The story of Galungan

I thought that I'd tell the traditional account of Galungan, and why it's a celebration of dharma over adharma. (Please look at yesterday's post for definitions.)

Anyway, here's the story as told to me by my teacher:

In Bali's seemingly far yet still palpable past, there was a just king in the ancient Balinese kingdom of Balingkang. He has a son, Maya Denawa, who possesses great magical powers. One day, the just king dies and his son takes over the throne. As soon as he becomes king, Maya Denawa starts to call himself a most powerful deity, and commands that his subjects make offerings to him and only him (that was definitely not his duty), not to any of the proper gods (i.e. Siwa, Iswara, Wisnu, Brahma, etc.). He also bans any public religious celebrations. Pestilence, disease, death, and famine follow this period. The suffering people finally appeal to Indra, so he comes down to subdue this insolent despot.

During his search for Maya Denawa, Indra and his army rest in an area due southwest of the Balingkang throne. Maya Denawa, in a magical disguise, manages to sneak by the god's camp to create a magic spring nearby. To sneak past the camp, Maya Denawa walked on the sides of his feet in an area in Bali now known as Tampaksiring, "footprints with the sides [of the feet]". When the army awakes, the soldiers find the spring and drink its waters. Unknown to them, the spring's waters were magically poisoned by Maya Denawa. Once they drink the water, the soldiers immediately collapse and die.

Indra, seeing the collapse of his army, creates a purifying spring called "Tirtha Empul" (tirtha is the High Balinese word for "water", or in this case, holy water) and revives his entire army. He then sets off after the fleeing Maya Denawa, who constantly changes into various forms such as a chicken, a nymph, and finally a sandstone rock (paras). Indra sees through this ruse and shoots an arrow straight through Maya Denawa's heart. The dying Maya Denawa changes back into his human form while his blood falls into a nearby river. Indra curses the river for 1,000 years. BTW, the river today is called Petanu (any guide book will say that this means 'cursed', but I'm skeptical).

Apparently, people were wary to take water from this river to irrigate their crops - the crops would grow well enough, but come harvest time, any plants irrigated with this water would bleed and smell like rotting corpses if cut. And the curse was lifted supposedly during the 60's.

Why the connection with Galungan? Well, the death of Maya Denawa is traditionally held to have taken place on the Wednesday (Buda) of the Balinese week Dunggulan, the period known as Galungan.

Well, that's my teacher's story. And I'm sticking to it.

I'll post a picture of Tirtha Empul in my next post. Da-da!