Sacrifice & Immortality

I always assumed that I knew almost all the stories from Mahabharata. And the very existence of Rangda was a blow to that assumption; forget the stories of her from Mahabharata. But like they say, the language changes every few miles, probably Rangda exists in the Balinese dialect of Mahabharata.

In the very front here, you see Sahadeva with his ministers on both his sides. The story portrays that despite Devi Kunti’s promise to Rangda about sacrificing Sahadeva to her, Sahadeva survives. Lord Shiva had bestowed immortality on Sahadeva before he was to be sacrificed. The story didn't offer any explanation on why, how etc but I really admire the fact that the high level management of things by people in high positions or people who know people in high positions can be traced back to the Mahabharata days!

The traditional plays in Bali have women to play the main (and good) characters. Maybe to bring out the contrast with the evil or to say that how much ever small the good might look, it will always win over the evil. The funny looking, long grey haired character on the right is the evil Rangda. She looked more funny than evil to me.