Kalakarna - (Wayang Kulit)

Kalakarna - son of Batara Kartinea

Title	Kalakarna - (Prabu) - Mahabharata
Other names	Karna Mandra
Size	60 cm
Personal data	Kalakarna is the son of Bathara Kartinea, a lesser god, and Bathari Durga, goddess of death. His unusual ancestry results in a distinct appearance: part human, part beast. He walks upright like a human, while his coarse features and sharp fangs reflect his raksasa heritage. Prabu Kalakarna is the giant king of Awangga country.
Appearance	Prabu Kalakarna had eyes with big eyes, a nose from the bow of a boat, an open mouth, full of teeth and fangs. Crowned with a mask, berjamang with garuda facing backwards, bersunting waderan. Curled, pontooh and rumble. Full royal attire.
Collection	Private collection

Kalakarna – (Prabu) – Mahabharata

Prabu Kalakarna is the giant king of Awangga country, inhabited by other giants. Yet, unlike many raksasas, he desires peace and opposes the impulsive ways of his brethren. His character often becomes a source of tension within his own kingdom.

He dreamed of meeting Dewi Surtikanti, the daughter of Prabu Salya, the king of Mandraka country. Kalakarna's attendant, Kidanganti, stole Dewi Surtikanti on the king's orders and brought her before the king. But Dewi Surtikanti did not want Prabu Kalakarna to approach her and kept holding the patrem (a keris that women could use as a weapon) in her hand. Prabu Kalakarna was actually not afraid of that weapon. The problem was that Surtikanti wanted to use her patrem as a suicide weapon if her body was touched by Kalakarna.

But when Prabu Kalakarna reached that place, he saw Raden Suryaputra and became very angry. A war broke out and Prabu Kalakarna was killed by Raden Suryaputra. Dewi Surtikanti was escorted back to Mandraka, married by Raden Suryaputra, who later became the king of Awangga country with the title Adipati.

This is the wayang play commonly known as the Alapalapan play. In the context of the play, a lost princess is stolen, found by a knight and married by that knight. The princess could also disappear because she left her country. In this case, her daughter became inauspicious. It is also possible that the daughter plays the leading role in an ordinary marriage, but her play is also called the kestrel (alap-alapan) play.

There is a story that says that the Awangga country is also located in a village called Awangga and that is included in the administrative assistance, now Ceper subdistrict, Klaten district. The villagers believe that the old Awangga kingdom was located in that village and as evidence it was shown that there was a heirloom keris of Karna, Kyai Jalak, the idol of the local people. The keris is considered so sacred that the water that is released from washing the keris is sometimes used to make someone's vows, where the person is asked to drink the water from the washing. Even plain water, as long as it is taken from the village of Awangga, is also considered effective.

In the era of the Surakarta Kingdom, the village of Awangga was made the village of Merdika and was ruled by a servant of the Kraton, with the rank of Merdikan. People from the village of Awangga are automatically get the title Raden.

In the story of Suryaputra Krama (the marriage of Suryaputra), a conflict arose when both Prabu Karna Mandra and Prabu Duryudana from the kingdom of Astina sought Dewi Surtikanthi’s hand in marriage. Dewi Sutikanthi’s father King Salyapati from the Kingdom of Mandaraka decided that Prabu Duryudana would be the one to marry his daughter. The problem was that the Princess was already deeply in love with another man, Raden Suryatmaja.

One day in the palace garden of the kingdom Mandaraka, Princess Surtikanthi was sitting with Raden Suryatmaja, when Dewi Banuwati (Surikanthi's younger sister) walked by them. Dewi Banuwati became extremely angry, because she thought that Suryaputra was her lover Raden Premadi.

One day Raden Premadi visited Dewi Banuwati in the palace garden of Mandaraka. She confronted him, and said that he had been unfaithful to her by seeing her older sister Surtikanthi. Raden Premadi denied the accusation, and promised to catch the person who was posing as him. Raden Premadi quietly went to Dewi Surtikanthi’s chamber where he began to hear a man’s voice. When he knocked on the door Raden Suryatmaja became so frightened that he transformed himself into a white mouse. When Dewi Surtikanthi opened the door for Premadi, he saw no one except for a white mouse on her bed. Being a clever fellow, Raden Premadi transformed himself into a cat (Kucing Candramawa) and chased the mouse. Meanwhile, Prabu Karna Mandra was preparing to use his magic power of invisibility, in order to get into Dewi Surtikanthi’s chamber and kidnap her.

After a long battle, both the cat and mouse finally transformed themselves back into their human forms. For many days, the two men argued about who had won the fight. Upon hearing this, Bathara Naradha came down from heaven to break up the fight and explain to them that they were brothers from the same mother Dewi Kunthi Talibrata, explaining their similar appearances.
Raden Premadi then apologized to his brother. Once they had finished bickering and returned back to Dewi Surtikanthi’s bed chamber to find an empty room. After some searching they realized that the Princess had disappeared, and they needed to find her with haste. Prabu Salyapati opened a competition to reward whoever could find Dewi Surtikanthi with her hand in marriage. Raden Premadi asked Raden Suryatmaja (his half brother) to follow his shadow while he flew to find the kidnaper. The brothers followed the kidnapper to the Kingdom of Awangga.

Eventually Suryatmaja and Raden Premadi were able to kill Prabu Karna Mandra and rescue Dewi Surtikanthi from his clutches. Suryatmaja was glad to be back with his love and the two quickly became married. As part of his marriage to Dewi Surtikanthi, Suryatmaja was given the title of King of the kingdom of Ngawangga. Patih Prabakesa and Patih Prahastha are two other characters that this puppet can be used to represent if puppets for those two characters cannot be found.

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Source: History of Wayang Purwa - Hardjowirogo - PN Balai Pustaka - 1982