Preface

261
Words in bold type are kawi (or Old Javanese), a literary register of
Balinese;
Words underlined are Indonesian;
Words both bold and italicized are from the special vocabulary of actors.
Parentheses are mine. For ease of reading and explication I have cut out
a few brief exchanges which do not bear directly on the matter under
discussion. The excisions are indicated by [...].
Statements in quotation marks are where the servants speak on behalf of
the king, as if using his words.
Extract 1: The purpose of rites i
Wijil:
Panasar:
Wijil:
Panasar:
Wijil:
Panasar:
Wijil:
Panasar:
Wijil:
Everyone who is ruled by Sri Aji Palaka in the land of
Nusa is free to follow their own religion.
What is right should be taught and broadcast to the
whole of society.
The basis of the religion we share is in ideas about
reality. Having ideas about reality in itself doesn’t
produce results though. There should be a moral code
to implement those ideas. 214
That’s not yet enough.
That’s not yet all that’s necessary. There should be art
(here, theatre) and there’s something else, which we call
‘rites’.
That’s so.
(He starts a folk etymological analysis of the word
‘upacara’, ceremonies.) What’s the significance of
‘upa’?
What does it mean?
‘Upa’ resembles what we call ‘energy’ (effort), ‘cara’
means ‘each to his own’. The ways we achieve it are
different, but the aim for all of us is to serve the
Almighty. 215
214 The word he uses, tattwa, tends these days to be glossed as ‘philosophy’, Indonesian
filsafat. The commentators considered it here to be referring more specifically to the
background to religious doctrine (agama). The word is from Sanskrit and kawi. Tattwa
is ‘"thatness", what makes something what it really is, being, reality; the essential, the
actual (as contrasted with the apparent or incidental); the various categories of reality
according to Samkhya doctrine; doctrine concerning reality, philosophy; the writings
containing this doctrine’ (Zoetmulder 1983: 1962-63).
215 ‘Each to his own’ is gloss of the Balinese proverb: ‘Bina paksa bina
paksi’, ‘different birds, different foods’. Its sense is similar to the
French ‘Chacun a son gout’ (Each person has his own taste), or the