In the mystical island of Bali, where Hindu temples pierce the tropical sky and ancient traditions flow like sacred rivers through daily life, there exists a legend so powerful that it still shapes ceremonies and dances performed to this very day. It is the story of Rangda, the terrifying demon queen of the leyaks, whose name strikes fear into the hearts of even the bravest souls.
To understand Rangda, one must first know of the leyaks creatures so horrifying that mothers whisper warnings about them to keep children close after dark. In Balinese mythology and healing traditions, leyaks are supernatural beings that take the form of flying heads, with their entrails still dangling beneath them, grotesque organs trailing through the night air as they soar above villages and rice fields. These creatures haunt graveyards and dark places, their unusually long tongues lolling from mouths filled with large, sharp fangs. Their purpose is singularly evil: they hunt for newborn children and pregnant mothers, seeking to drain their blood and steal their life force. The very thought of encountering a leyak in the darkness is enough to make the blood run cold.
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But all these leyaks, terrifying as they are, bow to one supreme mistress Rangda, the demon queen whose power and malevolence surpass all others. Rangda’s appearance is the stuff of nightmares: wild hair streaming like dark flames around her face, bulging eyes that burn with supernatural fury, long curved fangs protruding from her mouth, and a tongue that extends grotesquely, sometimes reaching down to her knees. Her fingers end in long, claw-like nails, and her presence radiates an aura of death and destruction.
According to ancient Balinese belief, Rangda has been locked in eternal warfare against Barong, the playful and benevolent creature who embodies positive forces and protects villages from evil. Barong appears as a lion-like beast, elaborately decorated and dancing with joy, representing everything good health, prosperity, and harmony. Their battle is not one that can ever truly be won; it is a cosmic struggle between darkness and light, chaos and order, destruction and protection. This eternal conflict plays out in traditional Balinese dance-dramas, where actors portraying Rangda and Barong face off in spectacular performances that are both entertainment and sacred ritual.
But Rangda’s origins are rooted in tales more specific and more human than simple cosmic opposition. Her story intertwines with the legend of Calon Arang, a powerful widow witch who lived in ancient Java during the late tenth century, wielding dark magic that brought terror to an entire kingdom.
Calon Arang was a widow who had mastered the forbidden arts of black magic and witchcraft. She lived apart from society, feared and avoided by all who knew of her powers. She had a daughter named Ratna Manggali, a young woman blessed with extraordinary beauty graceful features, luminous skin, and eyes that sparkled like jewels. By all rights, Ratna should have been sought after by every eligible young man in the kingdom. Suitors should have lined up at their door, bearing gifts and promises.
But no one came. No young man dared approach Ratna Manggali, no matter how beautiful she was. The reason was simple and cruel: they feared her mother. The shadow of Calon Arang’s reputation fell across her innocent daughter like a curse. People whispered that any man who married into that family would bring doom upon himself, that Calon Arang’s dark powers would somehow taint or destroy him.
As months turned to years and Ratna remained unmarried, sadness clouded her once-bright eyes. She had done nothing wrong, committed no crime, yet she was condemned to loneliness because of circumstances beyond her control. She watched other girls her age marry and start families while she remained isolated, a beautiful flower that no one dared pick.
Calon Arang watched her daughter’s suffering with growing fury. The injustice of it burned in her heart like hot coals. Her daughter’s pain transformed into her own rage, and that rage demanded vengeance. If the people would not accept her family, if they would condemn her innocent daughter to solitude, then they would pay dearly for their cruelty.
One dark night, Calon Arang left her home with terrible purpose. She kidnapped a young girl from the village an innocent child who had nothing to do with Ratna’s rejection but who would serve as the instrument of revenge. Calon Arang brought the terrified girl to the temple of Death, a place of shadows and ancient stone where few dared to venture. There, she performed a horrific sacrifice, offering the child’s life to Durga, the fearsome goddess associated with both destruction and protection.
The sacrifice was accepted. The very next day, dark clouds gathered over the kingdom with unnatural speed. Rain fell in torrents that seemed to have no end, as if the sky itself was weeping or raging. Rivers swelled beyond their banks, water rising higher and higher, swallowing fields and homes. A devastating flood engulfed the village, sweeping away houses, drowning livestock, and claiming many lives. Crops were destroyed, leaving the survivors facing starvation. Disease followed in the flood’s wake, spreading through the weakened population like wildfire. The kingdom was brought to its knees by catastrophe.
King Airlangga, the wise ruler of the land, understood immediately that this was no natural disaster. The timing, the severity, the unnatural quality of the calamity all pointed to supernatural intervention. He summoned his most trusted spiritual advisor, Empu Bharada, a holy man of great power and wisdom who understood both the visible and invisible worlds.
Empu Bharada meditated on the problem, consulting the spirits and searching for a solution that would not simply meet violence with violence. He understood that Calon Arang’s rage, though expressed in evil ways, stemmed from a mother’s love and the pain of her daughter’s unjust suffering. Fighting dark magic with force alone would only create more destruction. Instead, a different approach was needed one that addressed the root of the problem.
The holy man called upon his most trusted disciple, Empu Bahula, a young man of courage and compassion. “You must marry Ratna Manggali,” Empu Bharada instructed. “Through this union, we can bring peace.”
Empu Bahula, though understandably nervous about marrying the daughter of such a feared witch, trusted his master’s wisdom. He approached Calon Arang’s home with respect and proper ceremony, asking for Ratna Manggali’s hand in marriage. Calon Arang, surprised and deeply moved that someone would finally honor her daughter, agreed.
The wedding that followed was spectacular beyond measure. It lasted for seven days and seven nights a celebration so grand that it seemed to heal the very air around it. Music filled the streets, dancers performed from dawn to dusk, and feasts were laid out with such abundance that no one went hungry. The kingdom came together in joy, and through this celebration, the old wounds began to heal. Ratna Manggali finally received the recognition and acceptance she deserved, and Calon Arang’s rage dissolved in the face of her daughter’s happiness.
Peace returned to the kingdom after that. The floods receded, crops grew again, and diseases faded. The marriage had broken the cycle of rejection and revenge.
Yet there is another interpretation of Rangda’s origin, one that some believe to be the true story behind the demon queen’s terrible rage. According to this version, Rangda was not originally a demon at all, but a queen, Queen Mahendradatta, the royal wife of King Udayana and mother to Prince Airlangga, who would later become king himself.
Queen Mahendradatta was a woman of intelligence and power, but she was accused of practicing witchcraft and black magic. Whether these accusations were true or merely political fabrications designed to remove her from power, we cannot know with certainty. What is known is that King Udayana, either believing the accusations or bowing to pressure from his court, made a devastating decision: he condemned his own wife and exiled her from the kingdom.
The humiliation was unbearable. Queen Mahendradatta had been stripped of her title, torn from her son, and cast out like a common criminal. The pain of betrayal cut deeper than any sword the man she had loved and trusted had abandoned her, believing the worst of her or simply lacking the courage to defend her.
Alone in her exile, consumed by hurt and burning with humiliation, something broke inside the former queen. If they wanted to believe she was a witch, she would become one. If they wanted to fear her power, she would give them reason to tremble. Her grief transformed into hatred, her love curdled into vengeance.
Queen Mahendradatta delved deep into the forbidden arts, learning spells and incantations that should never be spoken. She called upon dark forces, making pacts with entities from the shadow realm. She summoned all the evil spirits dwelling in the deepest, darkest parts of the jungle demons, ghosts, and malevolent beings that fed on fear and suffering. With this army of darkness at her command, she became Rangda, the demon queen.
Rangda then unleashed her fury upon her ex-husband’s court and his kingdom. She brought death and destruction everywhere her influence reached. Plagues swept through villages, crops withered in the fields, children fell sick with mysterious illnesses, and misfortune plagued anyone connected to the king. Her revenge was thorough and merciless, a testament to the depth of her pain and the completeness of her transformation from wronged queen to demon of vengeance.
Whether Rangda emerged from Calon Arang’s story or from Queen Mahendradatta’s tragic fall, the essence remains the same: she represents the terrible power of a woman wronged, the destructive force of injustice and humiliation turned outward in rage. Her eternal battle with Barong symbolizes the ongoing struggle in every human heart and every society the battle between our darker impulses and our better nature, between revenge and forgiveness, between destruction and creation.
The Moral Lesson
The legend of Rangda teaches profound lessons about the consequences of injustice and the destructive power of humiliation. Whether through Calon Arang’s story or Queen Mahendradatta’s fall, we see how treating others cruelly even through fear or political expediency can create monsters where none existed before. The rejection of innocent Ratna Manggali created her mother’s rage; the exile of Queen Mahendradatta birthed the demon queen. Yet the story also shows that cycles of vengeance can be broken through compassion and respect, as demonstrated when Empu Bahula’s marriage to Ratna brought peace. The eternal battle between Rangda and Barong reminds us that good and evil exist in constant tension, and we must continually choose which force we will strengthen through our actions.
Knowledge Check
Q1: What are leyaks in Balinese mythology?
A: Leyaks are terrifying supernatural beings in Balinese mythology that take the form of flying heads with their entrails still attached, trailing beneath them as they fly. They have unusually long tongues and large fangs, and they haunt graveyards and dark places. Leyaks are particularly feared because they hunt newborn children and pregnant mothers to drain their blood, playing a prominent role in Balinese healing traditions and folklore.
Q2: Who is Rangda and what is her eternal conflict?
A: Rangda is the demon queen of the leyaks in Balinese mythology, depicted with wild hair, bulging eyes, protruding fangs, and an extraordinarily long tongue. She has been locked in eternal warfare against Barong, the playful lion-like creature who embodies positive forces and protects villages. Their battle represents the cosmic struggle between good and evil, chaos and order, and is reenacted in traditional Balinese dance-dramas that serve both as entertainment and sacred ritual.
Q3: How is Rangda connected to the legend of Calon Arang?
A: Rangda’s story is linked to Calon Arang, a legendary widow witch from late tenth-century Java who practiced black magic. Calon Arang’s daughter Ratna Manggali couldn’t marry because people feared her mother. In revenge, Calon Arang sacrificed a young girl to goddess Durga, causing floods and disease. The crisis was resolved when Empu Bahula married Ratna in a seven-day wedding feast, bringing peace and showing how Calon Arang’s rage like Rangda’s stemmed from injustice and a mother’s protective fury.
Q4: What is the alternative origin story of Rangda as Queen Mahendradatta?
A: According to another interpretation, Rangda was originally Queen Mahendradatta, wife of King Udayana and mother of King Airlangga. She was accused of practicing witchcraft and black magic, leading to her condemnation and exile by her husband. Consumed by hurt, humiliation, and desire for revenge, she transformed into the demon queen Rangda, summoning evil spirits from the jungle to bring death and destruction upon her ex-husband’s court and kingdom.
Q5: How did Empu Bharada solve the crisis caused by Calon Arang?
A: When King Airlangga sought advice about the disasters plaguing his kingdom, holy man Empu Bharada devised a compassionate solution rather than meeting violence with violence. He sent his disciple Empu Bahula to marry Calon Arang’s daughter Ratna Manggali. They held a magnificent seven-day wedding celebration that brought the community together, honored Ratna, satisfied her mother’s desire for her daughter’s acceptance, and ultimately brought peace to the kingdom by addressing the root cause of Calon Arang’s rage.
Q6: What is the cultural significance of Rangda in Balinese tradition?
A: Rangda holds profound cultural significance in Bali as more than just a mythological figure she represents the destructive power of injustice and wronged femininity, serving as a cautionary tale about the consequences of cruelty and exile. Her eternal battle with Barong is reenacted in sacred Balinese dance-dramas that maintain cosmic balance. The legend influences healing traditions, reminds communities about treating others with justice and compassion, and symbolizes the ongoing internal and external struggle between darkness and light that exists in all human experience.
Source: Adapted from traditional Balinese Hindu mythology
Cultural Origin: Balinese Hindu tradition, Island of Bali, Indonesia
