Palah

Who holds it

Title

Head priest or officer of the Palah sanctuary

Since

not pinned

Born

not known

Confidence

low

The Palah plate of Saka 1119 (1197) founds the sanctuary; the priest or officer in charge is not named in anything we could read.

Overlord

Kertajaya of Kediri, who founded it and freed its land

What it holds

• The free village or villages given to the god by the plate (not located)
• Temple dues in kind and labour (inference)
• The priests and attendants

How it was acquired

By royal foundation, 1197 (Saka 1119), under Kertajaya.

Allies and rivals

Patron: the king. The dharmadhyaksa of the Shaiva priests judge its people (Dharmadhyaksa). No rival is named.

How things stand that morning

New, in use and in favour: the great royal work of the reign. Building probably continues (inference).

Wealth

Free land and the king's gifts; no figures.

Threats

• Eruption of Kelud (no date)

What the year holds

What happened next, if nothing in play changes it. Each event carries what it depends on and what would stop it.

1. 1222 and afterKertajaya falls (the Pararaton places the battle of Ganter in 1222) but the sanctuary outlives him and grows into the largest royal temple of East Java; the Majapahit king Hayam Wuruk is still worshipping here in the 1360s (board; Nagarakretagama).Depends on: The late Pararaton story of Ganter, and Kediri's end as the story has it. Stopped by: A settlement of the quarrel between Kertajaya and the brahmins, or a Kediri victory; Palah itself would then be the court's sanctuary for longer.

Places of note

• Kelud (summit): The mountain the god belongs to (7 deg 55.8 S, 112 deg 18.5 E, en.wikipedia).

Where the sources disagree

• The campaign board entry penataran-palah: 'begun in 1197 under Kertajaya'. We agree (en.wikipedia, Penataran). Its 'grows into the greatest royal temple in Java' is a later fact and is placed among the later events of the likely course.

Evidence: The foundation date is given by en.wikipedia (construction began 1197) and the fr.wikipedia list of plates; the plate itself did not open, so the god's name is recalled.

"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; the real estate of the sanctuary is not known.

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