Once upon a time, there was a region named Daha. When Daha was ruled by King Sri Aji Airlangga the region was remained safe and the people were prosperous. On his power, none of thieves had enough bravery to practice their occupation in Daha. And people lived peacefuly. Unlike Girah, one of villages in Daha, was remained unorganized. This was because a widow named Rangdeng Girah, Rangda (the word “rangda” means “widow” in Bali this word is associated with witch and evil) from Girah village, lived there. She had a daughter; named Diah Ratna Manggali who rumored of having a beauty of an angel.

Rangdeng Girah wished her lovely daughter to get marriage soon. But no one have enough guts to marry Diah because Rangdeng Girah was known as a witch who had a great power to harm everyone. Therefore Rangdeng was very angry. One night, she went to graveyard named Gandamayu, followed by her adherents, Ni Larung, Ni Guyang, Ni Lenda, Ni Lendi, Ni Weksirsa, and Ni Mahisawedana. In the midnight, she tranced and asked her adherents to dance. On that moment she put a curse to every one in Girah Village .

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There are two old manuscripts of Calon Arang folktale. The first one is from Bali and the other is from Java and had been translated into Dutch by R. Ng. Purbatjaraka in Bijdr. K. I deel 82 page 110-180, and then it was sung in traditional symptom by Raden Wiradat and published by Balai Pustaka in 1931 (book series no. 942). Pramoedya Ananta Toer rewrote this folk tale in Javanese version which was written in 1462 of Caka Lunar Calendar and some other folk tales in order to save the existence of the folk tale itself which begins to disappear.

Calon Arang performance on The Annual Bali Arts Festival 2006

In the book of Pramoedya entitle ‘Cerita Calon Arang’ – the Story of Calon Arang, mentioned that Mpu Baradah, a great priest who defeated Calon Arang has a daughter named ‘Wedawati’, Weda is the Hindu’s Bible and Wati is an address for a girl or woman. So, ‘Wedawati’ is the girl who learns Weda. In his writing on Calon Arang he made some characters have same proportion; it seems that there are many central characters inside. They are: Calon Arang, King Airlangga, Mpu Baradah, and Wedawati. In the Balinese version Wedawati is not mentioned but Ratna Manggali, the daughter of Calon Arang is told more.

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