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all. The rewards were entry to heaven in the afterworld, and a good reincarnation in later lives.  All of this could be achieved through devotion to the king, and through the possibility of studying worthy literature under the guidance of the priests . . . . King Baturenggong's sixteenth-century state never really flourished until he gained a state priest of great power, one who could successfully produce the rituals which held the state together. This priest was Nirartha, the ancestor of most Balinese high priests, the initiator of the modern caste and ritual system of Balie, and the man who created a literary renaissance during the time of Baturenggong.
The Ramayana describes how priests were meant to serve kings through running rituals. They were also there to provide instruction in the 'true duty of tribute and suffering' of kingship, while kings were meant to be the protectors of priests. In the genealogies of royal and priestly dynasties it was the arrival of Nirartha which signalled the real inaugurationof Bali's gold age - without him Dalem Baturenggong's realm was incomplete, under threat of chaos and pestilence. Nirartha arrived some time before 1537, and by that year had established himself at the centre of literary activity on the island.
Literature and religious accomplishments go together; in order for a priest like Nirartha to be truly powerful, he had to control the power of words in their most subtle form the complex sung poetry known as kekawin written in the Old Javanese language and using metrical systems originally from India. Nirartha's poetry was a blend of eroticism and mysticism presenting the same kings of secret mystical knowledge which had to be harnessed in rituals. The chief poets of modern Bali have been his descendants and pupils . . . . .
Nirartha was responsible for the inauguration of caste as it is now known on Bali and for the elevation of the priests who perform worship to Siwa as the major priestly group. Prior to the arrival of Nirartha there were priestly groups who directed their worship mainly to Buddha and to the Hindu god Indra. Caste was known more as an academic term than a descriptor of social organization, and many of the priests of the pre-Nirartha period preserved their roles only by being relegated to the status of commoners. This is particularly so of the temple priests called pamangku and the exorcistic priests called sengguhu.
Nirartha is the ancestor of a brahman or brahmana high priesthood which directed its worship to Siwa and carried out rituals for the court. Prior to his coming these brahmans probably did not form a continuing dynasty or descent group, and were just one of many amorphous groups of priests. After Nirartha the grahmana became a high priesthood added to the top of the existing priestly structure, a priesthood complemented by the smaller group of high priests who directed their worship to Buddha. In the retrospective accounts the ancestor of all the Buddhist high priests was Nirartha's nephew, so the structure was kept within the family.
The major tool by which the amorphous groups of priests pre-dating Nirartha were displaced was the idea of an exclusive priestly caste, the brahmana. Only from Nirartha's descendants can come the Siwa-worshipping high priests or padanda and only