II - The Heavenly Realm: Tales of the Gods

Summary

The hermitages of Bulon, Kupang, Huluwanwa and Pacira

Bhaṭāra Guru at Maśin

Kāmadewa and Smarī at Mĕḍang-gaṇa

The first hermitages on the Mahāmeru

The Sukayajña order and its offshoots

Mt Goromanik and the maṇḍala of Sarwwasidḍa

The maṇḍala on the Mahāmeru

The hermitages of Bulon, Kupang, Huluwanwa and Pacira

Having fixed the Mahāmeru firmly on Java, Bhaṭāra Guru next proceeded to establish four principal hermitages (katyāgan) at Bulon, Kupang, Huluwanwa and Pacira. These same places (though in a different order) are mentioned in canto 78: 7 of Prapañca's Deśawarṇana, where they are described as the katyāgan of the caturāśrama. In the same way that the maṇḍala network in Java was derived from four sects (caturbhasma), so the katyāgan, or “places of recluses”, were apparently identified with four parent communities. The hermitage of Bulon must for the time being remain a mystery, as the name is not mentioned in any other inscriptional or literary source known to me, and Prapañca's brief description offers no further clue. The site of Kupang, however, can almost certainly be associated with the present river Kupang, and specifically the settlement of that name on its western bank at Brokoh, a village lying 10 km south of the coastal town of Batang in central Java.

The archaeological site at Kupang reveals the remnants of a terraced sanctuary beside the river, aligned to the mountains in the south. Although the original structure is barely visible today, a surviving statue known as Watu Gajah (“elephant stone”) is of particular interest. Formerly consisting of two parts, one of which has disappeared, the stone is thought to depict the Karivarada (or Varadaraja), the “deliverance of the elephant Gajendra by the god Wiṣṇu”, as related in the Bhagavata Purāṇa (see Figure 13).

This evidence allows us to take a step further and identify these remains with the Kupang mentioned by the pilgrim Bujangga Manik on his journey eastward through central Java. It might even be possible to connect the site with a village named Kupang recorded in the late ninth century charter of Er Hangat (Ratanira), issued by the king Dyah Tagwas Śrī Jayakirtiwardhana (r. 885).