Rice Goddess

Sundanese counterpart of the Balinese/Javanese Dewi Sri, given a distinct entry per the brief (the Balinese Dewi Sri is balinese_dewi_sri). The 'dying-and-transforming maiden' motif is the classic Hainuwele-type origin-of-staple-crops myth.

Domains

• rice and agriculture
• fertility of the soil

Powers

• transforms in death into the first rice and food-crops

Epithets

• Nyi Pohaci Sanghyang Asri latin · Nyi Pohaci Sanghyang Asri · cultThe rice-goddess; the beloved giver of the sustaining grainSundanese tradition; the Wawacan Sulanjana (secondary)
• Nyai Pohaci Sanghyang Asri Sundanese · Nyai Pohaci Sanghyang Asri · cultLady Pohaci, the Sacred Asri (rice-spirit)Wawacan Sulanjana (Sundanese rice-origin manuscript) (secondary)

Relations

• ally: Prince Hero of PajajaranReciprocal of sundanese_mundinglaya.ally — Slain on his sky-quest for the Layang Salaka Domas, the prince was revived by the rice goddess.Pantun Mundinglaya di Kusumah (Sundanese oral epic) (primary)
• equated with: Rice GoddessNyi Pohaci Sanghyang Asri is the Sundanese form of the pan-Indonesian rice goddess Sri: same rice-from-her-grave origin myth. Sunda Wiwitan keeps her central; Bali folds her into Hindu ritual.K.A.H. Hidding, Nji Pohatji Sangjang Sri (diss. Leiden, 1929); Robert Wessing, 'Sri and Sedana and Sita and Rama', Asian Folklore Studies 49 (1990) (secondary)

Sources

• Nyi Pohaci Sanghyang Asri is the Sundanese rice-and-fertility goddess (the Sundanese Dewi Sri), from whose buried body rice and other crops first grew in the origin myth.: Hidding, K.A.H. (1929). Nji Pohatji Sangjang Sri. Leiden: Dubbeldeman. (secondary); Wessing, Robert (1990). 'Sri and Sedana and the Spirits in the House,' Asian Folklore Studies 49(2): 235-258. (secondary)