A report on Srivijaya, Mataram Kingdom and Majapahit

The cradle of Javanese culture is commonly described as being in Kedu and Kewu Plain in the fertile slopes of Mount Merapi as the heart of the Mataram Kingdom.

The move was most likely caused by the volcanic eruption of Merapi and/or invasion from Srivijaya.

Raden Wijaya would later establish Majapahit near the delta of the Brantas River in modern-day Mojokerto, East Java.

The Indonesian archipelago has been a valuable region for trade since at least the 7th century when Srivijaya and later Majapahit traded with entities from mainland China and the Indian subcontinent.

Between the eighth and tenth centuries CE, the agricultural Buddhist Sailendra and Hindu Mataram dynasties thrived and declined in inland Java, leaving grand religious monuments such as Sailendra's Borobudur and Mataram's Prambanan.

The only old Javanese manuscript that hints the monument called Budur as a holy Buddhist sanctuary is Nagarakretagama, written by Mpu Prapanca, a Buddhist scholar of Majapahit court, in 1365.

Borobudur was likely founded around 800 AD. This corresponds to the period between 760 and 830 AD, the peak of the Sailendra dynasty rule over the Mataram kingdom in central Java, when their power encompassed not only the Srivijayan Empire but also southern Thailand, Indianized kingdoms of Philippines, North Malaya (Kedah, also known in Indian texts as the ancient Hindu state of Kadaram).

Champa also had close trade and cultural relations with the powerful maritime empire of Srivijaya and later with the Majapahit of the Malay Archipelago, its easternmost trade relations being with the kingdoms of Butuan and Sulu in the Philippines.

In 767, the Tonkin coast was raided by a Javanese fleet (Daba) and Kunlun pirates, Champa was subsequently assaulted by Javanese or Kunlun vessels in 774 and 787.

The specific mention of Majapahit, Malacca and Demak, allow us to date the writing of the story in the 15th century, probably the latter part of this century, or the early 16th century at the latest.

According to this source, the port of Sunda was under Srivijaya mandala domination.

Sanjaya chose to live in central Java and later established the Mataram Kingdom in 732.

He declared himself Chakravartin in a ritual taken from the Hindu tradition, thereby not only becoming the divinely appointed and therefore uncontested ruler, but also simultaneously declaring the independence of his kingdom from Java.

After learning of Suryavarman's alliance with Rajendra Chola, the Tambralinga kingdom requested aid from the Srivijaya King Sangrama Vijayatungavarman.

A Javanese source, the Nagarakretagama canto 15, composed in 1365 in the Majapahit Empire, claimed Java had established diplomatic relations with Kambuja (Cambodia) together with Syangkayodhyapura (Ayutthaya), Dharmmanagari (Negara Sri Dharmaraja), Rajapura (Ratchaburi) and Singhanagari (Songkla), Marutma (Martaban or Mottama, Southern Myanmar), Champa and Yawana (Annam).

It was the capital of Srivijaya, a Buddhist kingdom that ruled much of the western Indonesian Archipelago and controlled many maritime trade routes, including the Strait of Malacca.

Some say that the name was given by four brothers who survived a shipwreck near Musi River during the Majapahit reign.

In 990, an army from the Kingdom of Medang in Java attacked Srivijaya.

The kingdom was short-lived, only spanning the period between 1019 and 1045, and Airlangga was the only raja of the kingdom, which was built out of the rubble of the Kingdom of Mataram after the Srivijaya invasion.

Later in 14th to 15th century, the former kingdom was recognised as one of Majapahit's 12 provinces.

Historically, the main suzerain or overlord states were the Khmer Empire of Cambodia; Srivijaya of South Sumatra; the successive kingdoms of Medang, Kediri, Singhasari and Majapahit of Java; the Ayutthaya Kingdom of Thailand; Champa and early Đại Việt.