The Majapahit was the last of the great Hindu empires of the Malay archipelago. It was preceded by the Srivijayan kingdom, based in Palembang on the island of Sumatra. The founder of the Majapahit Empire, Kertarajasa , was the son-in-law of the ruler of the Singhasari kingdom, also based in Java.
After Singhasari drove Srivijaya out of Java altogether in , the rising power of Singhasari came to the attention of Kublai Khan in China and he sent emissaries demanding tribute. Kertanagara , ruler of the Singhasari kingdom, refused to pay tribute and the Khan sent a punitive expedition which arrived off the coast of Java in These imperial ambitions proved difficult and expensive, however: the realm was perennially troubled by dissent at court and rebellion both at home and in the subjugated territories.
After defeating Srivijaya in Sumatra in , Singhasari became the most powerful kingdom in the area. Kertanagara provoked the new Mongol rulers of Yuan Dynasty — China to attempt to check his expansion, which they considered a threat to the region. Kublai Khan challenged Singhasari by sending emissaries demanding tribute. Kertanagara, the-then ruler of the Singhasari kingdom, refused to pay tribute and so the Khan sent a punitive expedition which arrived off the coast of Java in Before the Mongol fleet of allegedly 1, ships and , men could land on Java, Kertanagara had been assassinated by a vengeful descendent of the Kediri kings.
The founder of the Majapahit Empire, Raden Wijaya, was the son-in-law of Kertanagara, the last ruler of the Singhasari kingdom. In Wijaya ascended the throne as Kertarajasa, ruler of the new kingdom of Majapahit. Wijaya allied himself with the Mongols against Jayakatwang and, once the Singhasari kingdom was destroyed, he turned hsi attention the Monols and forced them to withdraw in confusion.
Thus, Raden Wijaya managed to establish the Majapahit Kingdom. The exact date used as the birth of the Majapahit kingdom is the day of his coronation, the 15th of Kartika month in the year using the Javanese saka calendar, which equates to November 10, On that date, his title has changed from Raden Wijaya to Sri Kertarajasa Jayawardhana, commonly shortened to Kertarajasa.
After Kertanagara was killed Raden Wijaya, was given the land of Tarik timberland and pardoned by Jayakatwang with the aid of Madura's regent, Arya Wiraraja. The village was named Majapahit, which was taken from a fruit name that had bitter taste in that timberland maja is the fruit name and pahit means bitter. When Mongolian Yuan army sent by Kublai Khan arrived, Wijaya allied himself with the army to fight against Jayakatwang. Once Jayakatwang was destroyed, Raden Wijaya forced his allies to withdraw from Java by launching a surprise attack.
Yuan's army had to withdraw in confusion as they were in hostile territory. It was also their last chance to catch the monsoon winds home; otherwise, they would have had to wait for another six months on a hostile island. During his coronation he was given formal name Kertarajasa Jayawardhana. The new kingdom faced challenges. Some of Kertarajasa's most trusted men, including Ranggalawe, Sora, and Nambi rebelled against him, though unsuccessfully.
It was suspected that the mahapati equal with prime minister Halayudha set the conspiracy to overthrow all of the king's opponents, to gain the highest position in the government. However, after following the death of the last rebel Kuti, Halayudha was captured and jailed for his tricks, and then sentenced to death. Wijaya himself died in A. Majapahit is generally regarded as having been the largest premodern state in the Indonesian archipelago, and perhaps the most extensive in all of Southeast Asia.
At its zenith under the fourth ruler, Hayam Wuruk known posthumously as Rajasanagara, r. Following the example of its predecessor, Singhasari, Majapahit was based on the combined development of agriculture and large scale maritime trade. According to ancientworlds. More importantly, it is also the symbol of Java's first claim to pre-eminence in the Malay Archipelago, even if Majapahit's so-called tributaries were, more often than not, places known to the Javanese of that period rather than actual dependencies.
The Majapahit kingdom grew to prominence during the reign of Hayam Wuruk from to Its territorial expansion can be credited to brilliant military commander Gajah Mada, who helped the kingdom claim control over much of the archipelago, exerting suzerainty over smaller kingdoms and extracting trading rights from them. The Majapahit Kingdom was not without its intrigues. Wijaya's son and successor, Jayanegara was notorious for immorality. One of his sinful acts was taking his own stepsisters as wives.
He was entitled Kala Gemet, or "weak villain". In AD , Jayanegara was murdered by his doctor, Tantja. His stepmother, Gayatri Rajapatni, was supposed to replace him, but Rajapatni retired from court to become a bhiksuni a female Buddhist monk in a monastery. Rajapatni appointed her daughter, Tribhuwana Wijayatunggadewi, or known in her formal name as Tribhuwannottungadewi Jayawishnuwardhani, as the queen of Majapahit under Rajapatni's auspices.
Tribhuwana ruled Majapahit until the death of her mother in AD Majapahit dominance ended with the spread of Islam to Malacca in Majapahit was the last great Hindu kingdom in South East Asia. The founding of the kingdom of Madjapahit, which took place AD , appears to have been the result of a quarrel over the throne of the older Javan kingdom of Singosari, and the circumstances connected with this event are so striking as to demand more than passing consideration.
Kartanagara, the fifth and last king of Singosari, in the year , sent the pick of his Javanese troops on a great expedition against the west coast of Sumatra. This expedition, which penetrated as far as Menangkabau, but failed to reach the seat of Sri-Vishayan power, was absent from Java for twenty years; and before its return, in , the great events surrounding the foundation of Madjapahit had already transpired.
It appears that Djayakatwang, the tributary king of Kediri, in east-central Java, taking advantage of the absence of Kartanagara's best troops, treacherously rebelled against his overlord and in seized the throne of Singosari. Now the commander of Kartanagara's small home army was his son-in-law, Raden Widjaya. The latter, who was out of the royal city at the time of its capture, was joined by such troops as escaped, and withdrew westward to the village of Madjapahit, where he established his headquarters.
Here he was joined by an able minister of the court, who concealed from him the fact that Kartanagara had already been poisoned by the usurper, and counseled an appeal to the Emperor of China. According to the Javanese account, it would seem that Singosari was at that time paying tribute to Kublai Khan, the great Mongol emperor of China, who had confirmed Kartanagara in his kingship and regarded him as a friendly vassal.
Raden Widjaya followed the minister's advice and dispatched an urgent appeal for aid to Kublai Khan by a Chinese ship then in a neighboring port. Whether the offer of the princesses had any weight or not, this appeal brought prompt results. Kublai Khan sent two of his ablest generals, with a great fleet and twenty thousand troops, to Raden Widjaya's aid. According to the Chinese account, however, which is probably more reliable, though less picturesque, Kublai Khan had dispatched his great expedition, which, in addition to the soldiers mentioned, consisted of a thousand ships with provisions for a year, for the purpose of subduing Kartanagara, who had refused to pay tribute and mistreated the Emperor's envoy.
The truth of the matter appears to lie in a solution which renders both the Javanese and Chinese accounts fairly credible; that is, that Raden Widjaya's message with the offer of presents was dispatched not to the Great Khan himself but to his generals, who had already landed at Tuban in Java and were preparing their expedition against Singosari. In any case, the accounts agree in a general way as to the succeeding events.
At the end of the war, which lasted from the middle of April to the middle of May, , the Chinese allowed Raden Widjaya to return to Madjapahit for the alleged purpose of preparing the princesses and other presents promised by him to the Emperor. However, finding himself master of the land and surrounded by a good-sized army, Raden Widjaya, with an ingratitude typical of sovereigns, decided to drive the Chinese out of Java.
He began by killing the escort that had accompanied him to secure the presents, and then attacked one of the Chinese generals who had remained with a small force in Doha, the capital of Kediri. The Chinese fought their way to the coast, where the whole expedition was reunited and embarked on the ships. The commanders, having already lost over three thousand men and having gained considerable respect for the difficulties of fighting in tropical Java, decided to return to China without attempting to punish Raden Widjaya.
They took with them one hundred of the chief prisoners and booty to the value of more than five hundred thousand silver taels, a great sum in the thirteenth century.
The return journey from Java to Ch'uan-chou in Fukien Province was accomplished in sixty-eight days. After the departure of the Chinese, Raden Widjaya had himself crowned as the first king of Madjapahit, under the name Kertaradjasa Dyaja-warddhana, in the autumn of At other times, such as early Majapahit period — and the late Majapahit period after , the Javanese dream of an overseas empire is much less credible.
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Thank you for the update information about me and history issue say because this issue my mestrious and TRRAGDY for me step by step improve the world Thanks. Very interesting and enlightening description of Majapahit influence in Southeast Asia. Im a Portuguese born Indonesian who lived most of my adult life in Java an Bali.
Passionate about History, Anthropology and Cultural influences. Although not a scholar, I would love to keep in touch. Interesting and informative article on one of the most important empires of pre-modern Indonesia, thanks for sharing. Thank you for sharing this, Bli. On the other hand, the distribution of old manuscripts as references is very limited. I myself even never read one of them. Your email address will not be published. Notify me of follow-up comments by email.
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