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Hinduism in Year

While Islam is dominant in Indonesia (and its densely populated island of Java -- see YD Context), historically Hinduism and Buddhism played a major role. Some of the largest temple complexes in the world are in eastern Java, and one can see how the figures of the Wayang borrow heavily from Hinduism and Hindu writings such as The Mahabharata, The Ramayana, and the Bhagavad-Gita.

Hindu Deities are possibly confusing references Koch makes throughout the novel. Sukarno is seen as Vishnu (11), obliquely in terms of Shiva (50t), and in terms of the Trimurti ('three forms' or Trinity) of Brahma, Vishnu, and Shiva (248b). 

The Mother Goddess is seen in a variety of sometimes conflicting ways. Hamilton has odd visions of Dewi Sri (or Sri Devi / Lakshmi) on 188b, 193b, 196t. 

Dewi Sri

Dewi Sri is believed to have dominion over the underworld and the Moon. Thus, Dewi Sri encompasses the whole spectrum of the Mother Goddess -- having dominion over birth and Life: she controls rice: the staple food of Indonesians; hence life and wealth or prosperity; most especially rice surpluses for the wealth of kingdoms in Java such as Mataram, Majapahit and Pajajaran; and their inverse: poverty, famine, hunger, disease (to a certain extent) and Death. [From Wikipedia's article, "Dewi Sri"]

Billy's Goddesses: 89 "the Mother ... Here, she's called Dewi Sri -- the Goddess of Rice"; 120 Ibu as Durga; 162-3 Kali in Billy’s picture; 168, 170, 172-3 In Billy's increasingly deranged state, he sees Hamilton and Vera in terms of the darker sides of Durga; 222 Billy sees 'the Black One' (Kali) as the international patron saint.

276 The death-dance of Maha Kali (Great Kali) is used by Koch to represent the slaughter of communists.

Here are brief entries from Wikipedia -- under "Kali; Mahakali," "Kali; Daksinakali," and "Mother Goddess; Hinduism":

Mahakali (Sanskrit: Mahākālī, Devanagari: महाकाली), literally translated as Great Kali, is sometimes considered as a greater form of Kali, identified with the Ultimate reality of Brahman. It can also be used as an honorific of the Goddess Kali, signifying her greatness by the prefix "Mahā-". Mahakali, in Sanskrit, is etymologically the feminized variant of Mahakala or Great Time (which is interpreted also as Death), an epithet of the God Shiva in Hinduism. Mahakali is the presiding Goddess of the first episode of the Devi Mahatmya. Here she is depicted as Devi in her universal form as Shakti. Here Devi serves as the agent who allows the cosmic order to be restored.

Kali is depicted in the Mahakali form as having ten heads, ten arms, and ten legs. Each of her ten hands is carrying a various implement which vary in different accounts, but each of these represent the power of one of the Devas or Hindu Gods and are often the identifying weapon or ritual item of a given Deva. The implication is that Mahakali subsumes and is responsible for the powers that these deities possess and this is in line with the interpretation that Mahakali is identical with Brahman. While not displaying ten heads, an "ekamukhi" or one headed image may be displayed with ten arms, signifying the same concept: the powers of the various Gods come only through Her grace.

Daksinakali, also spelled Dakshinakali, is the most popular form of Kali in Bengal. [...] Daksinakali is typically shown with her right foot on Shiva's chest—while depictions showing Kali with her left foot on Shiva's chest depict the even more fearsome Vamakali. The pose shows the conclusion of an episode in which Kali was rampaging out of control after destroying many demons. Shiva, fearing that Kali would not stop until she destroyed the world, could only think of one way to pacify her. He lay down on the battlefield so that she would have to step on him. Seeing her consort under her foot, Kali realized that she had gone too far, and calmed down. In some interpretations of the story, Shiva was attempting to receive Kali's grace by receiving her foot on his chest.

[The Mother Goddess.] In Hinduism, Durga represents the empowering and protective nature of motherhood. From her forehead sprang Kali, who defeated Durga's enemy, Mahishasura. Kali (the feminine form of Kaala" i.e. "time") is the primordial energy as power of Time, literally, the "creator or doer of time"—her first manifestation. After time, she manifests as "space", as Tara, from which point further creation of the material universe progresses. The divine Mother, Devi Adi parashakti, manifests herself in various forms, representing the universal creative force. She becomes Mother Nature (Mula Prakriti), who gives birth to all life forms as plants, animals, and such from Herself, and she sustains and nourishes them through her body, that is the earth with its animal life, vegetation, and minerals. Ultimately she re-absorbs all life forms back into herself, or "devours" them to sustain herself as the power of death feeding on life to produce new life. She also gives rise to Maya (the illusory world) and to prakriti, the force that galvanizes the divine ground of existence into self-projection as the cosmos. The Earth itself is manifested by Adi parashakti. Hindu worship of the divine Mother can be traced back to pre-vedic, prehistoric India.

Akasha

Cookie makes numerous references to akasha or aether -- on 81-2, but mostly toward the end of the novel, on 247t, 255t, 256t, 258m, 275b-276m. The following paragraphs are from Wikipedia's article "Akasha":

In Vedantic Hinduism, Akasha means the basis and essence of all things in the material world; the first material element created from the astral world. A Vedic mantra “pṛthivyāpastejovāyurākāśāt” indicates the sequence of initial appearance of the five basic gross elements. Thus, first appeared the space, from which appeared air, from that fire or energy, from which the water, and therefrom the earth. It is one of the Panchamahabhuta, or "five gross elements"; its main characteristic is Shabda (sound). The direct translation of Akasha is the word meaning "upper sky" or 'space' in Hinduism.

The Nyaya and Vaisheshika schools of Hindu philosophy state that Akasha or aether is the fifth physical substance, which is the substratum of the quality of sound. It is the One, Eternal, and All Pervading physical substance, which is imperceptible. According to the Samkhya school, Akasha is one of the five Mahābhūtas (grand physical elements) having the specific property of sound. Adherents of the heterodox Cārvāka or Lokāyata philosophy held that this world is made of four elements only. They exclude the fifth, Akasha, because its existence cannot be perceived.

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