THE SHADOW-PLAY
MYSTICISM AND SLAPSTICK

" Millions of monkeys and raksasas alike are slain before Rawana is killed and Sita rescued. The most picturesque hero of the war is the monkey-general, kIanuman, who performs Miraaculous feats of agility and strength, as, for instance, his famous leap across the ocean to Rawana's island to discover "where Sita is held. When Hanuman is sent to bring healing .Herbs from the forest he is unable to recognize the magic plants :a, angered, tears out the entire mountain top and brings it back with him.

Or the episode represented may come from the Mahabharata. Then the plot deals with the feud between two rival princely houses: the Pandawas, five brothers who are models of virtue (The mystic Yudistra, Bhima, uncouth warrior and powerful magician, the romantic lover Ardjuna, and Nakula and Sahadewa) , against their hundred cousins, the jealous and treacherous Korawas, headed by the unprincipled Duryodana.

The korawas, through trickery and intrigue, succecded in ousting the pandawas from their kingdom and banishing them into the forest for twelve years. During their exile the princes acquire the magic strength to wage the Great War, the Barata Yudda, against the evil Korawas, who are finally exterminated after a battle He so fierce that it makes " the rivers stand still, the sun pale, and the mountains tremble."

The symbolical struggle between absolute virtue and absolute evil is the backbone and the characteristic of the Hinduistic literature of Bali. Each character is sharply defined; he is either fiend or a hero. But the figures of Hindu origin have always remained aloof and esoteric to the Balinese, who have provided the wayang with more interesting and amusing characters of their own.

These are the parekan, the servants or attendants of the principals. On the side of truth and righteousness are Twalen and his son Merdah, while Delam and Sangut are the retainers of the " left," the villains. Twalen is a ponderous black monster mith a pot-belly, a great wit, and a magic air about him he is the really intelligent character of the wayang, who by his resourcefulness and knowledge of the occult saves every situation and makes the hero appear as the conqueror of every combat.

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