Template:Bagaspati
Bagaspati - (Begawan) - Mahabharata
Bagawan Bagaspati, is the name of a Javanese puppet character who was inserted into the epic Mahabharata by Krishna Dwaipayana Wyasa from India . This character only appears in wayang stories, and is not found in the original Sanskrit manuscripts of the Mahabharata.
Begawan Bagaspati, a sage with the appearance of a Buta. At the request of the gods, he defeated an enemy against whom the gods could do nothing. As a thank you, he was allowed to choose an angel as a wife. He chose Siwa's wife. Siwa became so angry that he cursed him. His form changed into a giant (rakshasa) and one day he would die at the hands of his son-in-law.
According to the play "Birth of Gandamana", initially Bagaspati was a king in the Nusabelah Kingdom. When attacking the Pancala country , Prabu Bagaspati was defeated by Prabu Mandrapati, king of the Mandaraka country , who at that time was visiting Pancala. After being conquered, Bagaspati was asked to become a hermit, and then he became a brahmin at the Argabelah hermitage with the title Begawan Bagaspati. Later he became close friends with Prabu Mandrapati who would later become his in-laws.
Later Begawan Bagaspati married another angel (he was entitled to a reward from the gods) and she bore him a beautiful daughter. When the daughter came of age, she wanted to have a man she had dreamed about for some time. As a good father, Bagaspati went looking for this man. He found him and brought him to his home. On seeing the daughter, this man named Narasoma immediately fell in love. Narasoma was the son of a king and he was very conceited.
Bagaspati couldn't stomach the fact that his in-laws had the appearance of a buta. Bagaspati asked his daughter to choose. She chose a life with Narasoma. Begawan Bagaspati taught Narasoma some magic spells and then asked him to kill him and handed over Aji Candabirawa to Narasoma. Narasoma killed Bagaspati without hesitation. Later, Narasoma regretted it and would grow into a good king and take the name Salya. The beautiful prince with a bad character and the ugly man with a very good character.
Source: History of Wayang Purwa - Hardjowirogo - PN Balai Pustaka – 1982
