The Mataram kingdom, also called Medang, was a Hindu-Buddhist kingdom on the island of Java that flourished from the eighth to the early eleventh century. Founded by King Sanjaya in Central Java, it later moved its centre to East Java. Built on rich rice farming and later on maritime trade, it is best remembered for the great temples of Borobudur and Prambanan, raised near today's Yogyakarta.
Sanjaya and the founding
The earliest record of the kingdom is the Canggal inscription of 732, written in Sanskrit, which tells of Sanjaya setting up a lingam, a symbol of Shiva, on a hill in Java, an island it praises for its rice and gold. Sanjaya appears to have come to power around 716 or 717, succeeding his uncle Sanna after a period of disunity. Later royal inscriptions of 907 and 908, issued by King Balitung, list the kings of Mataram back to Sanjaya and are a key source for its rulers, though they give no family relationships.
The temple-building age
From about 760 to 910 Javanese classical art reached its height. Sanjaya was a devotee of Shiva, but his successor Panangkaran was a Mahayana Buddhist, and historians still debate whether two rival dynasties, the Sanjaya and the Shailendra, ruled Central Java, or a single Shailendra line whose patronage switched between faiths. Panangkaran founded the Kalasan temple in 778 and began the vast Sewu complex, completed in 792. Under Samaratungga, Borobudur, a huge stone mandala, was completed around 825. The marriage of the Buddhist princess Pramodhawardhani to the Shaivite Rakai Pikatan seems to have reconciled the two religious traditions, and Pikatan built the great Shiva temple complex now known as Prambanan.
Power across the seas
Inscriptions in southern Thailand and elsewhere suggest that Mataram's influence reached Sumatra, Bali, the Malay peninsula, the Philippines and Cambodia. Javanese fleets raided the coast of Tonkin in 767 and Champa in 774 and 787. The Khmer ruler Jayavarman II is said to have spent years at the Javanese court before declaring Cambodia's independence from Java in 802 and founding the Khmer Empire. The Shailendras also became closely tied to Srivijaya in Sumatra; the prince Balaputra, who lost out in Java, went on to rule there.
Division and recovery
After King Lokapala's death in 885 the kingdom fell into turmoil, with three kings in two years and no single ruler from 887 to 894. Balitung, who took the throne in 898, reunited it, strengthened royal authority, freed Buddhist monasteries from tax in 904 and for the first time brought parts of East Java under Mataram. Around 929 King Sindok moved the centre of the kingdom to East Java, founding the Isyana dynasty. The reason is debated: an eruption of Mount Merapi, disease, religious motives, fear of Srivijaya, or the economic pull of the Brantas valley and its trade routes have all been proposed, and recent work suggests a gradual shift.
Fall
In the East Javanese period the kingdom drew Bali into its orbit, and under King Dharmawangsa the Mahabharata was translated into Old Javanese in 996. Rivalry with Srivijaya turned to open war when Dharmawangsa attacked Palembang around 990, but the invasion failed. In 1016 or 1017 Wurawari, a vassal ruler, attacked the palace during a royal wedding, killing Dharmawangsa and much of his family, an event remembered as the pralaya, or catastrophe. The kingdom broke apart.
Legacy
Dharmawangsa's nephew Airlangga, son of the Balinese king Udayana and Queen Mahendradatta, escaped the massacre and in 1019 refounded the realm as the kingdom of Kahuripan in East Java. Mataram's temples, above all Borobudur and Prambanan, remain among the greatest monuments of Indonesia.
On our maps
Our 800 and 900 maps draw the kingdom under the label "Mataram" in Central and East Java, within its usual dates of around 716 to about 1016.
From the atlas
Mataram kingdom on our maps
Borders of Time draws the Mataram kingdom on 2 of its 54 world maps, from 800 CE to 900 CE. Its largest extent is on the 800 CE map, covering about 130,000 km² (50,400 sq mi), roughly the size of Greece today.
On that map it borders the Malays and the Srivijaya Empire.
On the map before it appears (700 CE), the same area belongs to Mataram. On the map after its last appearance (1000 CE), it belongs to East Java.
- 800 CE130,000 km²
- 900 CE130,000 km²
Measured from the historical-basemaps snapshots this atlas uses. Borders in those maps are approximate, especially for early periods.
Quick answers
- When did the Mataram kingdom exist?
- From 716 CE to 1016, about 300 years. The atlas draws it on its maps from 800 CE to 900 CE.
- Where was the Mataram kingdom?
- At its largest, on the 800 CE map, its land lies in today’s Indonesia (100%). On that map it borders the Malays and the Srivijaya Empire.
- What was the capital of the Mataram kingdom?
- Mamratipura.
- How big was the Mataram kingdom?
- The Mataram kingdom was largest on the 800 CE map, at about 130,000 km² (50,400 sq mi).