Calon Arang

The tale is set in the Kediri period (traditionally dated to the 12th century) and locates Calon Arang in the village of Girah. She conducts nightly cemetery ceremonies and, according to the story, performed a dark cemetery rite in which she offered the sacrifice of a young girl to the goddess Durga. Her rites are said to have produced a flood and then an incurable plague on Girah. King Airlangga's army was unable to defeat her—retreating with many soldiers killed—until the royal advisor Mpu Bharadah and his disciple Mpu Bahula intervened; Bahula stole Calon Arang's magic scroll and returned it to Mpu Bharadah, who then defeated her.

Sources emphasize a fierce, frightening visage in Balinese portrayals; Calon Arang is commonly depicted as a fearsome witch with a frightening face. No consistent, detailed anthropological description (dress, height, exact bodily features) is provided in the cited materials.

Practitioner and master of harmful ritual arts and black magic who conducts cemetery ceremonies and human sacrifice (a young girl offered to Durga) that, in the tale, produce a flood and an incurable plague in Girah. Her ritual power is tied to a magic scroll that serves as a material locus of strength; when deprived of the scroll she is weakened and defeated. Her sorcery is potent enough in the story to repel and inflict heavy casualties on a royal army until ritual specialists intervene.