In 1925, the influential Dutch anthropologist W. H. Rassers questioned the relationship of myth to ritual, taking as his case study the Javanese myth of the birth of the man-eating demon Kala. This myth, and its re-enactment, shed light on the social morphology and became immediately the subject of debate among students of Javanese culture. In this enticing work, Stephen C. Headley translates and studies ritual and myth in their variant forms, expanding upon Rassers' general proposition that the movement from cosmogony to exorcism discovers fundamental social forms that circulate values in Javanese society.

List of Illustrations

xii

List of figures

xiii

The Purification ritual of Javanese shadow Puppet theatre

1

(26)

Introduction

1

(1)

Past perspectives

2

(4)

The ritual

6

(5)

The corpus of the myths

11

(8)

The celebrant, written traditions, and oral traditions: contemporary ruwatans and their distribution

19

(1)

Non-Javanese Birth of Kala

20

(2)

Approach of the book

22

(5)

Part I: From Myth to theatre to Ritual

The Murwa Kala: A Contemporary Performance (1983)

27

(58)

Introduction

27

(1)

A synopsis of the Murwa Kala

28

(2)

Translation of the Murwa Kala wayang play performed by Ki dhalang Gandasuyana, Semarang, 6 february 1983

30

(52)

Narrative codes and categories

82

(3)

Four Performances Compared

85

(17)

Synopsis of Suyatna Wignyasarana's Murwa Kala (Surakarta, Mangkunagaran Palace, March 1983)

86

(5)

Gandasuyana's Murwa Kala (Semarang, 6 February 1983)

91

(2)

Nyatacarita's Murwa Kala (Kutaharjo, 21 May 1988)

93

(3)

Sudarman's Murwa Kala (Banalaya, 30 June 1990)

96

(2)

Structure and agency

98

(4)

Mountain and Lowland Variants: Ritual Purification without Theatre

102

(31)

The mountain milieu: Mt. Lawu

102

(4)

Suparman's book of exorcism

106

(16)

Commentary

122

(1)

The Muslim Yaasiin purification

123

(1)

The Sonteng booklet of a lowland healer

124

(4)

Conclusions to Part I: structure of the myth and corpus of the mantra

128

(5)

Part II: ritual Rebirth and the Ordering of the Cosmos

The Cosmogony in the Mantras

133

(23)

Behaviour and belief

133

(5)

Javanese invocations and the mantra corpus

138

(5)

The Tata Winanci: a mantra of the creation of the world

143

(13)

Incomplete and Impure Persons in Javanese Myths and Ritual

156

(30)

Order versus disorder

156

(5)

Disorder: the myths of the half-children

161

(5)

Disorder: children's `faults'

166

(2)

Order-disorder, elder siblings-enemies: a child's four `foetus siblings'

168

(2)

Order restored: abultions of children by water and by mantras in the wayang

170

(2)

Order restored: the ablutions of the Ego's body housing `foetus siblings' and ancestors

172

(3)

Conclusions: qualifying faulty and incomplete children

175

(11)

Javanese Cosmology:

186

(40)

Cosmos and society: past and present

186

(7)

Royal and presant cosmic orientation

193

(6)

Hierarchy of values in Javanese social structure: elder sister/younger brother

199

(4)

Birth of the world: the origin of mythological landscape

203

(4)

The contribution of Islam to Javanese cosmology

207

(5)

Collective cosmogonies and private needs

212

(3)

Appendices

1. The Mythological corpus

215

(3)

2. The Mantra corpus

218

(3)

3. The Sukerta List from citrakusuma's Serat Murwakala (1926)

221

(5)

References

226

(19)

Index

245

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