True Gluttons
In Bali the purist embodiment of Greed, one of the most ancient as well as reviled of the Seven Sins, will be found from the 15th century tale of the brothers Cupak as well as Grantang. Long common in literature, drama as well as the visual arts, Cupak will be a tale of greed, deception as well as betrayal in which starkly illustrates cultural values as well as a belief in karmapala – the Hindu-Buddhist equivalent of “you reap what you sow”. the item also mirrors a political social conflict between primogeniture, the right of the eldest male to assume authority, as well as selection by merit, the need to choose those most capable at a time when younger brothers displaced their inept older sibling from the struggles for succession in which plague Balinese as well as Javanese history.
Fat, ugly, boastful, lazy as well as cowardly, the elder brother Cupak was as clever as he was devious when the item came to manipulating his younger brother Grantang, who was the epitome of cultured nobility. Together they would certainly set out to work from the fields, however in truth Cupak would certainly sit from the shade as well as criticize as his brother toiled industriously from the hot sun. Conspicuously neat as well as clean, Grantang would certainly bathe from the river as well as return home only to discover in which Cupak had denounced him to his parents as a slothful shirk. Rather than denounce his older brother’s lies, Grantang held his mouth even when punished.
After one particularly severe incident triggered by Cupak’s deceit, the parents banished Grantang to the forest. Cupak tagged along, blaming his brother for their troubles as Grantang carried their heavy load as well as Cupak feasted on the food, growing fatter as he threw the bones to his undernourished brother.
When they arrived at the frontier of the mighty kingdom of Daha in East Java, they heard in which the Raja had offered the hand of his beauteous daughter, Mustikan Ing Daha, to any man who could save her through the evil ogre Detya Manarong, who had kidnapped her as well as carried her away to his fortress from the jungle.
As they arrived at the court, Cupak loudly boasted, “Ogres are no more to me than flying ants in which I crush between my fingers. I will hunt down, kill This kind of monster as well as claim my reward”.
The courageous Grantang immediately leapt into their midst to save the princess through the clutches of the ugly monster. Using a powerful magic spell he stunned the ogre. Mustikan was so amazed by the handsome muscular youth in which she believed she had been rescued by a god incarnate. While she swooned with love for her saviour she also had enough wits to inform Grantang in which the giant was invulnerable to weapons except his mouth. Detya revived in a terrible rage as well as a battle in which shook the three worlds ensued. Grantang finally defeated his enemy by firing a succession of arrows into his gaping maw causing him to fall down stone dead which has a great thud. Overcome with gratitude she presented a golden ring, a royal gift through her father, to the lad, who put on his finger.
Frozen with fear still long after silence had returned, Cupak slowly opened his eyes as well as uncurled through his hiding place to see the beautiful princess staring at his victorious brother with adoration. Snapping out of his daze he shouted, “Stay away through here, I am the oldest brother, she belongs to me”. Grantang retreated before his perfidious sibling.
As they travelled back to the capital, misfortune struck Just as before. Cupak, who was supposed to keep guard as the exhausted Grantang slumbered, failed at his task giving an opportunity to another ogre who lived at the bottom of a well, to kidnap the princess. Just as before Grantang swung into action descending into the well to defeat the fierce demon after a vicious struggle. As he handed the princess to his brother, he carried her to a safe spot, as well as returned to the well. Rather than help his own brother, he closed the top as well as abandoned him to die a soggy, smelly death surrounded by the rotting flesh of the ogre. Informing the grieving princess in which Grantang had expired through his wounds as well as was no more, they marched back to the capital where Cupak proclaimed his heroic exploits as well as claimed the princess as his own.
Weak as well as wounded, the tenacious as well as resourceful Grantang slowly stripped the flesh off the bones of the giant as well as used them to build a ladder by which he escaped his watery prison. Emaciated, the first locals he met ran to the palace to say they had seen a wandering evil spirit. As cunning as ever, Cupak realized in which his attempt to commit fratricide had failed. Taking advantage of the situation he had the spirit beaten unconscious, stuffed in a burlap bag as well as cast into a river whose raging waters carried the item down to the sea.
today feeling completely secure as the heir to the throne (the princess had no brothers) Cupak lived a penultimate life of decadence – feasting, drinking as well as whoring as he pleased. Devouring scores of suckling pig every day, the farmers groaned under the burden of his accelerating demands. His notoriety expanded with his girth as well as nobody dared rebuke the shenanigans of the fiancé of their beloved princess.
The Cupak story would certainly live on in Bali for many centuries. The common theme of not bad versus evil was performed in dance as well as theatre genres including Gambuh as well as Arja. The story was also depicted by Balinese artists including the great Gusti Nyoman Lempad of Ubud as well as Ida Bagus Nyoman Sasak of Batuan who’s expressive Batuan school ink on paper shows the hairy Cupak hiding from the tamarind tree as his brother battles the evil witch Benaroe, stabbing her from the heart which has a kris. A completely new style of the story entitled “Cupak Devours the Earth” in which compares modern real estate agents with the Glutton recently appeared in North Bali. The same theme was featured in an article in Britain’s Guardian newspaper entitled “In Bali, rich foreigners are sparking a property frenzy, however who benefits?” (http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/mar/09/bali-property-frenzy-islanders-boom) just goes to show in which peoples of all nations share similar values when the item comes to engorging or enriching yourself at the expense of others.
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True Gluttons
True Gluttons