Once again Pak Ganja, you are being overly modest.
The over-view you have provided in your "Mataram" post is very valuable, and I am positive interesting, to many of the people who follow this discussion group.
I compliment you on your knowledge of the traditional history of Jawa.
There are a couple of very minor things that I would like to mention, if I may.
Firstly, the reasons for the disappearance of the Syailendras from Central Jawa is still not established with any certainty.
The same is true of the shift of the seat of power from Central Jawa to East Jawa. I think the currently popular theory for this is that the people were a little put out by the constant demands for labour made upon them by their lords, so they just got up and walked. A ruler without subjects was not really a ruler in Old Jawa, so the boss bowed to popular opinion and moved too. The nature and position of a ruler in Old Jawa was somewhat different to the way in which we think of a ruler today.
For those readers who may not be familiar with the difficulties associated with the history of Old Jawa, it is possibly best to mention that all dates are only approximate, and can be argued backwards and forth until the cows come home. For instance, Pak Ganja has given us 1519 as the end date of Majapahit, but some people will put it at 1525, and most other authorities will opt for an earlier date. There are multiple interpretations, and no certainty.
Similarly with names. Pak Ganja mentions the Kingdom of Medang. To the uninitiated this could easily be confused with Medang Kamulan. Medang is historic; Medang Kamulan is mythical.
The division of Airlangga's kingdom is something that seems to cause historians some problems.It may not have been quite as it is presented in the traditions. Some tellings of this would have the two kingdoms as Jenggala and Panjalu, with Kahuripan as the capital of Jenggala, and Kediri as the capital of Panjalu.
Still, all of my comments are only minor things. This is a keris discussion group, not an online examination in early Javanese history. The important thing is that these postings could awake the interest of readers in this subject.
For those who would like to pursue this further, there is an enormous amount of information available on the internet. Much of it is garbled, confused, and straightout incorrect, but if you ignore the details it can make very interesting reading.You could try starting with Wikipedia.
|