Dewa Cawu (died April or May 1673) was a prince on the Island of

Bali Bali () is a province of Indonesia and the westernmost of the Lesser Sunda Islands. East of Java and west of Lombok, the province includes the island of Bali and a few smaller neighbouring islands, notably Nusa Penida, Nusa Lembongan, and Nu ...

, who possibly reigned as king for a short while in the 1650s. He belonged to a dynasty that claimed descent from the

Hindu Hindus (; ) are people who religiously adhere to Hinduism.Jeffery D. Long (2007), A Vision for Hinduism, IB Tauris, , pages 35–37 Historically, the term has also been used as a geographical, cultural, and later religious identifier for ...

- Javanese

Majapahit Majapahit ( jv, ꦩꦗꦥꦲꦶꦠ꧀; ), also known as Wilwatikta ( jv, ꦮꦶꦭ꧀ꦮꦠꦶꦏ꧀ꦠ; ), was a Javanese people, Javanese Hinduism, Hindu-Buddhism, Buddhist thalassocracy, thalassocratic empire in Southeast Asia that was ba ...

Empire An empire is a "political unit" made up of several territories and peoples, "usually created by conquest, and divided between a dominant center and subordinate peripheries". The center of the empire (sometimes referred to as the metropole) ex ...

, and kept its

palace A palace is a grand residence, especially a royal residence, or the home of a head of state or some other high-ranking dignitary, such as a bishop or archbishop. The word is derived from the Latin name palātium, for Palatine Hill in Rome which ...

(

puri Puri () is a coastal city and a Nagar Palika, municipality in the state of Odisha in eastern India. It is the district headquarters of Puri district and is situated on the Bay of Bengal, south of the state capital of Bhubaneswar. It is als ...

) in Gelgel near Bali's south coast.

Assistant to Dalem Di Made

According to Balinese

historiography Historiography is the study of the methods of historians in developing history as an academic discipline, and by extension is any body of historical work on a particular subject. The historiography of a specific topic covers how historians ha ...

, written much later, he was one of the fourteen sons of the king

Dalem Seganing Dalem Segening was a king of Bali who reigned in the first half of the 17th century, his exact dating being still uncertain. He belonged to a dynasty which originated from Majapahit on Java, and ruled from the palace (puri) of Gelgel. Accessio ...

, and born from a co-wife (penawing). He seems to have held a high position during the reign of his brother

Dalem Di Made Dalem Di Made was a king of Bali who may have reigned in the period 1623–1642. He belonged to a dynasty that claimed descent from the Majapahit Empire of Java, and kept residence in Gelgel, close to Bali's south coast. Reign Dalem Di Made w ...

(1623?-1642?).

Dutch Dutch commonly refers to: * Something of, from, or related to the Netherlands * Dutch people () * Dutch language () Dutch may also refer to: Places * Dutch, West Virginia, a community in the United States * Pennsylvania Dutch Country People E ...

sources from the 1630s mention a brother of the current ruler called 'T'jouw' or 'Tchau' who negotiated with the

Dutch East Indies Company The United East India Company ( nl, Verenigde Oostindische Compagnie, the VOC) was a chartered company established on the 20th March 1602 by the States General of the Netherlands amalgamating existing companies into the first joint-stock c ...

on the ruler's behalf. According to an annual entry in the Balinese text ''Pawawatekan'' the Gelgel

kingdom Kingdom commonly refers to: * A monarchy ruled by a king or queen * Kingdom (biology), a category in biological taxonomy Kingdom may also refer to: Arts and media Television * ''Kingdom'' (British TV series), a 2007 British television drama s ...

fell apart in 1651, at the same time as Dewa Cawu was enthroned as king. The outbreak of internal fighting on Bali in 1651 is likewise mentioned in Dutch sources.

Exile and death

Dewa Cawu is not mentioned as ruler in his own right in later Balinese

. Also, his time as ruler or

pretender A pretender is someone who claims to be the rightful ruler of a country although not recognized as such by the current government. The term is often used to suggest that a claim is not legitimate.Curley Jr., Walter J. P. ''Monarchs-in-Waiting'' ...

-ruler was apparently short and hampered by the ongoing internal

warfare War is an intense armed conflict between states, governments, societies, or paramilitary groups such as mercenaries, insurgents, and militias. It is generally characterized by extreme violence, destruction, and mortality, using regular ...

. By 1665 the old chief minister of the kingdom,

Anglurah Agung Anglurah Agung (died 31 October 1686), also known as Gusti Agung Di Made or Gusti Agung Maruti, was a king of Gelgel, the paramount kingdom on Bali, who ruled at a time when the political unity of the island began to break down. This process led to ...

, had usurped power, which he retained until his death in 1686. An annal entry states that Dewa Cawu died in Guliang in the present

Bangli Bangli Regency is the one and only landlocked regency ('' kabupaten'') of Bali, Indonesia. It covers an area of 520.81 km2 and had a population of 215,353 at the 2010 Census and 258,721 at the 2020 Census. Its regency seat is the town of Ba ...

regency A regent (from Latin : ruling, governing) is a person appointed to govern a state '' pro tempore'' (Latin: 'for the time being') because the monarch is a minor, absent, incapacitated or unable to discharge the powers and duties of the monarchy ...

, in 1673. The 18th-century

chronicle A chronicle ( la, chronica, from Greek ''chroniká'', from , ''chrónos'' – "time") is a historical account of events arranged in chronological order, as in a timeline. Typically, equal weight is given for historically important events and lo ...

Babad Dalem Babad Dalem is a historical account from Bali, Indonesia, which exists in a large number of versions of varying length. The title may be translated as "Chronicle of Kings", although the Balinese babad genre does not quite accord to Western-style ...

likewise speaks of a ruler who died in exile in Guliang, although this ruler is identified with his elder brother Dalem Di Made. The dynastic conditions on Bali at this time are therefore partly obscure, with largely contradictive sources.H. Creese, 'Balinese Babad as Historical Sources; A Reinterpretation of the Fall of Gelgel', ''Bijdragen tot de Taal-, Land- en Volkenkunde'' 147 1991.

References

1673 deaths Indonesian politicians Monarchs of Bali Balinese people History of Bali Year of birth unknown Place of birth unknown Date of death unknown 17th-century Indonesian people {{Indonesia-politician-stub

Assistant to Dalem Di Made

Exile and death

See also

References