The island lies close off the north coast of Java, a dry limestone country of salt pans, fishermen and cattle (the campaign board; the Madurese are a people of their own language).
The one dated tie to the Brantas kings is the pair of Padelegan plates, 1117 and 1159, both rewarding a Madurese village for loyal service (fr.wikipedia list; the campaign board dot is in Pamekasan), so the kings of Kediri reach at least the west and middle of the island by those years. Between 1159 and 1200 nothing is dated, and the east, round Sumenep and the Kalianget pans, rests on geography. The Wiraraja story of Sumenep belongs to the 1260s and is after this date.
The pans make salt, which keeps fish, which feeds men far from a river (board).
Who holds it
- Title
- Village chiefs of Madura; the king of Kediri has an officer or none
- Since
- not pinned
- Born
- not known
- Confidence
- low
No chief, officer or tribute of Madura is named for 1200; the Padelegan plates of 1117 and 1159 name the village that earned the king's favour.
Overlord
the king of Kediri at Padelegan by two plates; elsewhere by claim
What it holds
- Salt pans of the south-east and east
- Fishing coasts
- The Padelegan village rewarded by two plates
How things stand that morning
Answers to the Kediri king at least at Padelegan; the rest is claim.
Wealth
Salt, dried fish and cattle; the island buys grain from Java (board).
Military
None attested.
Places of note
- Padelegan: Village of the two plates (board dot in Pamekasan).
- Sumenep and Kalianget: Salt pans at the eastern end.
Where the sources disagree
Evidence: Two plates (1117, 1159) tie it; everything else is geography and the campaign board's note.
"The campaign board" is OMNIA's working map. These notes record where its earlier claims were checked against the sources.
On the map: The main island only; the Padelegan tie is the only dated one.
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 (fr), Royaume de Kediri (read in this pass): list of plates Ngantang 1135, Talan 1136, Padelegan II 1159, Kahyunan 1161, Angin 1171, Jaring 1181, Ceker, Galunggung 1194, Kamulan 1194, Palah 1197, Wates Kulon 1205; quotes Zhou Qufei's ranking of Java
- 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.