to the kingdom (Fig. 34).
Fig. 34 Sabug?, Kamasan, Calon Arang, late 19th C, paint on cloth, 37 x 714 cm, ider-ider, from Pura Dalem Bugbugan, Gelgel, Forge Collection, Australian Museum, E74124 (photo Emma Furno).
Fig. 35 I Ketut Gede, Singaraja, Kelika (left) Honours Durga (right), before 1890, paint and ink on Dutch paper, watermark concordia ‘VdL’, 34 x 41.8 cm, Leiden University Library, UB Or3390-209.
Assassins sent to kill Rangda in her sleep fail, and are destroyed by her. Her reign of terror goes unchecked until a powerful priest, Mpu Barada, intervenes. Barada, a Buddhist priest, has power to match Rangda’s, and forces the witch into submission.
The Calon Arang story is best known for its performance in the dance-drama commonly referred to as Barong, in which Mpu Barada takes the form of the lion-dragon in order to subdue Rangda. The story is also performed as a particularly dangerous shadow puppet theatre, in which the puppeteer challenges the power or sakti of witches and warlocks in the community, risking his health and life. Artists who depict the power of witchcraft take similar risks, but by calling on other powers may be able to strengthen themselves (Fig. 35).
Tantri
Regarded, like the Calon Arang story, as about historical kings and figures, the Tantri stories are animal fables concerned with the correct conduct of people at various levels of society, particularly kings and priests. The frame story of this ‘Thousand and One Nights’ collection is the tale of an aristocratic girl, Tantri, who has been given by her father to a king whose practice it is to sleep with a virgin every night and then discard her (Fig. 36). Tantri, assisted by her old servant, defers her fate by telling the king a different tale each night. The stories are about kings and priests who do wrong, and others who act virtuously, and the frame story within a frame story is of a bull (symbolic of priesthood) and a lion (symbolic of kingship), who meet in the jungle kingdom but are incited to fight by their jackal subjects, who tell stories to each of them, creating mutual distrust. The bull and the lion ultimately fight to the death, and the king is eventually persuaded to take Tantri as his wife.44
In addition to depictions of Tantri and the king, and the lion and bull, the stories commonly shown from the Tantri cycle include the pretentious tortoises, who, wishing to fly, end up crashing to the earth; the hunter and the monkey stuck up a tree while fleeing from a tiger; the virtuous priest who is rewarded for helping others by being saved by those he has helped; and the stork who pretended he was a priest in order to trick fish and crabs into being eaten.
Fig. 36 Tantri: The Bull Nandaka Meets the Jackal Subjects of the Forest Kingdom. Nandaka is a gift from Siwa to the priest who abuses the bull and, thinking it has died, has his servants cremate the bull. Nandaka revives and fights the jackals, servants of the lion king of the jungle, c. 1910, traditional paint on Balinese cloth, 26 x 577 cm, ider-ider, from a temple in Takmung, Forge Collection, Australian Museum, E74211 (photo Emma Furno).
Fig. 37 Kamasan, The Landing of the King of Malayu at Tuban, 19th C, traditional paint on Balinese cloth, 155/164 x 144 cm, tabing, Tropenmuseum, Amsterdam, coll. nr. 1763-1.
Malat
The iconography used to depict kings and courtiers in the Calon Arang and Tantri stories is found in a variety of other narratives, most commonly the story of a prince called Panji, known as the Malat. Up until the 1930s, the Malat’s scenes of courtly life and royal behaviour, a preoccupation with warfare and marriage, were extremely popular with artists and their royal patrons, but nowadays few on Bali know the story at all.
The main part of the Malat story is concerned with a wandering prince from Koripan, Panji, looking for his lost betrothed and cousin Rangkesari, who is princess of Daha. Panji wanders through different parts of the world, establishing alliances with some kings and princes, and waging war with others. Eventually, Rangkesari turns up, like Panji in disguise, in the court of the king of Gegelang, where Rangkesari’s brother, disguised as the king of Malayu, is looking after her. After an elaborate set of tortuous coincidences, and after Panji has acquired a set of other wives, the two lovers are eventually united.
These stories served as reflections of the hierarchy and culture of the many kingdoms that existed in Bali prior to the Dutch takeover of 1849–1908. The Malat’s scenes are of palaces and princely order, of women swooning and of handsome princes who are endlessly longing for princesses.45
Fig. 38 Detail of Fig. 39 (overleaf).
One of the most interesting scenes from the Malat shows Panji’s cousin, Rangkesari’s elder brother, returning from abroad in his new guise as the young king of the kingdom of Malayu46 (Fig. 37). King Malayu and his two chief wives appear in the large ship in the bottom left-hand scene, landing at Tuban, the ancient royal port on the north coast of Java.
In the two main scenes that dominate the central part of the painting, they are greeted by the local official (adipati). Different versions of this story show either indigenous-style boats and ships or Chinese and European ships and crews. Since this scene is concerned with the meeting of different ethnic groups, elaborate ceremonies and celebrations, in this case worship at a temple (top left) and feasting (bottom right), are shown.
When Panji and Malayu are both in the court of the king of Gegelang, they are faced with an army led by four kings who are brothers: Mataram, Mataun, Camara and Lasem. Unbeknown to Panji and Malayu, the lost princess Rangkesari has been taken by the king of Lasem, although he has yet to consummate their marriage. Only after this battle does Malayu discover his sister’s identity.
The painting of the Great Battle above is by the master of Kamasan art from the end of the nineteenth century, Kaki Rambug, and displays complex composition and dense narrative (Fig. 39). The work shows the culmination of the military confrontation between Prince Panji’s allies and their enemies, led by King Mataram. Panji and his allies, who include his cousin Malayu and their uncle, King Gegelang, are shown on the left-hand side, facing to the right. King Mataram and his brothers Lasem, Mataun and Camara, are shown coming from the right side, facing left.
The front section of this complex battle scene shows various warriors from both sides, with Panji’s companions, the rangga (aide-de-camp) and kadehan, highlighted, such as in the scene where one of Panji’s kadehan kills the demang or chancellor of the enemy (Fig. 38).
King Mataram appears in the bottom part of the painting, riding his red horse, soon to become Panji’s. Mataram is then shown in a sequence of killings in the top row. In the top right, Panji’s cowardly elder brother, Prabangsa, flees the fight, while Panji challenges and then kills Mataram. Panji then kills Matuan in the middle of the top sequence, while Malayu kills Lasem. Magical signs appear at Lasem’s death, a flaming head (lightning), the sun shining, and a symbol surrounded by an aureole. On the bottom right, Camara, who has come late to the battle, is persuaded to surrender after his brother’s death. Above this scene, Panji accepts Camara’s surrender. In other paintings, this great victory is followed by the suicide of the wives of the king of Lasem, who stab themselves with ceremonial daggers.
Fig. 39 Kaki Rambug, Kamasan, Great Battle from
