Raden Wijaya

Raden Wijaya alias Kĕrtarājasa Jayawardhana (ruled 1293-1309) was the successor of the Javanese ruler Kĕrtanagara (1268-1292), who had already expanded the power of Java considerably.

Life

In 1279 the Mongols under Kublai Khan had finally subjugated the Sòng Empire in southern China and thus brought all of China under their control. This ruler sent a number of embassies to Java between 1280 and 1289, but these were rejected. K Botschaftrtanagara, the ruler of Singhasari , even had the ambassador of the last embassy mutilated. Thereupon the Chinese emperor and Mongolian great khan decided in 1292 to undertake a punitive expedition. Before this landed, however, Ārya Wīrarāja, the governor of Madura , together with Jayakatwang, who had been king in Kaḍiri since 1271 , rose against Kĕrtanagara. After the Pararaton (Book of Kings) they defeated the king and conquered the royal residence Siṅgghasāri in the month of Jyaiṣṭha of the Śaka year 1214 (May 19 - June 16, 1292 ), during which Kĕrtanagara died. Kĕrtanagara's son-in-law Raden Wijaya was now operating against the victors, but he was also defeated and fled to Madura, from where, with the support of Wīrarāja, who had switched sides, he landed in the Brantas valley at the site of the future city of Majapahit . In this situation, the Mongolian-Chinese fleet arrived at the beginning of 1293, to which Wijaya (Tǔhǎn Bìshéyé 土 罕 必 闍 耶 [Tuan Wijaya] according to the Chinese sources) immediately submitted, while the Jayakatwang fleet turned against the invaders, but was defeated . On March 3, 1293, the Chinese expeditionary army prevented Jayakatwang's advance on Majapahit, defeated him in a bloody battle and then marched against Kaḍiri, where Jayakatwang (Hájǐ Gédāng 哈 只 葛 當) was besieged and capitulated on April 26, 1293. Wijaya returned to Majapahit with a Chinese escort, which he massacred on May 26, 1293 and then attacked the invading army in Kaḍiri with his own troops and forced them to return to their ships, which sailed back to China on May 31, and there on Arrived August 8th. Thus began the story of the Majapahit Empire.

According to the founding legend, the new residence is said to have got its name from the fact that one of the soldiers of the Wijaya became thirsty in search of a suitable place and therefore ate the fruit of the Maja tree , which was bitter (pahit). Wijaya took after the inscription of Kudadu from Saturday, September 11, 1294 as ruler the name Kĕrtarājasa Jayawardhana (r. 1293-1309). Now, according to the Sukam vonrta (Pĕnanggungan) inscription on Monday, October 29, 1296, in East Java the local raka and rakryan were systematically replaced by members of the royal family and, in some cases, members of the court. It was more than a purely symbolic act that as early as 1295 Karrtarājasa crowned Kāla Gemet, the eldest son of his chief wife Parameśwarī Tribhuwanā (he was married to four daughters of Kĕrtanagara) as prince of Kiri.

His new policy of systematic annexation of all neighboring watĕk or deśa and their petty kings led to a series of uprisings that were apparently successfully suppressed by Majapahit. Then he declared in the inscription of Balawi on Monday, May 24th 1305, that he was a descendant of the Rājasa dynasty of Siṅgghasāri, which he had re-established in Majapahit, as a kind of family business. In it, his son Kāla Gemet received the official name Jayanagara.

literature

• Damais, Louis-Charles. Études d'épigraphie indonesienne , Paris: École française d'Extrême-Orient 1990.
• Franke, Otto. History of the Chinese Empire , Volume IV, Berlin: Walter de Gruyter 1948.
• Slametmuljana. A history of Majapahit , Singapore 1976.

Individual evidence

1. ^ Franke, History of the Chinese Empire , Volume IV, Berlin 1948 pp. 463–464
2. ↑ Damais, Études d'épigraphie indonesienne , Paris 1990, p. 139
3. ↑ Slametmuljana, A history of Majapahit , Singapore 1976, p. 44 and p. 83, note 12