Hindu, Buddha, and Islamic Kingdoms in Indonesia

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Hindu/Buddha Kingdoms

Kerajaan Salakanagara Kerajaan Tarumanagara Kerajaan Kutai Kerajaan Sriwijaya Kerajaan Sunda dan Kerajaan Galuh Kerajaan Kalingga Kerajaan Keritang Kerajaan Mataram (Mataram Kuno) Kerajaan Medang Kerajaan Kahuripan

Kerajaan Kediri Kerajaan Kanjuruhan Kerajaan Janggala Kerajaan Singasari Kerajaan Majapahit Kerajaan Dharmasraya Kerajaan Pajajaran Kerajaan Blambangan Kerajaan Sailendra Kerajaan Sanjaya

Kerajaan Isyana Kerajaan Negara Daha Kerajaan Negara Dipa Kerajaan Tanjung Puri Kerajaan Nan Sarunai Kerajaan Kuripan Kerajaan Tulang Bawang

Islamic Kingdoms

Kepaksian Sekala Brak Kesultanan Aceh Kesultanan Asahan Kerajaan Kemuning Kerajaan Batin Enam Suku Kerajaan Indragiri Kesultanan Banten Kesultanan Bima Kesultanan Bulungan Kesultanan Buton Kesultanan Cirebon Kesultanan Lingga-Riau Kesultanan Deli Kesultanan Dompu

Kesultanan Demak Kesultanan Gowa Kesultanan Jambi Kesultanan Kota Pinang Kesultanan Kutai Kesultanan Langkat Kesultanan Pajang Kesultanan Mataram Kesultanan Kartasura Kesultanan Pagaruyung Kesultanan Palembang Kesultanan Pontianak Kesultanan Samawa Kesultanan Sambas

Kesultanan Serdang Kesultanan Siak Sri Inderapura Kerajaan Tanjungpura Kesultanan Ternate Kesultanan Tidore Kerajaan Sumedang Larang Kasunanan Surakarta Kasultanan Yogyakarta Mangkunagaran Kadipaten Paku Alaman Kesultanan Malaka Kerajaan Pasai Kesultanan Banjarmasin Kesultanan Perlak Kesultanan Pasir Kesultanan Kotawaringin Kerajaan Pagatan Kerajaan Tidung Kerajaan Sambaliung Kerajaan Gunung Tabur Kesultanan Mempawah Kesultanan Kubu

The Period of Islamic Kingdoms

Gujarati and Persian merchants who embraced the Islam religion started to visit Indonesia in the 13th century and established trade links with Persia and India. Along with the trade, they also propagated the Islam religion among the Indonesian Hindus, particularly in the coastal area of Java, such as in Demak. At a later stage they succeeded in influencing and even converting Hindu ruling Rajas to Islam.

The Hindu Raja of the Kingdom of Demak was the first in Java who converted to Islam. It was this Islam Sultan who later further spread Islam west of Demak in Cirebon up till Banten and then eastwards along the northern coast of Java to the Kingdom of Gresik and ultimately caused the downfall of the mighty Hindu Kingdom of Majapahit (1513-1520). After the subjugation of Majapahit by Islam rulers, Islam spread further east of the island of Java and established the Bone and Goa Sultanates in Sulawesi, and further east to the northern part of the Maluku where the Sultanates of Ternate and Tidore were established. North of Java, Islam spread to Banjarmasin in Borneo and further west on the island of Sumatra and converted Palembang, Minangkabau (West Sumatra), Pasai and Perlak to Islam. Meanwhile, Majapahit aristocratic descendants, religious scholars and Hindu Khsatryas ret through the East Java Peninsula of Blambangan, further eastwards to the island of Bali and Lombok. However, in later periods the eastern part of the island of Lombok was converted to Islam which infiltrated the island from Makassar in South Sulawesi.

The capital of the Hindu Kingdom of Pajajaran in West Java was Sunda Kelapa (1300 AD), which was situated at the present Capital of the Republic of Indonesia, Jakarta. This capital of the Sunda Kelapa Kingdom was conquered by an Islam General Falatehan of the Sultanate of Demak in 1527, and ever since renamed it Jaya-Karta meaning "the City of Victory." Besides conquering Sunda Kelapa, General Falatehan succeeded also in defeating the Portuguese who attempted to conquer mentioned city.

The Period of Hindu Kingdoms

Many well-organized kingdoms with high civilization were ruled by indigenous Rajas who embraced the Hindu religion or Buddhist religion at a later stage, and it was for this reason that this period in history was called the Period of Hindu Kingdoms, which lasted from ancient time to the 15th century AD. Its culture and civilization, emanating from the Hindu and Buddhist religion were later syncretized with Indonesia's cultural elements and therefore also termed as the "Hindu-Indonesian" period.

Indian customs and culture were introduced with regard to the monarchic system of governing, their ancestral geneological pedigree system, the organizing of their armed forces, literature, music and dances, architecture, methods and ritual of worship and even the "Varna" (cast) division of labor system was introduced in a less strict division of the "Varnas." The Hindu religious interpretation of the "Vedas" Holy Scriptures in the Mahabharata and Ramayana epics presented through the Wayang puppets shadow-play as its visual media, was introduced and spread all over the country, which are still popular nowadays in the Republic of Indonesia.

The first Indian Buddhist arrived in Indonesia between 100 and 200 AD, introducing the Hinayana and the Mahayana sects. The latter became more advanced in the 8th century AD.

As Buddhism was also spread to China so many Chinese pilgrims went to India, sailing through the Strait of Malacca. Some of them on their way to India did make visits to Indonesia and even stayed for a while to get trained in and to develop their knowledge on the Buddhist religion. In 144 AD, a Chinese Buddhist Saint Fa Hsien, driven by a storm, landed in Java Dwipa (present Java Island) and stayed there for five months. The northern part of Java was then ruled by a Hindi Raja, Kudungga. Opposite his kingdom, on the island of Borneo, in Kutai region there were the successive rules of the Hindu Rajas, Devawarman, Aswawarman, and Mulawarman.

The Greek explorer and geographer, Ptolemy from Alexandria who visited Indonesia, named either the island of Java, or Sumatra, "Labadiou's Ptolemy's Chronicles described Java as a country having a good state system, advanced in agriculture, navigation and astronomy and mentioned that the people already knew the "batik" processing of cloths, while there already existed metal works, the use of the metric system and the production of coins.

Other Chinese chronicles dated 132 AD mentioned the existence of diplomatic relations between Java Dwipa and China.

Around 502 AD, China, which already knew the use of ink and paper since 2nd century AD, recorded in their annals the existence of the Buddhist kingdom in Sumatra, "Kanto-Li", presumably in the neighborhood of present Palembang in South Sumatra, which was ruled by a Buddhist Raja Gautama Subhadra and later by his son Pryawarman or Vinyawarman who established diplomatic relations with China. Due to phonetically language barriers, "Kanto-Li" was presumably "Crivijaya," one of the might Buddhist kingdoms in Indonesia. The Chinese Buddhist pilgrim I-Tsing, on his way to India, visited Sriwijaya in 671 AD to study the Sanskrit language and returned 18 years later in 689 AD. Sriwijaya was then the center of Buddhist learning and had many well-known scholars in the Buddhist philosophy, like Sakyaktri, Dharmapala and Vajrabudhi. This kingdom had established diplomatic relations with the South Indian kingdom in Nalanda. The Crivijaya diplomatic mission had attached to its building a school when local Indians could learn the art of molding bronze statues, apart from developing their knowledge on the Buddhist philosophies. As Buddhism at the period flourished, so Sriwijaya influence sphere also grew in many other parts of the archipelago.

Another known Buddhist kingdom emerged on the island of Java (i.e. Central Java), called Cailendra and was ruled by the Cailendra dynasty or Rajas. It was in this period (750-850 AD) that the famous Buddhist monument "Borobudur" was built. In 772 AD, other Buddhist temples were built by Raja Panchapana such as the temple complexes of Mendut, Kalasan and Pawon. The Kingdom of Cailendra was also known as being the center of commercial and naval power, which was fostering art and culture. These temples are at present still found in the vicinity of Yogyakarta, the capital of the Special Territory of Yogyakarta.

A manual for singing, named the Chandra-Cha-ana was first composed in 778 AD.

One of the Pallawa language stone inscriptions (Pracasthi) of 732 AD mentioned the name of the Hindu Raja Sanjaya who was later identified as the Raja of the Hindu Kingdom of Mataram (Replacing Cailendra in Central Java).

The Hindu Civaite temple complex of Prambanan was built in 856 AD and accomplished in 900 AD by Raja Daksa. The capital of this Hindu Kingdom of Mataram was Medang Kamolan, in the neighborhood of present Semarang city. Earlier, in the year 675 AD, Hindu Civaite temples were erected on the mountain plain of Dieng, southwest of the capital of Medang Kamolan.

West of the Central Java Kingdom of Cailendra, in present West Java Province, were the Hindu Kingdoms of Galuh, Kanoman, Kuningan, and Pajajaran. "Pajajaran" was founded by Raja Purana, with Pakuan as its capital and which succeeded an earlier established kingdom of "Galuh." Later there were the kingdoms of Taruma Negara, Kawali and ParahyanganSunda.

At the end of the 13th Century, the Crivijaya Empire began to decline as a result of severance by its vassal states as well as due to frequent attacks by the South Indian Kingdom of Chola and by the Kingdom of Majapahit. It was ultimately entirely subdued by Majapahit who in its subjugation efforts was supported by Raja Adityawarman of the Kingdom of Melayu. Majapahit first conquered the Jambi Kingdom in Sumatra, which later extended its expansion along the rivers and finally annexed the Kingdom of Pagar Ruyung in West Sumatra, which completed the entire subjugation of Sumatra under the rule of Majapahit.

Meanwhile, for unknown reasons, mighty Hindu kingdoms of Central Java disappeared from its historic records and new prosperous Hindu kingdom emerged in East Java. Raja Balitung who ruled within 820-832 AD had once succeeded in uniting Central and East Java kingdoms. The disappearance of records was presumably caused by a catastrophic natural disaster, or by an endemic.

At the end of the 10th Century (911-1007 AD), a mighty Hindu Kingdom of Singasari was emerging in East Java. Its King, Raja Dharmawangsa codified laws and translated the Indian Sanskrit Hindu Epic of the Mahabharata into the Javanese language and also the philosophical essence of it as contained in the "Bhisma Parva" scripture. Besides, he also ordered the translation of the Hindu Holy Book, the "Bhagavat Gita."

Raja Airlangga who meanwhile also ruled over the island of Bali was known for his water-works along the Brantas River now still in use and who was a wise and firm ruler. Before his death in 1409 AD, Raja Airlangga divided the kingdom into the Kingdom of Jenggala and Daha or Kediri to be ruled by his two sons. Airlangga was also known as the promoter of the production of literary works. The "Panji" novel produced during this period are today still known and taught at certain university literary coleges in Thailand, Cambodia, and Malaysia.

Raja Jayabaya of the Hindu Kingdom of Kediri (1135-1157) wrote a book in which he foretold the downfall of Indonesia and made subservient to the white race domination (the Dutch), which afterwards was succeeded by a yellow race (the Japanese) domination and ended his book by forecasting that Indonesia ultimately will regain her independence under the rule of justice. During this golden period many other literary works were produced such as the Javanese version of the Hindu epic "Mahabharata" composed by the Hindu Mpu (Saint) Sedah and his brother Mpu Panuluh and published in 1157.

In 1292, the first European, Marco Polo visited Java and North Sumatra. These kingdoms of East Java were later succeeded by a might Hindu Kingdom of "Majapahit," first ruled by the Hindu Prince Wijaya or later known as Raja Kartarajasa.

The Moghul emperor, Kubilai Khan in 1293 attempted to invade Majapahit. His troops however were defeated and driven back to their ships. This gradually powerful growing empire also subdued the kingdom of Sriwijaya in South Sumatra, which was earlier attacked by the South Indian Kingdom of Chola.

The Mogul Empire founded in East Java became the most powerful. Hindu kingdom ever known in Indonesia under the reign of Raja Hayam Wuruk, which had dependencies in territories outside the present borders of the Indonesian archipelago as far as Champa in North Vietnam, Cambodia, and the present Philippines (1331-1364). Raja Hayam Wuruk who appointed his successful premier, Gajah Mada, succedeed in gradually uniting the whole Indonesian archipelago under the name "Dwipantara." During that golden period many literary works were produced such as "Nagara Kertagama" by the famous author, Prapancha (1335-1380) in which some parts described the diplomatic and economic ties with the then existing South-East Asian countries like Burma, Thailand, Tonkin, Annam, Cambodia and even with India and China. Other literary works written in the "Kawi" (old Javanese) like the Pararaton, Arjuna Wiwaha, Ramayana, Sarasa Muschaya and many other such literary works were later translated into many modern languages of Europe for study purposes. Also books on various codes of law were produced such as the "Kutaramanawa," the "Manava Dharma Sastra," the "Gajah Mada" and the "Adigama" Codes of Law.