J. Hooykaas The rainbow in ancient Indonesian religion

In: Bijdragen tot de Taal-, Land- en Volkenkunde 112 (1956), no: 3, Leiden, 291-322

This PDF-file was downloaded from http://www.kitlv-journals.nl

Downloaded from Brill.com09/28/2021 02:58:39PM via free access THE RAINBOW IN ANCIENT INDONESIAN RELIGION

Still seems, as to my childhood's sight A midway station given For happy spirits to alight Betwixt the earth and heaven. THOMASCAMPBELL, TO the Rainbow st. 2

Introductwn.

earth is not without a bond with heaven. The Bible tells US that in a fine passage, where the rainbow appeared as a token of Ethis bond, Gen. IX.13: I do set My bow in the cloud and it shall be for a token of a covenant between Me and the earth. The Greeks also knew, that, however easy-going their gods might be, there was a link between them and mortal men. That link was represented by Homer as the fleet-footed Iris, who with later poets became the personification of the rainbow. A beautiful picture of the Lord in a 12th century English psalter 1 shows that the rainbow also in Christian conception keeps its place as 'a token of a covenant', for Christ, in that picture, is seated on a rain- bow, with His feet nesting on a smaller bow. Thus we Europeans are acquainted with the rainbow as the bond between heaven and earth through both sources of culture which still nourish our civilisation. It hardly needs emphasizing, that each religion has its own view ofthe rainbow. The ancient Hebrew would not even think of treading on it or of ;sing it as a boat, and the Greeks would have considered the%ery thought of such a thing as 'hybris', presumption - yet one never knows with mystics and poets, as my motto shows. A glance at J. Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible (S.V. rainbow) and his Encyclopaedia of Religion and Ethics (S.V.prodigies and portents) shows US,that mankind in different times and places has looked on the rainbow in a similar way, sometimes as 'the dead people's road' or 'the bridge connecting heaven and earth.'

Ernst Kitzinger & Elizabeth Senior, Portraits of Christ, with 16 colour plates and 14 black and white illustrations and a text, The King P~uinBooks, 1940, plate VI.

Downloaded from Brill.com09/28/2021 02:58:39PM via free access DR JACOBA HOOYKAAS.

Outside -Bali.

So it is not strange that we should. find the rainbow in ancient Indonesian religion also as a means of contact between mortals and the realms above. This is most emphatic with the Torajas of Middle-Celebes (now: ), where the priestess seems in her trance to be using the rain- bow as a boat in which to travel to heaven. . Since there has been some discussion as to whether a boat or a bridge was imagined, I give the passage in question in translation from the Dutch. I hope that, even through the veils of two translations, some of the vigour and beauty of the ancient text has been preserved. The reader wil1 notice the parallellism, the habit of repeating the substance of each line in different words of almost the same meanina, a device which is widely used when the text has been made for declamation, not for silent reading.2 The priestess 3 is sitting near a sick person; she is swathed in wrappings which completely cover her, and in this way travels, invisible to men, to heaven in to fetch 'spiritual' strength for the sick person. She recites (27 out of 227 verses quoted) :

Come, wind, take me with you; come, lightning, light me, blow me through the firmament yonder, steer me through the sky upwards, that our flight may be fast, that our journey may be quick. Now we are on the ridge of the roof, we are above, on the roof, let US now spring up,4 that the ridge of the roof may not fa11.4

We know this parallellism from the psalms, e.g. V. 1 Give ear to my words, o Lord, consider my meditation. V. 2 Have mercy upon me, o God, for I am weak, o Lord, heal me, for my bones are vexed. "r N. Adriani ei1 Dr Alb. C. Kruyt, De Barèë-sprekende Toradja's van Mid- den-Celebes, Landsdrukkerij, Weltevreden, 1914, 111 p. 668;.reedited in Ver- handelingen Iconinklijke Nederlandse Akademie van Wetenschappen (abbrevia- tion : Adriani-Kruyt). These lines have become misplaced in the original text; I have restored them here.

Downloaded from Brill.com09/28/2021 02:58:39PM via free access THE RAINBOW IN ANCIENT INDONESIAN RELIGION. 293 -

Go on, let US not stop, continue, do not cease, go on, db not stop. Blow, wind from the sea, carry us over the earth, Blow, wind from the land, carry us over the ground. Row, ye birds of bright plumage use the oars, ye ospreys, with one pull of the oars we are far, as soon as we row we advance ! So let me enter the wide space, in the sky, in the midst of the firmament. That is something like going ahead, that is something like flying...... The rainbow is our conveyance, the bridge rails are of gold ...... If the rowing of the colourful birds and ospreys and the word 'con- veyance' make us think of a boat, the wordfor bridge (ntété) is unmis- takable in Indonesian .5 I suggest that the- force of the parallellism may have caused a less exact word - a process that . h sometimes occurs in this figurc of speech.6

Dr Adriani :bimself- Gas so, much impréssed by.;this'.ntété, thft -he .concedes, -. i .I though r61uctantly f "the rainbow seems here to-serve less as a boat than as a ; . *- bridge" (Adriani-Kruyt p. 676 Aantekeningen 2). .Professor- Berg- draws my .attention to the fact that Jav. titihalt, k.i. for t~inggaltga~i,means horse, con- l.: -. aeyancr. l ti e.g. W. I.. Steinhart, Niassche Priesterlitanieen, Verhandelingen van het Ko-

ninklijk Bataviaasch Genootschap etc. (abbreviated: VBG) LXXIV, 1938,..p. 3 42, &,51 & passim, where as the 'synonym' of number, often another numbei,- is wed; and where we happen to guess what it should be, the second number, which is given in the parallel, is likely to %e the wrong one, e.g. p. 42 where are the eleven layers of the firmament, the twelve dwelling-places? Now there-is no doubt that religi0.n usually imagines @e universe to con- sist- of- nine .layers or- dwellingplaces, each one inhabited by.,a:nearly_deieed priest(ess). Two rnay be added,-i£ one considers-the Gods of -the Upper- and . 1 Under-world as having a layer of their own. But twelve, being an even num- ber, is unlikely. Cp. the Balinese mérus (pagodas), which are supposed to represent the universe and always have an odd number of roofs, eleven betng the maximum. Another Nias parallel is given in order to demonstrate that the second half

Downloaded from Brill.com09/28/2021 02:58:39PM via free access 294 DR JACOBA HOOYKAAS.

Another passage shows clearly, that a boat is meant in our Toraja- text : 7 embark on the rainbow ! The old slaves, I let sit in front, and I shall be sitting at the rear. We are al1 aboard. When al1 are aboard, al1 have embarked, in the concavity of the rainbow, take US with you then, rainbow, carry with you the souls. Come, wind, take US up, upwards int0 the sky, int0 the firmament. I use the rainbow as a conveyance, the lightning as a railing . . . . One notices, that in the last two lines, in which obviously the Same thing ihould be expressed as in the last two of the first passage quoted, no bridge is mentioned. Moreover boats for carrying souls int0 the other world are a wide- spread notion in pre-Hindu Indonesian religion, as we shall see below. As for the Torajas, they had other means of flying to heaven than the rainbow. Men flew in their shields, women in their large ritual hats. A ritual swing was also used for flying int0 heaven.8 Reading Toraja and other similar religious texts, one gets the im- , pression, that flying is the most important occupation of priests. So in the following parallel verses, Toraja 'priestesses' is synonym with 'airborn travellers' : feed, priestesses ; drink, airborn travellers.9

of a parallel does not express an exact parallel of the first. Op. cit. p. 50 v. 573, where the difficulty of the journey of a priest to the Uppergod is described by the words : Then his bridge is: the blade of a swosd; the stairs: the sharp of a knife. Now the blade of a sword happens to be a well-known image for the difficult way to heaven, while stairs are a rather clumsy parallel of a bridge and a poor simile of the sharp of a knife; a similar case as 'bridge' for 'boat' in the Toraja-text (note 5): - - 7 Adriani-Kruyt p. 695. Adriani-Kruyt p. 678 n. 24 Ds Alb. C. Kruyt : Het schommelen in de Indische Ar&i+l, BK1 97, 1938, p. 362-424. e Adriani-Kruyt p. 678.

Downloaded from Brill.com09/28/2021 02:58:39PM via free access THE RAINBOW IN ANCIENT INDONESIAN RELIGION. 295

For the isle of Nias (W of ) we have two priests' songs, which served to initiate priests int0 their duties.6 There it is explicitly defined in a lofty passage, what a priest's or priestess' function is : 10 Mother Fotori Lowalani, Mother Fotori Luo Sambua is the priestess who gathers the life of the soul, the priestess who gathers the spirit of the soul. - Whenever there are feverish sick, raving fever patients, there is a celestial waterspout, clear, transparent water, of which the wel1 is up on high, and the mouth under the firmament. The priestess must use that water to sprinkle, must sprinkle that water. - She must do this on the head; and-refreshment will be the result, tkïe illness will finish.

...... -...... e That is the reason that there are priests on earth, that is why priestesses exist in the world. How are they thought to manage to reach 'the celestial waterspout'? Evidently by flying. Nias' priests and priestesses are as much 'airborn travel1ers"as 'those of the Torajas. -Their priests' litanies abound with journeys to heaven. They do not seem to use any special conveyance, as the Torajas use the rainbow, ritual hat or shield. They seem to fly by the force of-the little wooden figurines, which are called the prz'ests! (ór prieitésses') servants,ll which : 12 help them to pass through the sky, to float through celestial regions. They flow before the wind, move quicker than the storm, they have strong feet to push off, long arms while treading . . . .

l0 Steinhart VBG LXXIV, 1938, p. 56, 57. 11 Steinhart VBG LXXIV, 1938, p. 41. 12 Steinhart VBG LXXIV, 1938, p. 56. Dl. 113.

Downloaded from Brill.com09/28/2021 02:58:39PM via free access 296 DR JACOBA HOOYKAAS.

Though in the last lines the spirits of the figurines are referred to, it is highly probable that the priests, whom they 'helped to pass through the sky', were supposed to use the same methods. When they flow before the wind, go quicker than the storm, one is necessarily reminded of the Javanese mystic journeys int0 the Other World, whither the travellers were going at full speed by force of the wind, or riding on the storm, following the wind.13 As we saw above, the Toraja-priestess also called on the wind and the storm to help her acros the firmament. When the Nias spirit (and probably priest's soul) is said to have strong feet to push off, one thinks of Bima, who pushed himself off without jumping legs, flew without wings.13 Besides the spirits of the wooden figurine, the deified priests and priestesses in heaven also help them to get across.14 The community of dead and living priests is one of the chief features of the Nias litanies, and is the inspiration of some passages of elevated religieus feeling : 15 Our mother (the lonely priestess in Upper-Heaven) has in her service the preachers of the commands, who are the preachers of the customary law. Those are the accomplished priests. She makes them fly through the firmament, she causes them to cross the sky, she teaches the work of the priest, reveals the glory of priesthood. She holds the hand, clutches the fingers, whenever there is one, who goes to the Uppergod, who passes through the nine layers. Though the Nias priests and priestesses in their trance usually cross the sky, 'setting off with strong feet' by force of magic or mystica1 help, there is some evidence of a boat as wel1 as of a bridge. There seems to be 16 a command to the priest to erect a tree of life. The passage is rather obscure ; there are however two interesting lines : l3 My article: The Balinese Realm of Death, BK1 11211, 1956, p. 74-87. l4 I even wonder wether these wooden figurines are not also animated by those god-like priests, since there must be nine of them, the Same number as the layers of the cosmos, which are the dwelling-places of the nine deified priests or priestesses. l6Steinhart VBG LXXIV, 1938, p. 58, 59. '"teinhart VBG LXXIV, 1938, p. 62.

Downloaded from Brill.com09/28/2021 02:58:39PM via free access THE RAINBOWTN ANCIENT INWNESIAN RELIGION. 297

the fruitstalks can be used as a bridge, the coconutshells can serve as boats.17 Finally .we consider the rainbow, which does not play an important role as with the Toraja-priest, being mentioned only twice in the litanies. The first time 1s occurs; when different celestial priests and priestesses are enumerated, who are 'dropped by the Uppergod' : The clouds are their gangway, they tread on the little rainbow. The word gangway might suggest, that the 'little rainbow' is con- sidered as a boat; we have however to be careful with parallel lines, of which we saw that the second one cometimes gave a weak explanation of the first. The second passage, where there is question of the rainbow, says: 19 Those are the teachers, those are the masters who help to float through the firmament,

and to cross the sky. d These are the priests of the rainbow, These are the priestesses of the celestial regions.20 Here the celestial priests of the rainbow are supposed to be specially concerned with helping human priests to cross the sky towards heaven. This is what one should expect; the passage however is not sufficiently clear-to reach any- definite..conclusions about the function of the rain- bow in Nias pre-Hindu religion. . We wil1 take into account another Indonesian people of whom. the pre-Hindu religion has been sufficiently preserved and studied. I mean the Ngaju-Dayak in South- . (now: ), whose priests were even able to draw maps of the Other World.21

l7 About holy palmtrees as a bridge to the Other World cp. Dr F. C. Karnrna's highly interesting book : De Messiaanse Koréri-bewegingen-in het Biaks-Noem- foorse cultuurgebied, Voorhoeve, den Haag (1955) p. 75 sqq. Cp. als0 H. Ber- gema, De Boom des Levens in Schrift en Historie, thesis V.U. Amsterdam, Hilversum 1948, p. 540 sqq. and register s.v. palmboom. ui Steinhart, op. cit. p. 42. le Steinhart, op. cit. p. 44. I prefer the translation given in the note since it harmonizes with the quotation given .above. Dr. H. .Schaejer, Die Gottesidee der Ngadju Dajak in Sud-Borneo, ~rill, Leiden, 1946 (referred to as Schaerer thesis), and Die Vorstellungen der Ober- . und Unterwelt bei den Ngadju Dajak von Sud-Borneo, Cultureel Indië 4, 1942 p. 73-81, where the Same maps are given

Downloaded from Brill.com09/28/2021 02:58:39PM via free access 298 DR JACOBA HOOYKAAS.

On these maps the rainbow is never lacking as a link between earth and heaven. It is sometimes represented 22 as a simple bow arising out of the sea and having on its highest point a smal1 canal or tunnel to the Upperworld. A soulboat is flying upward to this rainbow. In another drawing 23 it is much broader and has different shades. It is much to be regretted that the author died prematurely before having had the opportunity of editing the manuscripts which he had collected and which might contain an explanation of the maps. We have now to be content with the highly interesting, but necessarily personal view of the German missionary on this matter. On p. 163 & 165 of his thesis the author gives a drawing of a woman's and of a man's coffins, which are clearly made in the form of hornbills for women, nagas (holy serpents) for men. The hornbill represents the Upper World, the naga the Under World.24 Sometimes a soulboat has for its shape a combination of bird and naga.25 These boats are believed to travel to Heaven as is shown by the priest's drawing quoted above, and as has als0 been reported by earlier scholars.26 The naga is in a way related to the rainbow. 'The rainbow combines the colours of the naga (waterserpent), respectively of the total deity', Schaerer contends.27 (I might add the suggestion, that rainbow and naga sometimes are identified). Next Schaerer quotes the old dictionary by Hardeland : 28 'With rain and at night the nagas usually play on the surface of the sea, and from the reflection of their glittering, many-coloured bodies, the rainbow originates'. Schaerer continues: "The rainbow is the token of godly grace; it is the bridge which connects mortal people with the world of the gods and over which their intermediaries pass, when appearing before the gods." Nowhere, however, as far as I know, is it used by the Dayak as a boat in order to reach the deity.

Schaerer thesis Tafel 111. Schaerer thesis Tafel IV. Schaerer thesis p. 22. 26 Schaerer thesis Tafel XII. Dr A. W. Nieuwenhuis, Quex durch Borneo, Brill, Leiden, 1907. In my TheLBalinese Realm of Death, this journal 112/1, 1956, p. 74-87. 27 thesis p. 30. 28 Dajackisch-Deutsches Woerterbuch, Amsterdam 1859.

Downloaded from Brill.com09/28/2021 02:58:39PM via free access THE RAINBOW IN ANCIENT INDONESIAN RELIGION. 299

Boats to reach the Other World - though not necessarily the Upper World - have been a widely spread motive in old Indonesian religion. In Sumatra, tissues were used at ritual festivals, on which were represented soulboats with trees of life on them,29 very much like the soulboats-drawing of Dayak-priests. Both contain the tree of life as well as the souls which they transport, both have a kind of sharp protuberances under the keel, described as swords to cut the obstacles with. Even in strongly hinduised and islamised Java old batiks have been found with the soulboat-motive on them.30 These representations have an ancient origin and probably date from a common stone culture.31 ***

Before considering the question, whether there are any survivals of soulboat-conceptions on Java and Bali besides the batikmotive men- tioned above, I have to mention one myth, in which the rainbow is used as a way from heaven to earth. This myth has been found among the Bugis, a sea-faring people in the South of Celebes, which shows some superficial Hindu influence : 32 The Uppergod and his spouse, who both wear Indonesian , had a son, called by the Hindu Batara . The gods decided to send Batara Guru to the earth in a bamboo by way of the rainbow, in order that he might civilise the dwellers upon earth and teach them the arts of cultivation. Batara Guru descended by way of the rahbow and married a goddess of the- Underworld, who was born-from the foam of the sea - like the much more famous goddess of fertility Aphrodite. He married besides several other Underworld goddesses - as in Greece the Celestial Zeus, god of rain and lightning, embraced not only Hera, an earth-goddess by origin, but also many local nymphs. This myth I specially mention, since we shall see that Batara Guru, whatsoever tie may be called in pre-Hindu , was in close connection with the rainbow as well as with fertility.

Dr. A. Steinmann, Enkele opmerkingen aangaande de z.g. scheepjesdoeken van Zuid-Sumatra, Cultureel Indië I, 1939, p. 252-256. 30 Steinmann loc. cit. p. 255. For boatcoffins with the Karo- see E. M. Loeb and R. Heine-Geldern, Sumatra, Vienna 1935, picture 25. 31 Dr B. A. G. Vroklage, Das Schiff in den Megalith-Culturen Sudostasiens und der Sudsee, Anthropos XXXI, 1936. 32 DS. H. van den Brink, Dr Benjamin Frederik Matthes etc., Nederlandsch Bijbelgenootschap, Amsterdam 1943, p. 377, 378.

Downloaded from Brill.com09/28/2021 02:58:39PM via free access I 300 .DR JACOBA HOOYKAAS. I 1 Javano-Balinese wzythology.

We find in that almost inexhaustible source of Balinese learning, the four-volume-dictionary by Dr H. N. van der Tuuk 33 a curious myth, not only about the birth of Uma, but also about the origin of . the rainbow : 34 Usap sukunira Umar, mijil Bhatari Uma, saki limor Batara Guru; mangadëg arëp-arëpan, nirddupa (?) manah Batara Guru tumon Bhatari Uma, arëp sira sanggamaha. Ragan Bhatara Guru tumon I Bhatari Uma, lanang tan lanang, wadon tan .waden (:) . atjarat Bhatari Uma. Ayun ta sira sanggamaha, dira garap. Kagèt . Bhatara Guru, katingalan tjarat Bhatari, tinugëlan kang tjarat, binuntjalakan (i)ng akaça (:) ia ta ana tjarat ing taun. Tumiba ring prëthiwi, ia ta mula(n)ing ana tjarat i lëmah, mëtu pwa kang gëtih abo hantën (?), ia ta karana ning ada këbo; ingusapan pwa kang gëtih, ia ta mula ning ada sapi. Umar rubbed his foot: Goddess Urna was born, God Guru's solace and (?) concubine. They stood facing each other. God Guru . . . . when he saw Goddess Uma, he desired to have inter- course with her. God Guru looking at Goddess Urna became passionate, (she was) male, not male, female, not female: she had a male member. In his-desire for intercourse he clutched her. The God was frightened at the sight of her male sexe, snatched it off and threw it into the sky : This is the rainbow. It fel1 to earth, which originated the tornado. Fragr- ,bloed appeared, which was the origin of the buffaloes ; the blood was wiped off and that was the origin of the cows. (There is an assonance in the Old-Javanese words for fragrant . and buffalo, as wel1 as for wipe off and cow.) There are some remarks to be made on this passage: 1. The name of Umar sounds Muslim and may have been made up because of its similarity with Uma. In a recent Indonesian book, writ- l ten by the Javanese authority on the old-fashioned purwa, Hardjowirogo,35 we find Dewi Urna as 'anak seorang saudagar Oma- - l ran' (daughter of a merchant Omaran). 2. The birth of Urna from a foot is,reminiscent of a passage in the Tantu Panggëlaran,36 where Urna herself gives birth to three boys coming out of her left foot.

33 Kawi-Balineesch-Nederlandsch Woordenboek, Landsdrukkerij, Batavia, 1897- 1912. Cp. R Goris, Bij'drage tot de kennis der Oud-Javaansche en Balische Theologie, thesis Leiden, 1926, p. 126. " S.V. Urnar 11, Vol. I p. 385 b. 35 Sedjarah Wayang Purwa, Balai Pustaka, Djakarta, 2nd imp. 1952 36 Dr. Th. Pigeaud's Leiden thesis, den Haag 1924 p. 171.

Downloaded from Brill.com09/28/2021 02:58:39PM via free access THE RAINBOW IN ANCIENT INDONESIAN RELIGION. 30 1

There we find a circumstantial account of how the goddess first hurt her left foot an& had to walk with a stick in search of milk from a virgin black cow. Bhatara Guru changed himself into a sherpherd's boy and his white bull int0 a virgin white cow. Thus the god succeeded in seducing his own spouse, who let flow his sperme to the ground. Some of it infected the wound in her left foot and caused the birth, not only of the three boys mentioned above, but also of two other boys, a girl and a black monkey (lutung), born respectively from the water and the afterbirth. (The rubbing of the sore foot is told in both passagés, which seem to be related.) 37 3. The buffalo and bull or cow are born from the first embrace of the godly couple.37" 4. Goddess Uma's being first hermaphrodite is to be compared with the conception of the Dayak, who used to have sexually ambiguous priests and also gods,38 impersonating totality.39 5. By Bhatara Guru's throwing the rainbow into the air the god not only made wedlock-possible between himself and Uma, but also established the rainbow between heken and earth. The wayang shows a knowledge of Batara Guru being the Lord of the rainbow, since it is the rainbow which forms a kind of baldaquin above the puppet representing the god.40 There exists however .another Javano-Balinese explanation of the rainbow in the KorawäSrama,41 where it is said to be formed by the arms of a demon of the kosmos, Kála-çünya, whose eyes are the sun = and the moon, and who causes dn, thunder and lightning. . .. and wind; 37 CP. the wel1 known birthstories of Pallas Athena and ." 37" The cow or. bul1 .w&h we now considei in tKeir relation with ~iw6and"Uma are not confined t9 these gods. The connection between cow and raingod is in II " very old (Oldenberg, Religion des Veda). So Indracapa and cow may always have belonged together. Sometimes God Yami is represented with a bull as wahana (Dr J. E. van Lohuizen-de Leeuw, The Dikpalakas in ancient . Java, BK1 11114, .1955, plate 6), and Bergema O.C.p. 539 affirms that buffa- loes carried spirits to the Land of Death in old Indonesian religion. 38 Schaerer thesis p. 60 sqq. 38 At the time when the above quoted passage originated, Bali may have had' much the Same religion as the Dayak described by Schaerer, cp. C. J. Grader, Tweedeling in het Oud-Balische Dorp, Mededeelingen van de Kirtya Liefrinck - Van der Tuuk, Aflevering 5, Singaradja-Solo, 1937. For Guru as an Her- maphrodite cp. also C. C. Berg, Herkomst, Vorm en Functie der Middeljavaan- sche Rijksdelingstheorie, VKNAW, Lett. N.R. LIX/l, 1953. 40 CP. Dr F. D. K. Bosch, Notes Archéologiques I, BEFEO XXXI/3-4, 1931, p. 481. - 41 Dr J. L. Swellengrebel, Korawâçrama, Een Oud-Javaansch Proza-geschrift, uitgegeven, vertaald en toegelicht, thesis Leiden 1936, Santpoort, p. 61.

Downloaded from Brill.com09/28/2021 02:58:39PM via free access 302 DR JACOBA HOOYKAAS.

'Käla-çünya winks - stars are born; Käla-çünya's hairs fall out - they become trees, mosses and grasses ; He sheds a tear - it becomes dew.'

There the rainbow is described in that splendid personification of the Kosmos :

'His (I(ala-ç~nya's) arms and hands move to the right - then He draws water from the Southern Ocean; they move to the left - then He draws water from the Northern Sea: to the right and to the left He draws the waterstreams. His arms become a rainbow.' 42

This mystic cosmic view is not found in the Javano-Balinese popular tradition. In one respect, however, 'it is in accordance with it, namely in so far that the rainbow stretches itself.from thè South to.the North, drawing water alternately from both seas in order to pour it out as rain on the land. ***

A most interesting popular tradition concerning the origin of the rainbow has been preserved by the wayang. M. Hardjowirogo in his booklet dealing with the most usual leather puppets, in the same chapter as Batara Guru describes als0 Lëmbu Andini, who is Nandini, Siwa's vehicle. I translate from the Indonesian : 43

Lembu Andini is a cow, who was the child of a king of the spirits, called Patanam. She desired to get power over the world ; consequently- she practised asceticism and. received al1 kinds of hommage from the population in the neighbourhood. After some time the people considered her as a deity. Batara Guru learned about this. Therefore he overcame Lembu Andini, and made her to be his vehicle inseparable from him as if they had one soul. But Lëmbu Andini did not like to be treated in this way; so incessantly she looked for means to avenge her-

42 The hill-Torajas consider the sky as a man who is lying stretched upon the earih, which is thought of as a woman. One Toraja possesses a com- plete set of fifteen names for the different directions, which are al1 (except East and Weit) words for the parts of the cosmic god's body, who is conceived to be lying with the head to the South, the feet to the North. NW e.g. is called left leg, NE right leg, etc. Cp. Jac. Woensdregt, Mythen en Sagen der Berg-Toradja's van Midden-Selebes, VB LXX/3, 1925, p. 30, 31. Cp. also the Javanese proverb sakweb ing Imtgit, sakritah ing bzrmi, every- where, lit. as far as the sky is lying prostrate and the earth on its back. 43 Hardjowirogo, Sedjarah Wayang Purwa, Balai Pustaka, Djakarta, 1952, p. 10.

Downloaded from Brill.com09/28/2021 02:58:39PM via free access THE RAINBOW IN ANCIENT INDONESIAN RELIGION. 303

self. After some time Lëmbu Andini found a ruse to instigate Batara Guru against his queen, with the result, that the two of them fought one another. Only after-having conquered his queen, Batara Guru learned, that the whole quarrel had been caused by Lëmbu Andini. Batara Guru was so angry, that he cursed Lëmbu Andini, who was changed int0 a rainbow. According to popular belief the rainbow has a cow-head, and whenever she is seen, it is a sign, that the cow is drinking the water of the sea. After Batara Guru had lost his vehicle, he felt weak, but soon he found a bull, called Andana, son of Raksasa Gopatama. He changed the name Andana into Andini, which means 'cow', just like that of the original vehicle.

. * This wayang tradition appears to be closely connected with the story -. of the origin of the rainbow, quoted above from the Old-Javanese fragment. Both know that a quarrel of the godly couple was its caise.

The Old-Javanese version considers the rainbow and the cow to be b. born of the 'same-event, the first embrace of Siva and Uma, whom we may safely .believe to be Heaven and-Earth. For "Myth is always a happening in'khich the magnitude and i'mportance of the individual agents and victims are swallowed up. The hugeness of the happening so dominates them, that their images may easily appear monstrous, grotesque and comic to the tamer taste of later generations." 44 : he later: ~uslimdalang may' or may not'.have knovdn thë .crüde. .. - -. z. ". ' original story, he could not mention it anyhow. Historically he.is right - r- * - by giving 'Gmbu Andini' an existeñce beforë her conne&ior?with the rainbow. In her fatherland, .India, she was already Siva's vehicle. But

/. J in early Indonesian thought the rainbow was such an important link as boat-or bridge between earth and hëaven, that Siva's venerable * % vähana was eventually absorbed by it. This is the veiled truth, which the wayang-story relates. Old Nandini had to be restored somehow, which was done, though clumsily. In this context a wayang-story should be told, where Gmbu Andini -- plays a role, wholly different from that of the Uppergod's vähana.

Madrim (second queen to Pändu, father of the 5 Pändavas) refused to yield to her husband, before having ridden Lembu Andini. PZndu himself ascended to heaven, borrowed the cow, whereafter he rode her with Madrim thrëe times round the

44 Walter F. Otto, The Homeric Gods (translated from Die Götter Griechen- lands), Thames & Hudson, London 1954 - a most inspiring book.

Downloaded from Brill.com09/28/2021 02:58:39PM via free access 304 DR JACOBA HOOYKAAS.

reception-pavillion of his dwelling. After that ceremony Madrim made the vow, that she would follow him immediately after his death.45

This ceremony looks like an initiation, where the bridal couple by way of the rainbow are united for this life and Life Hereafter, though this explanation is wholly hypothetical. Also hypothetical is my suggestion that the name of the melody, played by the wayang-orchestra whereever a hermitage is staged, called rninbow (kuwung-kuwung),*6 should signify that the hermitage is the spo! where man has contact with heaven by the rainbow. Usually the melody mënyan séta (white frankincense) is played at a hermitage-scene. Now the frankincense is known as a way to ascend to heaven, as well in the Javanese wayang as in Balinese folktales. Wayang heroes occasionally ascend to heaven on smoke. So did the Half-Boyain the Balinese folktale 47 with the help of a so-called dukuh : 48

"Please Lord Hermit, would yoii be so kind as to show me the way to heaven ?" "Well, if that is your wish, then follow this smoke." After those words the hermit, by his supernatural force, raised the smoke, and the Half-Boy followed it and eventually reached heaven.

In a modern Balinese illustration in our collection those stairs, made by the smoke of incense, look like very solid winding stone stairs. I suggest that, since the gamëlan melody "white frankincense" at a hermitage scene appears to be significant as indicating a place where there is a spot of contact with heaven, then the 'rainbow melody' might well express the same religious idea. When we search for more information about rainbow-beliefs in

45 F~O& Dr A. B. Coheii Stuart, Geschiedenis der Pandawa's, p. LIV, in Iiis Brata-Joeda, Indisch-Javaansch Heldengedicht, VBG 27 & 28, 1860, quoted by DryJ. van der Vliet, Pandoe, Wayanyerhaal, BK1 IV. 3 = 27, 1879, p. 278. 4G H. C. Humme, Abiasa, een Javaansch tooneelstuk (wajang), KI TLV, The Hague 1878 p. 100. 47 Dr C. Hooykaas, Balische Verhalen van den Halve, uitgegeven en vertaald, van Hoeve, The Hague, 1948, p. 18-19. 48 The dukuh is a non-brahmanical hermit, very frequent in folktales and to-day still the initiator of sudras, often living on the slopes of the Holy King of Mountains. -

Downloaded from Brill.com09/28/2021 02:58:39PM via free access THE RAINBOW IN ANCIENT INDONESIAN RELIGION. 305

Java & Bali, we find 49 that in Javanese popular conception the rain- bow has the body of a serpent, which stretches itself above the island of Java, ending in tivo heads of deer or cows, one of which drinks the water from the Java-sea, the other from the Indian Ocean. When satiated, they vomit the water as rain on the earth. There exists a' folktale about such a rainbow-cow : 50 Princess Yukti tells one of her adventures: "When I had bathed during a soft rain, I noticed a cow, which was drinking from a lake. Its colour was dazzling. Touched by its beauty, I climbed on its back in order to take it home. But suddenly the cow ascended with me int0 the air, and the people who saw it happen shouted: "Oh, our Princess Yukti has been carried off by the rainbow !"

The Balinese conception is exactly the Same, and when in the folktale of the Half-Boy the her0 is mounted on a bull by in old man and rides on- that bull to heaven, then I am convinced that the old man is the usual disguise of Siva and the bull the god's vähana, associated with the rainbow.51

The rainbow in Javano-Balinese art.

Dr F: D. K. Bosch in his article on the rainbow-motive in Java and in Champa, which I have already mentioned,52 points out, that it appeared on the chandis only in the later, East-Javanese period, when Hindu-influence was on the wane. I give-her; a précis of that most interesting &dy: The author begins by drawing attention to the fact that the kala- makara motive is the most characteristic in Indo-Javanese art of the classic period (about 750-950 A.D.). This motive consists of a con- ventionalised lion's head, from which ornamental, mostly vegetable tendrils evolve int0 two makaras (elephant-inspired monsters). When however Javanese culture migrated from Centra1 Java to East- Java, that combination was no longer found. A monster head (Kirti- mukha, Jav. banaspati) was placed at the top of doors, and the makara also was found there, used as a gargoyle.

49 Cp. Bosch in BEFEO XXXI, 1931, p. 11. 50 Bosch in BEFEO XXXI, 1931, p. 486 note 2. Hooykaas, Halve p. 28-29. " BEFEO XXXI, 1931, p. 11. I quoted the passage which records Batara GW's wayang-appearance in a rainbow and the Javanese folktale about the princess carried to heaven by a cow-rainbow.

Downloaded from Brill.com09/28/2021 02:58:39PM via free access 306 DR JACOBA HOOYKAAS.

East-Javanese art on the other hand knew an equivalent of the kala- makara-ornament: A monster head on top of a bow, which ends in two deerheads. The author gives six examples with photos of this 'arc-à-biche' or 'deer head-bow'. Dr Van Stein Callenfels in his thesis 53 had recognised it as a representation of the rainbow, which also appears in €he same form as a kind of baldaquin round the wayang puppet of Batara Guru, as I have already mentioned. It is also found as a main part in the traditional description of a palace in the wayang as an ornament of the palace-gate. I shall discuss this later on. "When a rainbow appears above a victorius hero", Dr Bosch asserts, "it is beyond doubt God 's bow (Indräyudha), just as it appeared in the sky above the Pändavas as a propitious sign in the famous fight between Arjuna and Karna." The author proves that this deerhead-bow cannot be an invention of the late Javanese period, as he found two examples of it in the Champa of the 7th century. Searching for a possible common origin, the author found in Hopkins' The Development of Chinese Writing, that our deerhead bow did exist as a sign for the rainbow as early as the sixth century B.C. The author comes to the conclusion, that this motive was part of the ancient heritage which the brought with them from the Asiatic continent and which reappeared when Hinduism was on the wane. - So far Dr Bosch. That the artistic motive had its origin in popular belief is shown by the fact, that Mentawai people have the Same conception of the raiii- bow: For when they are hunting and see a rainbow of which the ends do not touch the earth, they are convincecl that they wil1 capture deer.54 Therefore Dr Bosch seems to be right in his assumption that the deer- bow 'is one of the elements belonging to the continental culture which the Indonesians brought with them to their islands.55 What are we to think of the deerhead or cowhead, which we find alternating on the Java and Bali rainbows? I would suggest that the

53 De Sudamala in de Hindu-Javaansche Kunst, VBG I.XVI/l, 1925, p. 118. 54 Dr Alb. C. Kruyt, De Mentaweiers, TBG 62, 1923, p. 161. 55 The author himself now doubts this theory, cp. his De Gouden Kiem, Elsevier, Amsterdam-Brussel, 1948, p. 149. It seems however affirmed by deer-bow- notions existing far from Indian-influenced art. 'On the skin of a shaman drum the Altai Tartars depict heavm, a rainbow and the deer on which the sheman makes his celestial joumzey, JMBrRAS XXIV/III, 1931, R. O Win- stedt, Short Notes on the Bridge of the Dead.

Downloaded from Brill.com09/28/2021 02:58:39PM via free access THE RAINBOW IN ANCIENT INWNESIAN RELIGION. 307 inseparable connection of Siva and Uma with the rainbow as wel1 as with the bul1 or cow changed the more ancient deerhead-bow int0 an oxhead-bow. The wayang story quoted above shows that the Javanese- were conscious of the fact that Lembu Andini did not'originally belong to the rainbow. The most recent Balinese picture of the rainbow that I know is a drawing (in our collection) of Jayaprana's wife Layon Sari, who refuses the King's favours and kills herself with a kris. In good traditional flowers are whirling down and a rainbow appears in the sky, vomiting a mild rain. This rainbow is represented by a serpent with one cowhead and two forelegs. It appears to be only there as the traditional Indracäpa, to show that heaven and nature sympathise with the noble dead. This drawing is as recent as 1954. This however does not prove that the rainbow did not have any other function in Javano-Balinese belief. Why does God Guru appear in it? Why is the principal god's vähana changed into it? I suggest that this Was because the rainbow was-a symbol of the link between earth and heaven. The rainbow, whose Lords were Siva and Uma, was a boat or bridge leading to the celestial regions. Let us consider the monuments in this light. First of al1 we have to remember that the East-Javanese chandis were in many cases funeral monumentsi- where a symbol of the -link between heaven and earth would be particularly appropriate. Not al1 the reliefs have been ex- plained, but several of them have. One of them is the, relief.of chandi Tigayangi, 1388 A.D.,56 which felis the-störy of Urna's being cursed by Siva ánd purified from her curse by Sadeva. The building on the relief, which is Uma's temple, has the rainbow motif round its door. Having learned the rainbow's origin, one is not surprised to find it here, indicating that this is the goddess' house. On a sculpture of chandi Sukuh, 15th century,57 the rainbow forms a kind of frame which contains in three storeys the life of . In the highest and principal part the her0 is standing in front of Batara Guru (Stutterheim rightly points out that Bhima only kneels for Dewa- ruchi, his initiatorzin mysticism). In-the two smal1 1ower.storeys between the deer's feet, Stutterheim recognized the story of Bhima's deliverince. Bhima for the Javanese of that period, and still to-day is the great initiator, who sought and found the water of life, who travelled through

Dr P. V. "an Stein Callenfels, Sudamala, ill. 3, 4, 7. D? W. F. Stutterheim, Een Oud-Javaansche Bhima-cultus, DJAWA 15, 1935; also in Bosch' Gouden Kiem, illustration p. 38 fig. 6a.

Downloaded from Brill.com09/28/2021 02:58:39PM via free access DR JACOBA HOOYKAAS.

the air, carried by the wind, treading on the clouds, moon and stars. This power he does not derive principall~from his father the god Bayu, but from his guru Dewaruchi.58 The raiilbow seems here a very suitable frame for the life of this traveller to heaven par excellence, particularly so, where he appears in the presence of Guru, Lord of the rainbow. When we meet the rainbow as an altar-ornament, we are enclined to think that no more proper decoration could have been found, wl-ien trying to express the searching for contact with heaven. It may have been an altar for Guru and Uma.59 In East Java another interesting relief has been found,60 where the deerhead-rainbow frames a cultus-object on a double lotus-cushion. That cultus-object is an oval waterpot round which is entwined an ascetic's chain ; from the neck of the pot grow three lotusstems, of which the middle one has a flower, the others leaves, while a leaf sprouts, too, from each side of the lower end of the pot. Though starting from a different principle, I am enclined to see with Dr Bosch in this sculpture a mystic embrace of heaven and earth, the latter being represented by the lotuses. But might we not go further and think of a, even the mystic embrace of which the legend speaks and which could not be represented except in the veiled language of symbolism ? I The rainbow as a bridge to a heavenly palace. In the traditional, conventionalised description of a royal palace in the Javanese wayang we find the rainbow as a part of the gate. I use the Dutch translation of the lakon Kurupati Rabi.61 In order to gain a clear understanding of the description, one has to bear in mind that the royal palace, kraton, was thought to be a replica of the palace of the Upper-god :

Full of dignity and solemnity is His Power, when he (the King) retires int0 his private appartments, surrounded by female fol- lowers like a God, Who treads over the earth, surrounded by heavenly nymphs. So arrives the King in front of the big gate. There He stops, having left Hel1 behind Hirn 62 and looking at the ornaments which appear on the gate. This is as high as the Sëméru, sur-

Dr R. Goris, Stormkind en Geesteszoon, DJAWA 7, 1927, p. 110 sqq. Bosch, Gouden Kiem, illustration p. 38, fig. 6b. Bosch, Gouden Kiem; illustration Platen p. 58a. Dr Tjan Tjoe Siem, Hoe Koeroepati zich zijn vrouw verwerft, thesis Leiden 1938, p. 11.

Downloaded from Brill.com09/28/2021 02:58:39PM via free access THE ,RAINBOW IN ANCIENT INDONESIAN RELIGION. 309

passing the pinang- and the këlapa-palmtree. The top is provided with a ruby . . . . which vies the rays of the sun, so that it seems that there is a twin 5un on earth . . . . the front is of brass, in- crusted with lapis lazuli, representing'the rainbow, which drink~ water at one side, in order to pour it out at the other side in the courtyard. The wings of the gate are made of heavy glass; an image of a god and goddess of love is seen on them.63 When the gate is open, they appear as lovers making an appointment. When it is closed, they seem to make love. The pillars of the gate are furnished with a pair of monstrous guardians . . . . The first im- pression of onlookers is that they do not have the appearance of watchers, but that they are Chingkarabala and Upata, who guard the Séla Matangkëb. (The latter personalities are demons, watching the Snapping Rocks, part of the Realm of Death and at the same time the Gate int0 Heaven.) It is manifest that the palace is a representation of the Other Life, with its Hell, its Méru, its sun, its demonic guardians. The King, who is said 64 to have put aside his human form and to have become like the god Sambu (= .siva), is passing through the Rainbow-gate, of which the wings carry the representation of the eternal embrace, all-important to.mankind. This embrace is no more a simple ornament than the Méru-gate on the representation of the rainbow on it. It is the expres- Sion of a myth.65 ~oin~back for a moment to the -temple on a chandiirelief,66 we can make a comparison of that rainbow-gate in the wayang-descrip- tion. On the chandi-relief we are supposed to be in a graveyard where demons and ghostly phantoms linger, and where a cursed goddess, Uma, reigns in her devilish form of Durga. But on her temple a gate is sculptured, with the rainbow around. Does not that rainbow mean, if anything, that there is a way out int0 heaven ? We saw already, that not only Java but also Champa knew the deer-

" In my article A Journey to the Realm of Death, BK1 11113, 1955, p. 256 note 24 I gave evidence that hell is considered to be in the Same land as heaven and often quite near to it ; 'Heaven is not far from Hell' is a Balinese proverb. Cp Stutterheim's Bhima-cultus, DJAWA 15, 1935 p. 65, where in the lakon Pandu Swarga hell is clearly represented as a firepool in heaven. Therefore I restored here the original reading naraka, hell. O3 For Javanese paintings on glass cp. my paper Volksoverlevering in Beeld, DJAWA 19, 1939 p. 54-68. Tjan Tjoe Siem p. 5. 65 It is a well-known fact that the Javanese bridegroom was considered as a god, the bride as a goddess, the ceremonial bed as an altar. In every consummation of a marriage the original myth was reenacted. en Stein Callenfels, Sudamala fig. 3 & 4.

Downloaded from Brill.com09/28/2021 02:58:39PM via free access 310 DR JACOBA HOOYKAAS. head-bow as a motive. We did not find in what sense it was used. But a parallel of a rainbow-bridge int0 a heavenly palace is found in Angkor Thom. We quote Paul Mus : 67

This is how the inscriptions of Jayavarman V11 describe the work of the king: ,,Created by this king, the holy Mountain of Victory Uayagiri) which /69/ with its pinnacle stuck the bright vault of heaven, and the holy Sea of Victory (Jayasindhu) which in its measureless dept attained the serpent world, both emulated the Arc of his mighty g10.r~". . . We know . . . 'from them that many of the royal Indian and Indo-Chinese cities were planned on conventional lines and consequently built and adorned as archi- tectural representations of the universe.. . We must not forget that ritual and religious decorations are merely a language. One must find to what this language is applied. Who is the king? Conventionally the king is a god. Where does he dwell? His super- natura1 being is magically housed in the central temple of the town just as the god dwells at the top of the central mountain of the world. A question immediately arises which wil1 clear up the whole matter. If the town be a /70/ djvine world, how and by what road does one go traditionally to the divine world and Iiow leave it? The reply of the written texts is clear : by way of the rainbow. The rainbow is the road of the gods. We may be told, for example, that the Buddha, who had ascended to the paradise of Indra, situated at the top of Meru, descended from it by a ladder of severi colours like the rainbow, and this type of magic bridge is represented at Touen- hoang with an accuracy which leaves nothing to be desired. It bends over, and under the sky crosses the surrounding enclosures of seas and moun- tains, reaching finally the upper terrace of a gigantic Mount Meru. We may also quote the Burmese inscriptior~,barely forty years older than the date of Jayavarman VII, in which the King Alaungsithu expresses the wish to behold the future Buddha, Maitreya, where he. walks Enhaloed on a rainbow pathway fair, Like Meru, king of mountains.

The "pathway fair" by which ascent is made to the divine world is there- fore the rainbow. But then, since Angkor Thom is admitted to be a divine town, the bridges leading to it which signify the conneetion between our world and that other world should have been planned and therefore con- structed and ornamented like a rainbow. We do not need to go very far to find the proof of this. It ocms in the very inscriptions which M. Coedès has translated. It is said in tKem that the Mountain of Victory and the Sea of Victory emulate the Arc of Glory of the king. According to this poetical comparison the Mountain of Victory and the Sea of Victory have, added to them, a third expression, the Arc of Glory. But the meaning of the latter term is not questioned; a king's arc of glory is the representation of the arc of Indra, or iri other words the rainbow, itself symbol of the divine powers of sovereigns. Let US now take our stand before the actual landscape of Angkor Thom. The Mountain of Victory and the Sea of Victory here become before our eyes,

Paul Mus, Angkor in the time of Jayavarman VII, Indian Arts & Letters XI/Z, 1937, p. 65:75.

Downloaded from Brill.com09/28/2021 02:58:39PM via free access THE RAINBOW IN ANCIENT INDONESIAN RELIGION. 311

if we may so put it, a rampart and a moat. The third expression is missing. This should be a materialization of the rainbow, of this Same rainbow which we learn from elsewhere to be a divine bridge. The conclusion is obvious : the Arc of Glory of Jayavarman VII, vying in splendour with the rampart and the moat, is the bridge which is the worldly representation of the rainbow. This explains the serpents, which are als0 refersed to in the inscription in the passage stating that the moat "in its measureless depth attained the serpent world". As a matter of fact, throughout the whole of the Far East, as in India, the rainbow is compared to a many-coloured serpent which rises /71/ from the abyss and stands erect in the sky. A pair of serpents is also mentionend. Nature supplies a reason for this duplication. When the rainbow is very byight and wel1 defined there is usually another bow with it, paler than the first, the colours appearing in the reverse order. The Indo-Chinese cal1 these two phenomena Monsignor the Long Serpent and Monsignor the Short Serpent, for one of the two concentric arcs is, as is only right, a little larger than the other. It is clear that is was this double rainbow, marking a divine road in space, which inspired the con- struction of two balustrades of serpent shape on the two sides of the holy byi-es, earthly representations of this Same divine pathway. It is true that the legends make the rainbow itself of serpents - that is to say, the bridge. But as it would not be easy to make a bridge.con- sisting of a stone serpent, the employ-ment of the latter as.a motif for the balustrade was an equivalent which was clearly indicated.

Anantabhoga and the venerable Ananta-Kusuma. On Java and Bali we know the body of the rainbow also to have been a serpent.67" In Angkor it was the serpent, Ananta-bhoga, while with the Dayak the Serpent of the Underworld was closely related wiih the'rainbow, which is,'there afio, the bridge or boat tobheaven. On Hinduistic Java Anantabhoga was known, as in India, in close relation with Visnu. We see the god sitting upon the serpent on the Rämäyana-reliefs 68 of the chandi Prambanan (8th or 9th century A.D.). In later development Visnu did not play an important role in stories about Anantaboga, though the god married his daughter Dèwi Sri, the rice-goddess. But Guru and Uma are the Lords of Ananta. It was for the Upper-god that Ananta wept those precious tears, out of which the rice-goddess and her brother were born. It was Uma, who nourished the babies.69

67"Eva Hooykaas, student at the S.O.A.S., kindly draws my attention to the fact that in Malay the ward pëlmi stands as wel1 for rainbow as for snake (Wilkinson s.v. I1 231). Willem Stutterheim, Räma-Legenden und Räma-Reliefs in Indonesien, Georg Muller, München 1925, Textband ; Tafelband fig. 3 ; als0 represented in J. Kats, The Rarnayana as sculptured in reliefs in Javanese temples, Kolff, Batavia- Leiden (192?) fig. 1. 69 Dr K. A. H. Hidding, Nji Pohatji Sangjang Sri, thesis Leiden, 1929, p. 9 sqq. DI. 113. 21

Downloaded from Brill.com09/28/2021 02:58:39PM via free access 312 DR JACOBA HOOYKAAS.

In the wayang, Antaboga is usually represented as a king or a god with human features.70 His description is as follows: 71 Hyang Antaboga is a god, living under the earth in the seventh layer. His palace is called Sapta-pratala, which means the seventh layer. In reality he is a snake-god and so he has the power to change into a naga. The story goes, that his palace under the earth is extremely beautiful, not different from the palace where the gods live,in Suralaya (heaven). Hyang Antaboga had a daughter, a princess, called Dewi Naga- gini, who was the spouse of Prince Wrëkodara (Bhima); they had a son, called Prince Antaséna, also called Anantaséna or Anantarëdja. With this grandson of Anantaboga we seem to have found the link, which we sought between the rainbow, the power of flying to heaven and the serpent of the underworld. This Antaséna's name seems to be composed of his grandfather's and his father's youth name Brataséna. According to the wayang72 he lived under the earth and was able to fly in the sky. Now there exists in Javanese mythology and ethnography an object, which I wish to discuss in this context. It is the famous jacket Ananta- kusuma, which enables a person to fly, and which was moreover worn by the Sultans of Jogyakarta on very special occasions. As far as I know it has never been suggested, that the jacket Anantakusuma had anything to do with the serpent-king Ananta-bhoga. One did not sus- pect that Sultan Hamangku Buwana V11 of Jogyakarta (1899-1921 A.D.), of whom we have a very solemn photo, in which he is seen wearing the sacred jacket, was supposed to be 'clothed in Ananta's discarded skin'. Yet I arn convinced that this is the case. In the Arjuna-Wiwäha, an Old-Javanese poem, as old as the 11th century, we read that as a reward for his exploits Arjuna is given the power and the glory of God Indra for seven days, which would be on . earth the equivalent of seven months : 73

70 On the gunungan, a wayang-representation of the kosmos, we sometimes see the Serpent of the Underworld'very similar to the Dayak-figures, cp. Neder- landsch-Indië Oud en Nieuw X 1925/6 p. 4, Gunungan, with NION 111, 191819 p. 228 sqq Land of Death of the Dayak. - The wayang also knows a puppet of Anantaboga in his shape of King-of-serpents, cp. NION XI, 192617, p. 89. Hardjowirogo, Sedjarah Wayang Purwa, p. 29. Hardjowirogo p. 83. 73 Dr R. Ng. Poerbatjaraka (Lesya), Arjuna-Wiwäha, tekst en vertaling, BK1 8212, 1926, Canto XXIX, 4cd: makawastra linungsunganira sang ananta huwus dinala, maninila pammna caçarudhira dinrawa mär araras.

Downloaded from Brill.com09/28/2021 02:58:39PM via free access THE RAINBOW .IN ANCIENT INDONESIAN RELIGION. 313

'The noble Dhananjaya (= Arjuna) arrived and was seated on a lion-throne made of jewels. The crown and other ornaments, which he wore were those of the . As a garment he wore the skin, dropped by Ananta, beautifully scaly in colours of blue precious stones and fresh hare's blood.' Thus arrayed in a completely cosmic manner, wearing as well the crown and ornaments of Heaven as the symbol of the Underworld, he was initiated. We know that most Eastern kings were considered as gods and their kratons as heavenly buildings. We also know that, in certain respect, the tradition has survived unbroken from ancient Java- nese kings down to the modern Muslim Sultans. Nevertheless we are awed by the force of tradition, which made a ruler in this century still wear 'the Venerable Antakusuma', already in use nine centuries ago. The jacket still shows its scaly origin, though modern descriptions do not mention 'colours of precious stones and fresh hareblood'.74 It consists wholly of triangles of colourful velvet or silk. The 11th century poet of the Arjuna-Wiwäha still called it the skin cast of! by Ananta, and we have no strict proof of this being the came as the jacket Ananta-kusuma. This is however highly probable, as we know the principal possessors of this magic jacket to be either wida- daris, Indra's daughters, or kings (sultans), who only wore it on very ceremonial occasions, when apparently acting as cosmic rulers, like Arjuna in Indra's heaven. In the Old-Javanese epos Bhärata-Yuddha (first part of the 12th century), canto XV, we see King Salya going to war, having attired himself in a many-coloured gayment (busana anéka-war~a).75 Since we know that the Venerable Ananta-kusuma was also worn by the King, when going to battle, we may safely assurne that the Old-Java- nese poet made King Salya dress in the kularnbi Ananta-kusuma. We know of no king of ~aia~ahitactually wearing the holy jacket, though in folktales and stories they may be disguised. As a matter of fact many folktale-heroes became king after having married a wida- dari - by stealing her flying jacket. The tradition knows the widadari garment, by the magic power of which she could fly, as being the Same as the royal kulambi Anantakusuma. Even the Muslim Sultan of Jogyakarta was concious of the fact that he had inherited it from an

The description as well as many of the following notes I owe to: Prof. Dr. Th. P. Galestin, Enkele Notities in verband met de "Kjahi Ontro Koesoemo", Cul- tureel Indië VI, 1944 p. 110-18. i5 R. Ng. Dr. Poerbatjaraka en Dr. C. Hooykaas, Bhärata-Yuddha, DJAWA 14, 1934 p. 1-87; also edited separately, Kolff, Batavia, 1934.

Downloaded from Brill.com09/28/2021 02:58:39PM via free access 314 DR JACOBA HOOYKAAS.

ancestor widadari.76 So even in our time the tradition of its celestial origin was not yet lost.76" This tradition is evidently not the orthodox Muslim one. The preachers of in Indonesia had to convert the heathen skin, drop- ped by Ananta. So a legend was created, that after the building of the mosque of Dëmak, the jacket Antakusuma came down from heaven, wrapped in a goat's skin, in the midst of the congregation of walis. Sometimes Sunan Kali Jaga, the wali who became the owner of the jacket, was said to have sewn it out of the goat's skin.77 That is the reason (?) why it is also called Kyahi Gundil. Gundil means 'hairless, bald' and is a more appropriate name for a serpent than for a goat or sheep. Thus this part of the story is rather obscure. The whole tendency - however seems to be perfectly clear: The jacket Anantakusuma, which makes a Javanese king into the cosmic ruler he should be, is not a garment, stolen from one of Indra's daughters, nor possession of a heathen goddess Uma (see below), but a gift from the Prophet Muham- mad to his believers. Thereafter the tradition goes on: Sunan Kali Jaga gave it to Séna- pati, the founder of the Mataram dynasty. Sénapati (16th century) wore it at the siege of Madiun, just as King Salya was pictured in it by the 12th century poet. When in 1708 the Mataram ruler Mangkurat I11 was overpowered by Susuhunan Paku Buwana I, he had to hand over the Venerable Anantakusuma with the supremacy. From that date on it was one of the principal upacharas (symbols of kingship) at the court of Surakarta, as it was at the court of Jogyakarta, as we have already stated. In- the beginning of the 19th century A.D. the bodyguard of the Sultan of Jogyakarta als0 wore this jacket. This guard derived its legendary origin from a famous her0 Ki Jaka Tingkir, whose magic power impressed his sovereign, so that he was adopted and became chief of the guard. The other members were allegedly selected on their magic power and were only accepted after they had killed a bul1 by a blow with the fist. This wearing of the jacket seems to mean that a cosmic ruler should have magically powerful servants. It is comparable with the wearing of the skin dr'opped by Ananta by Indra and at the same time by the widadaris. J. Groneman, De Garëbëg's te Ngajogyakarta, Nihoff, The Hague, 1895, p. 23 78a~f.Dr W. H. Rassers, On the Javanese kris, BK1 99, 1940, p. 556. In'a story told on the isle of Roti it is by force of a goatskin that the hero flies, cp. J. C. G. Jonker, Rottineesche Teksten met Vertaling, Brill, Leiden, 1911, No. W.

Downloaded from Brill.com09/28/2021 02:58:39PM via free access THE RAINBOW IN ANCIENT INDONESIAN RELIGION. 315

Of primary importance is the fact, that Tënggër-priests were, still in this century, in the habit of wearing the jacket Antakusuma. The people in the highlands of the TënggZr have not been Islamised and conserve an interesting mixture of Hindu and pre-Hindu traditions, - comparable with Bali. They know a ceremony, called the slamc'tan pangëntas-ëntas, where by incense and- incantations the souls were helped to get across to The Other Side.78 The priests themselves,knew , t only the name of the jacket, not its origin. This is probably the same as that of the Sultan's jacket: the widadari-jacket, which, by the magic .. : of the skin dropped by Ananta, enabled the priest to make the souls fly int0 heaven. The wayang-heroes who possess the jacket Anantakusuma are fL. Arjuna, Gatotkacha and the priest Drona. Dr Galestin 79 remarks that the flying-jacket (with slippers) given to Arjuna in the first part of the story, is called a 'woollen jacket' (këlambi kambala), and that the only .passage where the her0 is actually h . pictuî-ed -hith. 'a :jacket, -iC as Chèkèl - 1tid;alaj6, in connection with 1ndi-a's heàven. Th; ;uthor th&ught pf the-Ontro-kusiuma only is a +. flying jacket and. so failed to notice, that Arjuna was wearing the dropped skin of Ananta in heaven and therefore was recorded as the possessor of the jacket Anantakusuma. Arjuna wore it as the2prototype : -. -,. ,- 4. of the later Javanese kings.80 ' .+. :II Anantaséna. is not- enumerated among .the happy possessors .of"the -. .- *--~-..1 .magie_ djacket,-though .-his. name,_ originating from bis- grqdfathcr ,-, . r.c2 z= .a. . h

~nantabhoia, wel1 as tlie fiii of'his fl;irig-io&r; kight ~ugir;e;t th'k . -pGrp a+. 2 A;- he flew by forceS- of the- magic of Ananta. . ._ . .>.I __i_".

s" Prof. Dr. C. C. Berg, De Arjuna-Wiwäha,.Erlangga's Levensloop en Bruilofts- e . *.i- lied?, BK1 97/1, 1938, where the author suggests this poem to celebratë King. ".... ' " ' ' '" iwy j Erlangga's life and wedding. Quoted with approval by Prof. Dr F. D. K. Bosch in De Laatste der Pändawa's, BK1 104/4, 1948, p. 56 note 28. -4 For our purpose it is interesting that Berg supposes Arjuna - Erlangga to b. be the Same king as DharmawangSa tëguh Ananta-wikrama. So we meet the ' -- name of Ananta again in the of the king, who wore the skin dropped by . . Ananta. . . i. ". l 3

Downloaded from Brill.com09/28/2021 02:58:39PM via free access 3 16 DR JACOBA HOOYKAAS. wears the jacket Anantakusuma. The wayang gives the answer: as a youth Drona had won the favours of a heavenly nymph, the well-known Wilutama, who flew with him across the sea.81 Up to this point we have discussed the skin of Ananta and the jacket Anantakusuma as an essential garment for Javanese rulers as wel1 as flor flying to heaven. In both cases it establishes the cosmic relation between Underworld, Earth and Heaven, as the rainbow did. Therefore we should expect to find a relationship between Guru or Uma (fundamentally Lords of the rainbow) and the jacket, which we consider as the skin of Ananta. The connection between the godly couple and Ananta we discussed on p. l., where we saw that Uma suckled the child, born out of Ananta's tears. Urna moreover is closely connected to the Underworld. The story goes, that there she practised 'tapa'.82 Therefore we are not surprised at finding Uma to be the giver of the 'kulambi Antakusuma'. This is mentioned in the old Javanese poem Sri Tanjung, where kulambi Antakusuma was given by the goddess Uma to Sadéwa when, in the graveyard Gandamayu, he delivered her from her curse.83 The story of this deliverance is also told in the Suda-mala, and illustrated on the chandi already discussed.53 In that passage no mention is made of the jacket Antakusuma. In the Sri Tanjung83 - which poem is closely connected with the Suda-mala - Sri Tanjung gives the wonderful jacket to her husband with the words: 84 ana drëwénira bapa, I have a possession of my father's, anggènën kaka dénira, which you, my husband, must use, kulambi Antakusuma. the jacket Antakusuma.

Kulambi Antakusuma iku, That jacket Antakusuma, lah anggènën mangké, put it on immediately. pasungsungira hyang Widi, It was given by God, -

Hardjowirogo, Sedjarah Wayang Purwa, p. 111. S2 Pigeaud, Tantu Panggelaran p. 1041171. s3 Prijono, Sri Tanjung p. 13/81. "'I give my own text and translation, as I differ in. some points with those of Prijono : a) I put the words marma?té mung nugraha, sayanatt (?) Antakusz~ma into the goddess' inouth and translate them by Therefore I accord you a grace: the jacket (?) Airtakusuma; b) the word sagan. is most unsatisfactory, and the author does not use elsewhere in our text the longer form An-antakusuma; neither does the use it without kulurnbi. Co I prefer to read sayartm, which word may be an unusual synonym to kulombi; c) In the last word quoted, I read Nilii for nhi; d) I spel1 open é.

Downloaded from Brill.com09/28/2021 02:58:39PM via free access THE RAINBOW IN ANCIENT INDONESIAN RELIGION. 317 ing kuna ramaningsun, in the past to my father, sinangkala ring sétragung, when he had been bound in the large ring Gandamayu prënahé, graveyard Gandamayu, fettered with cinangcang ing rangdu agung, ropes to a huge rangdu-tree. sinëngguh rare apanas, He was considered as a magically- marmanira sinangkala. dangerous boy; therefore he had [been fesseled. Ya ta ring kunakën remaningsun, He was a mighty personality, my kinèn angruwata, father. / Goddess Nini ordered him dandané déra hyang Nini, to cleanse / her from the curse upon wus ruwat malanipun, her. / As soon she had been clean- mangkin antyan déning ayu. sed, / at once she became extremely Hyang Nini lingé ujaré ; beautiful J and spoke the following Agung tëmEn utangingsun, words: / Great indeed is my debt. marmané asung nugraha, Therefore I accord you a grace : sayanan (?)Antakusuma. the jacket Antakusuma. Kamayangaq yayi ariningsun, Thank you, my bride! yen asung, sun-anggé, If you wil1 give me that possession drgwénira iku Nini. of Nini's, I shall wear it.85 We may conclude this chapter with the statements: 1. The Ananta-kusuma probably was 'the skin dropped by Ananta'. 2. Since the 11th century we see it as a royal ceremonial dress, on the possession of which kingship depends. 3. The royal garment was supposed to be the same as that of wida- . " daris. 4. Bhatara Nini, i.e. Uma, was in a position to dispose of it. 5. It was also used by a priest to help souls to fly int0 heaven.

- The rainbow as a bout to heaven for the dead.

When one observes rainbow-sculptures on late Javanese funeral monuments (chandis), and one is aware of their symbolic meaning, the guestion naturally arises, whether there is any textual evidence for it ss Drëw&ira iku Nini, the possession of Nini, could signify in veiled language (puntartg): Nini's (male) sex, and in this way show the author's knowledge of the myth of the origin of the rainbow. Both texts may be contemporary, as the Sri Tanjung is considered to be of the 16th century A.D. and the frag- ment shows Muslim influence by giving Uma an Urnar as a father. Never- theless I believe that the rainbow and the jacket, though related, were not the same, and so the put1 not very probable.

Downloaded from Brill.com09/28/2021 02:58:39PM via free access 318 DR JACOBA HOOYKAAS. beyond the folktales quoted above. This answer is affirmative, though I know only two passages where the rainbow might be considered as a boat or bridge to heaven. The first is found in the same Sri Tanjung.66 With the help of the jacket Antakusuma her husband has reached heaven. On his return he suspects her of an.intrigue with the king and kills her. Her soul flies upwards and reaches a river : 87 ngadëg pinggir ing baííu, Ni Sri Tanjung stood on the bank ni Sri Tanjung lingnyamuwus : of the river and said : Tan wruh dalan ingong mangké. I do not know my way now. Ana durgama ring bañu, There was an obstacle in the water, bajul atendas raksasa, a crocodile with a raksasa-head. Anguchap akon mëntasa. She addressed him and told him to put her across to The Other Side. Kang bajul putih alon amuwus: White Crocodile politely answered : Duh, niki kang marga. Well, this is your way. I am the

Maniratmahning-. Wot . Wasi, incarnation of the Boat-for-the- gumiwang téjanipun, Steadfast, shining brilliantly ring luhur kadi kikuwmg. in the sky like a rainbow.88 Ni Sri Tanjung pangucapé: Ni Sri Tanjung spoke: Lah ingsun mangke lumaku. Well, now I shall go.

p. 36 str. 121, p. 37 str. 122. s7 Again I give my own text and translation: a) mëntas I translate by prct across, i.e. help to reach The Other Side, a frequent use of the word in texts concer- ning Life Hereafter; b) mmiratma rzing Wot Wësi, I rejected the translation I am tke soli1 of the iron brage. Atma in Javanese is the soul of a dead person, a shadow, not a personification. One should expect a word like kadaden, which indeed is found in one of the variae lectiones: atmnh - which in this text could easily be corrupted int0 atma; for (a)tëmah cp. e.g. daitya matëmdzwi waraha (U.L.L. Cod. Or. 3297 (1) fol. 6; c) Not being satisfied about an Iron Brdge, nor about the notion of a crocodile as a brage, I searched in Van der Tuuk and found that mt IV also means boat (Dutch: vuurtuig). Looking up the word wësi, I noticed a confusion with the word of origin wasi, steadfast, e.g. gttrzt niësi and gt~ri~w&. Sri Tanjung as an initiated hermit's granddaughter may certainly claim to be considered as a wasi. Professor Ga- lestin, who studied the passage closely, came on other grounds to the conclusion that a boat, not a bridge, was meant; d) gumkrrang téjan.ibn I translated by shining brilliantly, Van der Tuuk giving i.a. (2 columns without translation): 'said about fish in the water, shone upon by the sun'. Editor gave the Modern- Javanese meaning 'slanting'. RWhiteand multicoloured are often interchangeable in Javano-Balinese mytho- logy. In the system of classification white is the colour of the East, multi- coloured is the Centre; about the confusion of these two cp. Swellengrebel's Korawâçrama, introduction p. 31. In Balinese folktales, e.g. Bintang Lara (Coll.

Downloaded from Brill.com09/28/2021 02:58:39PM via free access Since White Crocodile is the incarnation of the boat for the stead- fast, and we know moreover from elsewhere, that this boat is the -1 C . .. rainbod, we kay tafely assume, that 'shining brilliantly in the sky like a rainbow' is not just a poetical metaphor - the rainbow being anything c but-white. I suggest that it means that the rainbow, typical boat for

the steadfast, appears to Sri Tanjung as White Crocodile, but that q 89 nevertheless it shines in the sky in al1 its colours, signifying to y.,. mortals, that a steadfast soul is passing to The Other World. - This story of Sri Tanjung has been represented on the reliefs of at least three late-Javanese chandis,go dated 1354, 1365 and 1370 A.D. On one of them a charming picture can be seen representing a woman, sitting on (not walking across) a huge fish.91 These reliefs as wéll as the great number of MSS with different versions of the story prove its immense popularity. It was a fitting illustration for a funeral monu- ment. Dr-Galestin refers to many objects: a lamp, dishes, etc., where a woman sitting on a fish may be the illustration of the Same sce,ne. . - -, This may have been a symbolic expression for- a purified soul going -- . i to heaven. In the Sri Tanjung passage, quoted above, the-rainbow was not . _G

clearly seen, because it had taken a fish as its incarnation. In another b :9 Old Javanese passage, however, we find-without doubt the rainbow - + i used as+aboat or bridge to heaven. The Bhärata-Yuddha, court-poem iJi from the beginning of the 12th century, covering thedcentral books of, " < " '- - 4- the Mahäbhärata, relates how after King Salya's death his queen finds Ilj - --L .-e -4s ::g2 s,

"his_60ì=~se~?ïtî~the"bklefield thèn a rain*of flowers comek whjrling .: r -+ ? down, combined with the appearance of a rainbow.93 q lnLthis case Dr Bosch is certainli right in saying that 'When a - -i‘ . - -."a .- ,a 4. rainbow appears above a victorieus hero, it is beyond doubt ,God P. .; I-... iI. ;- Indra's rainbow.94 - h >T1* --# - :'-T> - :g, I - 6 Kirtya L. v. d. T. 1944) Gagak P,ëtak (White Crow) stands for or is an incax- ,%** i di nation of the multicoloured Garuda., r "e3 .e-- ^-i L S0 CP. "When a rainbow is seen, standing in the zepith, the Hili-To~ajasklieá- - .T" it to be a sign of a nobleman's death" (Woensdregt; Mythen en Sagen ,der+ ,a- G T z;a q q G;,& *. "-b",*- Berg-Toradja's, VBG LXVl3, Nijhoff, The Hague, p. 30). . j- - P. I4 * . -" 1-1 O0 Dr Th. P. Galestin, Cultureel Iñdië VI, 1939, p. 15415. - -- "*.B-, O1 This relief I consider as a proof that the translation of-wot by boat 'is right. - e2 Bhärata-Yuddha XLIV. 14, 18; XLV. 7, 8. I + D3 The authenticity of the passage is doubted, but it is genuine Javanese and an- , =. cient ; moreover the question of genuineness of Old-Javanese texts is not neairly -. -. settled, cp. Dr. C. Hooykaas, The 'Old-Javanese Rämäyana Kakawin,- with I< special reference to the problem of interpolation in Kakawins, VKI XVI, The . 'i.

Hague, Nijhoff, 1955. m , - ~. 94 BEFEO XXXI/4, 1931 p. 487. - ..s I .- I .Y " - _- 8

Downloaded from Brill.com09/28/2021 02:58:39PM via free access 320 DR JACOBA HOOYKAAS.

We'have, however, not yet done with this passage. When lamenting her royal husband, the queen wails: 95

...... aku tumutura ...... I shall follow you nghing pintangku, tuhan! papag Only I pray you to come and fetch ngwang irikang wwat 'ugal-agil me at the Rocky Bridge, which inambah enggungan. sways as one passes it.

This Rocking Bridge is a well known feature in Javano-Balinese descriptions of Life Hereafter. Even on earth it was represented in teniples of Death, as a real broken bridge, which was used for an ordeal.96 It has nothing to do with the rainbow-boat or -bridge, and in the Sri Tanjung, as here, they are mentioned apart. But when, in the same passage, the heroine has thrust her kris int0 her breast, in order to follow her husband, there is a speech of her servant, in which the rainbow is mentioned in a way different from that above. The servant says : 97

Matang ya hèrën ngwang ing antariksa Wait for me in the sky; / I tumuntunê dyahku n angingkin anglih shall follow you on your diffi- lëyö nikang mégha melës ririsnya cult journey. / The clouds are kilatnya sugyâmilëtê wëtista. slippery because of the shiny rains; / maybe the lightning wil1 twist around your calves. adi in kitàngambaha ng Indracäpa And if you mount on the rain- nda tan satutën lëwasoyagéng&ung. bow, do not follow it,/for it is extremely unsteady and shaky. < Though this passage is not as clear as one would like it to be, it certainly shows the rainbow being considered as a way - boat or bridge - to heaven. Several times one is doubtful, whether a boat or a bridge is meant. This was the case as well in the Toraja-passage as in the Sri Tanjung and here in this Bhärata-Yuddha-passage. The double meaning of the Old-Javanese wwat or wot shows that the distinction was not clearly made. In both senses. bridge and boat, it is a means to get across. One could compare the Dutch word veerpont (ferryboat), where the word l

@5 Bhärata-Yuddha XLIV 17d-18a. Grader, Tweedeeling, after p. 70 ill. b 1. " Bh. Y. XLV. 7-8b.

Downloaded from Brill.com09/28/2021 02:58:39PM via free access THE RGINBOW IN ANCIENT INDONESIAN RELIGION. 32 1 l

pont means 'bridge', though the form is that of a boat. Such is also-the case with rainbow-boats. They are not just boats, travelling anywhere, but ferry-boats, conveying people across to The Other Side, and so functioning as, and sometimes thought of as, bridges. Modern Dutch would use luchtbrug (airlift).98 l If one went through the whole published and unpublished Javano- -l Balinese religious literature, one would no doubt find more instances of the rainbow as a ferryboat for the dead.

The rainbow as a coffin?

We saw, that Kruyt mentioned how the Mentawai people at the sight of a rainbow which failed to reach the ground, were conviñced that they would catch deer. So we concluded, that they possessed the conception of the deer-bow. . 0n-

coffins .were supposed,-$0 de soulboats.100s-+pw--*T On. one v..w of% the ceremo5ial *. " tik& of-sbuth Sumatra &e ako notice a deerhead'at t~th'ends'of the': * coffin 8n the soulboat. Here apparently a rainbow is represented.101 It might be too £ar a shot to suggest that the dead in a kidang-headed coffin was travelling to heaven on the rainbow, and that its fishtail might be connected with the Sri Tanjung story, where the heroine

Os These is not only a hesitation between bridge and boat hut also, as we have seen in note 6, between bridge and ladder or stairs. The frankincense naturally forms winding stairs, but also the rainbow is considered as a ladder by the Hill-Toradja's (Woensdregt's note o11 p. 32a, pp. 43, 64, 68, 118). I quote p. 64: In the famous story of the man who stole the widadari-garment, the widadari after a quarrel with the husband went back to heaven, leaving her child behind. Then the man speaks: "If it is true that mg ancestors are noble, then there tnay be stairs for me into heaven, that I may bring my child there". After these words it started raining and he noticed an object in front of him, which reached into heaven, and look: it was a real ladder. This ladder was alternately- white and black. Climbing it he eventiaally reached heaven. The rain became less heavy and now he remarked, that it was the rainbow, which he had climbed. Dr Alb. C. Kruyt, De Mentawaiers, TBG 62, 1923, p. 172. loOSchaerer, thesis, illustr. Tafel IX, cf. T. VIII and XVII. 'O1 O.C. note 29, afb. 2.

Downloaded from Brill.com09/28/2021 02:58:39PM via free access DR JACOBA HOOYKAAS.

travels to The Other. Side on a fish, which called itself 'the incarnation of the boat-for-the-steadfast, shining in the sky like a rainbow'. The Mentawai relative might pass the night in that rainbow-coffin, in order to get an initiation (or: life-force) by going to heaven. Then his act would be related to the Nias and the Toraja priest, flying to heaven, and als0 to the Tënggër priest, wearing the flying jacket. On Bali one finds different shapes of coffins (patulangan). For the higher caites a bull is used, for the sudra a rnythical animal, called gajah-mina, fish-elephant. The fish-elephant may be the original form, related to the Mentawai coffin and to the fish which was the incarnation of the boat for the steadfast. When Hinduism came, the higher castes may have left those pre-Hindu coffins to the sudras and preferred themselves to fly to heaven on the bull, God Siva's vähana, which by force of pre-Hindu tradition was transformed into a rainbow. ,

Dr JACOBA HOOYKAAS.

Downloaded from Brill.com09/28/2021 02:58:39PM via free access