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RICE, WORK, and WEALTH ACCORDING TO LEGEND, the Balinese originally had only the juice of sugar-cane as food. Out of pity for the human race, the m god of fertility and water, Wisnu, Plutonic Lord of the Uric world, came to earth in disguise to provide them with better food He raped an unwilling Mother Earth to fertilize her and g birth to rice, and she became known as Sanghyang Ibu Pretiwi the Smitten Grandmother. Then Wisnu made war on Indra Lord of the Heavens, to induce him to teach men how to grow rice. Thus, as the principal source of life and wealth and as a gift from the gods, rice was born from the cosmic union of the divine male and female creative forces represented in earth and water. Besides white rice (bras) , there are red (gaga) and black (indjin) varieties. These the Balinese conveniently co-ordinated with their symbolic notion of the relation between colour and direction by the explanation that the seeds were provided Sanghyang Kesuhum Kidul (Brahma), the patron of the South who sent four doves with seeds of the four cardinal colour white, red, yellow, and black. Since there was no yellow rice the seed of that colour became tumeric (kunyit), an important, condiment. Poor people, or those living in districts where water is not abundant, live on corn and sweet potatoes, foods considered inferior to rice, and taken to be transformed male and female attendants of Dewi Sri, wife of Wisnu, goddess of agriculture, fertility, and success. To the Balinese Dewi Sri represents all that is good and beautiful and she is their most popular deity. She has been placed, perhaps with the advent of Hinduism, above Dewi Melanting, the native goddess of seed and plants, who, as daughter of Dewi Sri, remains the goddess of gardens and markets. Dewi Melanting spends half the year above the earth and the other half below; or, as Dr. Goris puts it, " she has first to undergo death under the black earth before she can come to new life." Since man lives off rice and his body and soul are built from it, rice itself is treated with reverence and respect and the whole rice culture has developed into an elaborate cult. There are endless magic-ritual acts to make the rice grow big and strong, or so that water shall not be lacking, or to prevent the pollution of the land and the loss of seed by theft, birds, and mice. From planting-time until harvest the growth of rice is watched with as much anxiety as the life of a child. The Balinese are famed as the most efficient rice-growers in the archipelago.
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