Viewing page 31 of 66

This transcription has been completed. Contact us with corrections.

the descendants of Nirartha's nephew can be the Buddha-worshipping priests. All the other categories of priests which have survived have been relegated to the lower castes.
Caste had 'no validity in actual life' in ancient Java or Bali prior to the 15th c. ((this from Pigeaud)), but it did exist in theory in the model of the World Ruler. In the model, the semi-divine or divine status of the ruler and the spiritual basis of kingship depended on his relationship with the priesthood. In the many stories about priests and kings the two groups were shown in a kind of uneasy partnership. Sometimes they were rivals for power, sometimes allies. Still today each group claims to be the highest caste....
From the sixteenth century until the present day caste has remained the ideal used the describe Balinese social order. It was always, however, an ideal which worked for the two top castes, but which was full of inconsistencies for everyone else....
The fragile framework of caste was meaningless without some kind of everyday practice to support it. Nirartha brought Majapahit-style rituals which were meant, according to the legends of his coming, to be more efficacious than the rites of other Balinese priests. In essence, he introduced the present-day Balinese ritual order, particularly the making of holy water which is the key rite for the [[underlined]] brahmana [[/underlined]] priesthood. Even the appearance of the major exorcistic story used in the well-known dance-drama of the [[underlined]] Barong [[/underlined]] dates from the era of Nirartha....
With the new literature and rituals came a legal system to back up caste. Through the punishments of crimes such as murder, robbery and infringements of the rules of caste, the king as his priests kept the world in order, in accordance with ancient law books handed down from Java. They also demonstrated their power over their subjects, and ensured through violence that the royal and priestly order of things was not questioned."

12. notes from [[underlined]] Babad Buleleng [[/underlined]]

from chap. one: translation and commentary by P.J. Worsley the babad are essentially stories to establish the genealogy of a group of people; taken out of the clan shrine and read to assembled group and their guests on certain occasions
Worsley relates to ancestor worship
B. Bul. is the genealogy of the ruling clan of Den Bukit, which traces its descent from Panji Sakti descended from the rulers of Gelgel, and adpted into the Jarantik clan
after Panji Sakti's death, another 8 generations of his descendents identified
narrative ends with seizure of control by Dutch
contentment, harmony and stability of Panji Sakti's reign emphasized, and further legitimized his reign ((acc. to Vickers, Panji Sakti was heavily involved in slave trade and trade with Europeans; some Eur. accounts portray him as quite decadent; see, for example, Vickers pp. 17-18))
although Panji Sakti descended from King of Gelgel (and thus from first Javanese migrants from Majapahit), his mother a commoner