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, page 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, page 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, page 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.

• dead pan, dead-pan, deadpan

pedanda

1. inflection of pedandus:
   1. nominative/vocative feminine singular
   2. nominative/accusative/vocative neuter plural

pedandā

1. ablative feminine singular of pedandus