Department of South Asian Studies, Harvard University
Email: cecelialevinome.com
The narrative relief cycles of the Ramayana epic featured on the main shrines of the mid-ninth century Central Javanese Hindu temple complex of Loro Jonggrang have no eguivalent in all of Asia: they are singular and exceptional. In addition to presenting the most extensive sculptural “telling” of the story, they also represent the most expansive, comprising all seven books of the sacred epic. They have long been admired for their creators” masterful and unegualled employment of pictorial narrative modes and formulas that culminated in relating this heroic saga with great dynamism, authenticity, and a sensitivity to the human condition. While initial studies focused on identifying the literary “prototype” believed to have catalyzed these visual renderings, later scholarship turned to acknowledging how the sculptors of Loro Jonggrang transliterated other storytelling methods drawn from dramaturgical texts and Sanskrit poetic models into visual conveyances descriptive not only of the episodic material, but also of the emotional lives of its characters. Parallel to this was the recognition of the pivoting to a more Javanese visual language while simultancously adhering to the essential Indic guidelines to which the sculptors were bound. However, superseding these characteristics of Loro Jonggrang’s unigue Ramayana is the basic nature of storytelling in historical Asia: itis mutable and ever-changing with each recitation or performance and, undoubtedly, influenced by more informal models now lost to us. While the Ramayana is the story of Prince Rama, Loro Jonggrang’s incorporation of the final book of the epic—one that highlights the story of Sita’s Abandonment and Exile —now encourages revisiting the narratives through a “female gaze,” one centering on the portrayals of its heroine and her pictorial persona. Her depictions among the episodes are puzzlingly erratic and inconsistent and may conjure even more guestions than conclusions. Yet, it is enticing to imagine that Sita’s Story at Loro Jonggrang may hold the seeds for the heroine’s greater empowerment in later eras, while envisioning the role that women may have played in shaping parallel narrations of the epic.
Throughout the centuries the Javanese love of epic storytelling has been conyeyed through myriad means—ranging from wayang kulit and dance to oral recitations and wayang beber narrative scrolls— and these boundless expressions have received worldwide admiration for their extraordinary richness and creativity. Highlighted among these countless exemplars is the unigue series of sculptural reliefs depicting the Ramayana from the mid-ninth century Hindu temple complex of Loro Jonggrang in Central Java. Nothing comparable exists in Asia from any other time or culture—including the epic’s original homeland on the Indian subcontinent. Comprised of 72 sculptural narratives that line the terraces of two of the main temples, 42 on Candi Siwa succeeded by the remaining 30 on Candi Brahma,’ the story is broughr to life through an uncommon and virtuoso mixture of visual narrative compositions, encompassing the mono-scenic, seguential, synoptic, and continuous methods. Moreover, it remarkably illustrates all seven books of the epic, including final Uttarakanda which relates the events following Rama’s return to Ayodhya and Sita’s subseguent challenges.
The earliest scholarly explorations into this series were undertaken approximately a century ago during the era of the Dutch East Indies and followed the prevailing philological approach toward archacological studies: therefore literary “prototypes” for Java’s sacred sculptural narratives were exclusively pursued.? Yer, despite all efforts, the reliefs defied a match with a singular source: links could be made with an array of literary Ramayana recensions, including Valmiki’s classic version, the Bhattikavya, a seventh- century poetic composition intended for the teaching of Sanskrit grammar, the relatively-contemporaneous Java Kuno Ramayana Kakawin, and the Hikayat Seri Rama, the earliest extant Malay book attributed to the 16″ century that recounts an Islamized variation of the epic ina rather disconnected, rambling manner.
Beginning in the post-independence era, the rich cultural manifestations of Classical Java were seen anew through the creative ken of Claire Holt, who presented an array of authentic Javanese aesthetic responses to borrowed Indian cultural forms. Several decades later, the 1992 restoration of Loro Jonggrang’s three main shrines reunited the relief series in their entirety, including those depicting the Krsnayana on Candi Wisnu, and ushered in a new generation of scholarship— one that brought an entirely new level of understanding to Java’s epic narratives. These studies, undertaken by the renowned scholars Edi Sedyawati and Jan Fontein, proposed that Loro Jonggrang’s sthapakas and sculptors had knowledge of an array of Indic source material in categories beyond literary storylines. Most specific among these was the ancient dramaturgical manual, the Natyasastra,”a compendium of theatrical codifications enabling the conveyance of a particular story. More significantly, the text delineates the guidelines for successfully evoking rasa—a formulated series of emotional states—intended to reverberate in audiences and viewers. While Sedyawati’s analyses centered on the sthanas, or standing postures depicted in the narrative reliefs, Fontein evaluated the hastas, or hand gestures: many were employed among the narratives of Borobudur as well as those of Loro Jonggrang.” The current author followed in their footsteps, discovering even further conventions of “body language,” in addition to parallels berween the multitude of formulas employed in Sanskrit poetics and their transliteration into a visual language at Loro Jonggrang. Javanese sculptors adapted Indian models. Among his findings were the episodic connections berween the reliefs of Loro Jonggrang and the later Hikayat Seri Rama. Stutterheim served as the Director of the director of the Archaeological Service (OD) in the Dutch East Indies from 1936 until his death in 1942.
Nonetheless, and irrespective of any identifiable sources and primary approaches, ultimately it must be recognized that the Ramayana of Loro Jonggrang has at its heart a plethora of contemporary counterparts, and imbedded in these stones are details from fables, tales, and apologues: ones imparted through temporal modes and underscoring differing emphases. Further, it can be imagined that the epic may have also been disseminated through shorthanded means, such as via pakem and balungan, and interpreters were free to conceive their own particular embellishments. All these factors may have encouraged the rapid evolution from Indic models to more traditional Javanese pictorial expressions. However, in contrast to the mutable and feeting nature of all storytelling—which changes with every performance or rendering—the stones of Loro Jonggrang are permanent and frozen in time, and one is fortunate to have this singular “visual text” expressive of the monuments’ sanctity and the epic’s sacredness while documenting an array of aesthetic responses, visual preferences, and an “Jungian collective consciousness” of the temple complex’s original worshippers.
Now that we have moved into a new century— and millennium—one can ask through what new lens can we enrich our understanding and appreciation of these exceptional narrative cycles? Therefore, in light of our evolving perspectives on cultural diversity, eguity, and inclusivity—a phenomenon experienced globally—as well as in honor of Dr. Hariani Santiko and the goddess Durga, a proposed new interpretation is through the “female gaze” — accompanied by a revitalize view of Loro Jonggrang’s other protagonist, mainly Sita. Moreover—and from a much wider landscape—one could begin to consider whether women played a role in shaping this story in historical Java and, if so, in what ways.
The first time we meet Sita is in the sayembara episode—the competition to win the princess in marriage. In this scene the dichotomy between the realm of heroes and that of women is clearly delineated. As Rama demonstrates his prowess through the breaking Janaka’s bow while portrayed in the heroic mandala sthana, Sita is depicted in the tribangha, or “triple-bent pose,” one associated with great beauty throughout the Indic traditions. She is lifeless and statuesgue, suggestive of her role as a “trophy prize.” Her appearances in subseguent episodes continue in this rather non-descript vein—as if she is merely a mannikin—and her inclusion is only due to narrative necessities. This mode will continue through the seguential narrative of the Sighting of the Golden Deer and Rama’s pursuit of Marica: even in this pivotal scene she is pictorially defined as somewhat disconnected from the narrative, with the emphasis instead on the conseguences of her action and Rama’s heroism.s
One would think that the two continuous episodes relating Sita’s kidnapping would awaken our heroine’s emotional life while visually imparting the dramatic intensity of the event. Yet, she remains almost doll-like with a generic and emotionless face. In response to the surprising assault by Rawana, Sita bends her right leg—suggestive of her attempt to escape—yet her left leg parallels that of her abductor, psychologically sending a contradicting visual message of her compliance. These gualities resonate in the following scene as Puspaka carries Rawana and Sita off to Lengka. Her posture again emanates an acguiescent essence, and she is utilized more as a reguired narrative prop as she hands over her ring to Jatayu. Yet, while Sita remains somewhat of an abstraction, the drama of the episode is richly related through a “Greek Chorus” of secondary characters and conseguential results. Rawana’s grasping of Sita triggers the knocking over of containers of grains, much to the benefit of a nearby hungry animal, rooftops birds are oblivious to an anticipated surprise attack by a rodent, and a servant holds up her hands in the universal gesture of great surprise. Further, in the lefrmost corner another visual slesa, or pun, is portrayed: the tempting of a monkey with a piece of fruit held by a servant echoes the enticement of Sita by Rawana in his mendicant disguise.
It would be erroneous to conclude that these early stylized, sedate, and emotionally bankrupted portrayals of Sita were the result of her perceived role in the epic. Iris perhaps through the subseguent appearance of Sita in the Asoka Garden Scene from the Sundarakanda, the fifth book of the epic, that one authentically meets the -heroine for the first time. Loro Jonggrang’s interpretation of the Asoka Garden episode takes place after the rather heated exchange berween Rawana and Sita, and undoubtedly demonstrates the most bravura and unigue use of visual narrative known in Asia. On the left Sita and her loyal companion Trijata—the raksasi niece of Rawana and daughter of Wibhisana—notice a monkey in tree: one that Sita suspects is an illusion created by Rawana. By means of the continuous narrative mode, Hanuman subseguently appears before Sita. He points back to an image of himself: an extraordinary visual method by which the sculptors of Loro Jonggrang have created a pictorial counterpart to the linguistic “past tense” and imparts the fourth dimension—that of time. Thereby it is understood that Hanuman had witnessed the argument between Sita and Rawana—this pictorially excluded dramatic episode—conjured by such words as those spoken by the simian hero to Sita in the Ramayana Kakawin:
I was very frightened when you talked just now to the wicked (Rawana). It was really very dangerous. (Thank God, youJ escaped the sinful demon. Certainly Rawana will be killed by King Rama in battle. He has to pay with his life for his sins of kidnapping my lady.”
Here a haloed Sita sits in a Javanese pose with her arm turned backwards—a traditional posture emblematic of grace and beauty.” She is no longer vacuous and responds to Hanuman’s news with a broad smile. It reveals a heroine who exudes great confidence and can now rejoice in her determination and resolve—guide contrary to her previous lifeless interpretations. Further, the emphasis on her full form and feminine beauty is an antithesis to the literary depictions of the heroine during her imprisonment in the Garden, where she is typically described as an emaciated and anguished woman in tattered garb who prostrates herself on the bare ground.
What remains wanting is a comprehension of why the confrontation between Rawana and Sita in the Asoka Garden is not portrayed at Loro Jonggrang but implied instead through Hanuman’s duplication and unique finger-pointing gesture. In the Ramayana Kakawin this encounter reveals Sita as a woman of both bravery and defiance who somewhat crudely—and perhaps not in line with the customary behavior of an Indian princess—addresses her captor as the “Wicked and ten headed and debased Rawana. Deceitful mongrel, stupid and filthy imp.
The fact that this episode highlighting Sita’s strengths and admirable personality traits is also absent from the only other extant visual exemplar of the Ramayana from the Central Javanese period—the early-tenth century ritual bowl from the Wonoboyo Hoard— is perplexing, and perhaps connotes a particular contemporaneous convention now lost to us.’? Yet, two of the sight episodes shaped on this masterwork of gold center on Sita and the Asoka Garden. On the right, Sita sits on an amben while Trijata kneels before her pledging her loyalty and obeisance.” To the left—and in contrast—a distraught Sita is taunted by two #zksasis who consider her quite foolish for her rejection of Rawana.
After Hanuman’s visit to Sita in the Asoka Garden, Loro Jonggrang’s Ramayana varratives return once again to Rama. As the prince, Laksmana, Surgiwa, and the monkey army cross the ocean to Lengka s0 too do the visual narratives cross to the terrace of Candi Brahma. Amid the myriad scenes of heroics and battles significative of karmic order and dharma, Sita and Trijata make only a brief “interruption” —similar to a cinematic crosscut—by way of a mono-scenic vignette as they await the outcome of the war.
It is only after the victorious return of the main protagonists to Ayodhya does the story of Sita resume and—for a while—take preeminence. The narratives now turn to a visual encapsulation of the Uttarakanda: thus ends any literary correspondence with the Ramayana Kakawin which concludes with the celebration of the royal homecoming. The remaining narrative sequences strongly resonate with the Valmiki telling of epic, while encompassing several plot details related in the much later Hikayat Seri Rama.
During an extended series of reliefs portraying the heroes” return to Ayodhya, Sita once again figuratively and literally disappears into the background—now behind her husband. Following these are seven consecutive episodes dedicated to Sita’s Abandonment and Exile. These contrast dramatically with the previous palatial environs, and their forest settings are rendered quite naturalistically. Similarly, the characters are related in manner more attuned to traditional Javanese conventions: this is particularly true in ” the instance of Sita.
The Loro Jonggrang’s rendering of Sita’s Abandonment resonates with the Valmiki rendition sarga by sarga and inaugurates the turning of the story to Sita’s plight: Laksmana brings the rejected princess to the forest: this is immediately followed by a separate episode where he informs her of her fate. He sits at a level below that of the princess as a gesture of respect. The seguence continues with the abandoned princess surrounded by a great bestiary of forest denizens. While this imagery may underscore her isolation, it could potentially be a reference to the Valmiki recension which tells of the loud shrieks of a peacock accompanying her abandonment, or suggestive of the forest animals” subseguentsilence during her absence from Ayodhya. The heroine then arrives at the hermitage of Walmiki where she bows in obeisance before the sage, revealing of her gratitude for his shelter and protection. It may be considered a compositional mirror and role reversal of the earlier episode featuring Laksmana.
The birth of Lawa finds Sita once again in an exclusive women’s realm and the depiction of only one infant follows the version of the story by which Walmiki creates Lawa’s duplicate through a blade of grass: it appears in the later Hikayat Seri Rama. The subsequent episodes expand upon forest life and the growing up of the twins Kusa and Lawa together with their mother in Walmiki’s hermitage. The depiction of Sita in an awkward forward-bending posture and wearing the simplest of attire as she forages for food presents an empathetic contrast to her introductory appearance as a bejeweled princess fashioned in the tribangha posture. Once the twins are discovered and brought back to Ayodhya, the heroine makes only one last appearance among the reliefs of Candi Brahma behind the figure of Walmiki as she is presented before Rama. It may be interpreted that she once again turns to sage for protection, and the rather unorthodox—yet natural—manner by which she clings to his shoulder may imply the level of trust and comfort that the two characters have developed for each other during the princess’s twelve years in exile.
It is evident that a significant and ongoing narrative device practiced by Loro Jonggrang’s sculptors is the pictorial equivalent of the Sanskrit poetic practice of dhuani, or “veiled allusions.” Implied narration is once again demonstrated in the rather ambiguous last two scenes on Candi Brahma. Sita’s omissions may lead to the assumption that that she has rejected Rama and received the embrace of Mother Earth. In a similar vein the depiction of the twins Kusa and Lawa, now in courtly garb and reciting the story of Rama for their father, may be emblematic of Rama’s abdication and their ascent to the throne of Ayodhya, followed by Rama’s ultimate apotheosis. However, the succeeding and final banquet scene associated with the celebration of the twin brothers’ coronation presents a rather anticlimactic ending to this great telling of the epic—and a somewhat an unsatisfactory resolution.
When turning to the sculptural relief series on the terrace of Candi Wisnu, which is believed to relate the youthful adventures of Krsna from the Krsnayana, an alternative ending to Loro Jonggrang’s Ramayana and the fate of Sita may be found. The initial relief of the series, previously identified as a generic courtly environment, features a royal couple without halos: to the right a pair of crowned rwins adorned with sacred aureoles is portrayed. The inclusion of several elaborate vessels may be suggestive of the gift distribution accompanying important court rituals—ones of the kind that may have sparked the creation of the Wonoboyo bowl. It is therefore more than likely that this first episode on the third main shrine of Loro Jonggrang is actually a depiction of Rama’s abdication and the coronation of Kusa and Lawa—the ending of the Ramayana. The linkage of these two avatars of Wisnu creates a sacred unity while heightening the significance of these narrative sequences. Further, the incorporation of differing epic narrative themes on a singular religious shrine is an acknowledged later Javanese practice: and it can now be suggested that this tradition had its roots in the earlier Central Javanese period.
There are also several literary substantiations for this revised identification. In the Hiyakat Seri Rama, Sita and Rama are united, and after building a new capital, they follow an ascetic life for the next 40 years.” Fortuitously, there is also a predecessor for this storyline in a late-seventh century Sanskritplay, the Uttararamacarita. Here Sita’s request to be joined with the Earth Goddess is denied, being informed instead that her earthly obligations have not been completed. This outcome is a significant reminder that the Ramayana is not only a sacred epic, but also lessons on rajadharma, or kingship: these ideals may have equally resonated with women as well as men: Sita returns to Rama because it is her spiritual as well as sacred duty.
It is clear that two different stories are conveyed at Loro Jonggrang: one of Rama’s heroics, the other of Sita’s bravery and resilience as she undergoes great challenges and succeeds through her determination. At Loro Jonggrang, the male characters act, but the women feel.
Undeniably, instilled in the stones of Loro Jonggrang’s Ramayana are other variations now lost to history, and visual clues that could only be “read” by its original viewers. Yet, Ramayana recensions from later eras attest to Sita’s greater empowerment. There are Indian versions where Sita, rather than Rama, kills Rawana…In the Hikayat Seri Rama Hanuman visits the heroine princess again and asks her how Rawana can be killed…A sixteenth-century Bengali version of the epic by the female poet Candrivati underscores the plight of the women characters and was most possibly written specifically for female audiences.” One would like to imagine that seeds for Sita’s more powerful voice are somewhere also imbedded among the reliefs of Loro Jonggrang, and that throughout classical Javanese history there were songs, recitations, and visual expressions of the Ramayana circulating within the realm of women — ones created for and by women— in praise of Sita and womankind.
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