pedanda

From Balinese pedanda, padanda, ultimately from Sanskrit.

pedanda (plural pedandas or pedanda)

1. In Bali, a Hindu priest or priestess. [from 19th c.]
   • 1990, Fred B. Eiseman, Jr., Bali: Sekala and Niskala, Tuttle Publishing, p. 80:

     There are records of bitter village conflicts in which Pande families were denied the right to bury their dead in the village cemetery because the families did not obtain holy water from pedandas, and the villagers said the unpurified bodies would contaminate the cemetery.

   • 2002, Lesley Reader, Lucy Ridout, The Rough Guide Bali and Lombok, p. 510:

     The only people who are conversant with all the rituals of agama Hindu are the high priests, or pedanda, men and a few women of the Brahman caste who spend years studying the complex theology.

   • 2005, Leo Howe, The Changing World Of Bali: Religion, Society and Tourism, p. 92:

     Instead of the temple having an annual festival, services are carried out every new and full moon day and on other holy days, and the presiding pedanda, after performing a ritual to make holy water, gives a sermon, yet another innovation and departure from traditional practice.

• deadpan

pedanda

1. nominative feminine singular of pedandus
2. nominative neuter plural of pedandus
3. accusative neuter plural of pedandus
4. vocative feminine singular of pedandus
5. vocative neuter plural of pedandus

pedandā

1. ablative feminine singular of pedandus