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position of the supreme divine principle, the underlying reality upon which all rests, that which
pervades all creation with vitality, will, and consciousness’. Finally, as the dispenser of grace,
final bestower of liberation, and ultimately the one by whose activity the universe is dissolved,
she has replaced the three great male gods of the Hindu pantheon, Brahma, Vishnu, and Shiva
(Kinsley, 30).
The goddess’ role is determined by her relationship with her male counterpart. Parvati is
the ideal wife, but as the bloodthirsty hag Kali she is ‘a representation of the aggressive
potential of the female when she becomes dominant’, and both are positive qualities:
Not only are the goddesses capable of love and nurturance, they are also a
source of justice, playing an important role in the constant struggle between
good and evil which permeates the condition of man. (Preston, 12)
In The Year of Living Dangerously Lakshmi appears in her destructive form, first in the
wayang kulit which Guy Hamilton happens to see.
A lacy, feminine shape with an elaborate head-dress flitted on the screen: when
Hamilton asked who she was, the moustached man said it was Dewi Sri; she
brought the harvest, he said. I was puzzled to know what the rice Goddess was
doing in this sequence of the Pandava cycle; but strange things happen in the
wayang, and Hamilton insisted that this was how she was identified; she seems
to have caught his imagination. (YLD, 204)
Hamilton does not get the connection between fertility and destruction which underlies
the story of the Pandavas, though Koch subtly infers this by immediately bringing the femme
fatale Vera on stage. Hamilton must choose between Jill Bryant, who is carrying his child, and
Vera, who represents for him his philosophy of emotional detachment, both of whom thus
symbolise aspects of Lakshmi. Despite her promotion to undertake each of the parts in the
creation-destruction cycle, however, ‘Laksmi retains her essential character as a dynamic,
positive force that underlies growth, fertility, and prosperity’ (Kinsley, 31), which Koch
reaffirms by having Hamilton make the dharmic choice of going back to Jill.
9.10. The Apsarasas
As long as Mike Langford in Highways to a War is associated with Lakshmi his own
good fortune is assured, but the time must come that his Lakshmi of good fortune must also be
replaced by the Lakshmi of bad fortune. This time is signalled by the arrival of Ly Keang, who
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