The Pararaton opens with the fall of Daha in 1222 which made Toemapĕl, known later as Singasari, the principal kingdom. Five of its kings are enumerated, of whom Vishṇuvardhana was buried in the celebrated shrine of Tjandi Djago, where he was represented in the guise of Buddha. His successor Śrî Râjasanâgara was praised by the poet Prapantja[395] as a zealous Buddhist but was known by the posthumous name of Śivabuddha. He was the first to use the name of Singasâri and perhaps founded a new city, but the kingdom of Toemapĕl came to an end in his reign for he was slain by Djaja Katong[396], prince of Daha, who restored to that kingdom its previous primacy, but only for a short time, since it was soon supplanted by Madjapahit. The foundation of this state is connected with a Chinese invasion of Java, related at some length in the Yüan annals[397], so that we are fortunate in possessing a double and fairly consistent account of what occurred.
We learn from these sources that some time after Khubilai Khan had conquered China, he sent missions to neighbouring countries to demand tribute. The Javanese had generally accorded a satisfactory reception to Chinese missions, but on this occasion the king (apparently Djaja Katong) maltreated the envoy and sent him back with his face cut or tattooed. Khubilai could not brook this outrage and in 1292 despatched a punitive expedition. At that time Raden Vidjaja, the son-in-law of Kĕrtanagara, had not submitted to Djaja Katong and held out at Madjapahit, a stronghold which he had founded near the river Brantas. He offered his services to the Chinese and after a two months' campaign Daha was captured and Djaja Katong killed. Raden Vidjaja now found that he no longer needed his Chinese allies. He treacherously massacred some and prepared to fight the rest. But the Mongol generals, seeing the difficulties of campaigning in an unknown country without guides, prudently returned to their master and reported that they had taken Daha and killed the insolent king.
Madjapahit (or Wilwatikta) now became the premier state of Java, and had some permanency. Eleven sovereigns, including three queens, are enumerated by the Pararaton until its collapse in 1468. We learn from the Ming annals and other Chinese documents[398] that it had considerable commercial relations with China and sent frequent missions: also that Palembang was a vassal of Java. But the general impression left by the Pararaton is that during the greater part of its existence Madjapahit was a distracted and troubled kingdom. In 1403, as we know from both Chinese and Javanese sources, there began a great war between the western and eastern kingdoms, that is between Madjapahit and Balambangan in the extreme east, and in the fifteenth century there was twice an interregnum. Art and literature, though not dead, declined and events were clearly tending towards a break-up or revolution. This appears to have been consummated in 1468, when the Pararaton simply says that King Paṇḍansalas III left the Kraton, or royal residence.
It is curious that the native traditions as to the date and circumstances in which Madjapahit fell should be so vague, but perhaps the end of Hindu rule in Java was less sudden and dramatic than we are inclined to think. Islam had been making gradual progress and its last opponents were kings only in title. The Chinese mention the presence of Arabs in the seventh century, and the geography called Ying-yai Shêng-lan (published in 1416), which mentions Grissé, Soerabaja and Madjapahit as the principal towns of Java, divides the inhabitants into three classes: (a) Mohammedans who have come from the west, "their dress and food is clean and proper"; (b) the Chinese, who are also cleanly and many of whom are Mohammedans; (c) the natives who are ugly and uncouth, devil-worshippers, filthy in food and habits. As the Chinese do not generally speak so severely of the hinduized Javanese it would appear that Hinduism lasted longest among the lower and more savage classes, and that the Moslims stood on a higher level. As in other countries, the Arabs attempted to spread Islam from the time of their first appearance. At first they confined their propaganda to their native wives and dependents. Later we hear of veritable apostles of Islam such as Malik Ibrahim, and Raden Rahmat, the ruler of a town called Ampel[399] which became the head quarter of Islam. The princes whose territory lay round Madjapahit were gradually converted and the extinction of the last Hindu kingdom became inevitable[400].
3
It is remarkable that the great island of Sumatra, which seems to lie in the way of anyone proceeding from India eastwards and is close to the Malay peninsula, should in all ages have proved less accessible to invaders coming from the west than the more distant Java. Neither Hindus, Arabs nor Europeans have been able to establish their influence there in the same thorough manner. The cause is probably to be found in its unhealthy and impenetrable jungles, but even so its relative isolation remains singular.
It does not appear that any prince ever claimed to be king of all Sumatra. For the Hindu period we have no indigenous literature and our scanty knowledge is derived from a few statues and inscriptions and from notices in Chinese writings. The latter do not refer to the island as a whole but to several states such as Indragiri near the Equator and Kandali (afterwards called San-bo-tsai, the Sabaza of the Arabs) near Palembang. The annals of the Liang dynasty say that the customs of Kandali were much the same as those of Camboja and apparently we are to understand that the country was Buddhist, for one king visited the Emperor Wu-ti in a dream, and his son addressed a letter to His Majesty eulogizing his devotion to Buddhism. Kandali is said to have sent three envoys to China between 454 and 519.
The Chinese pilgrim I-Ching[401] visited Sumatra twice, once for two months in 672 and subsequently for some years (about 688-695). He tells us that in the islands of the Southern Sea, "which are more than ten countries," Buddhism flourishes, the school almost universally followed being the Mûlasarvâstivâda, though the Sammitîyas and other schools have a few adherents. He calls the country where he sojourned and to which these statements primarily refer, Bhoja or Śrîbhoja (Fo-shih or Shih-li-fo-shih), adding that its former name was Malayu. It is conjectured that Shih-li-fo-shih is the place later known as San-bo-tsai[402] and Chinese authors seem to consider that both this place and the earlier Kandali were roughly speaking identical with Palembang. I-Ching tells us that the king of Bhoja favoured Buddhism and that there were more than a thousand priests in the city. Gold was abundant and golden flowers were offered to the Buddha. There was communication by ship with both India and China. The Hinayana, he says, was the form of Buddhism adopted "except in Malayu, where there are a few who belong to the Mahayana." This is a surprising statement, but it is impossible to suppose that an expert like I-Ching can have been wrong about what he actually saw in Śrîbhoja. So far as his remarks apply to Java they must be based on hearsay and have less authority, but the sculptures of Boroboedoer appear to show the influence of Mûlasarvâstivâdin literature. It must be remembered that this school, though nominally belonging to the Hinayana, came to be something very different from the Theravâda of Ceylon.
The Sung annals and subsequent Chinese writers know the same district (the modern Palembang) as San-bo-tsai (which may indicate either mere change of name or the rise of a new city) and say that it sent twenty-one envoys between 960 and 1178. The real object of these missions was to foster trade and there was evidently frequent intercourse between eastern Sumatra, Champa and China. Ultimately the Chinese seem to have thought that the entertainment of Sumatran diplomatists cost more than they were worth, for in 1178 the emperor ordered that they should not come to Court but present themselves in the province of Fu-kien. The Annals state that Sanskrit writing was in use at San-bo-tsai and lead us to suppose that the country was Buddhist. They mention several kings whose names or titles seem to begin with the Sanskrit word Śrî[403]. In 1003 the envoys reported that a Buddhist temple had been erected in honour of the emperor and they received a present of bells for it. Another envoy asked for dresses to be worn by Buddhist monks. The Ming annals also record missions from San-bo-tsai up to 1376, shortly after which the region was conquered by Java and the town decayed[404]. In the fourteenth century Chinese writers begin to speak of Su-mên-ta-la or Sumatra by which is meant not the whole island but a state in the northern part of it called Samudra and corresponding to Atjeh[405]. It had relations with China and the manners and customs of its inhabitants are said to be the same as in Malacca, which probably means that they were Moslims.
Little light is thrown on the history of Sumatra by indigenous or Javanese monuments. Those found testify, as might be expected, to the existence here and there of both Brahmanism and Buddhism. In 1343 a Sumatran prince named Adityavarman, who was apparently a vassal of Madjapahit, erected an image of Manjuśrî at Tjandi Djago and in 1375 one of Amoghapâśa.