Airlangga

The king Airlangga (reign 1016-45) is especially known in the Javanese tradition by an inscription gone back to 1041 in which it mentions a " large catastrophe" it would have saved the country at the request of the Brahmane S, which rewards some would have established it. It is also Airlangga which, with a preceding inscription gone back to 1021 after J. - C., stops a " silence" of almost 70 years on the Javanese royalty. The preceding royal inscription is gone back to 948 pennies the reign of king Mpu Sindok, which one knows that it moved his capital of the center in the east of Java.

It is besides in a text of the time of Airlangga that one finds a mention of Sindok. The " hone of Calcutta" , thus named because it is preserved at Indian Museum of Calcutta, and is gone back to 1041, declines the genealogy of Airlangga by making it go up until Sindok. One learns thus that after death from this last in 948, his daughter Sri Isana Tunggawijaya goes up on the throne. The son of Isana, Sri Makutawangsawardhana succeeds to him. The union of the girl of Makuta, Mahendradatta, with the prince Bali be born Udayana, will give rise to Airlangga. This last thus affirmed to be the back-back-small-wire of Sindok.

With Airlangga, one understands that the center of gravity of the capacity is from now on in the east of the island. Its kingdom, Janggala, were consisted of the back-country in the south-west of current the Surabaya, in the valley downstream of the Brantas river. Its capital was called Kahuripan. One can think that the rise of Java East was made possible by the weakening of the kingdom of Sriwijaya in the south of Sumatra after a forwarding launched against this last in 1025 by the king Rajendra Chola deva of Tanjavûr in India of the South.

The reign of Airlangga is important because it is the period when the Javaneses translate the great Indian epopee of the Mahabharata and especially, create a literature in the local language, which the authors call Javanese old man . Under Airlangga a poet, Mpu (" maître") Kanwa, writes the Arjunawiwaha , " the marriage of Arjuna " , of 1028 to 1035. This poem is written in metric called a kakawin (of kavya , a poetic kind appeared in VIIe century in the courses of the India). The Javaneses call besides Kawi the language in which the kakawin are written. The kakawin is composed of stanzas of four worms of which the number of foot is fixed.

The argument of the Arjunawiwaha is actually not the union of this prince Pândava with any princess. Admittedly, it describes the pleasure which Arjuna with seven celestial nymphs takes. But the true matter of the poem is elsewhere. It describes the way which must follow the ideal prince to reach with plenitude. It is Vishnu, under its Krishna misadventure, which explains to Arjuna the way. This one starts with a retirement in the mountain. It is undoubtedly message which Kanwa wants to transmit to its sovereign, unless he contrary sought to flatter Airlangga by comparing it with Arjuna.

The areas controlled by Airlangga included/understood the country of Janggala itself and the country of Daha (or Kediri) in the east of Java, as well as the countries of Mataram and Kedu, and the coastal kingdom that Chinese annals of the time call Ho-ling , in the center of the island. Airlangga abdicates in 1045 for this withdrawing in a monastery. It then divides its kingdom into two, Janggala and Kediri.

A tradition wants that the burial of Airlangga is contained in the temple of Belahan on the side is Mont Penanggungan in the south of Surabaya.

See the continuation: Kediri