हिंदीOn this day

Mataram (Sanjaya house)

The Hindu kings of central Java, who set up a linga on Gunung Wukir in 732 and raised the Shiva temple of Prambanan in 856. In the 10th century the court moved east and became the root of every later Javanese kingdom.

  1. Sanjayac. 732
  2. Rakai Panangkaranlater 8th century
  3. Rakai Pikatanmid-9th century
  4. Rakai Kayuwangic. 855–885
  5. Balitungc. 899–911
  6. Mpu Sindok929–c. 947
  7. Dharmawangsa Teguhc. 990–1016
Period: 732–1016 CERegion: Central Java, and from 929 East JavaCapitals: Medang, Central Java, Tamwlang and Watugaluh, East Java
Photo: Gunawan Kartapranata · CC BY-SA 3.0

01Sanjaya’s linga, 732

On a hill called Gunung Wukir, west of Mount Merapi, a Sanskrit inscription dated Shaka 654 (732 CE) records that King Sanjaya set up a linga there. It praises Shiva, Brahma and Vishnu, and calls Java an island rich in grain and gold. This is the Canggal inscription, and it is the founding charter of the line. The older Shiva shrines on the Dieng plateau, high in the clouds and named after the Pandavas, belong to the same Shaiva world.

02Shivagrha, 856

The Shivagrha inscription, dated 856, describes the consecration of a great house of Shiva with a river diverted to run beside it. That temple is Prambanan: a central Shiva shrine 47 metres high, flanked by Brahma and Vishnu, facing three shrines for their vahanas, and once ringed by 224 smaller temples. Its galleries carry the Ramayana in stone. The builder was Rakai Pikatan, husband of the Shailendra princess Pramodhawardhani.

Dieng Plateau temples
Place · 7th–8th century CEDieng Plateau templesThe oldest standing Hindu temples in Java, small stone Shiva shrines on a volcanic plateau about 2,000 metres up. The Javanese later named them after the heroes of the Mahabharata.Read →

03Balitung’s list of kings

In 907 King Balitung issued the Mantyasih copper plates, which name his predecessors back to Sanjaya. It is the backbone of Javanese chronology for the 8th and 9th centuries. Balitung’s reign also produced some of the earliest Old Javanese prose and many land grants to temples, each naming the officials who witnessed it. The Mantyasih plates were found near Magelang in Central Java, and the town still counts its founding from their date, 907.

04The move east and the fall of 1016

Around 929 Mpu Sindok moved the court from Central Java to the Brantas valley in the east, for reasons still argued over. His heirs ruled from there. In 1016 the palace of King Dharmawangsa Teguh was attacked during a wedding by a vassal from Wurawari, and the king was killed. His young son-in-law Airlangga escaped to the forest, rebuilt the kingdom, and before his death divided it into Janggala and Kediri.

Canggal inscription of Sanjaya
Evidence · 732 CE (Shaka 654)Canggal inscription of SanjayaA Sanskrit inscription recording that King Sanjaya of Mataram set up a Shiva linga on a hill in Java.Read →

The rulers

  1. 1SanjayaCanggal inscription; set up a lingac. 732
  2. 2Rakai PanangkaranNamed in the Kalasan inscription, 778later 8th century
  3. 3Rakai PikatanBuilt Prambanan, consecrated 856mid-9th century
  4. 4Rakai Kayuwangic. 855–885
  5. 5BalitungMantyasih plates, 907c. 899–911
  6. 6Mpu SindokMoved the court to East Java929–c. 947
  7. 7Dharmawangsa TeguhHad the Mahabharata rendered in Old Javanesec. 990–1016

What they left

  • Prambanan, the Trimurti temple, UNESCO 1991
  • The Dieng plateau temples, the oldest standing temples in Java
  • The Ramayana reliefs that the Prambanan dance still performs
  • The Old Javanese parwa versions of the Mahabharata

Places

Dieng Plateau templesRuined
The Age of Great Kingdoms

Dieng Plateau temples

The oldest standing Hindu temples in Java, small stone Shiva shrines on a volcanic plateau about 2,000 metres up. The Javanese later named them after the heroes of the Mahabharata.

Gedong Songo TemplesRuined
The Age of Great Kingdoms

Gedong Songo Temples

Groups of small stone Shiva temples spread along the ridges of Mount Ungaran at about 1,200 metres, among the oldest Hindu buildings in Java. Gedong Songo means nine buildings in Javanese.

Prambanan (Shivagrha)Rebuilt
The Age of Great Kingdoms

Prambanan (Shivagrha)

The largest Hindu temple in Indonesia, raised to the Trimurti in ninth-century Java. Its central Shiva tower stands 47 metres high.

Evidence

Canggal inscription of SanjayaInscription
732 CE (Shaka 654)

Canggal inscription of Sanjaya

A Sanskrit inscription recording that King Sanjaya of Mataram set up a Shiva linga on a hill in Java.

On the timeline

  • 732 CE

    Sanjaya installs a linga in JavaFaith

    The Canggal inscription, dated Shaka 654, records that King Sanjaya of Mataram consecrated a Shivalinga on a hill in central Java.