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NOTES ON THE HISTORY OF BALI It seems difficult to reconcile the soft-mannered, peace-loving Balinese we know with the intrigue and violence of their turbulent past. For a thousand years the history of the island is a series of wars and heroic episodes that reached a dramatic climax only thirty years ago when the Balinese made a desperate but futile last stand against a modern army. Bali was under the rule of Javanese kings from the earliest days of Hindu Java, but we first hear of Balinese dynasties in the tenth century of our era. In 991 A.D. a child was born of a Balinese king and a Javanese princess. He was named Erlangga and was sent to Java to marry a princess and to become a local chief in the kingdom of his father-in-law. Dharmawangsa, the ruler, was murdered suddenly and Erlangga took charge, saving the kingdom from total collapse and bringing it into even greater glory. Erlangga ruled during thirty difficult years, creating a strong bond between Java and his native Bali, which was then governed by Erlangga's brother in his name. Then, as befits a model hero of Hindu ideas, E rlangga suddenly renounced the kingdom he had made great and died a hermit under the guidance of his religious teacher, Mpu Bharada. Erlangga's kingdom was nearly Destroyed by a plague supposedly brought by the dreadful witch c.a. queen of evil spirits, who was, according to historians, Erlangga’s own mother. Out of the mythical struggle between the magic of the witch and that of the great king, arose the legend Tjalon Arang (see Chapter X) that made Erlangga the most as figure of Balinese mythical history.
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