The Sundanese kingdom of western Java

Who rules

Title

King of Sunda, the title used by Sri Jayabhupati in 1030

Since

not pinned

Born

not known

Family

No king of the 1190s is named by any source.

Confidence

low

The last king named in an inscription is Sri Jayabhupati, in the Sanghyang Tapak (Cibadak) plates of Saka 952 (1030, checked on en.wikipedia). The Carita Parahyangan (about 1580) gives Prabu Guru Dharmasiksa a reign from 1175 to 1297, a length no one man could have, and the Wangsakerta manuscripts (1677) are widely rejected. For 1200 the holder is therefore 'not known'.

Overlord

none attested. The Zhu Fan Zhi (about 1225) lists Sin-t'o (Sunda) among the dependencies of Sanfoqi, but whether any court answered for Sunda in 1200 is open.

What the realm holds

• Banten Girang on the river above the Banten roadstead, the one excavated town
• The Banten roadstead and Kalapa (Sunda Kelapa) at the Ciliwung mouth
• The Citarum plain, the rice ground of the north-west
• The Priangan highlands and the pepper slopes
• Pakuan (the seat claimed in the gap between Salak and Pangrango), Saunggalah under the Ciremai, and Galuh (Ciamis, Kawali) in the east
• The Cimanuk mouth and the Cirebon shore
• The Kanekes forest sanctuary, which governs itself

How it was acquired

Not recorded for 1200. The Kebon Kopi II plate (Saka 854, 932) shows a king of Sunda taking back his authority; Sri Jayabhupati's plates (1030) show a king with a Javanese-style court. Everything between 1030 and the fourteenth century rests on the Carita Parahyangan.

Allies and rivals

Hostile to Java in the eleventh century by the Horren plate ('a Sunda enemy' attacking East Javanese villages). Linked to Galuh in the Carita Parahyangan, which shows the two as one dynasty at times; nothing contemporary shows it. The Zhu Fan Zhi places Sin-t'o under Sanfoqi, but how far Jambi or Palembang reached to the Sunda strait in 1200 is open.

The realm that morning

Nothing is dated: no king, court, war or embassy. The country exists, its ports trade pepper, and its seat is not known (Pakuan, Saunggalah, Galuh and Banten Girang are all candidates and the campaign board marks three of them contested). Whether Sunda and Galuh were one crown on 1 January 1200 cannot be settled; this record treats them as one country with two regions and says so.

Wealth

Pepper (small, heavy corns, rated above Tuban's about 1225), forest goods, rice from the Citarum plain, and the harbours' tolls; Chinese ceramics and glass beads at Banten Girang show trade there from the tenth century on.

Military

Not recorded. The same Chinese report says robbers are common on the coast, which suggests no strong hand on it.

Threats

• Coastal robbers and the lack of any state that keeps the harbours safe, which drives foreign merchants away (a report of about 1225)
• Quarrels between the Sunda and Galuh halves of the country, if they are separate
• Javanese pressure from the east, undated

What the year holds

What happened next, if nothing in play changes it. Each event carries what it depends on and what would stop it.

1. About 1225Zhao Rukuo's Zhu Fan Zhi describes Sin-t'o: pepper better than Tuban's, a harbour with houses on both banks (the campaign board says Kalapa; en.wikipedia leans to Old Banten), no government, robbers, few foreign merchants. A report of 25 years after the date, not a fact of 1200.Depends on: Shipmasters reaching Quanzhou with the same news; the report describing a state that had probably held for some time. Stopped by: Not applicable: it describes the later situation.
2. 1526 and 1527Banten and Jayakarta: the Demak-led conquests of the Sundanese ports (not yet).Depends on: Demak (about 1475) and Cirebon rising. Stopped by: Not applicable on 1 January 1200.

Places of note

• Banten Girang: The excavated town.
• Kalapa: Harbour at the Ciliwung mouth.
• Pakuan: Seat claimed; not pinned.

Where the sources disagree

• The campaign board entry pakuan-pajajaran, galuh-ciamis and saunggalah are marked contested: we agree. Pajajaran as a name is later, and Pakuan did not gain major political importance until the fifteenth century (en.wikipedia).
• The campaign board entry banten-girang calls the Ciujung the river; en.wikipedia places the site on the Cibanten (Cibanten, 10 km above the sea at Sempu village, Serang). Banten Girang is excavated and occupied from the tenth century; Guillot's results place its thriving between the tenth and fourteenth centuries (en.wikipedia).
• The Sunda and Kediri line (the West and Central Java boundary, the Cisanggarung and Pamali) is a convention. The only text that gives a limit is Bujangga Manik (about 1500), which puts Sunda's eastern end at the Ci Pamali and the Ci Serayu.
• Banten (1526) and Jayakarta (1527) are not yet, and Sunda Kelapa is the harbour's name in later sources; use 'Kalapa' for 1200.

Evidence: One dated royal inscription (1030), one excavated town, the Horren plate's hostile mention, and a Chinese notice written about 25 years after the date. The Carita Parahyangan and the Wangsakerta manuscripts are not evidence for 1200.

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

On the map: The outline is the modern West Java, Banten and Jakarta boundary. Nothing in 1200 fixes the eastern line; the Cisanggarung and Pamali are the convention. The extent of the king's real authority inside it is unknown.

Primary sources for this realm

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