Hi everybody
the thread is getting hot!
Thanks to Durga
More seriously, I'll be very pleased if anybody can fulfil Marto's wishes. I doubt it, but i'll sincerely appreciate any clue (and moreover with pics) about a monumental veiled durga.
By the way, if you can get some pics of a monumental statue of Hinduist god in java post 16th and pre 20th, I'm very interested. (Panji is also welcome as are the Pandawa, Korawa etc...)
It's not because there's not a big statue that this handle is not what we say it is. And there are no big statues because of the Islamic rules. Wayang has hardly survived because the Wayang kulit was far enough of the human form representations. You will notice that this have not even been the case for wayang Golek (try to find the same heroes in Wayang kulit and golek and you will realise that some are missing, even for the same stories)
And this does not means that the Hinduism influence has totally disappeared from the Javanese culture. There are plenty of examples of popular art and precisely related to keris that show the evolutions of the sculpture between the 16th and now.
Marto
Doubting your reading is good and sane. At least it means you have read something. By the way, Marto, if you are interested in the subject I humbly suggest that you read the article rather than go trough it.
And before stating that M Kerner, Jensen, de Marval have no credit for their work you'd better read their books before.
I personally do not agree with all of what they say, but I recognise that their work is professional and valuable.
A forum like our is to share opinions and the more we can push the limits of knowledge, the better. Just mind a little respect, that will make the discussion more constructive.
Now regarding the beautiful yellow skin girl…
DURGA
In the ancient Vedic texts, Durga was the consort of Shiva and some Hindu sects regard her as the personification of the primeval creative force, the Divine Mother. She is sometimes referred to as Durga, sometimes as Kali or Shakti. These sects worship Durga as a frequently benevolent, but occasionally unforgiving and destructive, all-powerful goddess, able to punish or bestow grace on mortals to enable them to comprehend (he transparent nature of God.
The Javanese and Balinese variants of Hinduism give a different interpretation of Durga. For them, she is the Goddess of Evil, Darkness and Destruction. Where the origins of the Indian Durga are shrouded in mystic cosmology the Javanese world of wayang has created its own complex stories
about Durga and Guru's other consorts.
The most common story is that Bathara Guru had become angry with his wife, Dewi Umayi, after she had foiled his attempt to have an affair with a young goddess. Guru cursed Umayi, declaring that he would turn her into an ugly ogress. The curse was soon fulfilled in a strange way. Guru and Umayi came across a young ogress deep in meditation. Her name in the Yogyakarta tradition was Dewi Pramuni (elsewhere she is known as Dewi Danupati or Dewi Tendana). Pramuni aspired to be at least as beautiful as the nymphs of Heaven. Guru granted her wish but only on condition that her spirit enter the body of the beautiful Dewi Umayi. Dewi Umayi's spirit in turn was to enter the ugly ogress body of Dewi Pramuni. Pramuni's new-found beauty did not last; she soon adopted all the most dreadful attributes of an ogress and was given the name Durga. Which means 'disappointed' or 'never content". Guru then forced Durga to marry Bathara Kala, the ogre son of his spilled seed. In other versions, it was Dewi Umayi, in her new shape as an ogress, who became Bathari Durga; and Kala married the now beautiful Dewi Pramuni.
As a goddess, Durga lived in Setragandamayi, a lonely place filled with evil spirits and the stench of decaying corpses. She acquired the divine ability to bestow blessings upon all who worshipped her.
Durga is the incarnation of evil in many Javanese wayang stories. With her husband, Bathara Kala, Durga was forever meddling in the affairs of the gods and men, sowing discord between friends and spreading misfortune. She had a particular dislike for Arjuna and his Pandawa brothers, seeking on many occasions to ruin them.
In puppet form as Bathari Durga, her barefooted puppet is oversized, with a hideous face, bulging devils eyes, a wide flat nose and the fangs of a vicious dog. Tell me if it reminds you of something…
That will be all
for today