Bali's villages decide a great deal themselves.
The plates speak to the karaman, the assembly of a village, and the banua, a hamlet, which accept the king's grants, keep the temples and settle the water. The irrigation societies (subak) belong to the same world; the word is found on a plate of the eleventh century (the campaign board gives 1072). The king taxes them and does not run them, which is the whole difference between Bali and the Brantas.
Who he is
- Title
- Village assemblies (karaman), hamlets (banua) and their elders
- Since
- not pinned
- Born
- not known
- Confidence
- low
The Old Balinese plates are addressed to karaman and banua by name. The elders' names are not known for 1200.
Overlord
the queen
What it holds
- The village temples, the shared water, the right to judge small cases and to receive the king's grants
How things stand that morning
Standing institutions; nothing specific dated for the winter.
Where the sources disagree
Evidence: A long run of plates addressed to them; recalled, not re-read.
On the map: Institutions, drawn in the subak province.
Primary sources for Bali
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.
- 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
- R. Goris, Prasasti Bali (1954), the Old Balinese charters; recalled, not re-read
- 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.