Summaries of the Kidung Sudamala and Kidung
Sri Tanjung
(excerpt from my dissertation in CDU, Darwin, Australia)
I. Summary of the Kidung Sudamala
Episode 1: The three great deities Sang Hyang Tunggal, Sang Hyang Asihprana and
Sang Hyang Wisesa once gathered together in the dwelling place of Bhatara Guru,
the Supreme Deity. They were discussing the misdeed of Sri Uma, wife of Bhatara
Guru, whom they heard had “shared her beetle-nut quid and face-powder” with
Sang Hyang Brahma, that is she had committed adultery with Lord Brahma[1]. Bhatara
Guru was furious upon hearing that news, and so cursed Uma into becoming Durga,
a terrifying demoness. Uma then transformed into a demonic figure with long
dishevelled hair; her eyes were like twin suns; her mouth was like a cavern
with protruding fangs; her two nostrils were like the holes of twin wells and
her entire skin was covered with spots and blemishes.
In that form she was called Ra Nini and sentenced to
reside in a cremation ground called Setra Gandamayu. She must dwell in
that cemetery for twelve years together with her followers until the time came
when Bhatara Guru himself would exorcize her with the assistance of
Sadewa, one of the twin sons of Pandu and Madri.[2]
It is said that there were also two celestial beings
named Citranggada and Citrasena who committed the misdeed of flying above the
head of Bhatara Guru while he was with his consort, Uma, in their bathing
place. They too were cursed by Bhatara Guru to become twin demons, named
Kalanjaya and Kalantaka[3] and sentenced
to serve the Kaurawa, the evil cousins of the five Pandawa brothers for a
period of twelve years, the same period of Uma’s punishment in the form of Ra
Nini. They are told to reside with Ra Nini in the Setra Gandamayu cremation
grounds.
Episode 2. Kunti, the mother of the Pandawa brothers, heard the
news about those two powerful demons (Kalanjaya and Kalantaka) and
grew worried about the safety of her sons. Without the knowledge or permission
of her sons, Kunti planned to pay homage to Ra Nini at her shrine (kahyangan)
in the cremation ground of Setra Gandamayu. She entered the cremation grounds
and worshipped Durga or Ra Nini. The terrible goddess then appeared to Kunti.
Kunti implored her to help her sons to destroy those two demons, but Ra Nini
refused her request because those two demons were none other than her own two
sons.
Episode 3.
However, Ra Nini said that she would fulfill Kunti’s desire if she were willing
to sacrifice a “red-goat”, that is a human being. She specifically asked that
the victim be Sadewa because Sadewa was a “hot person” who jeopardized every
person who was close to him, because he was the second-born of a pair of twins.[4]
First, Kunti refused Ra Nini’s request because Sadewa was not her biological
son, and instead she offered her own sons, Yudhisthira, Bhima and Arjuna as a
sacrifice to Ra Nini/Durga. But then Kalika, a loyal disciple of Ra Nini,
“entered” (or “possessed”) Kunti, and so she immediately came under Ra Nini’s
power and went home to bring Sadewa back as a sacrifice to Ra Nini.
Episode 4. When they arrived at the Setra Gandamayu, Kunti tied
Sadewa to a randu tree.[5] Sadewa
was then assaulted and tempted by many types of ghosts and demons of the
cremation ground. When Ra Nini/Durga
saw Sadewa she was ecstatic and immediately tried to eat him, but she found she
could not do so. Then Ra Nini/Durga took out her long sword and tried to kill
Sadewa, but still in vain. Ra Nini/Durga could not consume Sadewa because
Bhatara Guru had given him the power to be invulnerable.
Episode 5. Durga then asked Sadewa to exorcize her, so that she could return to
her form as Uma, but Sadewa refused, explaining that he lacked the ability to
do so. Then Bhatara Guru arrived and “entered” Sadewa’s body in order to
exorcize Durga. After being exorcized by Bhatara Guru through Sadewa, Ra
Nini/Durga turned back into the goddess Uma. To show her appreciation to
Sadewa, Durga/Uma blessed him in two ways. First, she gave him the name
“Sudamala” that means “purified or released (suda, shuddha) from sin or
stain (mala)”. Second, she advised Sadewa to go to a hermitage in
Prangalas to propose marriage to Ni Soka, the daughter of the sage
Tambrapetra and assured him that he would be successful in his aim.
Episode 6. The Sudamala story
continues with the wedding of Sadewa and his twin brother Nakula with the two
daughters of Tambrapetra. This is followed by the war that Nakula and Sadewa
wage on the twin demons Kalanjaya and Kalantaka which comes to a climax with
the death of the demons, who are then also released from the curse and assume
their original form as two celestial beings.[6]
II. Summary of the Kidung Sri Tanjung
Priyono (1931) worked
extensively on the kidung Sri Tanjung, providing a critical edition of
the text, Dutch translation and commentary. According to him, the tale of Sri
Tanjung is the continuation of the tale of kidung Sudamala, because tale
narrates the story of the marriage of the children of Nakula and Sadewa.
The story goes as follows:
After Sahadewa exorcized the
demonic Durga and transformed her back into Uma, Sahadewa went with his brother
Nakula to the hermitage of Prangalas to cure the blind sage Tambrapetra, which
he succeeds in doing. As a reward for exorcizing the goddess and curing the
sage, Nakula and Sadewa are granted the daughters of the sage, Ni Padapa and Ni
Soka. There were two famous children from these marriages, a son Sidapaksa born
from the marriage of Sahadewa and Ni Soka, and a daughter Sri Tanjung born from
the marriage of Ni Padapa with Nakula.
When they attained maturity
Sidapaksa and Sri Tanjung were married.[7]At
this time Sidapaksa devoted himself entirely to serving his king, King
Sulakrama. But in time, seeing that Sidapaksa had a wonderfully beautiful wife,
the king became jealous and desired to possess Sri Tanjung for himself. First
he sent Sidapaksa on a mission to the abode of Indra, and during his absence of
Sidapaksa the king attempted to seduce Sri Tanjung. But being faithful to her
husband, Sri Tanjung refused to obey the king. Because he felt humiliated by
Sri Tanjung, when Sidapaksa came back from the abode of Indra, the king
slandered Sri Tanjung by reversing the facts and claiming that she had
attempted to seduce him. In a blind rage Sidapaksa confronted his wife and
dragged her to the Gandamayu cemetery where killed her. But when Sidapaksa
washed his clothes after killing his wife, he noticed that the bloodstain still
smelled fragrant, and immediately realized that he has killed an innocent
person.[8]
Upon realising what he had done Sidapaksa went mad with grief and resolved to
go to the underworld to seek the return of his beloved wife. At the same time
Dorakala, the doorkeeper of the afterlife, however, refused to allow the soul
of Sri Tanjung to enter because it was not yet time for her to die. At that
moment there was also a severe earthquake that turned the world very dark. The
gods in their abode were startled at this situation. At that time Ra Nini
(Durga), who was in her heavenly abode (Kahyangan) was also startled and
tried to find out what has happened. She saw the body of Sri Tanjung in the
Gandamayu cemetery, and went there to revive her and bring her back to life.
Following this Kalika, the loyal servant of Durga took her to Prangalas.
Sidapaksa tried to find the
dead body of Sri Tanjung in the Gandamayu cemetery, but of course, his search
was in vain. He then tried to kill himself with his kris knife, but the
goddess Durga saw it, and stopped him from killing himself, though she did not
reveal herself to him. He was amazed that an invisible spirit had saved his
life, and so immediately carried out an act of sincere worship. The voice of
the goddess Durga then informed him that Sri Tanjung is still alive, staying in
the hermitage of Prangalas. The voice told him that he must kill the evil king,
Sulakrama.
Works Cited:
Padmapuspita
1977, Candi Sukuh dan Kidung Sudamala, Komentar, Teks dan Alih Bahasa. Jakarta:
Proyek Pengembangan Media Kebudayaan, Ditjen. Kebudayaan, Departemen Pendidikan
dan Kebudayaan R.I.
Priyono 1938, Sri
Tanjung, een Oud Javaansh verhaal. The Hague.
Santiko, Hariani 1987, “Kedudukan Bhatari Durga di Jawa Pada Abad
X-XV Mesehi.” (Doctoral Dissertation, University of Indonesia, Depok)
[1] David Shulman (1985: 304) notes that the close relationship of
South Indian kings with the goddess can easily lead to the idea that the
goddess is “fickle” or even fond of adultery. He points out that: “No less
ambiguous is the king’s intimate relation with the goddess, either in her form
as Sri, ‘royal splendor’ - a notoriously fickle figure - or as the warrior
maiden Durga or Durga-Laksmi”.
[2] Sahadewa and Nakula, the sons of Pandu and Madri, are half-brothers to Yudhisthira,
Arjuna and Bhima, the other members of the famous “five Pandawa brothers” who
are the heroes of Indian and Indonesian versions of the Mahabharata.
[3] Their names mean “Victory of Time or Death” (Kala-n-jaya) and “End of Time/Death”
(Kala-antaka), but the second name could also be understood “One Who
Brings an End Through Time/Death”.
[4] In a later chapter I will discuss the way that plays like Sudamala
and similar tales like the Javanese Murwakala and Balinese Sapu
Leger (and Sudamala) are used as a main element of rituals aimed at
purifying several kinds of ritual impurity. One of these is the birth of twins,
which brings about an inauspicious state that is “cured” in Java and Bali through performance of a wayang
play like the Sudamala story.
[5] A randu tree a large, tall tree with flowers red as blood that is closely associated
in Java and Bali with cemeteries and cremation grounds.
[6] My sources for this synopsis are van Stein Callenfels (1925:
10-25), Santiko (1987: 79-80) and Padmapuspita (1977: 64-110), as well as the
oral tradition of Bali. The Sudamala story is very popular in Bali to
this present day. Narrative reliefs of the Sudalama story can be found
in quite a few villages, where they engraved on the outer walls of the Pura
Dalem, the temple that protects villages from the dangerous influences of the
cremation ground and cemetery. As I have noted above the Sudamala story
is also important in wayang plays performed as part of the rituals
exorcizing the dangerous power of children born as twins.
[7] There have been several studies of the importance of cross-cousin
marriages in South India, and of the fact that this pattern that is so popular
in the Dravidian South India is at odds with the Indo-European prohibition on
close-cousin marriages that is prominent in North India. It is significant that
several of the great kakawin of ancient Java (Hariwangsa, Krsnayana,
Ghatotkacasraya) are about cross-cousin marriages that have to be
accomplished through abduction or elopement because the parents cannot give
public consent to the marriages.
[8] Man y of the basic elements of this story are repeated in the
nineteenth century Balinese tale of Jayaprana, which is well-known from many
versions of the tale in geguritan form. In that tale, however, it is the
male (Jayaprana) whose death is brought about by the king, who is ultimately
destroyed through his actions of killing Jayaprana and attempting to seduce his
wife, Layonsari. The element of blood that remains fragrant after the murder of
an innocent person is found in both works.
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