A Majapahit court poem of 1365 listed here only for its retrospect. Cantos 40 to 49 run through the Javanese kings from Airlangga, touching the division of the kingdom into Janggala and Kediri and the fall of Kediri's last king in 1222 to the founder of Singhasari, and its later cantos list the dependencies the Majapahit court claimed across the archipelago, many of which (Malayu, Tambralinga's successor, the Bornean and Philippine ports) were independent kingdoms in 1200. It is panegyric, 165 years after the fact, and its history is a genealogy of legitimacy. Nothing in it is evidence for 1200 except the names of old realms.
About this source
- Title
- Desawarnana (Nagarakretagama)
- Author
- Mpu Prapanca
- Author's dates
- active 1365
- Written
- 1365 at the Majapahit court
- Language
- Old Javanese
- Covers
- Majapahit under Hayam Wuruk in 1365, with a sketch of earlier Javanese kings
- Kind
- Poem
The Pararaton (about 1481 to 1600) is the other late source for Kediri's fall and is not online in translation. Use for names of realms only.
Where to read it
Editions
- H. Kern, Het Oud-Javaansche lofdicht Nagarakrtagama van Prapanca (1365 A.D.), ed. N. J. Krom (The Hague, 1919), Old Javanese text with Dutch translation; not located online in this task (not freely online)
- Old Javanese text in Latin transliteration (unattributed scan)
Translations
- T. G. T. Pigeaud, Java in the 14th Century: the Nagara-Kertagama, 5 vols (The Hague, 1960 to 1963), English; in copyright (not freely online)
- S. O. Robson, Desawarnana (Nagarakrtagama) by Mpu Prapanca (Leiden, 1995), English; in copyright (not freely online)