulous schemer who never hesitates to break the rules when he feels it necessary. Though a satrya, he repeatedly ignores the lesser values of the satrya. class. Only the duty to carry out the will of the gods and his own destiny claim his allegiance. He is cynical where Judistira is pious, humorous and
26 Mythology and the Tolerance of the Javanese
Fig. 8 Kresna
sarcastic where Wrekudara is savage, stern and inflexible where Ardjuna shows human weakness. In the long struggle between Kurawa and Pendawa, both sides use treachery and cunning. Only Kresnd, however, wins approval, since his ultimate aims accord with the will of the gods to destroy the Kurawa and since he himself is of divine origin. These factors make his actions appropriate.
Mythology and the Tolerance of the Javanese 27
Fig. 9 Baladewa
Baladewa Kresna's brother, Prabu Baladewa, King of Mandura, sides with the Kurawa, yet in his own way is no less striking and admirable a figure. Given to sudden generous enthusiasms, unstinting in his loyalties, brave, hot-tempered, direct, and undoubtedly stupid, he is in marked contrast to Kresna, who, indeed, consistently manipulates and outmaneuvers him. Yet at the end of the Last War, when all the heroes, including Kresna himself, are dead and gone, it is Baladewa who is left alone to guard and bring up Parikesit, Ardjuna's infant grandson, who will become the ancestor of the Kings of Java.
28 Mythology and the Tolerance of the Javanese
Fig. 10 Kama
Kama Though in every respect Ardjuna's equal in physical perfection, military skill, and moral sensitivity, he dies at Ardjuna's hands because the Gods have willed it so. When still a new-born baby he was abandoned by his mother, Dewi Kunti Nalibrata (see Fig. 51, page 77), who was later also to give birth to the Pendawa. A simple charioteer brought him up. Eventually, the Kurawa, looking for a champion against
Mythology and the Tolerance of the Javanese 29 the Pendawa, took him into service, raised him up, and honored him, finally making him Adipati (Viceroy) in Ngawangga. The Pendawa, on the other hand, while respecting his prowess, sneered at his low origins and rejected his company. Later, when it became known that he was really Judistira's elder brother, the satryd sense of honor told him that ingratitude to the Kurawa King would be more disgraceful than fighting against his own family. Though he clearly recognizes that King Sujudana, his master, has repeatedly violated the satryd code, he will not abandon him.3 * 5 The Javanese attitude to Kama was brought home to me once very vividly when I was speaking with an elderly Javanese official about a friend of his who had fought on the side of the Dutch during the Revolution. The friend had been embittered when some of his family were murdered by a gang of nationalist youths in the anarchic days after the Proclamation of Independence. He had also been well treated by the Dutch. The elderly Javanese was an ardent patriot, yet as he spoke of his former school-friend he slipped easily and almost unconsciously into a comparison with Adipati Kama. His friend, too, had fought on the wrong side, but for reasons which seemed to him sufficient. And he had fought with courage and honor. One could not call him a pengchianat (traitor) like those who had "crossed over" from faintheartedness, lack of principle, or hope of gain. He did not know if his friend was still alive. He had never seen him since and, in a sense, did not wish to. Yet he fully accepted and respected what he had done. 3 Compare, for example, stanzas 5 and 6 of the beautiful poem Tripama by G. P. A. A. Mangkunegara IV, in his Dwidja Isjwara (Albert Rusche & Co., Soerakarta, 1899), pp. 102-104: Wonten malih kinarja palupi Surjaputra narpati Ngawangga Lan Pandawa tur kadange Len jajah tunggil ibu Suwita mring Sri Kurupati Aneng nagri Ngastina Kinarja gul-agul Manggala golongan ing prang Bratajuda ingadegken Senapati Ngalaga ing Korawa Den mungsuhken kadange pribadi Aprang tanding lan Sang Danandjaja Sri Kama suka manahe De gonira pikantuk Marga denja arsa males sih-Ira Sang Durjudana Marmanta kalangkung Denja ngetog kasudiran Aprang rame Kama mati djinemparing Sumbaga wira tama There is one other (hero) who should be held as an example, The son of Surya, ruler of Ngawangga, Although the Pendawa's own brother, (With different father, yet the same mother) He served the Lord Kurupati In the city of Ngastina And became his champion. Commander of armies, In the Bratajuda War he was made battle-chief Over all the Korawa. Sent out against his own brother He fought in single combat with Lord Danandjaja (Ardjuna) Yet the Lord Kama's heart was glad Because he had found a way To requite the love Of King Durjudana (Sujudana). Therefore he now exerted to the utmost All his soldier's skill and courage. In the heat of battle Kama died, struck by an arrow, Renowned, a matchless warrior.
30 Mythology and the Tolerance of the Javanese Kumbakarna Similar to Kama in his outlook and morality, Raden Kumbakarna, hero of the Ramayana, also dies to defend a king whom he realizes has dishonored his position. He knows that he is going to die, shorn limb from limb. Yet, unlike his younger brother, Raden Wibisana (see Fig. 55, page 90), who "crosses over" to side with Rama and Justice, he refuses to desert his elder brother, Prabu Dasamuka (Rahwana) (see
Fig. 54, page 89), in his hour of need. The main difference between Kama and
Fig. 11 Kumbakarna
Mythology and the Tolerance of the Javanese 31 Kumbakarna is one of physical type. Kumbakarna is the most colossal of giants and is represented by the largest wayang puppet of all, sometimes one and a half meters in height. To look at, he is the monstrous giant type in extreme form, with brutal red features, bulbous nose, hyperthyroid eyes, clumsy, hairy torso, and wolf-like fangs. These are all physical characteristics which the Javanese find repugnant. Yet Kumbakarna is among the best-loved of wayang figures, and the prize example of inner nobility and purity belying external appearance.6 The Kurawa are an equally varied group, but two figures stand out for particular attention. These are Dahjang Durna and Prabu Sujudana. Dahjang Duma Durna is a brahmand, magician, and teacher. When they were all still boys, both Kurawa and Pendawa learnt the arts of war from him, and to the end he retains a deep affection for his favorite pupil Ardjuna, though they are arrayed on opposite sides in the Last War. The tendency in wayang today is to portray him as a half- sinister, half-comic figure, but this is not the older, traditional perspective. He was then Kresna's great adversary, but with the Gods against him and without Kresna's divinity. As a sign of his extraordinary learning and magical power, he alone of mortals wins a heavenly nymph, Dewi Wilutama, as his bride; by her he has a single, adored son, named Bambang Aswatama (see Fig. 29, page 55). In the long struggle between Kurawa and Pendawa, he matches Kresna trick for trick, stratagem for stratagem. He too stands outside the satrya code, obeying the Machiavellian morality which also guides Kresna. And in the Bratajuda Djajabinangun, when he finally takes the field, his power is still so great that the Pendawa and their armies turn and flee. Ardjuna himself refuses to face his now aged and crippled teacher. As a last resort, Kresna orders Wrekudara to kill an elephant which by chance bears the same name as Duma's son—Aswatama. In 6 Compare stanzas 3 and 4 of Tripama. Wonten malih tuladan prajogi Satrija gung nagri ing Ngalengka Sang Kumbakarna arane Tur iku warna diju Suprandene gajuh utami Duk wiwit prang Ngalengka Denja darbe atur Mring raka amrih rahardja Dasamuka tan keguh ing atur jekti Dene mungsuh wanara Kumbakarna kinon mangsah djurit Mring kang raka sira tan lenggana Nglungguhi kasatrijane Ing tekad tan asurud Amung tjipta labuh nagari Lan nolih jajah rena Myang luluhuripun Wus mukti aneng Ngalengka Mangke arsa rinusak ing bala kapi Punagi mati ngrana There is another fitting model, A great satrya from the city of Ngalengka. Lord Kumbakarna was his name. Though outwardly he was like a monstrous giant In his heart he strove for the highest excellence. When the war in Ngalengka began He offered counsel To his brother, to keep him safe. But it seemed that Dasamuka was not moved by his words Saying that the enemy were merely apes. Kumbakarna was ordered to lead the battle fray By his brother Dasamuka, and did not refuse. Fulfilling his duty as a satrya Steadfast in his determination, His only thought was to serve his country. Recalling that his father and mother And all his ancestors Had won glory and honor in Ngalengka, Which monkey armies now threatened to destroy, He vowed to die in battle.
32 Mythology and the Tolerance of the Javanese
Fig. 12 Durna
Mythology and the Tolerance of the Javanese 33 simulated triumph, the Pendawa cry out, "Aswatama is dead! Aswatama is dead!" In a daze of grief, Durna turns to Judistira, whom he knows has never lied, and asks him if it is true. Ruthlessly goaded by Kresna, Judistira unwillingly confirms the half-truth.7 Convinced at last, the old brahmand stands silent, motionless, in the midst of battle. No one dares approach him in his agony and despair, until the impetuous Drestadjumena rushes up and strikes off his head. All feel that a terrible and impious deed has been performed and that retribution will be exacted. Both Kurawa and Pendawa unite to perform the full funerary obsequies.
Fig. 13 Drestadjumena
7 The half-truth depends on the double meaning of the Javanese word esti, which can mean either "indeed" or "elephant." Thus, Judistira's famous reply can be interpreted as either "Indeed Aswatama is dead" or "The elephant Aswatama is dead."
34 Mythology and the Tolerance of the Javanese Sujudana Eldest of the ninety-nine Kurawa brothers, he is King of Ngastina, most powerful and glittering of the ancient mythological Javanese capitals. He is a great monarch, yet fated to destroy himself and his house. Though vain and easily swayed by his advisers, he is a worthy antagonist for the Pendaw&. Indeed, without him, the Pendawa would not be the Pendawa. The Gods have doomed Ngastina long before he was born. As Jehovah hardened Pharaoh's heart, so Sujudana is inevitably drawn
Fig. 14 Sujudana
Mythology and the Tolerance of the Javanese 35 by his destiny into the fatal course which brings the Kurawa to their ruin. On the last night of the Bratajuda, he alone of the Kurawa chiefs is left. In his tent he meditates in silence on all that has come to pass. What is the use of further bloodshed? Only a handful of faithful retainers remains alive. Why not surrender? Yet, after all, he is a great satrya and a great king. Hundreds of thousands have loyally died for him. Now it is his turn to die for them. When dawn comes he goes forth to combat the terrible Wrekudara. Both armies watch in silence as the two are locked in a desperate struggle. Neither can gain the upper hand. Wrekudara is more powerful, but Sujudana more deft and quick. For the last time, Kresna intervenes to tip the balance. Although it is strictly against the satrya rules for single combat, he directs Wrekudara to smash Sujudana's exposed thigh. Out of desperation, Wrekudara obeys, and Sujudana, who has fought with high honor, sinks to the ground in agony, now to fall unresisting prey to the ferocious talons of his adversary. The lakon describing Sujudana's end is to this day rarely performed in Java, so great is the aura of tragedy and disaster which surrounds it. The fall of the greatest of Javanese kingdoms and the pitiful destruction of its mighty ruler seem to presage untimely events and contemporary calamities. The women in the wayang world are much less varied in their typology than the men. Yet significant contrasts do exist. One to which the Javanese are very fond of pointing is that between Ardjuna's main wives, Dewi Sumbadra and Dewi Srikandi. Sumbadra Sumbadra is very much the lady—elegant, gentle, reserved, utterly loyal and obedient to her husband. She represents the ideal type of the aristocratic Javanese woman.
Fig. 15 Sumbadra
36 Mythology and the Tolerance of the Javanese Srikandi Srikandi is the exact opposite of Sumbadra. Talkative, strong-willed, warm-hearted, fond of hunting, an excellent archer, she is quite ready to debate with Ardjuna or take on a passing satrya in battle. She enjoys traveling about Java, either in search of her periodically missing husband or seeking adventures of her own. In the Indian original of the Mahabharata, Srikandi is really a man who has been changed into a woman. In Java, this is not the case; but perhaps the "masculine" side of her character owes something to this long-forgotten source. For the Javanese, Srikandi is the honored type of the active, energetic, disputatious, generous, go-getting woman. Between herself and Sumbadra there is no jealousy, rather a deep, understanding affection—though one gets the impression that Srikandi is sometimes a little impatient with Sumbadra's excessively lady-like helplessness whenever any trouble arises. Perhaps Sumbadra in turn feels that Srikandi does not always really act like a dignified lady.
Fig. 16 Srikandi
Mythology and the Tolerance of the Javanese 37 Kjai Lurah Semar One last figure remains to be considered. He comes from the clown (pundkawan) class. There is no room here to go into the important and difficult problem of the general significance of these pundkawan in Javanese folk-lore. Suffice it to say that Semar, most venerable of these pundkawan, is probably the best loved figure in all wayang, a favorite of young and old alike. Partly this is because Semar, though a humble and comical retainer, is yet the most powerful of Gods, so that the Lord Shiwa himself, Batara Guru, must on occasion submit to him. Partly it is just because he is a clown, a man of the people, to whom the rules of satryd behavior do not apply, and who by his presence alone offers an implied criticism of the whole range of satryd values. Partly it is because Semar is the physical denial of the satryd type. He is immensely fat, with heavy breasts and a vast behind. He is ornamented like a woman, his clothes are those of a man, yet his face is that of neither man nor woman. He is the repository of the highest wisdom, yet this flashes from in between his gentle jokes, his clowning, and even his persistent, uncontrollable farting. Anyone who has witnessed a Javanese shadow-play will recall the wave of deep affection and respect which flows out of the audience towards Semar when he appears. It is said that one of the most distinguished professors at the University of Indonesia in Djakarta owed his unique following among the Javanese students less to his high academic attainments than to his physical resemblance to Semar and his reputation for a special combination of wisdom and comicality.
38 Mythology and the Tolerance tfthe Javanese
Fig. 18 Guru
Mythology and the Tolerance of the Javanese 39 VI The universal affection and knowledge of this wayang mythology at all levels and in all areas of Java means that little village children from their earliest years are acquainted with the characters discussed above, not merely their names but their physical, psychological, and ethical traits. And their acquaintance is not abstract but strongly visual, since wayang performances are frequent and most villages have sets of rough wooden or cardboard wayangs with which the children can play and practice by themselves. More important still, in the traditional view, all the main characters, except perhaps Durna, are held in high honor. No hierarchy is imposed. Kresna is not "better" than Ardjuna, nor Wrekudara than Judistira. Each is a totally accepted part of the wayang world, which in turn is regarded as a model for Javanese life, lived on a high plane of moral intensity. To a limited degree, of course, popularity does vary by area and class. The proverbially hot-headed, impetuous Madurese are known to have a special fondness for Baladewa, whose kingdom, Mandura, is generally supposed to be the same as Madura. The subtle Solonese may find Kresna more appealing than his brother. In the same way, the villager may identify more closely with Semar and his sons than with Judistira and Kama, while the children of a prince may be educated to look at Ardjuna as their prime model. But even here the differences are not great. The idea of the satrya is only to a limited degree associated with a closed class. Its class content has progressively given way to a more general ethical content to which even villagers may aspire. All these variations according to region and social class are minor. Madurese and Solonese, high officials and peasants alike share a deep love and respect for the whole gamut of wayang and its chief protagonists. The importance of this is that it was traditionally from the ethical and religious aspects of wayang that the education of Javanese children drew its inspiration. The heroes of wayang were the consciously approved models by which a child grew up. Whereas Christian religious education arises from general abstract precepts of universal application, a wayang education develops out of a set of concrete mythological models and examples. The Javanese child learns from the models and examples of behavior the philosophical teachings which will later orient him to the outside world. And it is not merely the moral sense of the Javanese child which is molded by wayang but also his aesthetic awareness. This is partly because in traditional Javanese, as in ancient Greek, civilization there is no clear line separating the idea of the good and the beautiful. The same word (sae) is used for both. Both, in a sense, are merely aspects of the appropriate or harmonious, which, as I have suggested before, lies at the deepest roots of Javanese culture. Accordingly, what is good is beautiful, and what is beautiful is good. The cultivation of the aesthetic aspect of a child's sensibility is a key aspect of Javanese education. This is not, as in Western society, to provide a chance for gifted children to develop their talents but in order that every child should learn to order all aspects of his life in a harmonious way. Even in modern Javanese schools, this older idea is still maintained. In the Taman Siswa school system, founded in 1922 and guided until his death by Ki Hadjar Dewantoro, every effort is made to avoid a division and separation between the technical-scientific, moral, and aesthetic aspects of education. Dancing, particularly, is taught, not for social reasons, or to provide opportunities for young people to meet
40 Mythology and the Tolerance of the Javanese one another, but to develop physical grace, a sense of rhythm, and a harmonious personality. VII It is not, however, simply that the abstract principles of the Near Eastern religions, and the rationalism which has succeeded them in Western society, are applicable, by implication, to all men regardless of social position and social function. We do of course, in theory, expect the same morality from the business executive and his janitor. But they are also universal regardless of personality structure, psychological bent, and physical type. We are not in the least inclined to adapt our standards of moral excellence according to the personality and station of the individual to be judged. This is, of course, not simply a question of the Christian tradition. It is also a consequence of the destruction of feudal society and the rise of modern capitalism and secular individualism. The assumptions of a competitive and egalitarian society are basically that a gigantic race is being run, in which all should have an equal opportunity to take part, and with unified, well-understood criteria for success. Whatever its advantages, this conception of society inevitably narrows the range of personality types which will win unqualified general acceptance and approval. After all, a race in which camels, tortoises, apes, and iguanas compete with one another is likely to be confused and confusing. The trend is naturally to fit course and prize to the camels and let the devil take the hindmost. The characteristic patterns of traditional Javanese society present a striking contrast. Precisely because the moral and physical models are enshrined in a universally accepted mythology, that of wayang, the young Javanese is presented with a wide choice of models for his own personality, which he can be sure will win approval anywhere in Javanese society. Where there is no race, the animals can live together in harmony. Since Ardjuna, Wrekudara, and Judistira are all held in honor, both the heavily built, active, but inarticulate boy and the delicately boned, introspective child have acceptable ways in which their personalities and physical traits can evolve without unnecessary spiritual violence being done to them. Ardjuna's great sexual magnetism provides assurance to the small and frail child that he will not suffer in everyday socio-sexual competition. The child with a talent for oratory and politics has his Kresna, the boy with a taste for intellectual activities and meditation his JudistirS, the hot-tempered, courageous youngster his Baladewa. Triumph over low social origin and snobbery is typified by Kama. Between Wibisana and Kumbakarna a young man has models both for unquestioning loyalty to the political community (in our era, /zmy country, right or wrong") or for abstract love of principle (a supranational attachment, perhaps, to humanism, Islam, or Communism). For women the same applies. The young Javanese girl can aspire to Sumbadra's gentle, languishing charm, or, should she look for a more active and vigorous role, the energetic warmth of Srikandi. One might note in passing that not only have the women's units in the Indonesian National Army taken Srikandi as their model, but also the first woman guerrilla who landed in West Irian during the 1962 liberation campaign was widely referred to as "our Srikandi," both by President Sukarno and by the general public.
Mythology and the Tolerance of the Javanese 41 The models, of course, are not all admirable. Wayang is too rich in types and too close to Javanese life for that. The reprehensible models, however, by their very concrete visibility, provide an effective foil for the admirable examples. People in Java will often refer to a good-looking, but weak and idle, young man as a "Samba," since Samba, Kresna's son, is just such a person. There are other figures, such as Sangkuni (see Fig. 32, page 58) or Durasasana (see Fig. 33, page 59) in the satryd class, Petruk (see Fig. 40, page 66) and Togog (see Fig. 38, page 64) in the clown class, who
42 Mythology and the Tolerance of the Javanese may be referred to in the same way as specific, typical personifications of certain types of inappropriate or strongly disapproved behavior. In brief, then, it seems reasonable to suggest that the universal hold which wayang has over the Javanese population at all levels, and the rich variety of concrete models it offers, afford a real legitimation for widely contrasting social and psychological types. In other words, tolerance is taught, and later maintained, by a mythology which informs and suffuses the whole Javanese tradition. It is not by any means necessarily an innate characteristic of the Javanese people as such. Rather, it is structurally related to both a static and traditional social order and the pervasiveness of wayang as a source of religion, morality, and philosophy. VIII For those who find much that is admirable, gentle, and humane in this tolerance, the recognition of its historical and sociological basis necessarily arouses anxieties for its survival in the present age. The rapid decline of the traditional order since Independence has clearly threatened the older moral pluralism. The rise of a new pseudo-traditional elite in Djakarta, the spread of commercial urbanism, and the emergence of nationalism as the single dominant standard by which ever more aspects of a person's life are being assessed and judged, all are undoubtedly, if slowly, undermining the older, structurally conditioned tolerance. Wayang itself seems, in the more metropolitan centers, to be changing rapidly from an education to a mere entertainment. In many different ways, the influence of nationalism and Western civilization are becoming more and more obtrusive. Among the symptoms which point in this direction are:
i)A growing trend to perceive in wayang a simple conflict between Good and Evil, with a resulting impoverishment of its aesthetic and moral complexity. The political parties have accelerated this trend by their attempts to exploit wayang for propaganda purposes. "We" become the Pendawa, "they" the Kurawa—with obvious consequences in terms of crudeness and simplification. ii)The reduction of wayang's elaborate formal structure into a series of battle- scenes linked by banal jokes and sentimental boudoir interludes. Here the influence of the cinema is unmistakable, since fighting, comedy, and sentiment are the essentials of most films that Indonesians see. The current pressure to shorten a wayang performance from a whole night to two or three hours reflects again the assimilation of wayang to modern commercial entertainment. iii)Increasing criticism of the traditional "philosophizing" of the puppeteer (dalang) as "feudal" and "out of date." There is a growing demand for the dalang to be "modern." This modernity, however, turns out to be simply the more superficial idees regues of Westernized bourgeois culture. There are three areas where this embourgeoisement of wayang is clearest, a) The reinterpretation of most sexual relationships (e.g., Ardjuna's with Sumbadra) in terms of bourgeois "romance," often with remarkably Victorian overtones, b) The "rationalizing" of marvelous or supernatural elements in the wayang stories along scientific or pseudo-scientific lines, in much the same spirit as nineteenth century Western "criticism" of Biblical miracles, c) A pious moralizing of unacceptable non-bourgeois characteristics in wayang. This is most frequently expressed in the search for symbolic interpretations of wayang. (For example, the Pendawa are taken to be symbols of parts of the human body.) This allows inconvenient aspects of the Pendawa's several characters to be explained away as "metaphors." The same tendency is at work in elaborate
Mythology and the Tolerance of the Javanese 43 justifications of apparently "bad" actions on the part of the "good" faction, which have no real basis in the wayang stories themselves. iv)Ironically, the one element of traditional wayang which was always explicitly contemporary has been progressively abstracted from everyday life. By age-old custom, the humor of the punakawan was deliberately anachronistic, often taking the form of sharp ridicule of contemporary abuses and shrewd criticism of contemporary political and economic conditions. Recently, however, this form of contemporaneity has been increasingly inhibited and even harassed by provincial officialdom, which is finding criticism, especially from below, increasingly hard to put up with.8 This has forced the punakawan to turn to a generalized, farcical, or fantastic form of humor.
v)The ascendancy within the wayang constellations of certain "models" over others. Here the figures of Ardjuna and Judistira are significant omens. It is already apparent, for example, that the younger generation of Javanese are tending to concentrate their main affection less on these two heroes than on Kresna, Wrekudara, and Wrekudara's son, Gatutkatja (see Fig. 20, p. 44)—a smaller and more physically attractive version of his father, notable for his unhesitating, uncritical loyalty and patriotism—whom President Sukarno has explicitly said should be the model for the new Indonesian Man. Judistir^'s aloof meditativeness and gentle search for justice are less and less held in esteem. Ardjuna's sexual prowess is no longer seen simply as a necessary attribute of the complete satrya but is either frowned on by Islamic and Western-influenced puritanism or sniggered at by the new metropolitan sophisticates. On the other hand, the cinema, by the "he-man" heroes that it tends to popularize, has helped to upset the previous relationship between the figures, say, of Ardjuna and Wrekudara. Whereas traditionally these two represented contrasting but equally impressive types of virility, nowadays one tends to find Ardjuna criticized by younger Javanese as effeminate—surely something inconceivable as little as thirty years ago. In the political sphere, two instructive trends are particularly evident. The diplomacy and cunning of Kresna, which in traditional wayang were a function of his celestial origins and his high overriding purpose to execute the will of the Gods, have tended to become detached from both and to be transformed into a justification for a rootless, ruthless Machiavellism and a delight in intrigue and political chicane for its own sake. The older balance between Kumbakarna and Wibisana has also gradually been upset. Whereas an older generation found both heroes admirable but Wibisana the more noble since he chose humanity and justice over family loyalty and gratitude, many Javanese today feel uneasy about the contrast. The spread of nationalism has made Wibisana's abandonment of his native land for the cause of "humanism" and a supranational standard of justice, ambiguous and even suspect. Kumbakarna's outlook, generally rather speciously characterized as "my country right or wrong," fits more easily with present sentiment; and, as a result, the prestige of this amiable giant now stands higher than his younger brother's. 8 For example, late in 1963 the popular Gareng of the celebrated Sriwedari wayang wong troupe was arrested by the police in Solo on the grounds that he had made jokes critical of the government. The man was eventually released with a warning.
44 Mythology and the Tolerance of the Javanese
Fig. 20 Gatutkatja
Mythology and the Tolerance of the Javanese 45 These are, as it were, signs of the times, largely visible in the big cities of Java, where the traditional hierarchical order has disintegrated fastest. In the villages change takes place far more slowly, and it is there that the old Javanese culture undoubtedly maintains its most stubborn hold. Nevertheless, autumn is in the air. On the tree of Javanese culture the leaves are dropping one by one. The question now is whether the roots will nourish fresh leaves and flowers for a new spring-time. Will the tradition survive the extinction of its social basis? Can wayang be sustained and renewed from within? Can new institutional and structural supports be developed for Javanese tolerance as the older generations knew it? It is not simply out of nostalgia that an attempt has been made here to discuss the problem of Javanese tolerance. It is out of an instinctive conviction that tolerance in all human communities is a highly fragile thing, especially a tolerance which is not simply an ignoring of nonconformities that do not threaten us or impinge directly on our lives, but which springs from a genuine respect for human variety and human personality as such. Doubtless there was much to dislike and condemn in the old Javanese cultural tradition. Yet, partly by historical accident but partly also, I believe, out of a deep awareness of the complex inter-relatedness of human existence, traditional Javanese civilization developed a style of ethics, morality, and philosophy, best expressed in wayang, which helped to give each man a sense of his own dignity and honor and sustained and legitimized a tolerance which one cannot but profoundly respect.
Appendix I Supplementary Characters
Fig. 21 Durga
Betari Durga is the goddess of violence, darkness, and death. Her abode is in Setragandamaju, where she holds sway over ghosts, vampires, and other malevolent spirits. In the lakons she is always associated with the Left (Kurawa) faction and unceasingly schemes to destroy the Pendawa. Most dreaded of the Gods, even her husband, Batara Guru, cannot prevail against her will. It is only Semar before whom she flees in helpless terror.
48 Mythology and the Tolerance of the Javanese
Fig. 22 Narada
Batara Narada is an elder brother of Batara Guru and his chief adviser and emissary. As in the case of Semar, a grotesque shape is associated with great supernatural power. Like Semar, too, he conceals his great wisdom and subtlety behind a squeaky voice and a wry, comic manner. Narada carries out Batara Guru's orders but generally contrives to interpret them in favor of the Pendawa. Batara Surya is the Sun-God, source and giver of life. When the Pendawa's mother, Dewi Kunti, was still an unmarried virgin, she was seduced by Surya and eventually gave birth to the infant Kama. The mother soon abandoned her child, but Surya always loved and watched over his son. He shares Kama's ambiguous position in the lakons. When Kresna, enraged by Kurawa treachery during the final negotiations before the outbreak of the Bratajuda, assumes his World-Destroyer manifestation and threatens to annihilate Ngastina out of hand, it is Surya who descends, soothes him, and persuades him to resume his human shape. Since Kama fights for the Kurawa, Surya is usually associated with the Left too.
Appendix I 49
Fig. 23 Surya
50 Mythology and the Tolerance of the Javanese Sang Hyang Baju is a son of Batara Guru and God of the Winds. He is the father of two of the most powerful protagonists of the lakons, Raden Wrekudara and the White Ape, Hanoman. As an outward sign of their family relationship these three figures are the only ones in wayang to have the terrible razor-sharp fingernails (Pantjanaka) and to wear the magical poleng loin-cloth, whose red, white, black, and yellow checks symbolize the four super-deities Brama, Guru (Shiwa), Wisnu, and Surya. As Wrekudara's father, Baju is usually reckoned on the side of the Pendawa.
Appendix I 51 Prabu Matswapati, the aged king of Wirata, acts as the Pendawa's mentor and protector. Though his sister, Dewi Durgandini, was the common great- grandmother of the Kurawa and Pendawa, he gives his daughter, Dewi Utari, in marriage to Raden Abimanju, Ardjuna's son (and his own great-great-great-nephew!). From this union Parikesit is born, ancestor of the historical kings of Java. It is at the court of Wirata that the Pendawa take refuge when their fortunes are lowest. Matswapati himself helps them build the glittering palace of Ngamarta. And ultimately all three of his sons—Seta, Utara, and Wratsangka— fight and die for the Pendawa in the Last War.
Fig. 25 Matswapati
52 Mythology and the Tolerance of the Javanese
Fig. 26 Abjasa
Begawan Abjasa is the common grandfather of the Kurawa and the Pendawa. He was once King of Ngastina but in middle age abandoned his court to devote himself to religious meditation and ascesis. During the Bratajuda he reappears to advise and console the Pendawa. When the war has been brought to its bloody close, it is Abjasa who personally performs the solemn rituals of purification.
Appendix I 53
Fig. 27 Bhisma
Resi Bhisma, being Ngastina's elder statesman, is loved and respected by Kurawa and Pendawa alike. Though strongly opposed to Sujudana's policies, he sides with the Left faction and leads the Kurawa armies at the opening of the Bratajuda, killing all three of Matswapati's sons with his own hands. As a young man he had sworn to remain wadat (celibate) all his life. When Dewi Ambalika wished to marry him, he jokingly threatened her with his bow and arrow. Accidentally his finger slipped and the arrow sped to her heart. Her ghost swore vengeance, and in the Last War Shisma dies at the hands of Srikandi, Ardjuna's warrior-wife, in whom Ambalika has been reincarnated.
54 Mythology and the Tolerance of the Javanese
Fig. 28 Drupada
Prabu Drupada is King of Tjempalaredja and a close ally of the Pendawa. His two daughters, Drupadi and Srikandi are respectively married to Judistira and Ardjuna. An old enmity exists between Drup&da and Dahjang Durna. It is thanks to Drupada that the old brahmand is crippled and deformed. The vendetta works itself out in the Bratajuda when Drupada's son, Drestadjumena, kills Durna, and Duma's son, Aswatama, retaliates after the war is over by murdering Drestadjumena, Srikandi, and Drupada's grandson, Pantjawala, in their sleep.
Appendix I 55
Fig. 29 Aswatama
Bambang Aswatama is the only son of Dahjang Durna by the heavenly nymph Dewi Wilutama. He is among the most powerful and important members of the younger generation of the Left faction, but the Gods have ordained that he will not die on the battlefield. He is destined to carry on his father's vendetta with Tjempalaredja and wreak vengeance on the Pendawa. Aswatama shares his father's shrewdness and cynicism. He consistently warns Sujudana that his queen, Dewi Banowati, is working against him, but the King always refuses to listen to what he regards as groundless slander. On the night after the Bratajuda is over, he creeps into the Pendawa camp and takes revenge by stabbing Banowati in her sleep, as well as Drestadjumena, Srikandi, and Pantjawala (see above under Drupadd, p.
53). Only when he tries to murder Ardjuna's grandson, the infant Parikesit, does fortune turn against him.
56 Mythology and the Tolerance of the Javanese
Fig. 30 Banowati
Dewi Banowati is the youngest daughter of Prabu Salya and Sujudana's queen in Ngastina. Her proud bearing is indicated by her uptilted nose and scornful smile. Before her arranged marriage with Sujudana, she and Ardjuna were secretly in love. According to many versions, this affair persisted afterwards, and Banowati is instrumental in betraying the military secrets of Ngastina to its enemies. After Sujudana's death Ardjuna takes her as his wife. But their happiness lasts only one night, for Aswatama, Duma's son, creeping into the Pendawa camp, murders her in her sleep. Banowati is an ambiguous figure since, although she helps the Pendawa, she does it by betraying her lawful husband.
Appendix I 57
Fig. 31 Lesmana Mandrakumara
Raden Lesmana Mandrakumara is the only son of Sujudana and Banowati and heir to the throne of Ngastina. Many of the lakons concern the desperate attempts of Prabu Sujudana to find Lesmana a wife. Invariably one of the more attractive Pendawa clan manages to charm or carry off the intended bride, so that the Kurawci are left empty-handed. Sujudana's difficulties are compounded by the fact that Lesmana is cowardly, vain, weak, and a bit soft-headed. He is regarded as a laughing-stock, even in Ngastina, a spoiled Crown Prince whose thoughts run only to food and women. Lesmana is killed early in the Bratajuda by Ardjuna's son, Abimanju.
58 Mythology and the Tolerance of the Javanese
Fig. 32 Sangkuni
Patih Arja Sangkuni is usually regarded as the evil genius of the Kurawa, with loyalty to his King his one redeeming feature. As Drestarata's brother-in-law and Sujudana's uncle, he has the position of Chief Minister of Ngastina, of which, in view of his nephew's inexperience, he takes full advantage. The cunning stratagems which cause the PendawS so much misery and misfortune are all devised by this sly old man. He suffers a terrible end in the Bratajuda, having his jaws torn apart by the furious talons of Wrekudara.
Appendix I 59
Fig. 33 Dursasana
Raden Dursasana, the second of the ninety-nine Kurawa brothers, is regarded as, next to Sangkuni, the most unpleasant of the Left faction. Noisy, boastful, violent, and unscrupulous, he is nevertheless devoted to his elder brother, Sujudana, and to the fortunes of his clan. In the field, he is a brave fighter, and only the invincible Wrekudara can destroy him. His role is very important, since at every juncture in the lakons it is Dursasana and Sangkuni who push the action forward towards a new climax. Each time a settlement appears possible, it is these two who ensure its failure.
60 Mythology and the Tolerance of the Javanese Raden Djajddratd is a powerful champion of the Kurawa. There is some mystery about his origin. The story goes that when Wrekudara was born, the caul in which he was wrapped was thrown away. The aged ascetic, Begawan Sapwani, came upon it by chance, prayed over it, and transformed it into a boy-child, who grew up under the name of Djajadrata. The family resemblance to Wrekudara and Wrekudara's son, Raden Gatutkatja, was obvious from the first. When Djajadrata came to manhood he was persuaded to come to Ngastina by the astute Sangkuni, who foresaw the need of such an ally against the Pendawa. There Djajadrata was given a high position and Sujudana's sister, Dewi Dursilowati, as his bride. This bound him firmly to the Left faction. In the Bratajuda, it is he who kills the young Abimanju, only to be killed in turn by the bereaved Ardjuna. Djajadrata's character is honest, loyal, and straightforward—a sort of Gatutkatja among the Kurawa.
Fig. 34 Djajadrata
Appendix I 61
Fig. 35 Burisrawa
Raden Burisrawa is one of the most prominent younger leaders of the Kurawa. He is the eldest son of Prabu Salya and much feared for his gigantic size and violent, unbridled nature. He falls desperately in love with Sumbadra, Ardjuna's wife, and many are the lakons which deal with his attempts to win possession of her. He swears never to look at another woman if he cannot have her, and indeed he dies without wife or child.
62 Mythology and the Tolerance of the Javanese
Fig. 36 Nangkula-Sadewa
Raden Nangkula and Raden Sadewa are twins, the youngest of the Pendawa. Their mother is not Kunti, but Prabu Salya's sister, Madrim. Generally speaking, they assume a very subordinate role as followers and emis- saries of their older brothers, without evincing any particular characteristics aside from the normal traits of well-be- haved young satryd. In the Bratajuda, it is their mission to discover the secret of their uncle Salya's in- vincibility.
Appendix I 63
Fig. 37 Setyaki
Raden Setyaki, as first cousin of the Pendawa and Prabu Kresna, is one of the stalwarts of the Right. He usually acts as Kresna's companion and confidant. It is he who joins the lord of Dwarawati on his last diplomatic mission to Ngastina. He is very powerful, in spite of his small size, and so is often referred to as the Dwarf Wrekudara or Bima Kunting. In the Bratajuda itself, he is matched with the gigantic Burisrawa and is only saved from death by Kresna's cunning. He is regarded by the Javanese as the type of the straightforward, brave, diminutive satryd.
64 Mythology and the Tolerance of the Javanese Raden Abimanju (Angkawidjajd) (see Fig. 4, p. 22) is Ardjuna's son by Sumbadra and his only legal heir, as Srikandi is childless. Abimanju himself has no children by his marriage to Kresna's daughter, Dewi Sitisundari; but by Utari, princess of Wirata, Parikesit is born to continue to Pendawa line into historic times. Abimanju is the epitome of the handsome, refined, gentle, but brave young satrya, respectful of his elders and always obedient to their wishes. He is Gatutkatja's bosom-friend, and the two generally seek adventures together. The lakon describing his death is regarded by the Javanese as the most poignant of the Bratajuda series. Not only does Abimanju suffer a cruel fate on the battlefield, but his young widow, Sitisundari, immolates herself on her dead husband's funeral pyre. Fig· 38 Togog
Appendix I 65
Fig. 39 Gareng
Raden Gatutkatjd (see Fig. 20, page 44) is Wrekudara's son by the giantess, Dewi Arimbi. He rules a kingdom of (good) giants in Pringgandani but is always ready to act as the loyal, unhesitatingly obedient agent of his Pendawa uncles. His special attribute is his ability to fly. President Sukarno has thus referred to him as the first Indonesian astronaut. His romantic passion for Dewi Pregiwa is the subject of one of the most famous lakons of all. In the Bratajuda he is the last major figure to die on the Pendawa side, struck down by his uncle, Adipati Kama, as he flies high above the Kurawa armies. Togog is reputedly Semar's elder brother, and normally he acts as pundkawan to the Left faction. Like Semar he is immortal, and his strange, grotesque shape betrays his supernatural origin. In character he has none of Semar's gentleness and kindly wisdom. His wit is coarser and more cynical. Because his masters are constantly being killed off by the Pendawa and their children, Togog always appears in a different King's retinue. So he has become the proverbial prototype of the unfaithful, mercenary servant. Gareng, the second of the Pendawa pundkawan, is generally thought to be Semar's eldest son. He is a deformed dwarf, with crooked, disjointed arms, and has yaws sores on his feet. He specializes in puns and sly insinuations rather than in slapstick. Like Semar (see Fig. 17, p. 37) and Petruk (see Fig. 40, p. 66), he is really immortal and accompanies each generation of the Pendawa family on their innumerable wanderings and adventures.
66 Mythology and the Tolerance of the Javanese
Fig. 40 Petruk
Petruk is the third of the pundkawan in attendance on the PendSwa and often regarded as Semar's second son. He is notable for his scrawny build, huge, predatory mouth, and long, inquisitive nose. His special delights (and those usually of the audience) are practical jokes and comic horseplay. But when called upon in need he is a redoubtable (because totally unscrupulous) fighter.
Appendix I 67 Bagong, fourth of the Pendawa punakawan, formerly rarely, if ever, appeared with Gareng and Petruk. The traditional pattern was that the trio of Semar, Gareng, and Petruk was popular in Central and East Java, while the duo of Semar and Bagong was the special favorite of Banjumas and West Java. Today they are frequently shown all four together. Bagong has his share of the typical punakawan deformities, a bald head, a hernia, a bulging fat belly and behind, and virtually no nose. His peculiar characteristics are an immensely deep slow voice and impenetrable stupidity, usually taking the form of persistent misunderstanding of what his master or his fellow punakawan have to say.
68 Mythology and the Tolerance of the Javanese
Fig. 42 Tjangik
Tjangik is a favorite comic female servant, generally in attendance on Sumbadra or some other high-ranking princess. In spite of her emaciated figure, shriv- eled breasts, and grotesque features, she is extremely coy and vain, as the comb she constantly carries about with her testifies. Her voice is high, shrill, and whistling, as she has no teeth. Limbuk is Tjangik's daughter, also a comic female attendant. Though her appearance differs strongly from her mother's, she has the same determined sense of her own superior attractions. She too carries a comb with her everywhere. Her voice is loud, low, and oddly touching.
Appendix I 69
Fig. 43 Limbuk
70 Mythology and the Tolerance of the Javanese
Fig. 44 Tjakil
Appendix I 71
Fig. 45 Terong
Buta Tjakil is the favorite antagonist of Ardjuna and his numerous sons in the less serious lakons. Each time he is killed, only to reappear again in another story. He is instantly recognizable by his flat head, squinting eyes, and jutting, horn-like tooth. Unlike the other buta, he is quite small. In fact, his body is that of a satrya and only his extraordinary head betrays his buta origin. Buta Terong, the Egg-plant Giant, is so named because his nose closely resembles an aubergine. He is the normal buta antagonist for the larger heroes, such as Wrekudara, while Tjakil is the appropriate adversary for the smaller and more elegant satrya. Buta Terong has no defined role in the lakons but regularly appears to test the courage and military prowess of the Pendawa.
72 Mythology and the Tolerance of the Javanese Garudd is a generic name for a mythological "eagle." There are a number of different characters in the lakons who are portrayed with this puppet, the best-known being Djataju in the Ramayana and Wilmuka (the aerial steed of Prabu Kresna's eldest son, Prabu Boma) in the Mahabharata. In the one case the puppet represents a bird of great courage, faithfulness, and honor, in the other a creature consumed with jealousy and malice.
Fig. 46 Garuda
Djurumeja is a type of setan, indestructible, malevolent spirit, who serves in the palace of Betari Durga at Setragandamaju. The Goddess regularly sends Djurumeja and his ie\low-setan to confuse, torment, and terrify the Pendawa, usually with great success. It requires the special powers of Semar to put the evil spirits to flight.
Appendix ϊ 73
Fig. 47 Djurumeja
74 Mythology and the Tolerance of the Javanese
Fig. 48 Brahala
Brahala is the name given to Kresna when he assumes his terrible World Destroyer manifestation, the triwikrama.
Appendix II Mahabharata: A Javanese Version According to the Lakons For many years Prabu Abjasa had ruled the great kingdom of Ngastina in justice, peace, and prosperity. Yet the king had his own private sorrow. Each of his three sons was tragically afflicted. The eldest, Drestarata, was blind, the second, Pandu, was an albino, while the third, Widura, was incurably lame. In the course of time the aging monarch decided to abdicate and spend his last years in religious meditation and ascesis. Since his blindness was felt to bar Drestarata from the succession, Abjasa named Pandu ruler of Ngastina, with the understanding that the throne would later revert to Drestarata's line. Nevertheless there were many who felt that Pandu, once crowned sovereign King, was entitled to designate his own successor. This was the origin of the bitter feud between the sons of Drestarata (the Kurawa) and the sons of Pandu (the Pendawa), which was only to be settled by the Last War, the Bratajuda Djajabinangun. The Kurawa consisted of ninety-nine boys and one girl, Dewi Dursilowati, born to Drestarata by his wife, Gendari. Eldest of them all was Kurupati, who was eventually to become King of Ngastina. Next came the violent Dursasana, Tjitraksa, Tjitraksi, and then all the others. When they came of age, the children of Drestarata contracted two dynastic alliances of great importance. Kurupati married Dewi Banowati, daughter of the celebrated King of Mandraka, Prabu Salya; and Dursilowati's hand was given to the powerful and respected prince, Raden Djajadrata. The Pendawa, five in number, were all boys. The three eldest, Judistira, Wrekudara, and Ardjuna, were the children of Pandu's first wife, Dewi Kunti Nalibrata. The two youngest, Nangkula and Sadewa, were twins born to Pandu's second wife, Dewi Madrim, sister of Prabu Salya. Although Pandu was ostensibly their father, he had in fact been cursed with impotency, and the children were all sired by Gods—Judistira by Batara Darma, Wrekudara by Sang Hyang Baju, Ardjuna by Batara Endra, and the twins by the two Aswis. Like the Kurawa, the young Pendawa won important allies by marriage. Judistira and Ardjuna respectively married Dewi Drupadi and Dewi Srikandi, the daughters of Prabu Drupada of Tjempalaredja, and sisters of Raden Drestadjumena. Ardjuna's other bride, Dewi Sumbadrd, was not only his own first cousin but also the sister of Prabu Kresna, the powerful lord of Dwarawati.
76 Mythology and the Tolerance of the Javanese
Fig. 50 Widura
Appendix II 77
Fig. 52 Drupadi
78 Mythology and the Tolerance of the Javanese Now, before her marriage to Pandu, Dewi Kunti Nalibrata had had a child by Batara Surya, the Sun God. Her father, ashamed of his daughter's untimely pregnancy, put the newborn baby into a casket and set it afloat on a nearby river. The child, a boy, was rescued by a humble charioteer and given the name Kama. When a young man, his military skill, aristocratic bearing, and nobility of character caught the eye of Kurupati. Hoping for support in his continuing rivalry with Pandu's sons, the eldest of the Kurawa encouraged and befriended the young Kama, little knowing who he really was. Thus it was that Kunti's first-born son came to be arrayed on the side of her younger children's mortal enemies. Pandu himself did not rule for long in Ngastina. He died while both Kurawa and Pendawa were still small children. Drestarata, once passed over for the succession, became regent till their maturity. Both Kurawa and Pendawa were brought up together at Ngastina under the watchful eyes of Dahjang Duma, the subtle brahmand, and the aged Resi Bhisma. Drestararata's infirmity prevented him from ruling in more than name, and effective power passed increasingly to these two and to Drestarata's brother-in-law and Chief Minister, the cunning Sangkuni. From the beginning, the cousins were in constant and embittered rivalry, which came to a climax when Drestarata decided to abdicate in favor of his son, Kurupati, who then ascended the throne as Prabu Sujudana. The Pendawa felt that their claims had been unjustly disregarded, while the Kurawa, in spite of their numbers, feared that their position would never be secure so long as their more gifted, God-favored cousins remained alive to challenge them. Love, as well as politics, became a source of strife. Sujudana suffered the humiliation of having his wife won for him by Ardjuna, most irresistible of Javanese princes. Indeed, even after her marriage to the new King of Ngastina, Dewi Banowati remained enamored of Ardjuna and he of her—a fact which did not fail further to poison relations between the cousins. It was, however, the Chief Minister, Sangkuni, who, either out of fear for his own position, affection for his nephews, or some innate instinct for mischief, blew on the smoldering rivalry between the cousins until it flared into open conflict. Working on the young Sujudana's anxieties, he persuaded him to invite the five Pendawa and their mother, Kunti, to a formal conference, ostensibly to discuss the division of the kingdom into two—one half for Judistira and his brothers and one for the Kurawa. Suspecting no guile, the Pendawa appeared and were lodged in a beautiful pavilion, specially constructed of inflammable lacquer. After a lavish and convivial banquet, the Pendawa retired to bed, all except the watchful Wrekudara. Now came their limping uncle, Widura, warning his nephews of Kurawa treachery and advising them in case of need to follow a white civet. Soon afterwards agents of Sangkuni set the lacquer pavilion afire, hoping to trap the sleeping Pendawa in the holocaust. But Dewi Kunti and her five sons, led by Wrekudara, discovered a mysterious white civet suddenly before them and escaped death by following it down a subterranean passage and eventually, after various adventures, up again into a remote, desolate forest. In fear of their lives, the Pendawa now came to the court of Prabu Matswapati, King of Wirata, where, in disguise, they sought employment. Judistira became a learned brahmand, Wrekudara a butcher, Ardjuna an eunuch dancing-master, and the twins herdsmen. Though the Kurawa searched high and low they could find no
Appendix II 79 trace of them. In time, however, the danger passed and the secret of their identity was made known to Matswapati. With Matswapati's help and that of Ardjuna's cousin and brother-in-law Prabu Kresna, the Pendawa cleared a wide space in the forest where they had first taken refuge and there built a magnificent palace which they called Ngamarta. Now Judistira was crowned King, and a period of glory and prosperity ensued. From all sides people came to settle under the wise and humane rule of the gentle Pendawa. But the rivalry with the Kurawa continued. The Pendawa never abandoned their claims, nor the Kurawa their fears. To the ranks of the Kurawa was now added Prabu Salya's gigantic son, Raden Burisrawa, who, desperate for love of Dewi Sumbadra, swore that if he could not marry her he would never touch another woman. Since Sumbadra was already Ardjuna's wife and had even borne him a child, Raden Abimanju, only Ardjuna's death could accomplish Burisrawa's purpose. The growing glory and renown of Ngamarta was a burning thorn in the heart of Sujudana, and once again he turned to his uncle, Sangkuni, for advice. The cunning Chief Minister suggested that he invite the Pendawa for a feast of reconciliation and there prevail upon Judistira to play at dice. This was the King of Ngamarta's single weakness, and Sangkuni's special skill. Once again the Pendawa fell into the trap that had been prepared for them. They came to the feast and Judistira agreed to gamble with Sangkuni, though his brothers all warned him of danger. As the hours passed, Judistira progressively lost all his material possessions then his kingdom, later his own freedom, and finally that of his brothers and even his wife, Dewi Drupadi. The Pendawa were struck dumb by the disaster which had overtaken them. The Kurawa were overjoyed, and Dursasana moved to take possession of Drupadi, tearing open her gown at the thigh and pulling loose her bound-up hair. Trembling with rage, Drupadi reminded the Kurawa that, having already given up his own freedom, her husband could not legally stake that of his wife or brothers, so that neither she nor the other Pendawa were bound by the last throws of the dice. Moreover she swore that she would leave her dress torn and her hair unbraided until the day when she could wash her tresses in Dursasana's blood. Wrekudara also cursed the Kurawa and promised that one day he would tear Dursasana limb from limb with his nails and rip Sangkuni's lying jaws apart. Then in silence the Pendawa departed, stripped of everything they possessed. Sujudana made no move to stop them, stunned by the terrible scene that had just passed. Once again the Pendawa were reduced to nothing. Once again they were forced to wander in lonely poverty through the woods and mountains, attended as always by their faithful clown-attendants (punakawan), Semar, Gareng, and Petruk. Whenever despair settled upon them, their spirits were lightened by the antics of Petruk and Gareng and their hopes raised by Semar's gentle, wise advice. Many years again passed by, until the Pendawa, with the aid of Kresna and Matswapati, were able once more to muster their strength. To seal the alliance between the Pendawa and Wirata, Ardjuna's eldest and best-loved son, Raden Abimanju, was summoned and married to Matswapati's daughter, Dewi Utari. At the wedding it was foretold that their child would eventually rule a united Java in peace and prosperity and would in turn beget a historic line of Javanese kings. And now the Gods began to give signs that the Last War, Bratajuda Djajabinangun, was at hand. The PendawS decided to send Kresna to Ngastina to make one final
80 Mythology and the Tolerance of the Javanese attempt to settle the long enmity by persuading Sujudana to yield half his kingdom. Prabu Kresna arrived at Ngastina accompanied only by his cousin and friend, Raden Setyaki, otherwise known as the Dwarf Wrekudara (Bima Kunting). Meanwhile, Dahjang Durna and Patih Arya Sangkuni had warned SujudSna that he had no hope of ultimate victory in the Bratajuda unless he could destroy Kresna before it began. With much doubt and uneasiness in his heart, Sujudana accordingly consented to lay an ambush for Kresna and Setyaki, although they came under the flag of truce. The conference opened peacefully enough, but neither side would yield in its demands. Then as Kresna retired to his quarters to rest, Dursasana led the palace guard against him. Enraged by this treacherous attack. Kresna, who was an incarnation of the God Wisnu, suddenly assumed his most terrible, demonic form, the mountain-high, gigantic Triwikrama, with a thousand heads and ten thousand arms and legs. At the very echo of his thunderous voice, the foundations of the palace of Ngastina were riven. In shrieking panic the Kurawa sought refuge where they could. But none would have escaped speedy destruction had not the Gods, in the person of Kama's father, Batara Surya, suddenly appeared to warn Kresna that he was forbidden to shed Kurawa blood. The Kurawa were destined for annihilation not at his but at the Pendawa's hands. Drupadi's curse must work itself out. By the decree of the Gods, Kresna's role must be limited to acting as the Pendawa's adviser. The words of the Sun God had their effect. Kresna resumed his mortal shape. He went to take leave of the Pendawa's mother, Dewi Kunti, who remained at Ngastina, and promised to convey her blessing to her children. Therewith he set off with the faithful Setyaki for Wirata, intending to report on the failure of his mission. Meanwhile, Kama had been summoned by his mother, who pleaded with him to abandon the KurSwa and join his brothers at Wirata. But he steadfastly refused, reminding his mother that she had abandoned him as a newborn baby. By this act of cruelty she had forfeited all claims to his love and obedience. He owed a deep debt of gratitude to Sujudana, who had made him what he was, the foremost satrya in Ngastina. Nevertheless, he acknowledged his shame at Sujudana's treacherous attack on Kresna and his foreboding that Ngastina was doomed. He promised his mother finally that he would fight with none of his brothers but Ardjuna. Thus, regardless of who won that fateful duel, Kunti would still have five sons left. Leaving his mother in tears, Kama then rode homewards to his palace at Ngawangga. On the way he encountered Kresna, and for a time the two rode on together side by side. Like Kunti, Kresna tried to persuade Kama to change his mind and side with the Pendawa but with no better success. They then parted amicably, and each went his own way. When Kresna had related what had occurred at Ngastina, the decision was taken to go to war. The Pendawa now gathered their allies together at Wirata. Aside from the five brothers themselves, the assembled heroes included Prabu Kresna from Dwarawati, his son, Raden Samba, and his Chief Minister, UdawS; Prabu Matswapati of Wirata and his three sons, Raden Seta, Raden Utara, and Raden Wratsangka; Prabu Drupada of Tjempalaredja and his son, Raden Drestadjumena; Ardjuna's heir, Raden Abimanju, and Wrekudara's son, Raden Gatutkatja, among many others. When all preparations had been made, the Pendawa armies marched forward to the place of battle, the great plain to be known later as Tegal Kurusetra (Burial-Field of the Kurawa).
Appendix II 81 To Ngastina there came word of the preparations at Wirata. Prabu Sujudana too now gathered together his friends and allies. Among them came his father-in- law, Prabu Salya, with the armies of Mandraka; his brothers-in-law, Raden Djajadrata and Raden Burisrawa; Dahjang Durna, Resi Bhisma, Adipati Kama, and many others. An appeal was sent to Kresna's invincible brother, Prabu BSladewa of Mandura, whose wife was also a daughter of Prabu Salya, and who usually defended the Kurawa cause. But Kresna had already foreseen this danger. Knowing that if Baladewa fought for the Kurawa all would be lost, he persuaded his brother to go into a deep trance in preparation for the fighting, promising him that he would be awakened when the Bratajuda was to begin. In fact, he intended only to waken him when the Kurawa had finally been destroyed. Thus the Kurawa mission to Mandura met with no success. The two armies now faced each other across the wind-swept plain. After rites of great solemnity and splendor, hostilities were engaged. On the first day, Resi Bhisma led the Kurawa forces to victory. Matswapati's three sons, Seta, Utara, and Wratsangka, all perished at his hands, and Sujudana was overcome with joy. When darkness fell, Kresna warned the despondent Pendawa that, when he was a young man, Resi Bhisma had accidentally killed a certain Dewi Ambalika, who was in love with him. As she lay dying she had sworn to return and have her revenge. Now Ambalika had reincarnated herself in Ardjuna's warrior-wife, Srikandi, and through Srikandi alone could Bhisma be overcome. Accordingly, it was agreed by all the Pendawa chiefs that on the next day Srikandi should lead their forces into battle. On the second day, as Kresna had foreseen, Bhisma encountered Srikandi and recognized that his hour had come. Without resistance he allowed himself to be pierced by her arrows. As he lay dying, the fighting stopped, and both sides came to pay their respects to the fallen hero and ask for his blessing. With his last breath he prophesied victory for the Pendawa and ruin for their rivals. On the third day, Duma's cunning persuaded the Pendawa's mightiest champions, Ardjuna and Wrekudara, to engage in single combat far from the battlefield with two of Sujudana's lesser allies. Duma's plan was to take advantage of their absence to deal a decisive blow. Into the breach now stepped Ardjuna's son, Abimanju. Leading the counterattack, he succeeded in cutting down Sujudana's only son and heir, Raden Lesmana Mandrakumara. But his inexperience was his undoing. The Kurawa pretended to give ground and drew him into their midst. There he was surrounded, pierced with arrows, and finally clubbed to death by Raden Djajadrata. When the faithful Semar brought the news to Ardjuna, the bereaved father almost took leave of his senses, wandering pathetically back towards the battlefield calling for his son, without thought of danger. But finally Kresna roused him from his grief to thoughts of revenge, and he swore to destroy Djdjadrata before sundown or himself mount the ritual pyre where his son's dead body lay. Word of this solemn oath spread rapidly to the Kurawa camp. On Sangkuni's advice, Djajadrata was hidden where none could find him. The long day passed while Ardjuna hunted for his chosen adversary in vain. As the sun declined, he prepared to immolate himself in grief, shame, and despair. But now Kresna used his magic weapon, the Tjakra, to darken the sky so completely that it seemed as if night had already fallen. The Kurawa were deceived and the jubilant Djajadrata now emerged from concealment to witness Ardjuna's death by fire. Immediately the
82 Mythology and the Tolerance of the Javanese Tjakra was withdrawn, and in the red light of sunset Ardjuna's arrow sped unerringly to its mark in Djajadrat&'s throat. On the fourth day, Raden Burisrawa was challenged by Raden Setyaki. The battle went badly for the diminutive hero, and he was about to be crushed to death when his cousin Kresna intervened, urging Ardjuna to shoot Burisrawa down from behind. Ardjuna, however, refused, saying that it was against the satrya code for an onlooker to interfere in a single combat of this kind. Undismayed, Kresna resorted to a stratagem. He held up a fine hair between Ardjuna and Burisrawa and asked if Ardjuna could split it with an arrow. Ardjuna innocently agreed to try, and indeed succeeded in dividing the hair. But the arrow flew on and lodged itself deep in Burisrawa's heart. Bitterly shamed, Ardjuna retired for the day from the field of battle. His place was taken by Wrekudara's winged son, Raden Gatutkatja, who now led the Pendawa against the Kurawa forces under Adipati Kama. A terrible battle developed, in which Kama was finally forced to make use of his most magical arrow, Kjai Konta, to bring down the flying hero. The Kurawa were overjoyed at Gatutkatja's death. But this was to be their last triumph. The fifth day proved to be the climax of the great war, for Ardjuna and Kama finally met face to face. Prabu Salya was Kama's charioteer, Prabu Kresna Ardjuna's. Both heroes hesitated at first, but Kresna reminded Ardjuna of his obligations as a satrya and of Gatutkatja's death the previous day at Kama's hands. Then the battle was joined, and for long neither side had the advantage, being perfectly matched. Then, seeing an opportunity, Kama launched his most terrifying arrow. But Salya, humiliated that he had been forced to act as his son- in-law's charioteer and in his heart siding with the Pendawa, suddenly jerked the reins and brought his horses to their knees. Thus the blazing arrow passed through Ardjuna's hair and not his head. Then Ardjuna unleashed his own magical arrow, Pasopati, and Kama fell to his death in the dust. On the sixth day, the aged Duma led the Kurawa to battle in Kama's place. Ardjuna refused to fight his old teacher, and the other Pendawa proved no match for the old brahmana's magical arts. Only when Kresna ordered Wrekudara to kill an elephant bearing the same name as Duma's son, Bambang Aswatama, and Judistira was induced to convince the old man that it was indeed his son who had died, did it become possible to win the day. Transfixed in silent grief, the once invincible brahmdna was an easy prey to the rash Drestadjumena, who lopped off his head although he offered no resistance. From afar, Aswatama witnessed what had happened and swore to have his revenge. On the seventh day, Prabu Salya guided the Kurawa to temporary victory with his irresistible weapon, the Tjandabirawa. The Pendawa armies scattered in panic, suffering heavy losses. Kurawa hopes were unexpectedly raised. But when night fell, Kresna sent the twins, Nangkula and Sadewa, sons of Salya's beloved sister, Madrim, to seek out the secret of Salya's power. Prabu Salya, who had never approved of Sujudana's actions but had joined him out of family loyalty, told the young men that he could only be vanquished by a king whose blood ran white. Accordingly, on the eighth day, Judistira, purest of mortals, led the Pendawa to battle, though he had never in his life raised a hand in violence. He brought with him no destructive weapon, only his sacred heirloom, the holy text Kalimasada. Now the Tjandabirawa's power was shattered. The ghost of Begawan Bagaspati, the raseksd hermit whom Salya had killed so as to marry his daughter, Dewi Satyawati, appeared in the air, hovering over the battlefield.
Appendix II 83 Promising revenge, the ghost vanished into the body of Judistira. Suddenly transformed into a menacing warrior, the eldest Pendawa now advanced to the fray and immediately brought Salya low with Ardjuna's magic arrow, the Pasopati. On the ninth day, the curse of Drupadi worked itself out. Wrekudara encountered Dursasana, and, after a murderous struggle, he tore his cousin limb from limb with his terrible nails, the Pantjanaka. Drupadi appeared on the field of battle and bathed her locks in the dying man's blood. Sangkuni then advanced but proved no match for the enraged, gigantic Wrekudara, who snatched him up bodily and tore his jaws apart. On the tenth and last day, Sujudana was left alone to face Wrekudara in single combat. So great was his valor and strength that Wrekudara could not prevail until Kresna signaled him to strike a foul blow on Sujudana's thigh. The great King of Ngastina then sank to the ground in agony, there to fall helpless victim to the Pantjanaka. And now it happened that Baladewa had at last been awakened from his trance by the thunder of battle and hurried to the Tegal Kurusetra in time to witness Sujudana's end. He bitterly reproached Kresna for his deceit and for the ignoble ruse which had brought the last of the Kurawa to his downfall. Unmoved, Kresna replied that he was merely carrying out the will of the Gods. In somber mood the Pendawa now approached the fallen city of Ngastina. At the gates they found Gendari, mother of the Kurawa, sunk in desperate brief. Of all her hundred children, not one was left alive. In her despair she turned on Kresna and cursed him with a mother's curse. She foretold that he himself would lose all his own children first and at the end die miserable, forsaken, and alone, shot by a woodcutter's arrow in a remote and desolate forest. The Pendawa now took their rest. But Duma's son, Bambang Aswatama, who had fled the field of battle, stole back into Ngastina by night to seek revenge. As they slept, he stabbed to death Raden Drestadjumena, Dewi Srikandi, Drupadi's son, Raden Pantjawala, and Sujudana's widow, Banowati, who had happily rejoined her first love, Ardjuna, after her husband's death. He also attempted to kill Parikesit, Ardjuna's little grandson, but the baby had been sleeping with the sprung Pasopati at his feet. Startled by the midnight intruder, the infant stirred. The arrow, released, flew from the bow, and Aswatama fell mortally wounded at the crib-side. Dawn came, and the night's slaughter was discovered. Stricken, the Pendawa decided to depart. Kresna returned to Dwarawati with Setyaki and Udawa. Baladewa was left to guard and rear the young Parikesit (see Fig. 53, page 84), who would one day rule over a new Ngastina. The five brothers, accompanied by Drupadi and a faithful hound, set off for the Universal Mountain, the Mahameru. But, weighed down bythe blood that had been shed, their strength faded as they ascended the holy mountain towards heaven. One by one they fell exhausted by the wayside, first Drupadi, then Sadewa, Nangkula, Ardjuna, and finally even Wrekudara. Only the saintly Judistira reached the gate of Heaven. There he was invited to enter, alone, but he refused so long as his wife, his brothers, and his hound were compelled to remain outside. The Gods relented, and the whole company passed up into the celestial sphere, their task on earth now at last accomplished.
84 Mythology and the Tolerance of the Javanese
Fig. 53 Parikesit
Table I: showing dynastic relationships between the kingdoms of Ngastina and Wirata (KINGDOM OF NGASTINA) (PALASArA) = (Durgjmdini) (KINGDOM OF WIRATA) MATSWAPATI II(TISTAWA) BHISMA = Ambaliki : abjXsA~ (Rekitawati) - / / / / / jKUNI Genlari Jdu)* widLra seC III SANGKUNI Gendari = DRESTARATA (PANDU)* WIDURA SETA UTARA WRATSANGKA Utari iL Lana kurIv IV Banowati* = SUJWANA* DURSAISANA KURAWA Dursilowati = DJAJADRATA LESMANaImANDRAKUMARA(Lesmanawati) (For Legend, see Table II) Appendix III Genealogies of the Mahabharata (Javanese Version)
Table II: showing relationship between the kingdom of Mandraka and leading figures of the Kurawa (KINGDOM OF MANDRAKA) II(BEGAWAN BAGASPATI)(MANDRATPATI)* IIISatyawati = SALYAMadrim = (PANDU)* IVBALADEWA* = ErawatiKARNA* = SurtikantiSUJUDANA* = BanowatiBURISRAWA 86 Mythology and the Tolerance of the Java 3 Hi Legend I Ambaliki SANGKUNI (PALASARA) Utari ABJASA BHISMA Numbers in the left-hand margin indicate generations, and are included to help in correlating the four genealogical tables Small type indicates that the person is feminine Large type indicates that the person is masculine Parentheses indicate that the person plays no active role in the main drama Asterisk indicates that the person appears again in another genealogical table Underlining indicates association with the Pendawa faction, and lack of underlining indicates association with the Kurawa
Table III: showing dynastic relationships between the kingdoms of Ngamarta, Mandura, and Dwarawati (KINGDOM OF MANDURA) II (KUNTIBODJA)(MANDRATPATI)* V III IV SAMBASitisundari = ABIMANJU* Appendix III oc ^4
III Table IV: showing dynastic relationships between the kingdoms of Ngamarta, Tjempalaredja, and Wirata (KINGDOM OF TJEMPALAREDJA) (PANPU)’ drupAda (KINGDOM OF NGAMARTA) WREKUPArA* = Arimbi IV JUPISTIRA* = Drupadr V pantjAwala gatutkAtjA VI Sumbadra* = ARDTUNA* = Srikandi Prupadi* PRESTAPTUMENA (KINGDOM OF WIRATA) ABIMANJU = Utari* (PARIKESIT) 88 Mythology and the Tolerance of the Javanese
Appendix IV Ram a yana: A Javanese Version According to the Lakons
Fig. 54 Dasamuka
For years a deep enmity had festered between Prabu Dasarata, lord of Ngajodya, and the giant Prabu Dasamuka, ruler of the island kingdom of Ngalengka. Twice the kings had been rivals in love, once for Dewi Raguwati, once for Dewi Kekaji. Twice Dasdrata had prevailed, though less through valor and strength than through cunning and the favor of the Gods. In his disappointment Dasamuka swore to take revenge.
90 Mythology and the Tolerance of the Javanese In time a new generation grew up in the two royal capitals. In NgalengkS, Dasamuka's wife, a heavenly nymph, gave birth to a baby girl in her husband's absence. Dasamuka's younger brother, Raden Wibisana, took the infant, put it in a casket, and set it afloat on a great river running down to the sea. Eventually the baby was found by the King of the neighboring state of Mantili, who reared the little girl as his own child and gave her the name Dewi Sinta. To prevent Dasamuka discovering what had happened, Wibisana created a boy out of a dark mass of cloud, gave him the name Megananda (Indradjit), and presented him to Dasamuka as his son.
Fig. 55 Wibisana
Appendix IV 91
Fig. 57 Indradjit
92 Mythology and the Tolerance of the Javanese Meanwhile, in Ngajody&, Dewi Raguwati gave birth to two sons, R&ma and Lesmana. Not long afterwards Dewi Kekaji bore Dasarata a third son, who was named Raden Barata. When the boys had grown to manhood, the news was brought that the King of Mantili would hold a tournament for the hand of his beautiful daughter, Dewi Sinta. Rama decided to enter the tournament and was brilliantly successful, bringing Sinta home to Ngajodya as his wife.
Fig. 58 RamS
Appendix IV 93
Fig. 59 Lesmana
Soon afterwards, Dasarata, feeling his end approaching, announced his intention of abdicating in favor of his eldest son, Rama. But Dewi Kekaji, jealous for her own child, Barata, began to poison the old man's mind against his designated successor. Rama proudly refused to defend himself against Kekaji's whispered charges and was therefore banished from the court, followed by Sinta and the faithful Lesmana. Reminding Dasarata of an earlier promise that she could have one wish which he would fulfill whatever the cost, Dewi Kekaji now compelled her husband to make Barata his heir. To her dismay, however, Barata himself refused to cooperate with her plans. When Dasarata died, not long after, Barath followed after Rama into the forest in the hope of persuading him to return to Ngajodya and ascend the throne. But all his entreaties were in vain. Exhausted by his efforts, Barata fell asleep in his tent; and in the middle of the night Rama, Sinta, and Lesmana disappeared without leaving a trace. Disconsolately Barata turned back, and eventually he agreed to act as Regent in Ngajodya until the day of Rama's homecoming.
94 Mythology and the Tolerance of the Javanese Meanwhile the exiles found shelter in a remote hermitage, deep in the forest. Here one day Dasamuka's younger sister, Dewi Sarpakenaka, happened to pass by and fell immediately and desperately in love with the ascetic, celibate Lesmana. He rejected her frank advances and reproached her bitingly for her immodesty. Furious at her persistence, he finally cut off her nose and her ears. In a fury, Sarpakenaka returned to Ngalengka and complained to her brother that she had been wantonly insulted by Dasarata's sons. Dasamuka now saw a chance to have his revenge on the children of his old enemy. Acting on Sarpakenaka's report of what she had seen, he sent her husband, his trusted servant Maritja, to tempt Dewi Sinta by assuming the form of a golden hart. The ruse succeeded beyond expectation. On seeing the beautiful animal, Sinta immediately asked Rama to catch it for her. Maritja then cunningly drew Rama further and further into the woods. After a time, uneasy at her husband's continued absence, Sinta insisted that Lesmana go to find him, although Rama had expressly forbidden his younger brother to leave her unguarded. Embarrassed by her urgency, Lesmana very unwillingly set off. Now Dasamuka appeared in the guise of an aged ascetic and successfully lured Sinta out of the magic circle in which Rama had placed her. Seizing her in his arms, the Giant-King bore her aloft and flew back towards Ngalengka. The Garuda-eagle, Djataju, seeing what had happened, sped to the unlucky Sinta's rescue. But he was no match for Dasamuka and finally fell to earth, mortally wounded.
Appendix IV 95 Raden Rama, meantime, irked by his inability to catch the golden hart unharmed, shot it down with his unerring arrows. To his astonishment and dismay, the dying beast suddenly changed into a giant. Maritja, wounded to death had resumed his natural form. Filled with anxiety and foreboding, Rama hurried home to the hermitage. On the way he met Lesmana, and together the brothers discovered that Sinta had completely vanished in their absence. Drawn by distant moans, they soon found the dying Djataju, who revealed to them the identity of Sinta's abductor. On their journey to Ngalengka, the brothers first encountered the White Ape, Hanoman, son of the Wind God, Batara Baju, who had been sent by the Lord of Heaven, Batara Guru, to give them aid. He counseled them first to seek allies for the struggle against Dasamuka. Soon they came to the Kingdom of the Apes, where a bitter contest for the throne was raging between Sugriwa (see Fig. 62, page 96) and Subali. On Hanoman's advice, Rama came to Sugriwa's rescue by shooting Subali through the heart. In gratitude Sugriwa agreed to join the quest for Sinta and to bring the monkey armies with him.
Fig. 61 Hanoman
96 Mythology and the Tolerance of the Javanese
Fig. 62 Sugriwa
Appendix IV 97
Fig. 63 Tridjata
Eventually Rama reached the shore of the strait which separated the island of Ngalengka from the mainland. He then decided to send Hanoman ahead to spy out the land. With one mighty leap the White Ape crossed the wa- ters, soon afterwards finding himself in the pleasure- garden where Sinta was being held prisoner by Dasamuka. For the Giant-King still disdained to take her by force, hoping against hope that in time she would yield to him of her own accord. Little did he realize that she was in fact his own daughter. Hanoman climbed a tall tree, and soon he observed Sinta con- versing with her guardian and friend, Dewi Tridjata, Wibisana's faithful daughter. Slipping quietly into the garden, Hanoman approached the two women and, with Tridjata's con- nivance, addressed himself to Sinta. He told her that help was at last at hand and gave her Rama's ring as a sign of his love and trust. Sinta in turn gave the ape her own ring to bring back to her husband.
98 Mythology and the Tolerance of the Javanese On his homeward journey Hanoman's luck ran out. He was captured by the powerful young Crown Prince of Ngalengka, Raden Indradjit and, on Dasamuka's orders, condemned to be burned alive as a spy. At this juncture, Raden Wibisana and Dasamuka's other brother, the gigantic Raden Kumbakarna, intervened, strongly urging the King to return Sinta to her husband and release the White Ape before it was too late. Dasamuka's trusted Chief Minister, Prahasta, seconded their advice. But all to no purpose. Incensed by their opposition, Dasamuka bade them choose once and for all between himself and Rama. So long as he lived, he would never surrender the beautiful princess of Mantili. With a heavy heart, Wibisana then
Fig. 64 Prahasta
Appendix IV 99 declared that he could neither accept Sinta's unlawful abduction nor be a party to the cruel death planned for Hanoman. He deeply believed that justice must come before family loyalty. Dasamuka generously granted him permission to leave, and he immediately set off to join Rama. Kumbakarna and Prahasta made the opposite decision. While disapproving of Dasamuka's course of action and warning that the Gods would undoubtedly favor Rama, they felt in their hearts that they could not abandon their King and so were prepared, if necessary, to die for him. This proof of their disinterested devotion momentarily caused Dasamuka to hesitate, but his earlier oath of vengeance, his desire for Sinta, and the renewed complaints of Sarpakenaka, who reminded him of her humiliations and the death of the faithful Maritja, strengthened his resolve to continue the struggle. Kumbakarna thereupon immediately retired to a high mountain, where he sank into a deep religious trance, gathering his forces for the coming battle. Hanoman's tail was then set alight by Dasamuka's executioners. But, summoning all his supernatural strength, the White Ape burst his bonds, leapt high into the air, and flew across the glittering capital of Ngalengka, setting fire to the roof-tops with his flaming tail. Another mighty leap brought him back to Rama and Lesmana, to whom he recounted the story of his mission. Learning that Sinta was alive and still unravished by Dasamuka, Rama decided on war. With the help of Sugriwa's apes, who formed a living bridge across the straits, he passed over to Ngalengka, in spite of the advance armies that Dasamuka sent against him. Now the decisive struggle opened. For days it raged fiercely without any result. Then the tide began to turn. First Sarpakenaka, then the loyal Prahasta, succumbed. In desperation Dasamuka summoned Kumbakarna. But the giant hero was too deeply sunk in meditation to be easily awakened, even though chariots were driven furiously across his colossal frame. Finally Indradjit succeeded in rousing him. Kumbakarna then arose, clothed himself in white in recognition of the death he felt approaching, said farewell to his wife and child, and left for the battlefield. Then all Rama's armies were speedily put to flight. None could withstand the onslaught of Kumbakarna's unequaled strength. Sugriwa was hurled to the ground half-dead. His monkey hordes were crushed in their thousands by each giant stride of Kumbakarna's feet and each whirl of his titanic arms. Hanoman himself was barely able to hold his own. It was only when the two were locked in a last, mortal combat and Kumbakarna appeared on the verge of victory that Lesmana came to the aid of the White Ape and shot an arrow into Kumbakarna's heart. He fell, mortally wounded, to the ground; and it was as if the World-Mountain, the Mahameru itself, had crashed down from heaven to earth. The following day, Indradjit was sent out to avenge his uncle's death. So great was his magical power that once again Rama's army scattered in panic. Lesmana went to meet him and was at once struck dead in an unequal combat. Hanoman himself proved powerless against this adversary. Then Wibisana, who had himself created Indradjit, told Rama the secret of his origin and how his destruction could be accomplished. Rama then shot his most magically potent arrow, and the terrible Indradjit dissolved into a vast, dark cloud, which rapidly covered the whole sky and blotted out the sun. The battlefield was black as night, and the opposing armies separated in blind confusion. Prabu Dasamuka was now alone. Nevertheless, he was determined to carry on the long struggle. When dawn came he set forth with the remnants of his army. Meanwhile Lesmana and Sugriwa had been restored to life when Rama touched their
100 Mythology and the Tolerance of the Javanese bleeding wounds with the Flower of Life, Widjajakusuma. At least Rama and Dasamuka met in single combat. But neither was able to overcome the other. Repeatedly Rama shot off Dasamuka's head from his body with his blazing arrows, but each time Dasamuka uttered a magic spell and head and torso were at once reunited. Then Hanoman came to the rescue. As Rama once again lopped off Prabu Dasamuka's head, the White Ape snatched up a mountain-top and cast it down on the headless trunk, covering it completely so that the severed head could never return to its place. Nevertheless, so magically potent was the King of Ngalengka that he could not wholly die. At times his angry body still stirs and to this day breathes forth its wrath from within the mountain in clouds of smoke and burning ash. The war was now triumphantly concluded. The empire of Ngalengka had fallen. Sinta and Tridjata were rescued from the blazing palace. Yet the atmosphere was full of sorrow for those who had fallen. Wibisana wept bitterly for the dead Kumbakarna as he buried him. Then he asked to follow the others on their homeward journey; but instead Rama appointed him the new King of Ngalengka and urged him to stay behind and rebuild the devastated kingdom. Sugriwa then departed for his own land, accompanied by the remnants of his army. Rama and Sinta were at last reunited after their long separation. Together with Lesmana and Hanoman they returned home to Ngajodya, where Barata came out to greet them and surrendered the glittering palace to Rama, who was soon after crowned as Dasarata's rightful heir. But the unlucky Sinta was to undergo still one last trial. On her return to Ngajodya she was looked on with suspicion by high and low alike. Was it possible that after so many years in the palace of Ngalengka Dasamuka had not finally had his will of her? To prove her purity, Sinta asked for a great pyre to be prepared and set alight; and this she then solemnly ascended. The flames parted before her, and she emerged radiant and unscathed. Finally vindicated, Sinta rejoined her husband and together they ruled Ngajodya for many years in great happiness and peace.
Glossary Abangan (Jav.) Persons or groups who adhere to the traditional Javanese melange of Hindu-Buddhism, animism, and Islamic mysticism, as opposed to the more strait-laced, orthodox santri (q.v.). Adipati (Jav.) A King of secondary or subordinate rank. Agama Bali (Ind.) The syncretic religion of Bali. Arja (Jav.) One of the highest titles of nobility. Bambang (Jav.) A courtesy title for a young satrya, generally with the implication that he is still unmarried. Batara (Jav.) A special title for male deities. Begawan (Jav.) A title given to a religious ascetic of noble origin. It is especially used for kings who have abandoned their thrones to seek religious enlightenment. Betari (Jav.) A special title for female deities. (See Batara) Bima Kunting (Jav.) Literally "the dwarf Bima"; this is a favorite nickname for the small but fierce Raden Setyaki. Brahmana (Jav.) A member of the Brahmana or priestly caste. Bratajuda Djajdbinangun (Jav.) Literally "the war of the children of Barata in which victory is won"; this is the full Javanese name for the final war between the Kurawa and the Pendawa. Buta (Jav.) A general word denoting demon or giant. Dahjang (Jav.) Normally this word means the guardian spirit of a Javanese village. In wayang it is a special title conferred on Durna in recognition of his unsurpassed learning and magical power. Dalang (Jav.) The puppeteer of the wayang shadow-play, who sings, jokes, narrates, philosophizes, and manipulates the puppets the whole night through. For Javanese mystics he represents a symbol of the Supreme Being. Desa (Jav.) Peasant, primitive. Dewi (Jav.) The usual title for a princess or other high-born lady. Djaman Buda (Jav.) The pre-Islamic era in Javanese history. Durung Djawd (Jav.) "Not yet Javanese," i.e., still an irrational child. Kalimasada (Jav.) The holy text which is Judistira's special magical attribute. The name has been interpreted as Kalimah Sahadat, the Moslem confession of faith. There is a tradition that before his death Judistira handed this text to Sunan Kalidjaga, the most eminent of the Islamic proselytizing saints in Java. Kasar (Jav.) Crude, inelegant, rough, impolite. Kelir (Jav.) The white cotton screen, framed first in red cloth and then with wooden beams, against which the puppets are held during a wayang performance. When the oil-lamp, or blentjong, is lit, the flickering shadows of the puppets appear on the far side of the kelir.
102 Mythology and the Tolerance of the Javanese Kjai (Jav.) Title of respect, meaning something like "Revered Father." It may be used for both old and wise people and sacred, magically potent objects, such as gongs, wayang puppets, krisses, and spears. Kramd (Jav.) The honorific Javanese language of respect used to strangers and persons of higher social rank. Kuntd (Jav.) The name of Kama's most powerful magical arrow, given to him by his father, Batara Surya. Kurdwa (Jav.) The Left faction. Literally the brothers of Kurupati (Sujudana), but more generally used to describe all Drestarata's sons and their allies in the Bratajuda. Lakon (Jav.) An episode from the Javanized Ramayana or Mahabharata, serving as the plot for a single night's wayang performance. Lurah (Jav.) Usually this term means "village headman," but it can also mean a specific rank at the Javanese courts (often given to talented artists and craftsmen of less than noble (origin) or a title indicating great respect for someone lower in rank than oneself. Mahameru (Jav.) The World-Mountain, which reaches from Heaven to Earth. At its peak the Gods have their abode. The Javanese identify it with Mount Semeru in East Java. Nasih (Jav.) Fate, destiny. Nem (Jav.) Young. Ngoko (Jav.) The expressive, pungent Javanese language used towards friends, family, and persons of lower social rank. (See krama) Nijdga (Jav.) The performers in a Javanese gamelan orchestra. Oosthoek (Dutch) The largely Madurese-settled area of East Java that stretches east of Malang to Banjuwangi. Ora pantes (Jav.) Improper, inappropriate, undignified. Pandita Ratu (Jav.) Priest-King, the ideal Javanese rule, who combines religious authority and wisdom with secular power and majesty. Pantjanaka (Jav.) The name of the razor-sharp, elongated index fingernails of Wrekudara, Hanoman, and Sang Hyang Baju. Pasisir (Jav.) The North coast of Java, especially the area between Tjirebon and Surabaja. Much more strongly influenced by Islam than the interior, and in far more frequent contact with the outside world, these North coast cities developed a distinctive culture of their own. Historically they have competed with the interior for hegemony over Java. Pasopati (Jav.) The name of Ardjuna's invincible magic arrow. Patih (Jav.) Chief Minister to a King. The Patih is often a man of the lesser nobility, or even from the common people, who has risen to power by sheer ability. His office is purely secular and administrative. Pendawa (Jav.) The Right faction. A generic term for Judistira, Wrekudara, Ardjuna, Nangkula, and Sadewa, Pandu's legitimate sons by Kunti and Madrim. Sometimes loosely used to indicate not just the brothers but all their friends and allies as well. Pengchianat (Ind.) A traitor. Poleng (Jav.) A woven cloth with black, red, white, and yellow checks, believed to have special magical properties. In wayang it is worn only by WrekudarS, Hanoman, Sang Hyang Baju, and Dewa Rutji. Prabu (Jav.) The usual title for a King.
Glossary 103 Priangan The interior plateau of West Java, heartland of the Sundanese ethnic group. Punakawan (Jav.) Literally "attendants," it has come to mean, in wayang, the small group of comic, grotesque male companions of the chief heroes. Raden (Jav.) Usual title of respect for a man of satryd rank. Rame (Jav.) Noisy. Raseksa (Jav.) Monstrous giant. The traditional enemies of the satryd in most zuayang stories. Resi (Jav.) Religious ascetic and mystical teacher. It appears to have a slightly wider and vaguer significance than Begawan (q.v.). Sae (Jav.) Beautiful, good. Sang Hyang (Jav.) Alternative title to Batard (q.v.) for male deities. Santri (Jav.) Persons or groups in Java who adhere strictly to the laws and precepts of Islam. Usually used in contrast to abangan (q.v.). Satryd (Jav.) A member of the military-administrative secular ruling class. More generally, anyone who sets out to live by the satryd code. Semar Papa (Jav.) Literally "Semar in Distress," this is the title of one of the most magically powerful lakons. Sepuh (Jav.) Old, aged. Setan (Jav.) A general word for a malevolent, or at least potentially malevolent, spirit. Setraganddmaju (Jav.) Literally "deserted place smelling of corpses," this is the usual Javanese name for the abode of Betari Durga. Sri (Jav.) A very exalted title, usually reserved for kings. Taman Siswa (Jav.) Literally "Garden of Pupils," the phrase was the name given to the "wild" schools set up by Ki Hadjar Dewantoro in the 1920's in opposition to the colonial Dutch educational system. Ki Hadjar's central idea was to combine Western and Javanese educational concepts in the service of a new humanism. Tegal Kurusetra (Jav.) The battlefield where the Bratajuda Djajabinangun takes place. The name means literally "Burial-Field of the Kurawa." Tjdkrd (Jav.) The magical weapon of Kresna. It is usually represented iconographi- cally as an arrow tipped with a blazing wheel of fire. Tjdnddbirdwd (Jav.) The magical weapon of Prabu Salya, given to him by Begawan Bagaspati. When released it takes the form of myriads of dwarfish demons. Any attack on them merely multiplies their number. Tjotjog (Jav.) In harmony with, appropriate. Triwikrdma (Jav.) As a verb this means to assume a terrible, demonic form, generally out of rage. Wadat (Jav.) Celibate. Wayang (Jav.) Literally "shadow," it has come to mean the Javanese shadow-play. It can also refer to the individual puppets. Widjajakusuma (Jav.) The magical flower of life, supposedly only to be found on the inhospitable island of Nusa Kembangan, off the south coast of Java.
Fig. 65 Kekajon (Gunungan)
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