“Dewi Sima was an elegant and charming woman unrivalled in Java, a perfect beauty like a heavenly maiden. Sri Jayanasa of Sriwijaya had fallen in love with Sima, but his love was not realised, because Sima disliked him to such an extent that she would kill herself, if marrying the man was inevitable. Notwithstanding, Jayanasa persistently approached and distressed Sima. Apart from her hatred, the religions were different between the kings of Sriwijaya and Java, as they followed the Mahayana Buddhism and the Saura [a fact of Hinduism], respectively. It was also known that Sriwijaya had plundered the gold and diamonds from Melayu (a kingdom in Sumatra) whom he had subjugated.”

“In 608 Saka (686/697 AD), the king of Sriwijaya attacked Java but in vain, because the Chinese Empire, Bakulapura Kingdom (Kutai Martadipura in East Borneo), Hujung Mendini Kingdom (in Malay Peninsula), Bharata Kingdom (in India) and many other countries supported Java. Then, the king of Sriwijaya robbed the cargo of Javanese merchant ships berthed in the ports of Palembang and Bangka and ordered them to return home. In addition, the king gave orders to pirates to attack the Javanese on the sea. Sunda Kingdom was not agreeable with the ambition of the king of Sriwijaya and asked him for calmness and reconsideration.”

“According to the history, Sriwijaya Kingdom conquered the regional kingdom of Sanghyang Hujung and created a sanctuary there.”

“Below is the narration of a great poet. Dewi Sima and Prabu Kartikeyasingha had children, two of them being Dewi Parwati (daughter) and Nalayana (son). Dewi Parwati married to Sang Mandiminyak, the king of Galuh, and they had a daughter named Dewi Sannaha. Mandiminyak had an affair with Pwah Rababu and had a son named Sang Senna (alias Sang Bratasennawa). Senna married Sannaha and a son named Rakryan Sanjaya was born between them. Senna was ousted from the throne by Purbasora.”

“Sanjaya conquered King Purbasora of Galuh and became the king of Galuh. Sanjaya had already ruled Indraprahasta Kingdom [the present-day Cirebon]. It was because Indraprahasta was supporting Galuh, as Purbasora’s wife was a daughter of the Indraprahasta, and, in fact, the army that defeated King Senna was the troops of Indraprahasta, led by Purbasora himself. By the assault of Sanjaya, the king of Indraprahasta, Purbasora and his wife, astrologers, ministers and officers were killed.”

“Moreover, Sanjaya advanced his army eastward and subjugated many kingdoms in Central and East Java. Then, he attacked many countries in Sumatra, including Melayu, Sriwijaya and Barus. After then, he turned to the north. Sanjaya’s campaign lasted for three years.”

“In 645 Saka (732/733 AD), Sanjaya became the king of Medang in the Soil of Mataram (Medang i bhumi Mataram). Sanjaya was succeeded by his son, Panangkarana. His wife was a woman of the Selendra. Then, the Selendra became a powerful kingdom. The land of Central Java was divided into two, and the northern and southern parts became the territories of the Sanjaya and the Selendra, respectively.”

The year of Queen Sima’s coronation, 674/675 AD exactly coincides with the Shangyuan Period (674–5) recorded in The New Book of Tang. The years of sending embassies to China in the Wangsakerta Manuscript do not agree with those in the Old Book of Tang, but the present author would refrain from arguing the reason, rather conjecture that the former document, edited in the later century on the basis of fragmental records and oral traditions, had inevitable errors. That “Selendra” and “Senna” denote the same words as Sailendra and Sanna, respectively, is undoubtful. The fact that the parents of Sanjaya, Sanna and Sannaha, were both son and daughter of the same father, Mandiminyak, born from different mothers, Rababu and Parwati, is noteworthy. Although a marriage between a half-brother and a half-sister is hardly thinkable nowadays, from both ethic and genetic viewpoints, some cases were there in old days also in Japan and elsewhere in the world[4].

4.2 Descriptions in Carita Parahiyangan

In Carita Parahiyangan, more accounts on the life of Sena (Sanna) were found.

“Pwah Rababu, a daughter of the Lord of Kendan had once a coitus with Lord Makadria, as her father told, but later married to Rahiang Sempakwaja, who became the Governor of Galungun, and gave birth to two sons, Purbasora and Demunawan. One day, when she went to Galuh, she was seduced by Mandiminyak, the youngest brother of her husband, who had succeeded the throne of Galuh, and after months delivered a male baby who was named Salah. Having been told by her husband to give the baby away to Mandiminyak, she took him to Galuh. Mandiminyak said, “Ah, this is my son!”, but ordered his retainer to put the baby in a vase and carried it to the field. When the retainer left the vase and returned, a sign shone from the field to the sky, but the baby was still alive. He was renamed Sang Sena. Sena succeeded the throne of Galuh after his father, but seven years later he was expelled by Purbasora and fled to Mt. Merapi (in Central Java).”

From this description, it has become evident that Purbasora and Sanna (Sena) were half-brothers from different mothers and that the expatriation of the latter by the former was a sort of family discord. With regard to the transfer of power from Sanna to Sanjaya, the clause in Prasasti Canggal [5] that it was done “not directly from King Sanna but through the king’s elder sister, Sannaha” was quite ambiguous, but now it could be alternatively interpreted as “through the king’s consort, Sannaha” or “through Sanjaya’s mother, Sannaha”. It might have been probable that the status of Sannaha who was the legitimate child from the legal wife of Mandiminyak was higher than that of Sanna who was an illegitimate child from the wife of Mandiminyak’s brother.

Among the facts that Sanjaya conquered many countries in Java Island as well as Melayu and China (?), also written in Carita Parahiyangan, a line that he “waged war against Keling and defeated Sang Sriwijaya” (Sang = a respectful title) has provoked a thought in the present author’s mind. Although Kalingga had rejected the approach of Sriwijaya in the era of Queen Sima (according to The Book of Kings), was Kalingga under the rule of Sriwijaya at the time of the queen’s great-grandchild?

Although Sanjaya was a great king in West Java, Carita Parahiyangan mentioned that he was estranged by Kuku (alias Seuweukarma), his father’s half-brother and Purbasora’s younger brother, who became the king of Kuningan, as well as other local rulers, as a killer of family members, suggesting that this could be the major reason of Sanjaya’s move to Central Java.

The description in Book of Kings 1 that “Panangkaran (the son of Sanjaya who was born after his father’s move to Central Java) took a woman of the Sailendra to wife and, then, the Sailendra became a powerful kingdom” told that a marital relationship was formed between the two families, although who the woman was not written. This could be the reason, or one of the reasons, why Panangkaran was so cooperative with the Sailendra in the construction and the maintenance of Buddhist temples and probably in other matters.

The phrase, “King of Medang in the Soil of Mataram (Rajya Medang i bhumi Mataram)” in Book of Kings 1 has appeared on some stone monuments, giving the Mataram Kingdom founded by Sanjaya another name, “Medang Kingdom”. Because later kings occasionally moved their capital (e.g. Rakai Pikatan to Mamrati and Dyah Balitung to Poh Pitu), however, Medang Kingdom may be more precise to be applied for the whole period of the Sanjaya Dynasty[6].

Another description in the same book that the area of Central Java was divided into the northern and southern parts and shared by the Sanjaya and the Sailendra, respectively, is probably noteworthy. Whether this book was refereed to or not is unknown; this demarcation is written in general books and textbooks for secondary high-school in Indonesia[7]. Along with the fact that “while Candi Gedung Songo on the mountainside of Ungaran in the northern part of Central Java and groups of candi in Dieng Plateau were built by the Sanjaya, many candi in the Kedu Basin and Prambanan Plain were built by the Sailendra”. One remarkable exception is a group of candi in Prambanan, represented by Candi Lolo Jonggrang, which is comparable with Candi Borobudur in its scale and magnificence (to be undermentioned).

The name of Sudiwara, daughter of the king of South Kalingga, Dewasinga, whom Sanjaya took as his wife in Central Java, mentioned in The History of Bogor, was found in a stone inscription, dated 760 AD, discovered in Dinoyo near the present-day Malang. In addition to the fact that “the centre of the kingdom existed in Kanjuruhan”, it was written that “once, there was a just and powerful king named Dewasinga. This monument is to commemorate the construction of a temple, by his son, Gajayana, to enshrine the new statue of Agastya to replace the old rotten piece[8].”

The reason of Gajayana’s move to East Java has not been concluded. If one was to assume that he was expelled from Central Java by Sanjaya, the husband of his sister, Sudiwara, the question of why their relationship was so bad has to be answered. The present author would prefer to think that, in such a circumstance that the Buddhist Sailendra gained power and Sanjaya’s son, Panangkaran, was the supporter of Buddhism, Gajayana had decided to explore a new land for Hinduism in East Java.

4.3 Information from Stone Inscriptions