Tracing the Ancestral Roots and Paying Homage

Excluding to the Almighty God, the Hindus in Bali also carry out regular homage to their ancestral soul. This includes the five basic principles called pancha sraddha encompassing the belief in God, individual soul, karmic law, reincarnation and moksha. Devotion to the ancestral soul will work if they know exactly their ancestral roots. It’s just like Internet, if one has known the address exactly, he or she can access it as easy as ABC. In addition, this worship and ‘contact’ maintains the relation of predecessors with their beloved descendants. Failing this may result in difficulties in general life.

In Bali, there are some descendant groups or soroh such as Pande, Pasek, Pulasari, Bendesa, Arya and many more. As a matter of fact, they do not stand for a social stratification or class but a genealogical group belonging more to the same origin of ancestor. By knowing their ancestor line, makes it easier for them to pay homage to their ancestors or forefathers as stated previously. They believe that before they could find the correct kawitan, they will not feel secured.
At a glance, people of these descendant groups are not so easy to identify. Only few of them have a marker on their name like the Pande or Pasek, as there is no nomenclature mentioning such a name on the initial or surname as found Irish name O’Connor or Scottish Gaelic McBride or MacBride. Or we can also see in the names being used in German and Austrian personal names, originally to indicate place of origin and later to indicate nobility as in Paul von Hindenburg. Thus, from these names we can get brief information on the family root or place of origin.
In Western countries there has been sufficient facility in modern age as today to trace this family root. In UK for instance, roots can be investigated through an application of computer software; check it on the Internet or even to Register House. However, this facility has not been available yet for the Balinese to search for their ancestors. Restricted information can be found in the chronicle books, royal edict (prasasti) or through an intermediary of a medium. Formerly, Bali had ever an expert on Balinese genealogical chronicle named Ktut Soebandi. He was a military pensioner who then put a great interest in this matter. He wrote some books on the history of the establishment of Hindu temples in Bali and some other related genealogical subjects.
Within the community life, they live together harmoniously amongst the diverse groups and pay homage at the same village temples. Anyway, they also have their own kawitan or forefather’s temple where the same group of origin venerate their ancestral souls. Though they may belong to different descendant groups, they will feel re-unified again in the mother temple of Bali at Besakih, Karangasem. As barring accommodating temples for those groups, the Besakih as well provides a universal sanctum for all groups. Therefore, when devotees have completed their homage at each pedharman, they will assuredly pay homage together at the penataran agung. (BTN/029)