We, along with another family, are planning a Bali trip. The WhatsApp group I created to co-ordinate the trip, consisting of four middle-aged adults is predictably named Bali Umar. The other family objected to this name on the grounds that Bali is actually बलि rather than बालि. However, it turns out that the etymological link between the island of Bali and the Sanskrit word for sacrificial rite is unclear.
The Hinduism of Bali must have been derived from the version of Hinduism that was practised at the time in India at the time that it spread to the Indonesian archipelago. Specifically, it must have come from the variant practised in the regions from where traders and armies began their voyages to Southeast Asia.
Balinese Hinduism would have further changed form after encounters with the local animist culture, and then would have gone through evolutionary change just as Indian Hinduism has. Given these complications, the answer to the question “What does Hinduism as practised in Bali tell us about the religion and customs of India a thousand years back?” must be a difficult one to answer, but that is what historians are for. I am sure there are some good articles that tease out the answer to the question. Please let me know in the comments.
Balinese Calendars
Bali commemorates the Saka New Year as Nyepi, or the day of silence. For 24 hours, they maintain absolute silence throughout the island, shutting down everything, including electricity and the internet. Like YugAdi, Nyepi is observed on the day after amavAsya, but does not always coincide with it. While in 2023 it fell on the same day and it will do so again next year, in 2024, it fell on March 11, a month before YugAdi.
The reason for the discrepancy seems to be that Bali follows a different algorithm for intercalation. This is what Wikipedia says:
An intercalary month is added whenever necessary to prevent the final day of the 7th month, known as Tilem Kapitu, from falling in the Gregorian month of December.
There’s a [citation needed] tag against this, and with good reason. The paragraph raises many questions. Why do the Balinese use the Gregorian system for syncing? When did they start? Is it a recent innovation or does Wikipedia get it wrong? Why is it different from the method followed in India, where an intercalary month is added whenever there are two new moons within the same solar transit? Looking at the names of the months, the Balinese saka calendar is clearly derived from the AmAnta saka calendar followed in India, so did the system diverge in Bali or does it derived from the calendar followed in India at that time, at least among the people who travelled to Bali?
(To make matters even more confusing, Bali apparently has another calendar, the Puwakon calendar, 210 days long, with no apparent system of intercalation. Wikipedia claims that this too originates in the Hindu religion, but it probably didn't come from India?)
Varnas
I am intrigued to learn that Bali has a 4-tier varna system of Brahmanas, Satrias, Wesias and Sudras, the last group making up 93% of the population. I have always wondered about this. It is one thing for the Chaturvarna system to evolve at a particular location. It can do so just like any other social system. Without 20th century state capacity and North Korean level of social control, how does one go about imposing a completely alien social structure on a society with its own social divisions and hierarchies? Did the rulers and traders who settled in Indonesia call themselves Kshatriyas and Vaishyas respectively, bringing Brahmins over from India, and call the local population Shudras? Or did they bestow upper caste classifications on some of the local elites? How did it all work out? The Wikipedia article says that Kshatriyas are those who trace their origin to the ruling dynasties. That sounds like one hint. Interestingly, it also says that in most regions, it is the Shudras rather than the Brahmanas who make offerings to gods. I am wondering how that came about. Perhaps they were always worshipping the local deities before Hinduism came, and slowly, due to a shortage of Brahmanas, they started taking on these tasks for the Vedic gods as well? This sounds like the opposite of how it happened in Dakshina Kannada, where Brahmins are involved in Bhuta worship as well, to an extent. I would be interested in reading about a Compare and Contrast between the spread of the Varna system in Bali and in South India. In the latter, it seems like there are Brahmins and there are other castes. The Varna-status of the other castes is usually not very clear. Brahmins call everyone else Shudras while the members of the castes themselves claim themselves as Kshatriyas or Vaishyas.
What should I read to educate myself on these and other topics related to Hinduism in Bali? As I have only a couple of days before my trip, I’d prefer articles over books. I’d want to prioritize any reading that enhances my experience of the seeing the temples or local customs and rituals in Bali. Please share!
Nice post! Make sure to visit the Uluwatu temple and watch the enactment of Ramayana there during sunset. It’s extremely entertaining! Also, keep an eye out for differences between the Indian and Indonesian Ramayana :)
Bali Umar is a strongmax name!