sia. True Brahminic Hinduism was to be found
only among the aristocracy of Java, Sumatra, and
Borneo. The common people either retained their
indigenous folk religions or blended them with
Hindu features. The result was a form of Hindu-
ism quite different from that in India.
The arrival of Islam caused the Hindu states to
collapse. The royal courts of Java fled to Bali, leav-
ing Bali as the only remaining Hindu state, even
though pockets of Hindu belief and practice can
still be found on Java and Sumatra.
After the collapse of Hindu states, Javanese Hin-
duism survived without a Brahminic tradition and
became an amalgam of older indigenous religions,
Shaivite Hinduism (see SHAIVISM), and Mahayana
Buddhism. The result is a type of Hinduism that is
similar in some ways to the folk religion found in
Bali. However, Hinduism in Java has lacked a royal
court and a Brahmin caste for centuries and has
become primarily a folk religion in Hindu guise.
All priests are laymen and not Brahmin.
Javanese Hinduism includes ancestor worship
and belief in nature spirits, both malevolent and
benevolent. The latter are often associated with
ancestors and tend to be the ancestor spirits of
each immediate family. Shiva is associated with
the god of the Bromo volcano. The various gods
are not seen to dwell in the temples, but rather on
the mountains; the gods are ritually called out of
the mountains into the temples.
Popular culture in Indonesia often includes
puppet plays enacting scenes from the RAMAYANA
and the MAHABHARATA. Recently a resurgence of
Hinduism has appeared throughout Indonesia,
resulting in the Pasek movement, the SAT YA SAI
BABA movement, and the Forum Hindu Dharma
Indonesia. These new movements are more con-
sistent with forms of Hinduism found in India,
including several types of yoga; the older tradi-
tions with their emphasis on ancestor worship are
considered backward by many.
Further reading: George Coedes, The Indianized States
of Southeast Asia. Edited by Walter F. Vella, (Honolulu:
East-West Center Press, 1968); Clifford Geertz, The
Religion of Java (New York: Free Press, 1960); Robert
W. Hefner, Hindu Javanese (Princeton N.J.: Princeton
University Press, 1985).Indra
Indra is the king of the gods in the VEDIC pan-
theon. He is a symbol of strength and has the
character of a warrior. He is associated with the
thunderstorm and is said to hold a lightning bolt
in his hand. Many early Vedic hymns tell of his
battle with the snake demon, Vritra, in the course
of which Indra splits a mountain to release the
terrestrial waters that Vritra has held back. Indra
also fights a demon named Vala in order to release
the “cows of the dawn,” perhaps indicating that he
was the creator of daylight.
Indra’s enemies are the Dasas and Dasyus;
these have often been taken to refer to the indig-
enous tribes of India, but the context is not at all
clear. At times the terms can best be translated as
“enemy,” and at times they are seen to be mytho-
logical beings. In the Vedas Indra is also known as
a great drinker of Soma, an intoxicant used in the
Vedic ritual. SOMA itself is seen as a god.
Indra is frequently invoked ritually in Vedic
ritual. There are more hymns to him in RIG VEDA
than to any other god. Sometimes he is invoked
along with AGNI (the god of fire), probably link-
ing the main divinity of the heavens, Indra, with
a primary terrestrial deity, Agni, who is also the
messenger of the gods.
The Vedic tradition often mentions Indra’s
wife, Indrani. Post-Vedic mythology gives Indra
the white elephant AIRAVATA as a mount to ride.
Eventually Indra loses his supremacy and begins
to be challenged and even ridiculed. KRISHNA pro-
tects his village from Indra by holding a mountain
up as an umbrella to keep away his rains. Indra is
cursed for consorting with a sage’s wife (AHALYA)
and is afflicted, in one version of the story, with
1,000 vaginas, which are then changed into 1,000Indra 195 J