In 1293 Raden Wijaya established the Kingdom of Majapahit after he was able to attack and defeat Jayakatwang, the king of Singasari, who took over the power from his father-in-law, the king Kartanegara.
Pararaton called his full name as Raden Harsawijaya or Raden Wijaya a), whereas Nagarakertagama called him Dyah Wijaya. He issued the Kudadu Inscription to commemorate his entitlement as Nararya Sanggramawijaya b) in 1294, acclaiming that he was the founder of the Majapahit Kingdom. In 1305, Raden Wijaya proclaimed himself, written in Balawi Inscription, as part of the Rajasa Dynasty.
But his exact origin was still a mystery. It was a great surprise to find that the prominent person such as Raden Wijaya, the founder of the Great Majapahit Empire, didn’t have a clear genealogy-line.
According to Pararaton, Raden Wijaya was the son of Mahisa Cempaka (Narasinghamurti), a prince from Singosari. His grandfather was Mahisa Wonga Teleng, the son of Ken Arok, the founder of the Rajasa Dynasty. On the contrary, Nagarakertagama mentioned that Raden Wijaya was the grandson of Narasinghamurti. His father was Dyah Lembu Tal, the son of Narasinghamurti.
According to Babad Tanah Jawi, the founder of Majapahit was called Jaka Sesuruh, who was the son of Prabu Sri Pamekas from the Pajajaran Kingdom situated in Sunda (West Java). Jaka Sesuruh had a clash against his step-brother Siyung Wanara and was defeated by the latter. Jaka Sesuruh fled to the east and established the Majapahit Kingdom. After being quite powerful, he, in turn, launched a counterattack and destroyed Siyung Wanara.
Pustaka Rayjarajya I Bhumi Nusantara pointed out that he was the son of Rakyan Jayadarma from the Sunda Galuh Kingdom who married Dyah Lembu Tal, the daughter of Mahisa Cempaka, a Singasari prince.
The more recent writer of The Power of Sejarah Indonesia1 takes the version of Pustaka Rayjarajya I Bhumi Nusantara supporting that Raden Wijaya was the son of Rakyan Jayadarma, the 26th king of the Sunda-Galuh Kingdom, and Dyah Lembu Tal or Dyah Singhamurti, the daughter of Singhasari, the grandson of Mahisa Cempaka (in line with Nagarakertagama)
The version that Raden Wijaya was the son of a king Sunda-Galuh is not so outlandish as there had been a very long relationship between Sunda and Java Kingdom in Central Java since the 7th century and subsequently with East Java since the 10th century.
The oldest Hindu kingdom in Java first arose in West Java. It was called Tarumanegara established at the upstream of Citarum River in the 4th century, as recorded in Tugu Inscription. The fading out of Tarumanegara, the first Hindu kingdom in Java established at the upstream of Citarum River in the 4th century, was marked by the uprising of Sunda Kingdom, in the east of Tarumanegara, founded by Tarusbawa in 670.
Soon after Galuh, another part of the Tarumanegara Kingdom located near now Ciamis ruled by Wretikandayun, proclaimed its independence from Tarumanegara c). Maharani Shima, the queen Kalingga, located near Pekalongan in Central Java, whose daughter Parwati was the wife of Mandiminyak, the son of Wretikandayun, supported the proclamation.
Tarusbawa installed as his successor, his grandson-in-law Sanjaya (Rakyan Jamri), whose mother was the daughter of Mandiminyak and Parwati, the princess of Kalingga. Sanjaya had successfully united Sunda and Galuh to become a big kingdom. Still, when his grandmother Maharani Shima died, he chose to succeed her as the king of Kalingga d) instead of Sunda-Galuh.
Sanjaya changed the name Kalingga to Mataram which capital was in Medang Kamulan. Mpu Sindok, the 18th ruler from the Sanjaya dynasty, removed the Medang kingdom to East Java because the violent eruption of Merapi destroyed most of the Kingdom’s areas.
Since then, the relationships of the Sunda-Galuh kingdom spread out to include the East Java kingdoms. The marriage of Rakyan Jayadarma, the 26th king of Sunda-Galuh and Dyah Singhamurti (Dyah Lembu Tal?), the princess of Singasari, the far descendant of Rajasa (Ken Arok) e) marked the relationships.
When Rakyan Jayadarma was poisoned and killed by his entourage, his wife Dyah Singhamurti, together with his son, Raden Wijaya, left Galuh and came back to Singasari. Later on, Raden Wijaya founded the vast Empire of Majapahit f) after defeated and drove the Kublai-Khan troops out of Java.
Ironically, when Hayam Wuruk, the grandson of Raden Wijaya’s was going to marry Dyah Pitaloka, the daughter of the King of Galuh, the Gajah Mada special troops g) intercepted and killed the Galuh visitor groups, including Dyah Pitaloka in their way to Majapahit.
Notes:
a.The title Raden was not popular in the 13-14th At that time, the title for the noted person was Dyah, instead of Raden. Raden derived from the combination of Dyah with prefix Ra, so that name of Dyah Wijaya became Ra Dyah or Ra Dyan from which the title Raden emerged. It was also possible that Raden came from the term Rakyan usually used as the noble title in the Sunda-Galuh Kingdom.
b. Nararyawas also the noble title, though Dyah was more frequently used.
c. Tarumanegara then split into two kingdoms, the Sunda Kingdom ruled on the west side of Citarum River and the Galuh Kingdom in the east side.
d. As Sanjaya succeeded the Maharani Shima as the king of Kalingga, he changed the name of the latter to become Mataram which capital was in Medang Kamulan. His far descendant was Mpu Sindok, who moved the kingdom to East Java because of the violent Merapi eruption. Airlangga, the founder of Kahuripan Kingdom, was descendant of Mpu Sindok
e. Another close relationship between the Hindu Kingdom in West Java and East Java was the departure of the family and followers of Kertajaya, the King of Panjalu Kediri, to West Java. The exodus took place after Kertajaya was killed by the troops of Ken Arok, the ruler of Tumapel, in the fierce battle near Ganter village in 1222. His followers fled and installed in the area north of Galuh and east of Galunggung, which they named under their native land, Panjalu. The indirect evidence of the relationship between Galuh – Galunggung, and Kediri appeared in the Galunggung inscription (circa 1194), which specifically mentioned the name of Kertajaya, the king of a faraway land in Panjalu Kediri, East Java.
f. Raden Wijaya dubbed his Kingdom based on the Maja trees he found in Tarik, the original site of Majapahit. The same kind of trees was growing abundantly in West Java, such as now indicated by the names of Majalengka, Majalaya, and Maja sub-regency in Banten.
g. Gajah Mada, the Majapahit Prime Minister and Commander in Chief, had an obsession with uniting Nusantara under Majapahit Empire. He wanted the Sunda entourage to surrender Dyah Pitaloka as a gesture that Sunda kingdom was under Majapahit domination, apparently without Hayam Wuruk’s consent, which was refused by Galuh visitor groups.
References:
- Darmawan, J. et al.: “The Power of Sejarah Indonesia,” Indonesia Book Project, Jakarta, 2011”.
- Purwadi, M. et al.: “Babad Tanah Jawi,” Gelombang Pasang, Yogyakarta, 2005, p. 21-25.
- Adji, K.B.: ”Ensiklopedi Raja-Raja Jawa,” Araska, Jogjakarta, 2011
ONCE UPON A TIME IN THE ARCHIPELAGO 