Ruler and Realm: The Division of Airlangga's Kingdom in the Fourteenth Century

Abstract

Few topics in Classical Indonesian studies have attracted as much attention as has the division of Airlangga's realm by mpu Bharlda into the kingdoms of Janggala and Paijalu. The borders have been seen to run North-South (Krom), or East-West (Berg, Teeuw and Uhlenbeck, Pigeaud, Buchari), or both (Kern, Bosch, Stutterheim). The division has been seen as historical (Bosch, Buchari), apocryphal (Teeuw and Uhlenbeck), legendary (Pigeaud), and mythic (Berg). It has been taken as evidence of the prominence of duality symbolism and of the existence of kinship moieties. Evidence has been discerned of Indian meditational systems, of Polynesian demigods, and of quasi-universal lunar deities. In one view this act really did take place, or was regarded as having taken place, on Java; another view has removed the scene of action to Bali. In short, confusion reigns.