KOMPLEKSITAS TOKOH PANDITA DRONA DALAM ARTEFAK WAYANG KULIT CIREBON
ABSTRACT: Since early
centuries of Christian calendar, the Indian epics Mahabharata and Ramayana have
widely spread across the Nusantara Archipelago.
By the time these epics arrived here, they were not presented in their
genuine forms, but had been adopted and localized in order to approach the
natives. The adaptation process included
taking the shadow theatrical form, translating and interpretating the stories,
and transforming character and visual descriptions which were manifested into
puppet form.
One of the character transformations which includes personality and
visual descriptions was done to Priest Drona, the vital character roled as guru
to both Pandawas and Kurawas, who was trapped inside the dilemma among his
disciples. In Javanese version, Drona
has been transformed into an ambiguous, mischievous, and slightly humorous
character. In Cirebon version, Drona was
depicted as an evil character who provoked the Battle of Bharata yuddha. Drona puppet himself has unique and specific
visual attributes compared to other puppet main characters, and each form of
puppet Drona possess a high symbolic meaning beneath them. The problem is how do the visual attributes
of each puppet tell us about the character’s complexity?
This paper analyzes every visual variation of Drona leather puppet in
Cirebon using the Art Criticism methods and semiotics referring to general
Javanese Shadow Puppetry performance.
This analysis proves the complexity of the character based on the
differences of cloth, accessories and other visual attributes from Cirebon
perspective.
Penulis: Moh. Isa Pramana
Koesoemadinata
Kode Jurnal: jpantropologidd120078
