Country or people · Kediri (Panjalu) under Kertajaya · as at first light, 1 January 1200

Kedu and Prambanan

The two plains of central Java where the old Mataram kings built in the eighth and ninth centuries.

The Kedu is the ash floor between Merapi, Merbabu, Sumbing and Sindoro, the richest rice ground in central Java and the reason the temples stand where they do (board). The Prambanan plain to the south-east carries more standing ninth-century stone than anywhere else in the islands (board): Prambanan itself was inaugurated on 12 November 856 and was left, for reasons nobody knows, near the middle of the tenth century (en.wikipedia). The court went east in the tenth century; en.wikipedia puts Mpu Sindok's move to East Java between 928 and 1006, and whether that decided the end of Borobudur is not known.

What Kediri governs here in 1200 is an open point of the brief: no plate of Kertajaya or his fathers that we could reach names a village of the Kedu, so both plains are drawn as a claim. The rice does not need a king: the villages and their headmen farm on, and the stone stands among them.

Who holds it

Title
Village headmen and the officers of the district, if Kediri placed any
Since
not pinned
Born
not known
Confidence
low

No Kediri plate that we could reach is found or named in the Kedu or the Prambanan plain; no officer is named.

Overlord

the king of Kediri, by claim only

What it holds

  • Rice ground of the Kedu and the Prambanan plain
  • The monuments of Borobudur, Mendut and Pawon, Prambanan, Sewu, Plaosan, Kalasan and Sari (see the religious records)
  • The Progo washings for gold (board)

How things stand that morning

Claimed by Kediri, not shown as governed. Farming country with old monuments; nothing is dated for the winter.

Wealth

Rice (two crops on ash soil, the campaign board's phrase; no figures), the Progo gold washings.

Military

None attested.

Places of note

  • Borobudur: The great Buddhist monument, built from about 780 to 833.
  • Prambanan: The Shiva temple inaugurated 856.

Where the sources disagree

  • The campaign board entry kedu-rice-plain says the Kedu is 'governed from the Brantas'. We found no source that shows it; we draw the plains as a Kediri claim, as the brief does.

Evidence: The monuments and the soil are certain; who governs the plains in 1200 is not shown by any source we reached.

"The campaign board" is OMNIA's working map. These notes record where its earlier claims were checked against the sources.

On the map: Two rough outlines of the plains; the governance is a claim.

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.

Sources and studies

  1. Wikipedia (en), Borobudur (read in this pass): built in stages from about 780 to 833 (Dumarcay); Karangtengah inscription 824 (Jinalaya), Tri Tepusan 842; 'it is not known when active use ceased'; the Nagarakretagama of 1365 names the vihara in Budur vaguely; coordinates 7.608 S 110.204 E
  2. Wikipedia (en), Prambanan (read in this pass): Shivagrha inscription, inauguration 12 November 856; abandoned near the middle of the 10th century for unclear reasons; collapsed in a 16th-century earthquake; Sewu, Plaosan, Kalasan, Sari, Lumbung, Bubrah, Ratu Boko; coordinates 7.752 S 110.492 E
  3. 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
  4. 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)
  5. 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.