Rangda and the Goddess Durga in Bali
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.1558/firn.33750Keywords:
Rangda, Durga, Bali, Calon Arang, Devi Mahatmya, Kali, Shiva, Síwa, marūpa somya, transformation, Hinduism, return to ritual purity, shakti, Uma, GiriputriAbstract
This article examines Rangda and her role as a chthonic and mythological figure in Bali, particularly the way in which Rangda’s identity has intertwined with that of the Hindu goddess Durga— slayer of buffalo demons and other creatures that cannot be bested by Shiva or other male Hindu gods. Images and stories about Durga in Bali are significantly different from those found in Hindu contexts in India. Although she retains the strong-willed independence and decision-making capabilities prominently associated with Durga in India, in Bali the goddess Durga is primarily associated with violent and negative attributes as well as looks and behaviours that are more usually associated with Kali in India. The reconstruction of Durga in Bali, in particular the integration of Durga with the figure of the witch Rangda, reflects the local importance of the dynamic relationship between good and bad, positive and negative forces in Bali. I suggest that Balinese representations of Rangda and Durga reveal a flux and transformation between good and evil, not simply one side of a balanced binary opposition. Transformation—here defined as the persistent movement between ritual purity and impurity—is a key element in the localization of the goddess Durga in Bali.
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References
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Curnow, Heather 2007 Women on the Margins: An Alternative to Kodrat? PhD Dissertation for University of Tasmania, Hobart.
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Dowling, N. 1994 O Great Goddesss. Indonesia Circle 62: 70-82.
Fossey, Claire 2008 Rangda, Bali’s Queen of the Witches. Bangkok: White Lotus Co., Ltd.
Govind, Ajay 2016 Pray to Ma Durga Through These Great Mantras. Online: http://www.hindupath.com/2014/08/pray-to-maa-durga-by-great-mantras.html (accessed 28 April 2017).
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Karthadinata, Dewa Made 2007 Barong dan Rangda: Sakralisasi Pembuatannya den Pesan-pesan Budaya di balik Penampilannya Sebagai Kesenian Tradisional Bali. Imajinasi 3(1): 1-14.
Jagadisarananda, Swami 1953 Devi Mahatmyam (Glory of the Divine Mother): 700 Mantras on Sri Durga. Mylapore: Sri RamaKrishna Math. [English translation of the text.]
Jordaan, Roy 1984 The Mystery of Nyai Lara Kidul, Goddess of the Southern Ocean. Archipel 28: 99-116.
McDaniel, June 2004 Offering Flowers, Feeding Skulls: Popular Goddess Worship in West Bengal. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
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McDaniel, June 2013 A Modern Hindu Monotheism: Indonesian Hindus as ‘People of The Book’. Journal of Hindu Studies 6(3): 333-362.
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Pal, Pratapaditya 1967 Vaisnava Art from Nepal in the Museum. Boston Museum Bulletin 65 (340): 40-60.
Picard, Michel 2011 Balinese Religion in Search of Recognition: From Agama Hindu Bali to Agama Hindu (1945-1965). Bijdragen tot de Taal, - Land-, en Volkenkunde 167: 482-510.
Poerbatjaraka, R.M.Ng. 1926 De Calon-Arang. Bijdragen tot de Taal-, Land-, en Volkenkunde van Nederlandsch-Indië 82: 110-80.
Pollock, Sheldon 2006 The Language of The Gods in The World of Men: Sanskrit, Culture, and Power in Premodern India. Berkeley: University of California Press.
Pramoedya Ananta Toer 2002 The King, the Witch and the Priest: A Twelfth-Century Javanese Tale. Sheffield: Equinox Publishing.
Ramstedt Martin 2005 Hinduism in Modern Indonesia: A Minority Religion Between Local, National, and Global Interests. London: Routledge Curzon, IIAS.
Ricklefs, Merle 2008 A History of Modern Indonesia Since c. 1200, 4th edition. Basingstoke and New York: Palgrave Macmillan.
Santiko, Hariani 1997 The Goddess Durga in the East-Javanese Period. Asian Folklore Studies, 56(2): 209-226.
Stephen, Michele 2002 Returning to Original Form: A Central Dynamic in Balinese Ritual. Bijdragen tot de Taal-, Land- en Volkenkunde 158(1)1: 61-94.
Stutterheim, Willem Fredrik 1956 Studies in Indonesian Archaeology. The Hague: Nijhoff.
Supomo, S 1993 Bharatayuddha. New Delhi: International Academy of Indian Culture.
Vickers, Adrian 2013 A History of Modern Indonesia, 2nd edition. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Weiss, Sarah 2006 Listening to an Earlier Java: Aesthetics, Gender, and the Music of Wayang in Central Java. Leiden: KITLV Press.
Zoetmulder, P. J. 1974 Kalangwan: A Survey of Old Javanese Literature. The Hague: Martinus Nijhoff.
Zoetmulder, P. J. 1995 Pantheism and Monism in Javanese Suluk Literature: Islamic and Indian Mysticism in an Indonesian Setting. Leiden: KITLV - Koninklijk Instituut voor Taal-, Land-en Volkenkunde Press. [Translated from Dutch by Merle Ricklefs.]
Webistes:
http://www.hindupath.com/2014/08/pray-to-maa-durga-by-great-mantras.html
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ardhanarishvara#/media/File:Shakta_Ardhanari.jpg
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Ardhanari_Gangaikonda.jpg.
Bakker, Freek L. 1993 The Struggle of the Hindu Balinese Intellectuals: Developments in Modern Hindu Thinking in Independent Indonesia. Amsterdam: Vrije Universiteit Press.
Becker, Judith 2003 Gamelan Stories: Tantrism, Islam, and Aesthetics in Central Java. Southeast Asian Studies Monographs. Tempe: Arizona State University Program for Southeast Asian Studies.
Coburn, Thomas 1991. Encountering the Goddess: A Translation of the Dev?-M?h?tmya and a Study of Its Interpretation. Albany, New York: State University of New York Press.
Coedes, Georges C. 1968 Indianized States of South-East Asia. Honolulu: University of Hawai’i Press.
Creese, Helen 2000 In Search of Majapahit: The Transformation of Balinese Identities. In To Change Bali: Essays in Honour of I Gusti Ngurah Bagus, edited by Adrian Vickers, I Nyoman Putra, and Michele Forde, 15-46. Wollongong: Bali Post and University of Wollongong.
Curnow, Heather 2007 Women on the Margins: An Alternative to Kodrat? PhD Dissertation for University of Tasmania, Hobart.
Dowling, N. 1992 The Javanization of Indian Art. Indonesia 54: 117-138.
Dowling, N. 1994 O Great Goddesss. Indonesia Circle 62: 70-82.
Fossey, Claire 2008 Rangda, Bali’s Queen of the Witches. Bangkok: White Lotus Co., Ltd.
Govind, Ajay 2016 Pray to Ma Durga Through These Great Mantras. Online: http://www.hindupath.com/2014/08/pray-to-maa-durga-by-great-mantras.html (accessed 28 April 2017).
Hägerdal, Hans 1995 Bali in the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries: Suggestions for a Chronology of the Gelgel Period. Bijdragen tot de Taal-, Land-, en Volkenkunde 151/1: 101-124.
Karthadinata, Dewa Made 2007 Barong dan Rangda: Sakralisasi Pembuatannya den Pesan-pesan Budaya di balik Penampilannya Sebagai Kesenian Tradisional Bali. Imajinasi 3(1): 1-14.
Jagadisarananda, Swami 1953 Devi Mahatmyam (Glory of the Divine Mother): 700 Mantras on Sri Durga. Mylapore: Sri RamaKrishna Math. [English translation of the text.]
Jordaan, Roy 1984 The Mystery of Nyai Lara Kidul, Goddess of the Southern Ocean. Archipel 28: 99-116.
McDaniel, June 2004 Offering Flowers, Feeding Skulls: Popular Goddess Worship in West Bengal. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
McDaniel, June 2010 Agama Hindu Dharma as a New Religious movement: Hinduism Recreated in the Image of Islam. Novo Religio 14: 93-111.
McDaniel, June 2013 A Modern Hindu Monotheism: Indonesian Hindus as ‘People of The Book’. Journal of Hindu Studies 6(3): 333-362.
Monaguna, Mpu 2013 Mpu Monaguna’s ‘Sumanasantaka’: An Old Javanese Epic Poem and its Indian Source and Balinese Illustrations. Edited, translated and annotated by: Peter Worsley, S. Supomo, Thomas Hunter and Margaret Fetcher. Leiden and Boston: Brill.
Pal, Pratapaditya 1967 Vaisnava Art from Nepal in the Museum. Boston Museum Bulletin 65 (340): 40-60.
Picard, Michel 2011 Balinese Religion in Search of Recognition: From Agama Hindu Bali to Agama Hindu (1945-1965). Bijdragen tot de Taal, - Land-, en Volkenkunde 167: 482-510.
Poerbatjaraka, R.M.Ng. 1926 De Calon-Arang. Bijdragen tot de Taal-, Land-, en Volkenkunde van Nederlandsch-Indië 82: 110-80.
Pollock, Sheldon 2006 The Language of The Gods in The World of Men: Sanskrit, Culture, and Power in Premodern India. Berkeley: University of California Press.
Pramoedya Ananta Toer 2002 The King, the Witch and the Priest: A Twelfth-Century Javanese Tale. Sheffield: Equinox Publishing.
Ramstedt Martin 2005 Hinduism in Modern Indonesia: A Minority Religion Between Local, National, and Global Interests. London: Routledge Curzon, IIAS.
Ricklefs, Merle 2008 A History of Modern Indonesia Since c. 1200, 4th edition. Basingstoke and New York: Palgrave Macmillan.
Santiko, Hariani 1997 The Goddess Durga in the East-Javanese Period. Asian Folklore Studies, 56(2): 209-226.
Stephen, Michele 2002 Returning to Original Form: A Central Dynamic in Balinese Ritual. Bijdragen tot de Taal-, Land- en Volkenkunde 158(1)1: 61-94.
Stutterheim, Willem Fredrik 1956 Studies in Indonesian Archaeology. The Hague: Nijhoff.
Supomo, S 1993 Bharatayuddha. New Delhi: International Academy of Indian Culture.
Vickers, Adrian 2013 A History of Modern Indonesia, 2nd edition. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Weiss, Sarah 2006 Listening to an Earlier Java: Aesthetics, Gender, and the Music of Wayang in Central Java. Leiden: KITLV Press.
Zoetmulder, P. J. 1974 Kalangwan: A Survey of Old Javanese Literature. The Hague: Martinus Nijhoff.
Zoetmulder, P. J. 1995 Pantheism and Monism in Javanese Suluk Literature: Islamic and Indian Mysticism in an Indonesian Setting. Leiden: KITLV - Koninklijk Instituut voor Taal-, Land-en Volkenkunde Press. [Translated from Dutch by Merle Ricklefs.]
Webistes:
http://www.hindupath.com/2014/08/pray-to-maa-durga-by-great-mantras.html
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ardhanarishvara#/media/File:Shakta_Ardhanari.jpg
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Ardhanari_Gangaikonda.jpg.
Published
2017-09-26
Issue
Section
Articles
How to Cite
Weiss, S. (2017). Rangda and the Goddess Durga in Bali. Fieldwork in Religion, 12(1), 50-77. https://doi.org/10.1558/firn.33750
