rangda is everywhere in bali you will see her in dance dramas and on mask,temple,carving,although there is some variation in the way she is portrayed, several features are standard and all contribut to her grotesque appearance. she has along mane of hair, with flames protruding from her head. her face is fierce and hideous with bulging eyes, a gaping mout, huge teeth or tusk along tongue often reachingto her knees. her finger nails are long and curled,and she has enourmous pendulous breasts. she wears striped shirt and pants, with a while cloth around her waist, an important instrument of her evil magic.
several versions of the rangda story are enacted across the island, the most common being the barong and calonarang, but she always speaks in the ancient javanese kawi language and alternates between high whining tones, loud grunt and cackles. to the balinese, rangda represents the forces of evil, death and destruction, and she’s often assosiated with the hindu goddes durga.
Rangda may have based on a real woman, mahendradata.
mahendradata was a prince from java, who married the balinese prince Udayana and bore him son.
according the legend, the king later banished mahendradata to the forest for practising witchcraft. when udayana died, mahendradata, now a rangda, continued the build up grudges againts her powerfull and unrelenting son. eventually, she used her powers to call down a plague upon erlangga’s kingdom, nearly destroying it. erlangga, learning the source of the pestilence, dispatched a troop of soldier who stabbed rangda in the heart she survived, however, and killed the soldiers. in desperation, the king sent for holy man, mpu bharadah, whose assistant stole rangda’s book of magic with which he was able to restore rngda’s victims to life, and eventually destroy the witch by turning her own magic on herself.

Even in performance of the story, the figure of rangda is believe to have remarkable powers and offerins are made and prayer said before each show to protect the actors from the evil forces they are invoking. the village performances of the drama are often a means of pacifying rangda’s anger so that she will not turn her destructive forces againts them

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