Tag: Rarasati

Hidden gems
Shan’t be found
By those admiring surface.
Let it be kept undercover,
Shining within
The hearts of
The true lovers.

——

Dewi Larasati (named Rarasati in her childhood) is one of female characters in Javanese wayang whose personality is described as pleasant, patient, understanding and of good self control. She is unpopularly one of female wayang characters with military skill. She is good at handling keris and archery. She is allegedly as skillful as her husband, Arjuna.

Note: Dewi can mean goddess in Javanese. It can also simply mean or indicate that the person given that Javanese name is a female. Dewa is for male.

Dewi Larasati in black and white

Dewi Larasati is a humble woman and is so humble that she doesn’t want to announce her military skill until one day she is called by his husband to show her archery skill in from of Srikandi (his other wife). On that day everyone starts to know that Dewi Larasati’s archery expertise is outstanding, much better than Srikandi who is allegedly the best female archer in Javanese wayang and the bravest female heroine of all.

Dewi Larasati is then declared the one having as good skill as Arjuna’s, the best archer in Javanese wayang. Yet she never boasts of being as good as her husband in archery. She chooses to be the queen of the knight of war and mindfulness Arjuna, the beloved mother of her two sons, Bambang Sumitra and Branatalaras, the aunt of Pandawa’s offsprings.

Dewi Larasati facing left direction

While people like to talk about Dewi Larasati from that angle, I like talking about her from different one. To me I prefer to play dictions so disecting the word “Rarasati” and “Larasati” is another option.

Rarasati is a combination of 2 Javanese words: raras and ati.
Raras means feel, feeling, thought, thinking
Ati means heart
So rarasati can mean the feel of a heart or the thought of a heart or a feeling heart or a thinking heart

Larasati is a combination of 2 Javanese words: laras and ati.
Laras means song, singing, chat, chanting, reciting, recitation,
Ati means heart
So larasati can mean the song of a heart or a singing heart.

Dewi Larasati facing right direction

I always think Dewi Larasati’s parents’s naming her “larasati” because of their dream to have children who are willing to use the heart to feel and think the reality and to listen to their own self to balance the power of the loudness of material world.

With my simple utterance about the word “rarasati” and “larasati” I can imagine Dewi Larasati is a hidden gem that needs no disclosure as undercover she is already glowing. With her excellence she accepts to be less well-known than Srikandi, the archery heroine. With humbleness she accepts to be less popular than Sembadra, Arjuna’s second wife, while Dewi Larasati is the first wife of that bloody handsome knight Arjuna. Please note although I admire Arjuna’s high quality of meditation and nationalism, I curse his being a womaniser.

Anyway this is not about Arjuna, it is about Dewi Larasati, a humble intelligent woman whose identity is underrated because of her unpopularity like a hidden gem that is kept low key by those loving and protecting her.

Ahh! Is the above discussion culturally relevant? Or is it just this person who idolises those unpopular gems in life?

It doesn’t matter. This is just a different point of view about an old fact.

💕

Salaam.

Dewi Larasati on a batik scarft designed by Dudung Aliesyahbana, batik maestro from Pekalongan, Central Java