Majapahit
Majapahit (from Malayo-Polynesian maja “ Bengali quince ” and pahit “bitter”; synonymous with Sanskrit Bilva-tikta , also Wilwatikta or Tikta-wilwa ) was the last large Hindu thalassocracy on the Malay archipelago from 1293 to the beginning of the 16th century . The capital was in eastern Java , today's Trowulan, in the Surabaya region . At the height of power, under Hayam Wuruk from 1350 to 1389, it ruled coastal areas of the Malay Peninsula , Sumatra and Borneo .
founding
After the Singhasari drove Srivijaya's troops from Java around 1290 and thus ruled large parts of the archipelago, China's Emperor Kublai sent messengers to the area to demand tribute . Singhasari's ruler, Kertanagara, however, refused to pay, prompting the emperor to send out a punitive expedition with 1,000 ships and 20,000 soldiers. Shortly before their arrival, however, a rebellion resulted in the death of Kertanagara, after which his brother-in-law Jayakatwang, who claimed to be a descendant of the ancient kings of Kediri , took power.
Raden Wijaya , Kertanagara's son-in-law, was able to flee from Jayakatwang to the island of Madura . But he soon returned and founded the settlement of Majapahit. Messengers from this settlement finally greeted the typhoons and starvation-plagued Chinese fleet off the coast of Java in 1293 . Wijaya offered Kublai Khan's troops an alliance against Jayakatwang, which they accepted. On March 15, 1293, a five-day battle began in which Jayakatwang were defeated and 5,000 Kediri were killed. With a surprise attack, Raden Wijaya then forced Kublai's army to return home. Raden Wijaya was finally crowned as Kertarajasa Jayawardhana on November 10, 1293.
Peak of power
Several uprisings followed, which did not subside even during the reign of Raden Wijaya's son Jayanagara, who had taken over the throne in 1309. With the help of his ministers Arya Tadah and Gajah Mada , he survived all riots, although at times, such as in 1319, he was forced to flee. In 1328 Jayanagara was assassinated by a fake operation and Gajah Mada took over the throne of the kingdom as regent for the titular queen Tribhuwana Wijayrachtga Dewi , Jayanagara's sister. He was an ambitious and cunning ruler who, until his death in 1364, extended Majapahit's sphere of influence to the surrounding islands and, for example , was able to subdue Bali in 1343 .
Hayam Wuruk was born in 1334 and was named the new king in 1350. At his wedding to Dyah Pitaloka , the daughter of a neighboring king , Gajah Mada had him and his entourage massacred. The old Buddhist Srivijaya empire on Sumatra with the capital Palembang was finally smashed under Hayam Wuruk's rule in 1377. (It had sent its own embassy to China, thus demonstrating a struggle for independence.) Although the Majapahit rulers expanded their territory and subjugated or received tribute from neighboring kingdoms ( mandala model ), their main interest was in controlling the trade brought about by the Island kingdom led.
At the height of power, the influence reached from Sumatra, the area of Malaysia , the islands of Borneo , Sulawesi to the Philippines and the island of Timor , although the latter cannot be entirely secured. However, in the Nagarakertagama , the heroic epic of the time, a long list of tributary vassal states of Majapahit is listed, including Timor. On the other hand, the Portuguese scribe Tomé Pires noted in the 16th century that all the islands east of Java are called Timor , as the local language uses the word "Timor" to denote the east. The golden age of Majapahit also saw a flourishing of literature.
Hayam Wuruk died in 1389, and Muslim traders came to the area in the early 15th century . The conversion to Islam began, which slowly indicated the collapse of the empire. Between two sons of the king, Wikramawardhana and Wirabumi, a war broke out for four years for the succession of the throne in 1401, for which the latter paid with his life. It became increasingly difficult to ensure the cohesion of the empire after a rebellious prince from Srivijaya, possibly a descendant of the old Sailendra dynasty, founded a sultanate in Malacca , which was increasingly gaining influence through the Islamic traders.
Downfall
King Kertawijaya converted to Islam in 1447 but was murdered five years later. The new ruler Rajasawardhana wanted to push back the spread of Islam, but after years of chaos had to hand over power to Girisawardhana. The court of the next king Singhawikramawardhana was moved to the vicinity of Kediri after a rebellion of Bhre Kertabhumi in 1468. Even if Singhawikramawardhana's son Girindrawardhana was able to overthrow the Bhre Kertabhumi in 1478, the kingdom finally fell into chaos. At that time, many priests and members of the royal family ( Hindus ) moved to Bali .
In addition, the son of King Sri Aji Kresna Kepakisan Raja of Samprangan in Majapahit, King I Dewa Ketut Ngulesir Raja of Gelgel, was proclaimed Raja of Bali and founded the Hindu Kingdom of Gelgel. A descendant of Kertawijaya founded a sultanate of Demak in central Java. After the attack by the Sultan of Demak in 1527, this remnant in Kediri lost its meaning for good.
Ruler of Majapahit
Reigns:
- Kertarajasa Jayawardhana (Raden Wijaya) 1294-1309
- Jayanagara 1309-1328
- Tribhuwana Wijayrachtga Dewi 1328-1350 (Queen)
- Rajasanagara ( Hayam Wuruk ) 1350-1389
- Wikramawardhana 1389-1429
- Suhita 1429-1447 (queen)
- Wijayaparakramawardhana (Kertawijaya) 1447-1451
- Rajasawardhana 1451-1453
- Girisawardhana (Bhre Wengker) 1456–1466
- Singhawikramawardhana (Bhre Pandan Salas) 1466-1474
- Girindrawardhana 1474/78 ff.
Culture and religion
In the area around Mojokerto in today's province of Jawa Timur there were many Maja trees (Bel trees, Aegle marmelos ) with a bitter taste . Raden Wijaya named the area Majapahit because pahit means bitter in Indonesian .
This time is considered a Golden Age in Indonesia . From the book Sutasoma , one of the most famous writings of the Majapahit, comes the motto of the country "Bhinneka Tunggal Ika" , which means something like "Unity in diversity" . Hinduism and Buddhism were the most important religions, some of which were intertwined, as is expressed in the Candi Jago temple . But there were also animists , and later Islam came to the region, which is now prevalent almost everywhere in Indonesia. In the 1920s and 1930s, Indonesian nationalists saw the empire as evidence that the people of the archipelago could be brought together.
Hindu communities on Java still exist today, especially around Mount Bromo near the Tengger .
literature
- Jean Boisselier, Jean-Yves Dubois: Majapahit. Beurdeley & cie., Paris 1990 (illustrated book about the art of Majapahit)
- Kenneth R. Hall: Economic History of Early Southeast Asia. In: The Cambridge History of Southeast Asia. Volume 1, Part 1, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 1999, pp. 183-275. Sections "Singhasari (1222-1292) and Majapahit (1293-1528)" and "The Southeast Asian Maritime Realm, c. 1500 ", pp. 215-229.
- Kenneth R. Hall: A History of Early Southeast Asia. Maritime Trade and Societal Development, 100-1500. Rowman & Littlefield, Lanham MD / Plymouth 2011. Chapter “Maritime Trade and Community Development in Fourteenth- and Fifteenth-Century Java”, pp. 253–286.
- Otto Karow (texts): Terracotta art of the Majapahit empire in East Java. Exhibition catalog. Museum of Ethnology, Frankfurt a. M. 1987.
- Hermann Kulke : The Early and the Imperial Kingdom in Southeast Asian History. In: Southeast Asia in the 9th to 14th Centuries. Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, Singapore 1986.
- Edi Sedyawati: Majapahit (1293 – ca. 1520s). A Hindu-Javanese Power. In: Southeast Asia. A Historical Encyclopedia, from Angkor Wat to East Timor. ABC-CLIO, Santa Barbara CA 2004, pp. 822-824
- OW Wolters: History, Culture, and Region in Southeast Asian Perspectives. 2nd edition, Cornell Southeast Asia Program, Ithaca NY 1999. In particular, chapter "Among the Maṇḍalas", pp. 126-154.
Web links
- History temple from the time
- Project Biology 10b student blogger with more information
- History of Majapahit in engl