Galuh is the older eastern Sundanese kingdom on the Citanduy and the Ciamis plain, said to have split from Tarumanagara in the seventh century and to have joined Sunda under one crown at times.
In 1200 nobody can say whether it is a separate kingdom, the eastern half of Sunda under one king, or a name for the Ciamis and Kawali country. Saunggalah under the Ciremai (Kuningan) is named as a royal residence of the period only in the Sundanese chronicle. The Astana Gede stones at Kawali are of the later fourteenth century. This record treats the question as unsettled: one country, two regions, an eastern lord or royal governor whose name is not known.
The Cisanggarung and the Citanduy are the conventional eastern edge.
Who he is
- Title
- Ruler or lord of Galuh, if Galuh is a separate seat
- Since
- not pinned
- Born
- not known
- Confidence
- low
No source of the period names a Galuh ruler. The Carita Parahyangan (about 1580) shows Sunda and Galuh joined under one dynasty at times; en.wikipedia says Galuh was absorbed into Sunda around the tenth century and that its capital moved to Kawali, whose only stone inscription (Astana Gede) is of the fourteenth century.
Overlord
the king of Sunda, if Galuh is not itself the crown
What it holds
- Ciamis, Kawali and the Citanduy plain
- Saunggalah and the Ciremai slopes (Kuningan)
- The upper Cimanuk and Priangan eastern slopes (inference)
How things stand that morning
Unknown. No ruler, war or embassy.
Wealth
Rice of the Ciamis plain, forest and pepper slopes; no figures.
Military
Not recorded.
Threats
- None dated
Places of note
- Galuh (Ciamis): Seat on the Citanduy.
- Saunggalah: Seat named in the chronicle, under the Ciremai.
- Kawali: Later capital; Astana Gede stones of the fourteenth century.
Where the sources disagree
- The campaign board entry galuh-ciamis, saunggalah: both marked contested. We agree, and add that Galuh as a separate crown in 1200 is unattested by any source we read.
Evidence: A chronicle of about 1580 and one fourteenth-century stone.
"The campaign board" is OMNIA's working map. These notes record where its earlier claims were checked against the sources.
On the map: The eastern region of the realm, drawn as claim.
Primary sources for Sunda
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.
- 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
- 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), Galuh Kingdom (read in this pass): Kawali, Astana Gede (14th century), source caveats
- Wikipedia (en), Sunda Kingdom (read in this pass): Sanghyang Tapak 952 Saka (1030), Kebon Kopi 932, Horren, Carita Parahyangan caveats, Zhu Fan Zhi on Sin-t'o, Bujangga Manik boundary
- 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.