page_title: Majapahit
section_title: Reign of Hayam Wuruk and Gajah Mada's conquest
hierarchical_section_title: Majapahit / History / Golden age / Reign of Hayam Wuruk and Gajah Mada's conquest
caption_attribution_description: English: Trowulan Museum, Trowulan, East Java, Indonesia. Fragment of terracotta head figure. Believed to be the portrait of Gajah Mada, the prominent figure and prime minister of Majapahit empire.
context_page_description: The Majapahit was a Javanese Hindu-Buddhist thalassocratic empire in Southeast Asia, based on the island of Java, that existed from 1293 to circa 1517. Majapahit reached its peak of glory during the era of Hayam Wuruk, whose reign from 1350 to 1389 was marked by conquest which extended through Southeast Asia. His achievement is also credited to his prime minister, Gajah Mada. According to the Nagarakretagama written in 1365, Majapahit was an empire of 98 tributaries, stretching from Sumatra to New Guinea; consisting of present-day Indonesia, Singapore, Malaysia, Brunei, southern Thailand, East Timor, Sulu Archipelago and other parts of the Philippines, although the scope of Majapahit sphere of influence is still the subject of debate among historians.
  Majapahit was one of the last major Hindu empires of the region and is considered to be one of the greatest and most powerful empires in the history of Indonesia and Southeast Asia, one that is sometimes seen as the precedent for Indonesia's modern boundaries. Its influence extended beyond the modern territory of Indonesia and has been the subject of many studies.
context_section_description: Hayam Wuruk, also known as Rajasanagara, ruled Majapahit in 1350–89. During this period, Majapahit attained its peak with the help of the prime minister Gajah Mada. Under Gajah Mada's command (1313–64), Majapahit conquered more territories and became the regional power. According to the Nagarakretagama, canto XIII and XIV mentioned several states in Sumatra, Malay Peninsula, Borneo, Sulawesi, Nusa Tenggara islands, Maluku, New Guinea, Mindanao, Sulu Archipelago, Luzon and some parts of the Visayas islands as under the Majapahit realm of power. The Hikayat Raja Pasai, a 14th-century Aceh chronicle describe a Majapahit naval invasion on Samudra Pasai in 1350. The attacking force consisted of 400 large jong and an uncountable number of malangbang and kelulus. This expansion marked the greatest extent of Majapahit, making it one of the most influential empires in Indonesian history. It is considered as a commercial trading empire in the civilisation of Asia.
  Along with launching naval and military expeditions, the expansion of the Majapahit Empire also involved diplomacy and alliance. Hayam Wuruk decided, probably for political reasons, to take princess Citra Rashmi (Dyah Pitaloka) of neighbouring Sunda Kingdom as his consort. The Sundanese took this proposal as an alliance agreement. In 1357 the Sunda king and his royal family came to Majapahit to accompany and marry his daughter to Hayam Wuruk. However, Gajah Mada saw this event as an opportunity to demand Sunda's submission to Majapahit overlordship. The skirmish between the Sunda royal family and the Majapahit troops on Bubat square was inevitable. Despite courageous resistance, the royal family were overwhelmed and decimated. Almost the whole of the Sundanese royal party was killed. Tradition mentioned that the heartbroken princess committed suicide to defend the honour of her country. The Battle of Bubat, or the Pasunda Bubat tragedy, became the main theme of Kidung Sunda, also mentioned in Carita Parahyangan and Pararaton, however it was never mentioned in Nagarakretagama.
  The Nagarakretagama, written in 1365, depicts a sophisticated court with refined taste in art and literature and a complex system of religious rituals. The poet describes Majapahit as the centre of a huge mandala extending from New Guinea and Maluku to Sumatra and the Malay Peninsula. Local traditions in many parts of Indonesia retain accounts of 14th-century Majapahit's power in more or less legendary form. The direct administration of Majapahit did not extend beyond east Java and Bali, but challenges to Majapahit's claim to overlordship in outer islands drew forceful responses.
  To revive the fortune of Malayu in Sumatra, in the 1370s, a Malay ruler of Palembang sent an envoy to the court of the first emperor of the newly established Ming dynasty. He invited China to resume the tributary system, just like Srivijaya did several centuries earlier. Learning this diplomatic manoeuvre, immediately King Hayam Wuruk sent an envoy to Nanking, convinced the emperor that Malayu was their vassal, and was not an independent country. Subsequently, in 1377—a few years after the death of Gajah Mada, Majapahit sent a punitive naval attack against a rebellion in Palembang, contributing to the end of Srivijayan successor kingdom. Gajah Mada's other renowned general was Adityawarman, known for his conquest in Minangkabau.
  The nature of the Majapahit empire and its extent is subject to debate. It may have had limited or entirely notional influence over some of the tributary states, including Sumatra, the Malay Peninsula, Kalimantan, and eastern Indonesia, over which authority was claimed in the Nagarakretagama. Geographical and economic constraints suggest that rather than a regular centralised authority, the outer states were most likely to have been connected mainly by trade connections, which were probably a royal monopoly. It also claimed relationships with Champa, Cambodia, Siam, southern Burma, and Vietnam, and even sent missions to China. Although the Majapahit rulers extended their power over other islands and
caption: The terracotta figure popularly believed as the portrait of Gajah Mada, collection of Trowulan Museum.
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