Birds, Bards, Buffoons and Brahmans : (Re-)Tracing the Indic Roots of some Ancient and Modern Performing Characters from Java and Bali

Abstract

On the basis of evidence gathered from Old Javanese textual sources and Central Javanese temple reliefs, I proposed to identify some figures of itinerant ascetics-cum-performers—the vidus—as localised Javanese counterparts of Indic prototypes, namely low-status and antinomian Śaiva practitioners (Acri 2011). Building on the work of Stutterheim, Becker, and Coldiron, here I take up additional textual, art historical, and ethnographic evidence from Java and Bali that suggests a premodern, and ultimately Indic, origin of some performances and their specific performers—viz. the ancient Javanese pirus, the modern Javanese canthang balung and talèdhèk, and the contemporary Balinese topeng Sidha Karya. In pinpointing certain striking analogies between Śaiva traditions of itinerant practitioners known from the Indian Subcontinent and their hypothesised Archipelagic ‘relatives’, I aim to ‘historicize’ those figures, and trace their origins to related figures and milieux—at once performative, ritual, and/or ascetic—known from the Sanskritic tradition. Having briefly discussed the philosophical and/or ritual rationale underpinning many of the performances presented here, I will venture to sketch the socio-cultural factors that affected their Javanese and Balinese performers, who adapted to changing circumstances and external influences (e.g. Islamization and/or Western ‘modernization’) by adopting new modes of engagement with audiences, patrons, and prevalent religious and/or ritual fashions.