Mpu Sindok moves the centre of Mataram to East Java
In 929 Mpu Sindok, who had been the highest dignitary of the Javanese kingdom of Mataram, became king; a charter of that year places his palace at Tamwlang in East Java, and later ones at Watugaluh on the Brantas River. With his accession the centre of the kingdom moved for good from the plains of Central Java, where Borobudur and Prambanan had been built, to the east of the island, and East Javanese kings down to the 13th century regarded Sindok as the founder of their power.
- Date
- 929year known
- Place
- Tamwlang and Watugaluh, the court of Mpu Sindok on the Brantasapproximate locationtoday: Jombang Regency, East Java, Indonesia · Southeast Asia and Oceania
- Participants
- Mpu Sindok, Mataram kingdom
- Threads
- Southeast Asia and Oceania (1st–10th c.)
- Also known as
- Sindok; Tamwlang; Watugaluh; Turyan inscription; Paradah inscription; Anjuk Ladang inscription; Medang; Ishana dynasty; East Java; Синдок; Тамвланг; Ватугалух; Восточная Ява; Меданг
Sindok appears in 919 as Rakai Halu in an inscription of King Tulodong and was still the highest dignitary under Wawa (927–928). George Coedès noted that the inscriptions of Wawa’s reign already come only from the east, so that the administrative centre had begun to move before Sindok, although it is not certain that Central Java was then abandoned. Sindok’s first known act is dated 929, and the Turyan inscription of that year places his palace at Tamwlang, while the Paradah inscription of 943 places it ‘in the land of Mataram at Watugaluh’, near present-day Jombang. The kings in the east kept the name of Mataram and continued to invoke its gods, but in Central Java the old centre declined and was abandoned, while new buildings multiplied in the east.
Why the court left Central Java is not known. Scholars have suggested a natural disaster — an eruption of Mount Merapi, an earthquake or an epidemic —, the rise of a powerful eastern vassal, or the danger from Srivijaya in Sumatra. In J. G. de Casparis’s reading, the Anjuk Ladang inscription of 935 or 937 rewards villagers who had helped the king’s army repel an invading army from Malayu (Sumatra), and according to Coedès Srivijaya used the move to restore a prince of Sunda in western Java in 942. Sindok’s twenty or so inscriptions, dated from 929 to 948 and coming from the upper Brantas valley, are one of the most valuable sources on the institutions of Java, and the Tantric Buddhist treatise Sang hyang Kamahayanikan is ascribed to his reign. He was succeeded by his daughter Ishanatungavijaya, whose great-grandson was the 11th-century king Airlangga.
Connections
Related events
- Srivijaya’s first conquests and its Old Malay inscriptionsbetween 682 and 683 – 686 · Southeast Asia and Oceaniathe threat from Srivijaya is one of the explanations proposed for the move
- Building of Borobudurc. 780 – c. 833 · Southeast Asia and OceaniaBorobudur too lay in the Central Javan heartland that the court abandoned
- The Shivagrha inscription: the Shiva temple of Prambanan is consecrated12 November 856 · Southeast Asia and Oceaniaafter the move to East Java, Prambanan and the other temples of Central Java were left behind
Same place
- Founding of Majapahit10 November 1293 · Southeast Asia and Oceania
Adjacent events in the thread
- Indravarman I builds the Indratataka, Preah Ko and the Bakong877–881 · Southeast Asia and Oceania
- Koh Ker, the capital of Jayavarman IVbetween 921 and 928 – 944 · Southeast Asia and Oceania
Meanwhile in the world
Other regions, within a year of this event
Western and Central Europe
- Abd al-Rahman III proclaims the Caliphate of Córdoba16 January 929
- First Althing at Þingvellir930
- Norse settlement of Icelandc. 870 – 930
Eastern Europe
- Gnezdovo inscriptionbetween 925 and 960
- Saltovo-Mayaki culturec. 750 – between 900 and 950
Middle East and Egypt
- Qarmatians sack Mecca and carry off the Black Stonebetween 11 January and 12 January 930
Africa
- Igbo-Ukwu: bronze casting in the West African forest800–899 – 1100–1199
Central and Northern Asia
- The Samanid Mausoleum in Bukharabetween 892 and 943
- Samanid Bukhara and the rise of New Persian literature900–999
South Asia
- Yashovarman builds the Lakshmana temple at Khajurahobetween 930 and 955
East Asia
- Fall of the Tang: the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms1 June 907 – 3 February 960
North America
- Plum Bayou Mounds: a planned ceremonial centre in the Arkansas valleyc. 650 – c. 1050
- Pueblo II: stone pueblos and the Chaco worldc. 900 – c. 1150
- The Late Woodland period in eastern North Americac. 500 – c. 1000
Latin America
- Classic Maya collapse in the southern lowlandsc. 800 – c. 950
- Rise of Chichén Itzá in northern Yucatánc. 800 – between 900 and 1000
- Middle Sicán: the Lambayeque culture at its height at Batán Grandec. 900 – c. 1100
- Tula and the Toltecs: the leading city of central Mexicoc. 900 – c. 1150
- Wari culture and the Middle Horizon state in the Central Andesc. 600 – c. 1000
+ 1 event
The same period
Sources
- Wikipedia (English): Mpu Sindok
- Wikipedia (English): Mataram kingdom
- Wikipedia (English): Anjuk Ladang inscription
- Wikipedia (English): Ishana dynasty
- Wikipedia (Russian): Матарам
- Coedès G. The Indianized States of Southeast Asia / Ed. W. F. Vella; transl. S. B. Cowing. — Honolulu: East-West Center Press, 1968. — P. 126–129.