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Eastern Javanese inscriptions throw little light on happenings before the 10th century, but the evidence from south-central Java, especially from the Kedu Plain in the 8th and 9th centuries, is more abundant. This period in central Java is associated with the Shailendra dynasty and its rivals. An Old Malay inscription from north-central Java, attributed to the 7th century, establishes that the Shailendras were of Indonesian origin and not, as was once suspected, from mainland Southeast Asia. In the middle of the 9th century, the ruler of Srivijaya-Palembang was a Shailendra who boasted of his Javanese ancestors; the name Shailendra also appears on the undated face of an inscription on the isthmus of the Malay Peninsula; the other face of the inscription—dated 775—is in honour of the ruler of Srivijaya.
In spite of ambiguous references to Shailendra connections overseas, there is no solid evidence that the territories of the central Javanese rulers at this time extended far beyond central Java, including its north coast. Yet the agricultural wealth of this small kingdom sustained vast religious undertakings; the monuments of the Kedu Plain are the most famous in Indonesia. The Borobudur temple complex, in honour of Mahayana Buddhism, contains 2,000,000 cubic feet (56,600 cubic metres) of stone and includes 27,000 square feet (2,500 square metres) of stone bas-relief. Its construction extended from the late 8th century to the fourth or fifth decade of the 9th. Shiva’s great temple at Prambanan, though not associated with the Shailendra family, is less than 50 miles (80 km) away, and an inscription dating to 856 marks what may be its foundation stone. The two monuments, which have much in common, help to explain the religious impulses in earlier Javanese history.
Borobudur is a terraced temple surmounted by stupas, or stone towers; the terraces resemble Indonesian burial foundations, indicating that Borobudur was regarded as the symbol of the final resting place of its founder, a Shailendra, who was united after his death with the Buddha. The Prambanan temple complex is also associated with a dead king. The inscription of 856 mentions a royal funeral ceremony and shows that the dead king had joined Shiva, just as the founder of the Borobudur monument had joined the Buddha. Divine attributes, however, had been ascribed to kings during their lifetimes. A Mahayana inscription of this period shows that a ruler was said to have the purifying powers of a bodhisattva, the status assumed by the ruler of Srivijaya in the 7th century; a 9th-century Shaivite inscription from the Kedu Plain describes a ruler as being “a portion of Shiva.”
The divine qualities of these kings, whether of Mahayana or of Shaivite persuasion, had important implications in Javanese history and probably in the history of all parts of the archipelago that professed the forms of Indian religion. The ruler was now and henceforth seen as one who had achieved union with the supreme god in his lifetime. Kingship was divine only because the king’s soul was the host of the supreme god and because all the king’s actions were bound to be the god’s actions. He was not a god-king; he was the god. No godlike action was more important than extending the means of personal salvation to others, always in the form of union with the god.
The bas-relief of the Borobudur monument, illustrating Mahayana texts and especially the Gandavyuha—the tale of the tireless pilgrim in search of enlightenment—is a gigantic exposition of the Mahayana path to salvation taken by the king; it may be thought of as a type of yantra to promote meditation and ultimate union with the Buddha. But Borobudur can also be identified as a circle, or mandala, of supreme mystical power associated with the Vairocana Buddha (one of the self-born Dhyani-Buddhas), according to the teachings of Vajrayana Buddhism. The mandala was intended to protect the Shailendra realm for all time. The pedagogical symbolism of the Prambanan temple complex is revealed in its iconography, dominated by the image of the four-armed Shiva, the Great Teacher—the customary Indonesian representation of the supreme deity. Prambanan affirms the Shaivite path to salvation; the path is indicated in the inscription of 856, which implies that the king had practiced asceticism, the form of worship most acceptable to Shiva. Thus, in Java, Shaivism as well as Mahayana Buddhism had become hospitable to Tantric influences. An almost contemporary inscription from the Ratu Baka plateau, which is not far from the Prambanan complex, provides further evidence of Tantrism; it alludes to special rites for awakening Shiva’s divine energy through the medium of a ritual consort.
These royal tombs taught the means of salvation. The royal role on earth was similar. The kings, not the religious elite, bore the responsibility of ensuring that all could worship the gods, whether under Indian or Indonesian names. Every god in the land was either a manifestation of Shiva or a subordinate member of Shiva’s pantheon, and worship therefore implied homage to the king, who was part of the god. The growing together, as a result of Tantric influences, of Shaivism and Mahayana Buddhism meant that over the centuries the divine character of the king was continually elaborated. His responsibility was the compassionate one of maintaining his kingdom as a holy land. The bodhisattva-king was moved by pity, as were all bodhisattvas, while the Shiva-like king, as an inscription of the 9th century indicates, was also honoured for his compassion. Compassion was expressed by providing an environment wherein religion could flourish. Keeping the peace, protecting the numerous holy sites, encouraging religious learning, and, above all, performing purification rituals to render the land acceptable to the gods were different aspects of a single mission: the teaching of the religious significance of life on earth. The lonely status of the ruler did not separate him from the religious aspirations of his subjects; Prambanan provides a recognition of the community of interest between ruler and ruled. The 856 inscription states that a tank of purifying water, filled by a diverted river, was made available as a pilgrimage centre for spiritual blessings. Hermitages had been built at the Prambanan complex, and the inscription states that they were “to be beautiful in order to be imitated.”
The great monuments of the 9th century suggest something of the cultural ambience within which events took place. One new development in central Java was that capable raka (local rulers) were gradually able, when opportunities arose, to fragment the lands of some raka and absorb the lands of others. At the same time, they established lines of communication between themselves and the villages in order to guarantee revenue and preserve a balance between their own demands and the interests of the independent and prosperous agricultural communities. When a ruler manifested divine qualities, he would attract those who were confident that they would earn religious merit when they supported him. Local princes from all over the Kedu Plain constructed small shrines around the main Prambanan temple in a manner reminiscent of a congregation gathered around a religious leader. The inscription of 856 states that they built “cheerfully.”
Eastern Java and the archipelago from c. 1000 to c. 1300
Documentation in the form of inscriptions and monuments ceased in central Java after the beginning of the 10th century. For a period of more than 500 years, little is known of events in central Java, and simultaneous developments in western Java and in the eastern hook of the island have also remained a mystery. Evidence of the events of these years comes almost exclusively from the Brantas River valley and the adjacent valleys of eastern Java. This abrupt shift in the locus of documentation has never been satisfactorily explained.
Government and politics
Eastern Java did not form a natural political unit. No single town was so exceptionally endowed in local resources as to emerge as a permanent capital; instead, the residencies of defeated kings were simply abandoned. There remains no trace of the location of some of these royal compounds. The problems of government in these conditions are illustrated by the events of the 11th century.
In 1016 the city of the eastern Javanese overlord was destroyed, likely by a rebellious vassal, in what an inscription of 1041 (called the “Calcutta” inscription) described as “the destruction of the world.” The kingdom consequently fell apart, but it was restored by the dead king’s son-in-law Erlangga (Airlangga), a half-Balinese prince. Erlangga lived with hermits, probably practicing asceticism, from 1017 to 1019, the year in which he was hailed as ruler of the small principality of Pasuruan, near the Brantas delta. He could not take the military offensive until 1028, however, and his final success was not before 1035; he dispatched his last opponent by provoking an uprising in the manner taught by Kautilya, the master of Indian statecraft who recommended the use of subversion against an enemy. Erlangga’s victories gradually vindicated his claims to divine power, and in the “Calcutta” inscription he expressed the hope that all in the land would now be able to lead religious lives.
Erlangga then undid the results of his achievement. Foreseeing that two of his sons might quarrel, he divided his kingdom so that one son should rule over the southern part, known as Panjalu, Kadiri, or Daha, and the other over the northern part, Janggala. Erlangga’s sons refused to honour their father’s intentions. Fighting broke out, and the Kadiri rulers were unable to establish their uneasy domination over the kingdom until the early 12th century. The consequences of Erlangga’s decision to split the kingdom are mourned in the Nagarakertagama, a poem written in 1365 that survives in a manuscript found in Lombok at the end of the 19th century.
The chain of command between the capital and the villages—and the number of officials involved—had grown since the central Java period. The ideal of a greater Javanese unity, protected by a divine king, was probably cherished most by the villagers, since they especially would benefit from peace and safe internal communications. Inscriptions sometimes acknowledge the king’s gratitude for villagers’ assistance in times of need. The villages were prosperous centres of local government. As a result of increasing contacts with the royal court, village society had now become more stratified, with elaborate signs of status. But local lords could make difficulties for the villages by tampering with the flow of the river or exacting heavy tolls from traders. In comparison with these local vexations, the royal right to the villagers’ services and part of their produce was probably not resented. No document was more respected than the inscription that recorded a village’s privileges.
The king’s chief secular responsibility was to safeguard his subjects’ lands, including the estates of the temples and monasteries that were so conspicuous a feature of the Javanese landscape. When the king wanted to build a temple on wet-rice land, he was expected to buy the land, not confiscate it. At court he was assisted by a small council of high-ranking officials, whose services were rewarded with appanages from royal lands. Of the council members, the king’s heir seems to have been the most important. Council officials conveyed royal decisions to subordinates, typically by visiting village elders while making a circuit of the country.
Royal rule was probably not harsh. The protests that have been preserved were probably prompted by unusually weak government. A reasonable relationship between ruler and villagers may be seen in a Balinese inscription of 1025 that records a king’s sale of his hunting land to a village after the villagers had complained of their lack of land. Village elders sat with the officers of royal law in order to guarantee fair trials and verdicts reflecting the consensus of local opinion. Customary law was incorporated into the royal statutes. Aggrieved individuals could appeal to the king for redress; groups of villages sought his assistance for large-scale irrigation works. The villages paid taxes to the ruler, who thus enjoyed an economic advantage over other regional lords. Everything depended on the ruler’s energy and a general agreement that his government served the interests of all.
The Kadiri princes of the 12th century ruled over a land that was never free from rebellion. In 1222 the king Kertajaya was defeated by an adventurer, Ken Angrok. A new capital was established, with Ken Angrok as king, at Kutaraja—later renamed Singhasari—near the harbours of east Java.
