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Pramoedya on Calon Arang Folk Tale

Monday, December 17th, 2007 by Kunta Yuni

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.

bafday18 calonarang
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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