A rock-cut hermit's cave with a demon's mouth for a doorway and a bathing place below it (board), on the edge of the royal ridge.
The cave holds a lingam, a yoni and an image of Ganesha, and carvings of stupas and a chattra by the river show Buddhist hands as well (en.wikipedia): Shaiva and Buddhist hermits shared the place. The date is the ninth century in the first line of en.wikipedia and the eleventh century on style in its body; the campaign board says about the eleventh. The poem of 1365 names Lo Gajah in its list of Balinese lands (en.wikipedia).
The cave was rediscovered by Dutch archaeologists in 1923 and the bathing place not until 1954. In 1200 it is a hermitage within reach of the court at Bedulu (Bedulu and Pejeng).
Who holds it
- Title
- Hermits of the cave, Shaiva and Buddhist
- Since
- not pinned
- Born
- not known
- Confidence
- low
No hermit is named.
Overlord
the queen and her son, as patrons of the royal ridge (inference)
What it holds
- The cave, the bathing place and the river bank
How it was acquired
Cut in the ninth or eleventh century (en.wikipedia).
Allies and rivals
Shaiva and Buddhist hermits side by side.
How things stand that morning
Standing and probably in use as a hermitage; nothing is dated.
Places of note
- Goa Gajah: The cave (the campaign board point).
Where the sources disagree
- The campaign board entry goa-gajah says 'about the eleventh century'; en.wikipedia gives the ninth century in its first line and the eleventh on style in its body.
Evidence: The monument is certain and the date argued between two centuries; its life in 1200 is inferred.
"The campaign board" is OMNIA's working map. These notes record where its earlier claims were checked against the sources.
On the map: A disc round the site.
Primary sources for Bali
Chronicles, registers, sagas and inscriptions written in or near 1200 that cover this entry. Each has its own page with editions, translations and where to read it.
- Old Javanese Charters (the Brandes and Krom corpus), including the Kediri inscriptions of Kamesvara and Srngga, Various (the Kediri kings and their officers), edited by J. L. A. Brandes and N. J. Krom (inscriptions of the 8th to 15th centuries; edited 1913). Kediri (Panjalu) in 1200 is known from a few royal charters on stone and copper, which this corpus first printed: the records of Kamesvara (about 1182 to 1194) and of Srngga, that is Kertajaya (from about 1194 to 1222), among them the Kamulan charter of 1194 and the Palah (Panataran) record of 1197, with the king's titles, his seal, the officials of the court and the villages freed from tax.
- The Description of the Country, called the Nagarakretagama, Mpu Prapanca (1365 at the Majapahit court). A Majapahit court poem of 1365 listed here only for its retrospect. Read online
Sources and studies
- Wikipedia (en), Goa Gajah (read in this pass): built in the 9th century or, on style, the 11th; lingam, yoni and Ganesha plus stupa and chattra carvings; named in the Nagarakretagama (1365); rediscovered 1923, bathing place found 1954
- Wikipedia (en), Nagarakretagama (read in this pass): completed 1365; canto 14 list of Bali, Lombok, Sumbawa, Sumba, Timor and the east
- OMNIA board notes for the place (a lead, not a source)
Last revised 4 November 2026. Published 4 November 2026. Suggest a correction on the OMNIA Discord.