Sudamala Relief
(A Ghost Story)

Candi Sukuh

This relief illustrates a strange episode from the Sudamala, in which Pandava Sadewa is tied to a tree (photo right) in a cemetery and menaced by Durga. The fierce goddess, who is attended by ghostly companions, raises a wicked blade in her right hand to frighten him. One of the ghosts, a bodiless head, rests on a pedestal between Durga and Sadewa. At the lower right corner, rests a creature that looks like a Chinthe. Photo left, beneath an architectural pavilion, are two bare-breasted followers of the fierce goddess.

In this story, Shiva has changed his wife Uma into the evil Durga as a punishment for adultery. Only Sadewa can undo the curse, and so he does, after many complications. (Reference: The Sculpture Of Indonesia, p. 59).