Galungan may be inspired by Indian ritual Wijaya Dasami
Galungan may be inspired by Indian ritual Wijaya Dasami
Jagadhita, Contributor/Denpasar
The Hindus in India also celebrate the victory of dharma (righteousness) over adharma (wickedness) in a ceremony called Wijaya Dasami. It is likely that the celebration of Wijaya Dasami inspired the Hindus in Indonesia to observe Galungan as Wijaya in Sanskrit is the same as Galungan in ancient Javanese, meaning to win.
Like Galungan, the whole celebration of Wijaya Dasami in India, which is also called Dasara, also lasts for 10 days, according to I Ketut Wianta, a Hindu scholar. Before the celebration of Wijaya Dasami reaches its peak, for nine nights the Hindus in India hold a ceremony called Nawa Ratri (meaning nine nights). During the ceremony, the Hindus worship God in their houses, led by a priest. Nawa Ratri puts the weight on spiritual values as the basis to fight against adharma. On the 10th day, the people celebrate Wijaya Dasami or Dasar, which emphasizes togetherness and cheerfulness for all.
The people celebrate Wijaya Dasami twice a year in the month of Kartika (October) and Waisaka (April). The celebration of Dasara in April is called Durgha Nawa Ratri, when the Hindus celebrate the victory of dharma. It comes with an illustration of a story about the victory of the goddess Parvati (goddess Durgha) against giant Durgha, who hides himself inside the stomach of Mahasura, a powerful giant cow.
Therefore, goddess Parvati is also called goddess Durgha. In India, goddess Durgha is described as a beautiful goddess riding on a lion. She is also regarded as the goddess of love and is very powerful (sakti).
Love is actually the strongest power that she has. The meaning of powerful in India is strong and capable, while in Bali, the word sakti could have a connotation as something that is dreadful or scary.
During Durgha Nawa Ratri, people celebrate the struggle to obtain the love of their god as his invaluable blessing. To fight adharma, the first thing to do is to win the love of the god. It is that love which is the most powerful weapon to fight adharma.
The ceremony of Wijaya Dasami in October is called Rama Nawa Ratri.
During the holiday, the people worship Sri Rama as Awatara Wisnu, the god who protects dharma. For nine nights the people hold religious activities that emphasize the spiritual victory to overpower fleshly desires. On the 10th day or the day of Dasara, people celebrate Wijaya Dasami or the victory of the 10th day.
During the day, the town is quite alive. Arrow toys as a symbol of the victory are available on every corner of the town and they sell like hot cakes. They also make ogoh-ogoh (giant monster dolls) in the form of Rahwana, Kumbakarna or Surphanaka, who represent the evil. They carry the ogoh-ogoh around the town. There are also some performing arts staged in the fields, telling a story with famous characters like Rama, Sita, Laksmana and Anoman. People highly respect the artists who play the good characters.
The climax of the celebration takes place when Sri Rama shoots a fiery arrow from the stage and impales the ogoh-ogoh of Rahwana. As it hits the target, the doll will catch fire and people cheer lustily.
"The meaning of Wijaya Dasami, which is held twice a year, is to win the love of god. Love will conquer adharma," Wiana said. So, it can be concluded that the philosophy of Wijaya Dasami is to be embodied with the love and protection of god.
"The love and the protection of god is the power that should be obtained by people in order to win dharma. The victory of dharma is a guarantee of a happy life, spiritually and physically, that becomes part of the people's daily needs," he said.