Adirata: The adoptive father of Karna.

Amba: The princess of the Kasi Kingdom and sister of Ambika and Ambalika. Bhisma won her and her sisters in a marriage contest. Bhisma had sworn celibacy and thus could not marry her. She tried seducing him and he accidentally killed her. Before dying she swore vengeance. During the Baratayuda war, she takes temporary possession of Srikandi to kill Bhisma and fulfill the ancient vow of revenge she had pledged.

Anjani: The mother of Hanoman. She was turned into a monkey for playing with the forbidden cup of knowledge.

Arimbi: Giant princess. The wife of Bima and the mother of Gatotkaca.

Arjuna: The third of the Pandawa. An excellent archer and reputed lady-killer.

Batara Guru: One of the Gods in the wayang world with four arms. He is the Javanese version of Shiva.

Bhisma: The son of Prabu Santanu and Dewi Gangga. He was the teacher of both the Pandawa and the Kurawa.

Bima: The second of the Pandawa brothers. A man of extraordinary strength, he possesses a nail called pancanaka which can cut through almost anything.

blencong: The oil lamp which was previously used to to cast shadows on the wayang screen. Nowadays, it has been replaced by electric light bulbs.

carangan: A "branch" story, not originally part of the purwa stories, but that still refers to the situations and characters of the purwa stories.

dalem: The inner quarters of a traditional Javanese house.

dangdut: A contemporary music genre dating from the 1970s. It was first created by Rhoma Irama.

gara-gara: Literally, "the big upheaval", this is the comic interlude which usually takes place. This is the comic part of a traditional performance, which usually takes place around midnight and lasts for one hour.

dalang: The master-pupeteer. In a traditional performance, only one dalang controls all the puppets, cues the musicians and gives voice to all the characters.

Durna: He was the teacher of both the Pandawa and the Kurawa but served as an adviser to the Kurawa faction.

Gatotkaca: The son of Arimbi and Bima. He is one of the few characters who can fly, and he has extraordinary strength. He fought the giant Nalapracana as a small child and was killed in the Baratayuda by Karna.

gedebog: A banana tree trunk. In a traditional wayang performance, two gedebog are horizontally laid out in front of the wayang screen. For dialogue scenes the puppets' central control stick (gapit) is inserted into the gedbog for stability. The relative social status of the puppets is indicated by the trunk in which they are placed, with the characters of higher status occupying the upper trunk.

Gotama: The father of Guwarsa, Guwarsi and Anjani.

Hamengkubuwana IX: (1912-1988)The sultan of Yogyakarta during the struggle for Independence. A promoter of wayang. His favorite character was Gatotkaca.

Indradi: The wife of Resi Gotama and mother of Anjani, Guwarso and Guwarsi.

Inul: Inul Daratista, a famous singer and dancer from East Java who became the center of a controversy in the early 2000s due to her provocative dance movements.

joglo: A traditional Javanese house.

kayon: A leaf-shaped puppet that has different symbolic and narrative functions. Pictorially, it can represent spiritual paths or the world. In a performance it can represent natural or spiritual forces, or any entity for which there is no puppet available.

Kalapracana: A giant that threatened to destroy heaven so he could marry the nymph Supraba.

kabupaten: District.

karawitan: the art of playing gamelan instruments.

Kawi: a poetic register of the Javanese language that has fallen into disuse.

keris: a short mystical dagger. The dalang always wear a keris for a performance, often one that is believed to mesmerize the audience or channel divine inspiration toward the dalang. Traditional puppets representing male characters are depicted as carrying a keris.

kelir: A traditional cotton fabric used as a screen.

Kresna: The uncle of both the Pandawa and the Kurawa. He offered his advice to one of the sides and his army to the other. The Kurawa chose his army and the Pandawa, his advice.

Kurawa: The antagonists of the Mahabharata.

lakon: The plot of a wayang performance.

Mahabharata: A story that narrates the struggles between the Pandawa and the Kurawa. The story originated in India, but Javanese wayang uses an adaptation of this epic narrative.

marcapada: The world of the mortals.

Mbilung: One of the punokawan that accompanies the antagonist side, together with Togog.

Nartosabdho: A famous dalang from Banyumas.

pathet: A traditional performance is divided into three pathet, which correspond both to musical modes and to the main divisions of the narrative.

pendopo: An open pavilion-like structure that constitutes the outermost structure of a traditional Javanese house. It serves as the traditional stage for dance and wayang performances.

potehi: A glove puppet tradition of Chinese origin common in the northern coast of Java, especially Surabaya and Semarang. Performances were forbidden during the New Order period and were kept alive by a reduced number of performer families that .

Pandawa: The protagonists of the Mahabharata.

punokawan: The clown-servants of divine origin that accompany the heroes in wayang stories. They are Semar and his sons

purwa: A story from the classical stories of the Mahabharata and the Ramayana.

purwakanthi: A rhymed saying that conveys philosophical interpretations or moral maxims.

Radha: The adoptive mother of Karna.

Ramayana: A story that narrates the capture of Sita by Rahwana and her eventual release by Rama and an army led by Hanoman.

rasa: Feeling and/or experience.

suluk: A mystical poem and a form of singing that corresponds to the traditional way of delivering such poems.

Rhoma Irama: A musician and the creator of dangdut music. He has also stared in numerous films. He has opposed the dances of Inul Daratista. In 2013, he announced his candidacy for the Indonesian presidential election in 2014.

Ronggowarsito: A 19th century poet from Surakarta.

Santanu: The father of Bhisma.

Satiawati: First wife of Santanu, to whom he promised her son would inherit his crown. For this reason, Bhisma (Gotama’s other son) chooses to lead a life of celibacy.

Seroja Kesuma: The son of Duryudhana, reputed for his horrible shape.

sinden: A sinden or warangana is a female singer.

Sukarno: The leader of the Indonesian independence struggle and first president, from 1945 to 1965.

Supraba: A heavenly nymph.

Surakarta: A city in Central Java, 90 kilometers northeast of Yogyakarta, which is also famous for traditional Javanese arts.

teater: "Theatre", it refers to Western-style, proscenium theatre performances.

tembang: A traditional type of singing.

Togog: A half brother of Semar and Batara Guru. He accompanies the antagonist side as a servant in wayang performances.

tradisi: "Tradition". In the context of this study, tradisi refers to conventional wayang performances.

wayang golek: A performance tradition that shares many elements with wayang kulit but that uses tridimensional wooden puppets. It is more popular in West Java.

Yogyakarta: Ngayogyakarta Hadiningrat, the capital city of the Special Administrative Region of Yogyakarta (DIY - Daerah Istimewa Yogyakarta). It was founded in 1754. It is one of the cultural centers of Java.