Mahendradatta (961-1011 CE) was a badass. First a little background: Java and Bali had long coexisted with the understanding that Java was the stronger kingdom on the islands. But in the late 900s, Bali was suddenly in ascendancy, and Java didn’t like it. Mahendradatta was a Javanese princess sent to rule Bali. After marrying a Balinese prince, she put him in a corner and took control. Her most important projects was importing Javanese culture. Specifically, Hinduism. Even though, by all accounts, Mahendradatta’s reign was a time of peace and relative prosperity, she was vilified after her death and became deified as the embodiment of evil.
Yes, you read that correctly. Mahendradatta was the inspiration for the epic story Rangda. In Balinese folklore, Rangda — which literally means “widow” — was an evil witch. The story goes that the queen was condemned and exiled by the king for allegedly practicing witchcraft and black magic. After she became a widow, hurt and humiliated, she sought revenge upon her ex-husband’s court and the whole of his kingdom. She summoned all the evil spirits in the jungle, the leyaks and the demons that caused plague and death in the kingdom. She proceeded to take her revenge by killing off half the kingdom with plague before being overcome by a holy man. In some versions, she was defeated by a hero sent by Erlangga. Which is bizarre, because Erlangga is her real-life son, and he has been mythologized as one of Bali’s greatest heroes!
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