Saturday, July 12, 2014

The Demonic Image of Goddess Durga in Bali


The Demonic Image of Goddess Durga in Bali
Ni Wayan Pasek Ariati

Introduction
Images of the goddess Durga in India have remained stable over a very long historical period, focussing on her benevolent aspects as a protective warrior goddess. However, in comparative perspective the images of the same goddess have gone through a process of demonization in Java and Bali that can be linked to historical and social factors. This evolution, which extended over a period of a millenium beginning 700 CE, saw a gradual shift from benevloent to malevolent images of the goddess. This is predominantly evident from the later development of a completely demonized image of the goddess Durga and her main devotee Rangda in the Javano-Balinese tale of Calon Arang. Herein lies a strong tendency for female images to take a demonic form that must be exorcized through the authoritative power of a male figure.

While the tale of Calon Arang is preserved especially in the performing arts of contemporary Bali, it is well known in much of Indonesia. In mythological terms the first phase of development of accusations that women are morally loose and adulterous can be traced to the composition of the kidung Sudamala in circa 1365 CE during the East Javanese period, where the local Javanese poets depicted the beautiful goddess Uma as committing adultery with Lord Brahma. Uma is then depicted as being cursed to take on a demonic form as Durga and live in a graveyard for twelve years until her husband, Shiva, the most powerful male figure in East Javanese religion, carried out her exorcism and allowed her to return to her benign and benevolent form as the gentle goddess Uma. This episode appears to be closely connected to rites of exorcism, which were very important in Javanese society then as a part of the way it dealt with sickness, plagues, natural disasters and community strife.

The role of the goddess Durga as a deity who can provide valuable assistance in subjugating one’s enemies was an important theme in treatments of images of Durga in ancient Java and Bali. It is still maintained in Bali to the present day where it takes the form of black magic practices that are aimed at overcoming personal enemies, rather than enemies of the kingdom. In the ancient period, when monarchy was still the main form of government, the goddess must have been worshipped by means of using Tantric rituals aimed at eliminating the enemies of the entire kingdom, who were also the enemies of a single person, that is the reigning monarch. During the colonial and independence periods in Bali, this role of the goddess appears to have gradually shifted to the domain of personal struggles for power in local arenas, thus finding an outlet in the practices of “left-hand magic” that are associated with worship of the goddess Durga in Bali today.[1] [See Figure 1 for illustrations of the contrasting forms of  Durga in India and Bali.][2]

 
The goddess Durga in a pandal figurine of Kolkata (2002)

The character Rangda fron the Calon Arang drama of Bali (2008)


The goddess Durga as a destroyer
There are numerous mantras described in the texts used as guidance for practicing black magic, especially in the lontar entitled Aji Pangleyakan,[3] where special mantras are used to invoke the goddess Durga in order to destroy one’s enemies, whether individual or collective. In the Aji Pangleyakan the goddess Durga is worshipped in order to gain power to cause various kinds of problems, diseases, and even the death of other people. This lontar describes in detail the offerings that need to be made, the best time to carry out rituals, the proper method for worship and the place where the rituals should be performed. Texts like the Aji Pangleyakan are written in a mixture of Sanskrit, Old Javanese, Middle Javanese and Balinese and are memorized so that they can be uttered during rituals aimed at bringing harm to other people.  The nature of such mantras is ambivalent; on the one hand they can bring destruction and on the other hand another protection. Most of the destructive mantras have a counterbalancing mantra that can be used to neutralize its power, or convert it into protective force. Despite their reputation for being destructive, many of these mantras are very similar, or even identical, with those found commonly in a wide variety of household and village rituals. In the Balinese context, the use of mantras is invariably associated with the making of offerings and dispensing of purifying holy water with specific mantras and ritual steps depending on the purpose of the ritual.  Specific mantras and accompanying ritual steps vary depending on the purpose of the ritual. In the case of destructive rituals the essential point is the ‘backward’ or ‘left-hand’ character of the rituals and mantras used for this purpose. This means that mantras are read backwards, the steps of the ritual are carried out in the opposite direction from the norm, and the steps of any dance movements connected with the ritual are in the counter-clockwise direction. This clearly is aimed at heightening the transgressive aspect of the rituals aimed at producing the power to carry out black magic, which is further reinforced by antinomian practices like dancing naked in a burning ground or cemetery and incorporating parts of corpses found in the burning ground as part of the offerings used in rituals for left-hand magical purposes (pangiwa).[4]

Most of the textual sources of mantras are preserved in lontar manuscripts, which are kept in closed shrines (gedong) in one or more of the village temples. The manuscripts are given a special offering on occasions like Saraswati Day celebrations when rituals are performed to venerate Saraswati as the goddess of aesthetic beauty, knowledge and the arts. The importance of beauty in the Balinese religion and its strong connection with the goddess Saraswati is the reason why many lontar manuscripts begin with the invocation dedicated to the goddess Saraswati. The tradition is at ensuring the composer’s due respect to the goddess, in return for which s/he gets blessed with knowledge.

In texts like the Aji Pangleyakan there is a similar emphasis on the need to pay respect to the goddess, but in this case, it is to Durga in her most grotesque and terrifying form. This contrast of beauty and ugliness could be considered one of the sources of the power of figures like Rangda in the Calon Arang tale, who are powerful through transgression of the normal order of life.  Lovric (1986:72) points out in connection with sickness and pestilence that “any entity can have the power to cure or to cause it”, and she goes on to show that theodicy is often developed in Bali in terms of a figure like Durga, who is portrayed as both the origin of diseases and pestilence, and the means of their cure. By studying the mantras of texts like the Aji Pangleyakan, we realise that part of the power of the goddess Durga comes from the uncontrolled aspect of her creativity; her power to create all kinds of living creatures regardless of their nature, whether benign and malignant. But this also means that proper rituals can cause the smallest living creatures, which are the cause of diseases and plagues, to be re-absorbed into Durga, so that once again there is equilibrium in the sphere of the world.

There are many lontar manuscripts that deal specifically with the subject of worshipping Durga to seek powerful magic. Among the most complete is the afore-mentioned Aji Pangleyakan, which lays out detailed rules and requirements for attaining power from the goddess Durga including the proper time and place for worshipping the goddess, i.e in the cremation ground, or burning ground, which is called the Setra Gandamayu in the text.[5] Hooykaas (1978) quotes the following lengthy formula from a lontar manuscript titled Pangiwa, which is very similar to formulae found in the Aji Pangleyakan and also the Belego Dawa; another lontar detailing the correct procedures to be followed by those who are willing to practice the black magic. In the text cited by Hooykaas, even the offerings are vividly described, and the correct procedures for following the “left hand path” are carefully detailed:
            Yan ahyun angangge pangiwa, lamakane wenang sakti, sidi, mahawisesa, dabresih apeningan mahening-hening.

When one wishes to use black magic in order to obtain supernatural power and to succeed in sorcery, one should begin by cleansing oneself with the utmost care.[6]

 Kala wengi mandewa-sraya rumuhun ring pangulu n setra, amedek Paduka Batari Durga, nunas panugrahan.

During the night one should go to the temple of the grave yard which is located in the most elevated part of the cemetery and turn oneself towards the eternal powers in the temple while invoking the goddess Durga to ask for blessings or favours.
           
Srana: daksina 1, artanya 17,000, canang 11 tanding, katipat 2 kelan, arak, berem, injin, katur ka luhur

            Requisites: One should bring offerings consisting of a daksina provided with 17.000 Chinese coins, eleven canang, two kelan katipat, arrack and rice wine made of black rice and steamed black-rice cake. These offerings should be offered to the Goddess.

Wus mangkana, asila angarepi paryangan, amusti rangkep, teher agra-nasika, tan mari asep menyan astanggi; nirmalakena atinta.

            After that, one should sit on the ground in front of the sanctuary with the hands in the praying position and then concentrate. Without interrupting the concentration one should take care that the aromatic materials are kept smouldering. While keeping one’s mind free from other thoughts one should utter this mantra.

Mantra: Om Ra Nini Batari Bagawati, turun ka Bali; ana wang mangkana; aminta kasih ring Paduka Batari, sira nunas turun ka mretya-pada.

            Mantra: Om the Most Venerated Goddess Bhagawati, deign to descend to Bali. There is someone invoking Thy favour and asking that Thou descend to the world of mortals.

Ana wang mangkana anunas kasaktyan, manusa kabeh ring Bagawati, Sang Hyang Guru turun ka mretya-pada.

            There is someone who asks for supernatural power; numerous people are asking Thee to let the Divine Teacher descend to the world of mortals.

Ana wang manusa angawe Batara kabeh, turun ka Bali Sang Hyang Bagawati.

People are directing themselves to the Gods, so that the Goddess Bhagawati may descend to Bali.

Ana buta wilis, ana buta abang, [ana buta jenar], ana buta ireng, ana buta amanca-warna, mawak I Kalika, ya kautus antuk Batari Bagawati, teka welas-asih ring awak-sarira n ku-ne, pakulun Paduka Bagawati

            There are dark-green buta, red ones, [yellow ones], black ones and buta and multi-coloured ones embodied in Kalika. May they be sent by the Goddess Bhagawati who will be gracious towards me; I am an obedient servant of Thou, Goddess Bhagawati.[7]

Om Mam Am Om Mam, ana Paduka Guru, teka welas-asih, Bagawati manggih di gedong kunci manik, teka asih ring awak-sarira n ku. Telas,

Om Mam Am Om Mam, there is Bhatara Guru who Has a gracious heart; the Goddess Bhagawati comes and meets him at the closed-shrine of jewels, be gracious toward me.

Dulurana: canang tubungan, burat wangi lenga wangi, nyahnyah gagringsingan, geti-geti, byu mas.

            That invocation must be completed with canang tubungan, burat wangi lenga wangi, nyahnyah gagringsingan (roasted rice with golden colour), geti-geti (roasted rice mixed with brown sugar to get the red colour), byu mas (a type of a small banana fruit of golden colour) Hooykaas (1978:30-31).

Nala (1997) also gives a very clear description of the procedures for practicing black magic. Nala’s description of ritual practices is very close to the information found in textual sources like the Aji Pengleyakan, but is based on interviews with traditional healers. This shows us that textual and ritual practices have not diverged greatly in the realm of magical practices.

There are a number of works in prose that narrate myths concerning the role of the goddess Durga as the destroyer of humans through inflicting plagues and disease. Among the most famous works is the prose text Calon Arang, which is considered the oldest textual version of the tale of the witch Rangda and her disciples in black magic. The phrase calon arang, in fact, means “candidate for black magic.

The prose Calon Arang is very important to this short study because it illustrates the prominence of the goddess Durga as the “personal deity” (istadewata) for Randa ing Dirah, “the widow from Dirah” who worships the goddess Bhagavati (Durga) in the cremation ground in order to gain the favour of Durga and the power of causing great destruction to the kingdom of Airlangga, historical king (reigned c. 1019-1942 CE) who plays an important role in the Calon Arang tale.

The author of the Calon Arang has woven together historical and mythological events to create a picture of a world that seems very close to Balinese society. Even today it is widely believed that people can gain access to magical power and use it to do evil; however, this brings with it a state of impurity that can only be ‘treated’ through exorcistic rituals, The prose Calon Arang gives information on the ritual steps that need to be followed in the worship of the goddess, who is known in the text as Sri Bhagavati or Bhatari Durga. The first step is the reading of a text on magical practices, which undoubtedly contains mantras and invocations of the goddess Durga; then the Rangda and her disciples go to the cremation ground, where they dance in a wild frenzy aimed at raising up demonic forces and inspiring the goddess Durga herself to appear. Once the goddess appears, Rangda and her disciples worship the goddess Durga and ask her blessing in carrying out magical attacks. The first attack of Rangda on Airlangga’s kingdom as described in the prose Calon Arang can be summarized as follows:

            “How painful it is that nobody wants to propose to my beautiful daughter. I will take out my sacred book and then go to pay homage at the “feet of the goddess” (paduka Sri Bhagavati). I will ask for her blessing so that I can bring destruction to all the people of the kingdom”, thought Rangda in Dirah. After reading her sacred book, Rangda then went to the cremation ground with seven of her favourite female disciples; Si Weksirsa, Mahisa-wadana, Si Lenda, Si Lendi, Si Guyang, Si Larung, and Si Gandi. After arriving in the cremation ground, they all dance wildly together. The goddess Durga (paduka Batari Durga) then appears with her numerous demonic followers. Rangda then worshipped the goddess with great fervour, who said to her disciple, “Hai, my dear daughter Calon Arang, what is your purpose in coming to me with all your disciples?” While continuing to worship the goddess, Rangda said, “My Lady, I have come to you to beg for a blessing so that I can destroy the kingdom, that’s my main aim in coming before you my Lady”. The goddess said, “My daughter, I give you permission to do so, but you should not destroy people inside the court. You should not kill, because it is a great sin to seek revenge!” Calon Arang agreed to the condition that she would not kill people inside the court circle. Then she took leave of the goddess and departed from the cremation ground with light steps, followed by her disciples. Later at midnight, they all danced once again on the cremation ground, making a great sound with the clanging of kamanak, kangsi and other gongs and bells. After dancing, they went back home to Dirah/Girah with a happy feeling. The next morning, many people in the surrounding villages fell sick and died, so many that dead bodies piled up everywhere.[8]

From the description above we know that the Rangda of Dirah destroyed her enemies through magical power used with the blessings of the goddess Durga-Bhagavati. The fact that the goddess grants her this power does not mean that she does not know that it has evil consequences, for she reminds Rangda that it is sinful to do evil for the sake of seeking revenge. However, Rangda is blinded by her anger and ignores the caution of the goddess. In this description of the first worship to the goddess, the author does not describe the nature or extent of the offerings of Rangda and her followers to the goddess, but instead stresses their wild dancing and the loud, raucous music they make as an accompaniment to their dancing.

Beliefs about the importance of sacrifice in the quest for magical power have a long history in India. Lorenzen (1972:16) has pointed out that the most archaic level of Tantric worship to the goddess is represented in the prose, literary work Kadambari composed by Bāṇabhaṭṭa in the 7th century CE. In this work, Dūrgā (known here as Caṇḍikā, another of her many names) is offered human flesh by people of the wild Śabara tribe.[9] Usha Dev (1987:12) tells us of a similar scene in Daṇḑin’s Daśakumāracarita, another literary work of the 7th century CE, which describes “the scene of the temple of Caṇḍikā where the Śabaras [] intended to sacrifice a boy”. However, the most elaborate Indian description of the role of sacrifice in seeking the favour of the goddess is found in the Sanskrit drama Mālatīmādhava, composed by the illustrious Bhavabhūti during the 8th century CE (c.725 CE).[10] Lorenzen (1972:23) has pointed out that Bhavabhūti might have been inspired by Daṇḑin’s work, replacing the sacrifice of a young prince with that of a young princess, and shifting the blame for the deed from the wild, Śabara people to a siddha, a practitioner of Tantric rites, who in this case has dedicated himself to winning the favour of Caṇḍikā in order to achieve great magical power.

When we look at a summary of the Mālatīmādhava, it should become clear that there is a strong relationship between the sacrificial scenes in the two works: the Daśakumāracarita and Mālatīmādhava. In both it is a young princess who is to be sacrificed, while the person intending to carry out the sacrifice is an ascetic  practicing extreme, antinomian forms of worship. If we compare the drama of Daśakumāracarita and Mālatīmādhava with the Calon Arang tale, we also find several similarities between these literary works. In the Calon Arang story, the fresh body of a young man who was buried on an auspicious day (Tumpek, or Saturday Kliwon) is brought back to life for the purpose of obtaining fresh blood and cannot be rescued, since he was an outsider to Rangda’s circle of magical practitioners at the cremation ground. No matter how hard he begs for his life Calon Arang feels no remorse whatsoever in causing his death a second time, since the only thing on her mind was the destruction of Airlangga’s entire kingdom.

Bhavabhūti, a poet and dramatist whose name has lived on as one of the greats of the Indian tradition, lived during the reign of Yaśovarman of Kanauj, which was a period of great glory and power that supported a sophisticated culture that admired and supported the creation of literary works and dramas in Sanskrit, as well as a number of other literary languages (Lorenzen, 1972:49, Usha Dev, 1987:13; Kale, 1997:35-50). In Acts IV and Act V of this work the heroine is nearly sacrificed as a human offering to Cāmuṇḑa (a very terrifying form of the goddess Dūrgā) by a practitioner of magical rites who is described as a member of the Kāpālika order. As Lorenzen (1972:50) tells us the Kāpālika practiced extreme forms of asceticism and anti-social behaviour that, even as early as the time of Bhavabhūti, led to their being considered a dangerous, and possibly cannibalistic form of ascetics. For this study what is most important, and very striking, is that the description of extreme modes of Tantric worship found in works like the Kadambari, Daśakumāracarita and Mālatīmādhava are often strongly reminiscent of works of the Javanese and Balinese traditions like the Calon Arang.

The authors of these works created imaginary versions of rituals involving human sacrifice that must have always been conducted in conditions of great secrecy, or a tradition of beliefs about what might go on in such rituals. Since the Mālatīmādhava is very important as a comparison with the prose Calon Arang, I will summarize the Mālatīmādhava here:

The heroine Mālatī is deeply in love with Mādhava. But they cannot marry since the parents of Mālatī have arranged her marriage with another man. Two adherents of the Kapālika sect; Aghoraghaṇṭa and his female disciple Kapālakuṇḍalā, want to take advantage of Mālatī’s broken heart, which makes her a more attractive sacrificial victim. While Mālatī is lamenting on the terrace of her father’s palace, Kapālakuṇḑalā abducts her and brings her to her teacher Aghoraghaṇṭa, who is eagerly awaiting Mālatī at the Karala temple, located in a spacious place near the cremation ground. Aghoraghaṇṭa has vowed to sacrifice a maiden to the goddess Cāmuṇḍā, who is enshrined there, and intends to use Mālatī as the sacrifice that will make his ritual and mantras efficacious. At the same time, broken hearted from the brutal separation from his beloved Mālatī, Mādhava has been wandering around in a  burning ground and cemetery near the place where Mālatī was about to be sacrificed to the goddess Cāmuṇḍā in the Karala temple. In the depths of despair he has been selling fresh human flesh from the burning ground to the ghosts, goblins and other invisible spirits of the cemetery. While in the midst of doing so he hears the soft voice of a woman in the distance lamenting and calling out his name. The voice sounds very familiar, so he goes in search of its owner. He walks towards the temple of the goddess Cāmuṇḑā and finds Mālatī dressed in the white clothes of a sacrificial victim and on the point of being beheaded by Aghoraghaṇṭa, who is standing with an executioner’s sword in hand in front of the image of the goddess Cāmuṇḑā. Mādhava and Aghoraghaṇṭa begin to battle with great ferocity. Meanwhile the temple has been surrounded by the troops of Mālatī’s father, who have been searching high and low for her.  Mādhava succeeds in killing Aghoraghaṇṭa, freeing Mālatī from danger, while Kapālakuṇḑalā manages to fly away to safety. Mādhava now receives the blessings of Mālatī’s father and are joined in blissful marital union.[11]

While the Calon Arang story does not share the same romantic theme and the “happy ending” that was required in all Sanskrit dramas, if we look carefully we can see that the elimination of Rangda’s impure state leads to the “liberation” of her disciples from the evil and impurity that has befallen them through joining Rangda in her quest for the powers of black magic. Both works are thus more about release from danger, impurity and evil than they are about a “battle between good and evil”, and both provide insights into common beliefs about the use of human sacrifice to attain the highest degree of power in the magical arts.

Conclusions
After describing the major role of the goddess Durga as a destroyer of life, I can draw a few conclusions:

  1. The role of the goddess as a destroyer is most strongly accentuated in the Balinese case. While her spouse, Lord Shiva, is said in contemporary Bali to be the destroyer, Durga is actually more famous for her destructive nature than her spouse.

  1. There is some confusion in Bali about the identity of the goddess Durga. Many people think of Durga and Rangda as identical, but the textual and performance sources show us that Rangda is a mythical devotee of the goddess Durga, who is the antagonist in the take of Calon Arang, or Rangda ing Dirah, and in performances based on this legend.  

  1. Common beliefs about the similarity of Queen Mahendradatta and the mythical Calon Arang suggest that powerful women have commonly met with resistance in their lives. At the same time, there is a general fear in the Balinese patriarchal society that women like widows and women who have not born a male heir, are likely to study and master black magic in order to seek revenge on society. At one time the wives of the warrior caste (Kṣatriya) were required to throw themselves on the funeral pyre of their husbands, thus accentuating the fear of the state of widowhood that is also reflected in the Indian tradition of satī. The tradition of works like the Sudamala, Calon Arang and Kunti Yadnya suggests that women are feared for the destructive power they might bring upon their neighbours if they are not “protected” by the rules and regulations of the patriarchal society and the ‘protective’ circle of marriage and the family.

References
Dev, Usha
1987                The Concept of Shakti in the Puranas. Delhi Nag Publishers.

Hooykaas, C
1974                Cosmogony and Creation in Balinese Tradition. The Hague: Martinus Nijhoff. [KITLV:Bibliotheca Indonesica. No. 9]
1978                The Balinese Poem Basur: An Introduction to Magic. The Hague: Martinus Nijhoff. [KITLV: Bibliotheca Indonesica. No. 17]

Kale, M. R
1997                Bhavabhuti’s Mālatīmādhava with the Commentary of Jagaddhāra. Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass.

Lorenzen, David N
1972                The Kāpālikas and Kālāmukhas: Two Lost Śaivite Sects. Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass Publishers.

Lovric, B. J. A
1986                ‘The art of healing and the craft of witches in a “Hot Earth” village’.
Review of Indonesian and Malaysian Affairs, 20 (1), pp. 68-99.
1987                “Rhetoric and Reality: the Hidden Nightmare, Myth, and Magic as Representations of Morbid Realities”: Unpublished PhD Dissertation, University of Sydney.

Nala, Ngurah,
1991                Usada Bali. Denpasar: Upada Sastra.

Suastika, I Made
1997                Calon Arang dalam Tradisi Bali. Yogyakarta: Duta Wacana University Press.



[1] For major works in the study of the role of black magic in Balinese society see Hooykaas (1978), Lovric (1986, 1987).

[2] All photos are the work of the author.
[3] The Aji Pangleyakan contains guidance on how to practice black magic, complete with descriptions of the proper offerings and the procedures for performing rituals of this type.
 
[4] In the textual forms of the Calon Arang drama the sage Bahula Bharada’s disciple enters the compound of Rangda and, finding her not at home, takes one of her magical manuscripts to be given to the sage Bharada to be read. To his surprise its contents are exactly like those of the books he uses for protective magic (paněngěn). Is widely believed in Bali that mantras for left-hand magic are the same as those for protective magic, but they are read, or recited, in the opposite direction. This belief appears to be reflected in Bharada’s surprising discovery of the nature of the palm-leaf manuscripts used by Rangda to inflict pestilence on the realm of Airlannga.
[5] I have used the term “cremation ground” in this section to translate setra.  In some Balinese communities a distinction is made between the setra, where the bodies of the deceased are cremated, and the sema, where they are buried, but for most communities the two terms are nearly synonymous, since there is no clear separation of space between the area where the deceased are cremated and the area where bodies that are temporarily buried due to a lack of funds for the cremation rituals or the availability of an auspicious day for śmaśāna, a Sanskrit term for a cremation ground.

[6] I have taken the liberty here of rearranging Hooykaas’ text and translation of a section of a manuscript titled Pengiwa that was transcribed for him by the late AA Ketut Sangka for the “Proyek Tik” collection. Hooykaas (1978:30) lists this transcription as K 96 in the Proyek Tik collection. In his original rendering the Balinese text and translation were given in two single blocks (1978:30-32).
[7]  The Sanskrit word bhūta, usually spelled buta in Balinese, has gone through a unique process of development in Bali. Perhaps originating from its use in the phrase pañca-mahābhūta that refers in Saṃkhyā philosophy to the “five great elements” of the physical world, these elements are associated in Bali with the “four spiritual siblings” (and the self) whose demonic aspect needs to be controlled in order to protect the human being from disease and accidents. This concept has developed to the point that there are a great many rituals aimed at placating the buta, or buta-kala, which are visualized as inhabiting the earth and underworld, and so worshippped with offerings placed on the ground, almost always containing meat, and often liquor—thus accentuating the possible Tantric origins of this form of worship.
[8] My translation here is based on Suastika’s Indonesian translation and the Middle Javanese text of the prose the Calon Arang (LOr 5387/5279; Suastika, 1997:60-61).

[9] I use diacritics in this paper only in the sections dealing with Indian works like the Mālatīmādhava of Bhavabhūti. I thus retain the Indian spelling Dürgā only in this section of my paper. While distinctions of long and short vowels are retained in lontar manuscripts, they are not a part of Javanese or Balinese phonology and are not pronounced differently (as they are in India).

[10] Bhavabhūti’s name means either “wealth of Shiva” or “ashes of Shiva” (Lorenzen 1972:50). He is considered by many scholars to have been a brilliant innovator in both the dramatic forms (nāṭya) and courtly epics (kāvya) of the Sanskrit tradition.

[11] I am indebted to Professor Gary Tubb of the Columbia University, New York for his kindly sharing with me this verbal summary of Bhavabhūti’s Mālatīmādhava while I was in Israel in 2003.


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