I - Prologue

Summary

Descent of Lord Jagatpramāṇa

Rahyang Kaṇḍyawan and his descendants

Mĕḍang-gaṇa and Mĕḍang-kamulan

Transport of the Mahāmeru from Jambuḍipa

Mt Kelāśa

The mountains Wĕlahulu, Sañjaya, Walangbangan and Pamrihan

Descent of Lord Jagatpramāṇa

It is told that in former times the island of Java (Yawaḍipa) was an unstable land mass, without mountains or inhabitants; a condition which prompted the Supreme Lord Jagatpramāṇa (Bhaṭāra Guru) to descend to earth, together with his consort Bhaṭārī Umā. Setting up an initial residence at Ḍihyang, the divine couple proceeded to perform yoga. The gods Brahmā and Wiṣṇu were then instructed to create human beings. Kneading lumps of clay, Lord Brahmā created the male and Lord Wiṣṇu the female, an act which is said to have taken place on the mountain named Pawinihan.

As already observed, the name Ḍihyang refers to the misty heights of the Dieng Plateau in central Java (see Figure 2). The fact that this region preserves some of the island's earliest surviving Hindu-Javanese temple remains can hardly be regarded as accidental, but rather indicates that the author of the TP acknowledged the antiquity of Ḍihyang, both as a “senior” religious centre and cradle of the Śaiwa cult in Java. This in turn implies that an ancient network of ascetic communities maintained an unbroken dialogue throughout the Hindu-Javanese period, impervious to the shifting of the royal courts and accompanying political turmoil. Both the inscriptional and literary records provide evidence of such a continuity. In the region of Dieng itself, R.D.M. Verbeek already noted the existence of a rock inscription displaying the Śaka date 1132 (AD 1210–11), and a stone image of Wiṣṇu dated Śaka 1216 (AD 1294–5) was reported by N.W. Hoepermans. More recently, S. Satari has proposed a fourteenth or fifteenth century dating for an important yoni pedestal preserved in the district of Petungkriyono (discussed below). Further indication of an ongoing tradition is provided by the Old Sundanese poem recounting the journey of Bujangga Manik. Composed in around the year 1500, this work is of particular interest for its reference to quite a number of religious institutions mentioned in the TP, several of which were situated in central Java. There is, in addition, a collection of lontar manuscripts popularly known as the Merapi-Merbabu corpus, preserved in the National Library at Jakarta.