“Duh, apa dosaning raga?” 

“Oh, what is the body’s sin?”

THE sentence echoed in a song at the climax of a dance scene in Panji Sepuh—a series of words that seem to make up a demand or a complaint.

The body, in Javanese literature, is indeed often treated as an obstacle. Or, at least, as the second priority. It ranks below the ‘soul’ or ‘spirit’. The book of Wulangreh, for example