page_title: Medang Kingdom
section_title: Mahapralaya
hierarchical_section_title: Medang Kingdom / History / Collapse / Mahapralaya
context_page_description: The Medang Kingdom or Mataram Kingdom was a Javanese Hindu–Buddhist kingdom that flourished between the 8th and 11th centuries. It was based in Central Java, and later in East Java. Established by King Sanjaya, the kingdom was ruled by the Sailendra dynasty.
  During most of its history the kingdom seems have relied heavily on agriculture, especially extensive rice farming, and later also benefited from maritime trade. According to foreign sources and archaeological findings, the kingdom seems to have been well populated and quite prosperous. The kingdom developed a complex society, had a well developed culture, and achieved a degree of sophistication and refined civilization.
  In the period between the late 8th century and the mid-9th century, the kingdom saw the blossoming of classical Javanese art and architecture reflected in the rapid growth of temple construction. Temples dotted the landscape of its heartland in Mataram. The most notable of the temples constructed in Medang Mataram are Kalasan, Sewu, Borobudur and Prambanan, all quite close to present-day city of Yogyakarta.
context_section_description: In retaliation, in 1016-1017, Srivijaya forces assisted Haji (king) Wurawari to revolt. He launched an invasion from Lwaram, attacked and destroyed the Medang Palace, killing Dharmawangsa and most of the royal family. Wurawari was a vassal polity located in present-day Banyumas area, south of Karang Kobar. Lwaram is connected to the modern day Ngloram village in Cepu region, Blora, Central Java. This sudden and unexpected attack took place during the wedding ceremony of Dharmawangsa's daughter, which rendered the court unprepared and shocked.
  This calamity was recorded in Javanese account as the pralaya (the debacle) the death of the Mataram kingdom. With the death of Dharmawangsa and the fall of the capital, under military pressure from Srivijaya, the kingdom finally collapsed and fell to chaos. With the absence of Medang paramount ruler, warlords in regional provinces and settlements in central and east Java rebelled and break loose from the central Medang government and forming their own polities serving local dynasties. Raids and robbery were rampant ravaging the country. There was further unrest and violence several years after the kingdom's demise.
  Airlangga, a son of King Udayana Warmadewa of Bali and Queen Mahendradatta, also a nephew of slain King Dharmawangsa, managed to escape the destruction and went into exile in Vanagiri forest in interior Central Java. He later rallied popular support, reunited the remnants of the Medang Kingdom and re-established the kingdom (including Bali) under the name of Kingdom of Kahuripan in 1019. The Kingdom of Kahuripan can be considered as the successor state of Medang, and from this point on, the kingdom was known as Kahuripan, with its capital located near Brantas river estuarine, somewhere around modern Surabaya, Sidoarjo or Pasuruan in East Java.
caption: Buddhist bronze figure depicting Boddhisattva Padmapani, 10th-century dated from late period of Medang Kingdom.
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