The Javanese of the Kediri country honour the great volcanoes as the seats of hyang, gods and ancestors, and take their bearings from them: Semeru (Mahameru), the highest peak of Java at 8 deg 06.5 S, 112 deg 55 E; the Arjuno-Welirang massif; Penanggungan, read as a Mount Meru in small; Kelud, whose god is served at Palah; Lawu to the west; and Bromo in the Tengger.
The story that Mahameru is a piece of the Indian Meru carried to Java to hold the island still is in a late text (recalled; the campaign board repeats it). Hermitages and terraces dot the flanks (board, for Penanggungan), and upland villages are bound to the shrines as hulun hyang (Hulun hyang). What a king like Kertajaya owes the mountains is plain from Palah: he builds for the god of Kelud and does not command him.
Who holds it
- Title
- Hermits, priests and the god's people of the volcanic chain
- Since
- not pinned
- Born
- not known
- Confidence
- low
No priest or hermit of 1200 is named for any of the mountains.
Overlord
none; the king builds for the mountain gods and does not command them
What it holds
- Six sacred mountains and the hermitages on their flanks
- The god's people of the upland villages
How it was acquired
Age-old worship; the Javanese state builds upon it.
Allies and rivals
The king as builder and patron; the dharmadhyaksa judge the priests (Dharmadhyaksa).
How things stand that morning
In use as sacred places; no named hermit or priest.
Wealth
Offerings; no figures.
Threats
- Eruptions (Semeru, Kelud and Bromo are live; no date)
Places of note
- Semeru (Mahameru): The highest mountain in Java.
Where the sources disagree
- The campaign board entry semeru-mahameru says 'everything sacred in east Java is oriented on it, including the kings'. The statement is a reading of the Meru story, which we find only in later texts.
Evidence: Coordinates from en.wikipedia's volcano list; the worship is inferred from the sanctuaries and from the late texts.
"The campaign board" is OMNIA's working map. These notes record where its earlier claims were checked against the sources.
On the map: Six discs on the summits.
Primary sources for Kediri
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.
- History of Song, chapters 488 and 489: Jiaozhi, Dali, Champa, Zhenla, Pagan, Srivijaya, Java, Brunei, Chola and Tambralinga, Toqto'a (Tuotuo) and the Yuan history office, from the Song court records (1343 to 1345, from Song veritable records and court diaries). The Chinese court's record of its southern neighbours, compiled from Song archives. Read online
- History of the Song, the chapters on Xia and on foreign states, Toqto'a (脫脫) and the Yuan history office (1343 to 1345). The Song court's accounts of its neighbours, each arranged as an annal of embassies and wars. Read online
- 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.
- A Description of the Foreign Peoples (Records of Foreign Nations), Zhao Rukuo (Zhao Rugua) (1225 at Quanzhou). The best single text for the island world around 1200, written by the superintendent of maritime trade at Quanzhou from merchants' reports a generation after the date. Read online
- Notes in Answer to Questions about the Lands beyond the Passes, Zhou Qufei (周去非) (1178, after service in Guangxi). A Guangxi official's notes, written twenty years before 1200, on the south-western frontier of the Song and the countries beyond. Read online
- Description of the Foreign Peoples (Chau Ju-kua), Zhao Rukuo (趙汝适) (about 1225, while superintendent of maritime trade at Quanzhou). The Song customs officer's survey of the overseas world, compiled from merchants and from Zhou Qufei, a generation after 1200 but describing trade routes that were the same in 1200. Read online
- 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), List of volcanoes in Indonesia (read in this pass): summit coordinates of Semeru, Bromo, Arjuno-Welirang, Penanggungan, Kelud, Lawu, Merapi, Merbabu, Sumbing, Sindoro, Slamet, Dieng, Muria, Batur, Agung, Rinjani, Tambora, Sangeang Api and others
- Wikipedia (en), Mount Penanggungan (read in this pass): summit 7 37 S 112 38 E, 1,653 m; sanctuaries on the western slope dating from AD 977 to 1511
- Wikipedia (en), Penataran (read in this pass): construction began 1197 in the Kediri era; named Palah in the Nagarakretagama; coordinates 8.016 S 112.209 E
- General knowledge of Old Javanese and Old Balinese epigraphy and the archaeology of Java, recalled and not re-read in this pass (Boechari, Poerbatjaraka, Soekmono, Bernet Kempers)
- 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.