A Balinese Folktale: Windu Sara

Once upon a time, there was a man named Windu Sara. He only cared about flowers and books, and took no interest in women. His mother as always urging him to marry, and one day she told him that she had chosen for his wife a cousin of his, named Mertayadnya. He still protested that he had no wish to marry, besides the girl in question had a dimple on her shoulder, a sure sign that she would be fatal to men. His mother replied: “if she is not to your taste, I have another choice for you; Navartna, a sister of Jagasatru, who is also of royal blood.” But he explained that he was ngelangkargunung, i.e. her birthday was in an unlucky relation to his own; there was only two days difference between them. “Who then would you like to marry? You have only to say a word and I will get her for you, from wherever she may be.” But Windu Sara said that he could see no reason for marrying anyone; he did not want a wife.

His friend Jagasatru meanwhile married Mertayadnya, and begged Windu Sara to come and help him to entertain the wedding-guest. The wedding-day came. Mertayadnya was fetched in a litter, there was a great banquet and Windu Sara entertained the guest. Mertayadnya was marvelously dressed, and as Windu Sara was helping her to descend form her litter, he was so overwhelmed by her beauty that he fainted. And Mertayadnya gave him medicine to revive him. But he left the feast and went home; and the wedding went without him. When he got home he would eat nothing and his mother asked him what was wrong. At first he would not reply, but after long asking, he confessed that he fallen passionately in love with his friend’s wife, and he would die unless he got her for himself his mother was very angry, and reproached him to his former obstinacy. Now it was too late; but she promised to try and get him a widyadari in place of the wife he could not have.

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