THE HIGH PRIESTS AND THE BRAHMANIC
RITUAL

WISNU - God of waters, giver of fertility, and lord of the underworld. His wife is DEWI SRI, goddess of beauty and agriculture; their daughter, DEWI MELANTING, goddess of seeds, gardens, and markets. Wisnu is represented as a young man riding on the mythical bird Garuda, Sri as a beautiful woman with full breasts, long hair, and slim arms. The agricultural temples are dedicated to her.

INDRA - The active and warlike lord of heaven, of winds and storms, guardian of the heavenly spirits, the WIDEDARAS and WIDEDARIS.

DURGA - The terrible goddess of death who receives the souls of the deceased and turns them over to YAMA for judgment. She is worshipped in the temples of the dead in the cemeteries.

KALA - God of darkness, the destroying form of Siwa, good turned into evil. Kala is represented as a fearful giant, always hungry, living in the centre of the earth.

YAMA - Lord of hell, demoniac judge and punisher of souls.

UMA - Mother of all nature, wife of Siwa. Uma is Durga as Siwa is Kala in their beneficial form. Other wives of Siwa are GIRI PUTRI, goddess of the mountains, DEWI GANGGA and DEWI DANU, deities of the rivers and lakes.

SEMARA-God of love (the physical form), whose wife 1S DEWI RATIH, the moon.

SARASWATI - Goddess of science and literature.

ISWARA, SORA or ISORA, MAHADEWA, SBU, RUDRA and LUDRA, and KWERA, are lesser gods, deities of the cardinal points, the NAWA SANGGA.

PASUPATI - Siwa as a phallic symbol.

SEMARA - the god protector of children. WARUNA - god of the sea.

ANTABOGA - The World Serpent guardian of the nether world, also known as BASUKI or GASUKI.

SANGHYANG IBU PERTIWI - Mother Earth.

SANGIIYANG DUWRING AKASA - the space, the firmament.

TINTIYA- (TJINTYA, SANGHYANG TUNGGAL), the Almighty. Frequently represented as a nude white male figure, flames emanating from his head, temples, shoulders, elbows, penis, knees, and feet. A figure that appears in endless variety in magic amulets.

GANA - the elephant-headed god, once worshipped in Bali, but now remaining only as a protective magic amulet; also called GANAPATI, the Ganca of India.

BATARA BUDDA - not the Buddha, but in Bali a sort of protective, al. though malignant, deity, not clearly defined. Not generally known, but some of those people who knew the name identify it with the BARONG.

Dr. Goris (Secten op Bali) points to traces of former sects that were in time absorbed or that became obsolete and disappeared. All Brahmanic priests outside of the bodda belong to the siwa sect and all knowledge of former divisions is now lost to them. The classification of Dr. Goris is:

a) Ciwa Siddhanta, the most important group, to which the majority of the priests belong. Characteristic of this group is the use of formulas. The siwa priest prays with a bell and flowers, and wears a red and gold mitre topped by a crystal ball. His receptacle for holy water is called siwamba. A typical text of this sect is the manuscript Bhuwama kosa, one of the tuturs, from which many of the later mannscrihts were taken.

b) Paqupata, now totallwiisappcared, with but a trace of it in the cult of the lingga, the phallus, as a symbol of Siwa

c) Bhairawa, a sect given to black magic of the left and worship of deities of death. Now extinct as a separate group, but that it was important is revealed in the witch cult, with its leyaks, rangdas, and barongs. Much of the ritual terminology comes from the Tantric manuscripts to which this black magic of Buddhism belonged.

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