bedhaya

The tradition & historical record

The bedhaya (also written as bedoyo, beḍaya and various other transliterations) (Javanese: ꦧꦼꦝꦪ, romanized: Bedhaya) is a sacred, ritualised Javanese dance of Java, Indonesia, associated with the royal palaces of Yogyakarta and Surakarta. Along with the srimpi, the bedhaya epitomized the elegant (Javanese: ꦲꦭꦸꦱ꧀, romanized: alus) character of the royal court and became an important symbol of the ruler's power. The bedhaya has different forms in the two court cities, the bedhaya Ketawang in Surakarta (Solo) and the bedhaya Semang in Yogyakarta, the latter of which has not been performed for more than 20 years. The Solonese dance continues to be performed once per year on the second day of the Javanese month of Ruwah (May), to commemorate the ascension of the current Susuhunan (prince) of Surakarta. Nine females, relatives or wives of the Susuhunan, dance with a private audience. An invitation to anyone outside of the inner circle of the court is a considerable honor. ²

Some kind of female dance known as bedhaya existed on Java at least as early as the Majapahit Empire. Indeed, some of the steps of the modern dance are said to be as old as the third century. However, the modern form is traditionally dated to the court of Sultan Agung of Mataram (reigned 1613–1645). Unfortunately, there is almost no historical evidence to back up the claims made about the advances in the arts in Sultan Agung's courts, and the existence of the dance was not clearly documented until the late 18th century. There are many myths which explain the origin of the dance, which generally have either an account of a meeting with an Hindu deity (Shiva, Brahma, Vishnu, Indra, or Lord Buddha), or the meeting of Kangjeng Ratu Kidul, the Goddess of the South Sea, with a founder of the Mataram dynasty, either Sultan Ageng or his grandfather, Senapati. In the former, the nine dancers were the creation of a deity who was brought to life and offered the dance to their maker in gratitude. In the latter, the dance was created when Kangjeng Ratu Kidul fell in love with the sultan and danced the bedhaya for him; the nine dancers in the modern dance represent the spirit of the goddess. Since the decline in the power of the royal courts, other, more accessible forms of bedhaya have become popular, not as religious ritual, but as artistic performance. These do not require the royal presence and may be performed on stage for an admission fee. They frequently recount stories used in wayang. ²

The dance is held in a pendhapa, a pillared audience hall with a peaked roof, with the Susuhunan on a throne in the middle of the room. The dance is performed in three large sections. In each section, the dancers emerge from a room behind the audience hall, approach the throne single file, dance in front of the throne, and then retreat, again single file. They approach and retreat on opposite sides of the throne, thus circumambulating the throne in a clockwise direction, the appropriate direction for veneration in Buddhist and Shaivist traditions. ²

A name and number is given to each of the nine dancers, which designates a specific position in the changing choreographic pattern. There are slight variations between different sources in the names and numbers of the dancers, but there is consensus on the general forms. They are: a human being, representing taṇhā (the word for desire or craving in Buddhism), four chakras (the top three of which are used as note names; see slendro), and the four limbs: ²

èndhèl/èndhèl ajeg, "desire", "constant/fixed desire", "attachment" pembatak/batak, "head", "mind" gulu/jangga, "neck" dhadha, "chest" buncit/bunthil, "tail", "genitals", "lower end of spinal column" apit ngajeng/apit ngarep, "right arm", "right flank", "front flank" apit wingking/apit mburi, "left arm", "rear flank" èndhèl weton/èndhèl wedalan ngajeng/èndhèl jawi, "right leg", "emergent desire", "front emergent desire", "outside desire" apit meneng/èndhèl wedalan wingking, "left leg", "quiet flank", "rear emergent desire" The first two sections of the dance each have three positions, with slight variations, while the last adds a final, fourth position. ²

The dance is accompanied by the singing of men and women together. The style is known as sindhenan lampah sekar. Formerly, only women sang; however, since at least the 1940s, men have also sung these parts. In Surakarta, instead of a full gamelan, the only instruments used are the colotomic instruments (kethuk, kenong, and gong), the kemanak, and drums (kendhang ketipung and gendhing); there are no balungan instruments and only sometimes other melodic instruments (such as gambang and gendér). In the Yogyakarta kraton, where the dance is no longer performed as ritual, the complete gamelan was used as accompaniment, sometimes even featuring cornets. The pieces used to accompany the dances are traditionally gendhing with long structures (originally designated at least kethuk 4 arang; see gendhing for an explanation); however, shorter gendhings were also used later (such as kethuk 4 kerep or kethuk 2). The most ancient and sacred song is the Bedhaya Ketawang. When the bedhaya dancers appear on stage, in Yogyakarta, it is accompanied by an ayak-ayakan; in Surakarta, it is only accompanied by a pathetan known as pathetan bedhaya, which has lost much of the rhythmic freedom associated with pathetans to fit better the stride of the dancers. The literary renaissance of Java in the 18th and 19th centuries, which greatly changed Javanese music, had as one of its first effects the creation of genres of gendhing to accompany bedhaya and serimpi, known as gendhing kemanak and gendhing bedhaya-serimpi. The former were based on a newly composed choral melody, while the latter fitted a new choral part into a pre-existing gendhing melody played by the gamelan. Hundreds of stanzas of text were written for these parts, and a particular gendhing uses at least a dozen. ²

There are many taboos regarding the performance and rehearsal of the Bedhaya ketawang, both the song and the dance associated with it. It is only allowed to be rehearsed every 35 days (when Thursday of the seven-day week coincides with Kliwon, the fifth day of the five-day week of the Javanese calendar), and performed on the anniversaries of the Susuhunan's accession to the throne. All rehearsals, and especially the performance, must be accompanied by offerings (many of which correspond to those specified in the Gandavyuha Sutra). The dancers must fast and undergo ritual purification; they must be in bridal dress and cover the upper part of their bodies in turmeric (borèh). When the text is copied, a few intentional mistakes are inserted to avoid copying a sacred text literally. This is all because during any performance or rehearsal, the deputies of Ratu Kidul are said to be present. ²

The dance can be interpreted in a number of ways, including as an abstract sequence of positions, and a reenactment of the love between the goddess and a royal ancestor. ²

The text above is adapted from the Wikipedia article “Bedhaya”, available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 licence. ²

bedhaya is Indonesian traditional dance of Javanese people, according to the structured record cited below. This entry was generated automatically from that record and has not yet been reviewed by a person familiar with the tradition. ¹

The source record links this tradition to 3 external registers, which can be verified through the citation. ¹