Religion in Bali by C. Hooykaas

7 Black Magic
Many Balinese are convinced that they can be made the victims of black magic, and judging
from the not unfrequent occurrence of manuals on magic, called KAWISESAN, the number of
those who exercise it should not be underrated. Formulas and drawings are the most frequent
means, srana, but several more are mentioned in the treatises. For instance; "Take a nutmeg,
write (or: draw) Yama Raja on it, and the name of the person you aim at, put it in your house
shrine, cover it up with rice chaff, let it smoulder, as long as seven days and seven nights". Yama
Raja is the Judge in the Hereafter and thus the inescapable Lord of Punition [22].
Another example: "When you aim at confounding your enemy: write (or draw) Yama Raja on a
strip of palm leaf, burn it to ashes and mix them with rice grains; scatter them on the road; first
draw a thunderbolt on the road." We already learned that the man who wished to see his kanda
mpat had to submit himself to conditions, which were (next to) impossible to fulfill; this is not an
exception.
At the celebration of the Eka dasa Rudra [24] a more or less cubic, in any case rectangular piece
of masonry is made with a drawing of Yama Raja on it. This is the supreme ritual at which the
stutis in honor of Yama Raja are recited by the senior padanda Buddha, the only one to know
them and to use them in his ritual. But when we see a sculpture of Yama Raja in the puri,
baronial court of Kaba kaba, there is no question of Buddhism but here we have to do with the
Yama Raja of all Balinese (e). His front consists of three times three squares inscribed with
syllables, just like a drawing of Yama Raja is provided with five times five syllables. They are
the materials used to read the magic formulas in the form of Indian anustubh, four lines of eight
syllables, devised to destroy the enemy and safeguard the self [22].
The application of such a Sanskrit formula may be disastrous, but those gifted with self
confidence and provided with a knowledgeable priest may counteract such a curse with balik
sumpah, reversal of curse, of which numerous collections have come down to us, justifying the
conviction that at least in the recent past the Balinese were prone to curses and counter curses.