Ancient Indian Colonization in South-East Asia c9.67

c9.67

Reference has been made above to the early Hindu kingdom in West Java under king Pūrṇa-varman. We next hear of a king Sannāha and his son Sañjaya ruling in the first half of the eighth century AD in Central Java, in a region which was later known as the kingdom of Matarām. Not long after the death of Sañjaya, Central Java was, as we have seen above, conquered by the Śailendras. The old rulers of Central Java shifted to the east and remained there for more than a century, but they again occupied Central Java before the close of the ninth century A.D. Eastern Java, however, never lost the importance it had gained during this interval, and from about 929 A.D., when Siṇḍok ascended the throne, the political centre of gravity was definitely and permanently shifted towards the east. Central Java, which was decorated by the wonderful monuments like Barabuḍur and became a renowned seat of culture under the Śailendras, gradually receded into the background, and ultimately lost all political importance as well as cultural eminence. Various reasons have been put forward to explain this, such as a volcanic eruption, out-break of an epidemic or the ravages by the fleet of the Śailendras. The last-named theory finds a support in the renewed struggle between Java and the Śailendras and the great catastrophe that overwhelmed Java about A.D. 1006. Since then Central Java, with all its splendid monuments, became desolate and deserted, and the new kingdom of Eastern Java under Airlaṅga came into prominence.