Javanese charters from the tenth to the eleventh century list the traders by group: the banyaga (Javanese merchants) and foreigners named by origin, among them Kling (South Indian), Aryya, Singhala (Sri Lankan), Pandikira, Dravida (Tamil), Campa (Cham), Remen (Mon) and Kmir (Khmer) (recalled from Wisseman Christie's reading of the Kamalagyan and related plates).
Arab and Persian traders are in the ports of the whole region, and a Muslim grave at Leran near Gresik (475 AH, 1082, the date argued) suggests a Muslim presence on the Javanese coast. Chinese shipmasters sail to Java each year on the winter monsoon; Zhou Qufei (1178) and Zhao Rukuo (about 1225) rank Java very high for wealth. A settled Chinese quarter at Tuban or Gresik is not attested for 1200.
Nobody is named; the communities are real and the foreigners pay dues to the juru.
Who he is
- Title
- Heads of the banyaga (merchant) groups and of the foreign communities
- Since
- not pinned
- Born
- not known
- Confidence
- low
The groups are known from lists in the charters, mostly of the tenth and eleventh centuries (Wisseman Christie, recalled); whether the Kediri plates of the 1190s repeat them is not pinned.
Overlord
Kertajaya
What it holds
- Their own quarters, ships and goods; their dues are set by the port officers
How things stand that morning
In place, as far as the Chinese notices show; no community head is named.
Wealth
Pepper, cloth, spices, ceramics, metals and aromatics; no figures.
Where the sources disagree
- The assignment asks for the Chinese trade at Tuban and Gresik: the sources we could read give Java's rank (1178) and Ta-pan and Jung-ya-lu as dependencies (about 1225), not a Chinese community. The charter lists are earlier than 1200.
Evidence: Charter lists of the tenth and eleventh centuries and two Chinese notices, none naming a community of 1200.
On the map: People, not land.
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
- J. Wisseman Christie, 'Javanese markets and the Asian sea trade boom of the tenth to thirteenth centuries AD', Journal of the Economic and Social History of the Orient 41 (1998); recalled, not re-read
- Wikipedia (en), Lingwai Daida (read in this pass): Zhou Qufei, 1178
- 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
- Wikipedia (en), Zhu Fan Zhi (read in this pass): Zhao Rukuo, about 1225, Hirth and Rockhill 1911
- Hirth and Rockhill, Chau Ju-kua: his work on the Chinese and Arab trade (1911), chapters Sin-t'o (p. 70) and Shê-p'o (p. 75); the full text would not open in this pass, so every statement from it is recalled and marked
- 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)
Last revised 4 November 2026. Published 4 November 2026. Suggest a correction on the OMNIA Discord.