Jayabhaya or Jayabaya ( Javanese spelled: Ratu Jayabaya) was the Javanese King of the Kediri Kingdom in East Java, Indonesia which ruled around 1135-1159 CE. With the title of ''abhiseka'' used is Sri Maharaja Sang Mapanji Jayabhaya Sri Warmeswara Madhusudana Awataranindita Suhtrisingha Parakrama Uttunggadewa. The reign of King Jayabhaya is considered the heyday of the Kediri Kingdom. King Jayabaya is credited with reunification of the Kediri kingdom following a split due to the death of his predecessor Airlangga. King Jayabaya was known for his just and prosperous rule, and reputed to have been an incarnation of 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 ...

deity Vishnu. King Jayabaya epitomized the archetypal

Ratu Adil The Ratu Adil, literally meaning ''Just Queen/King'', is a messianic figure found in Indonesian folklore, more precisely in Javanese tradition. It is believed that he (or she) will establish universal peace and justice in the manner of similar fi ...

: the just king reborn in the dark age of suffering ''"Jaman Edan"'' (Madness Era) to restore the ''Jaman Raharja'': social justice, order, and harmony in the world, as Javanese believed in a cyclical history of alternating prosperity

epochs In chronology and periodization, an epoch or reference epoch is an instant in time chosen as the origin of a particular calendar era. The "epoch" serves as a reference point from which time is measured. The moment of epoch is usually decided by ...

of (''Jaman Raharja'') followed an era of suffering (''Jaman edan''), to cycle back to an era of prosperity (''Jaman Raharja''). Jabaya termed his kingdom ''Widarba'', meaning a thousand cities in ''Pamenang'', modern Kediri Regency. Intertwined between fact and myth are records that his father ''Gendrayana the Revolutionary'', claimed to be a descendant of Pandavas as being son of Yudayana: the son of Parikshit: the son of Abhimanyu: the son of Arjuna from the family Pandavas. From Jayaba's queen consort ''Dewi Sara'' wife were born all daughters ''Jaya Amijaya'', ''Dewi Pramesti'', ''Dewi Pramuni'' and ''Dewi Sasanti''. Jaya Amijaya was married to Queen consort Astradarma Pramesti Yawastina king and birthed King of Anglingdarma: Malawapati. Jayabaya abdicated in old age and sought a life of meditation as a Hindu recluse, informing a ''moksha'' he was the incarnation of vishnu, in the village of ''Menang'', in Pagu sub-district of Kediri Regency, until the modern era still considered a sacred pilgrimage site, according to Kejawen belief system.

Sukarno Sukarno). (; born Koesno Sosrodihardjo, ; 6 June 1901 – 21 June 1970) was an Indonesian statesman, orator, revolutionary, and nationalist who was the first president of Indonesia, serving from 1945 to 1967. Sukarno was the leader of ...

and

Suharto Suharto (; ; 8 June 1921 – 27 January 2008) was an Indonesian army officer and politician, who served as the second and the longest serving president of Indonesia. Widely regarded as a military dictator by international observers, Suharto ...

both meditated at length in Menang to attain an air of kingly legitimacy,

supernatural Supernatural refers to phenomena or entities that are beyond the laws of nature. The term is derived from Medieval Latin , from Latin (above, beyond, or outside of) + (nature) Though the corollary term "nature", has had multiple meanings si ...

abilities, Jayabaya's blessings and/or powers.

Prophecies

Ratu Jayabaya is most famous for his

oracle An oracle is a person or agency considered to provide wise and insightful counsel or prophetic predictions, most notably including precognition of the future, inspired by deities. As such, it is a form of divination. Description The word '' ...

s or prophesies attributed to him, namely the ''Serat Jayabaya Musarar'', ''Serat Pranitiwakya'', and some debatable others. The ''mangala'' ( prologue) of the famous ''

Kakawin Bhāratayuddha Kakawin Bhāratayuddha is an Old Javanese poetical rendering of some books (''parva'') of the ''Mahabharata'' by Mpu Sedah and his brother Mpu Panuluh in Indian meters (''kāvya'' or ''Kakawin''). The commencement of this work was exactly 6 Nov ...

'' names King Jayabaya as the patron of the two poets, Mpu Sedah and Mpu Panuluh who were the authors of the work. Jayabaya is also attributed as author of the ''Prelambang Jayabaya'', a prophetic book that played an important role in the Japanese occupation. According to a selectively abridged set of

stanza In poetry, a stanza (; from Italian language, Italian ''stanza'' , "room") is a group of lines within a poem, usually set off from others by a blank line or Indentation (typesetting), indentation. Stanzas can have regular rhyme scheme, rhyme and ...

s within a Jayabaya prophesy (all are extremely long epic poems):

The Javanese would be ruled by whites for 3 centuries and by yellow dwarfs for the life span of a maize plant prior to the return of the Ratu Adil: whose name must contain at least one syllable of the Javanese Nata Nagara.

When

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...

occupied the

Netherlands East Indies The Dutch East Indies, also known as the Netherlands East Indies ( nl, Nederlands(ch)-Indië; ), was a Dutch colony consisting of what is now Indonesia. It was formed from the nationalised trading posts of the Dutch East India Company, which ...

, in the first weeks of 1942, many Indonesians danced in the streets, welcoming the Japanese army as the fulfillment of the prophecy ascribed to Jayabaya, who foretold the day when white men would one day establish their rule on Java and oppress the people for many years – but they would be driven out by the arrival of yellow men from the north. These yellow dwarves, Joyoboyo had predicted, would remain for one crop cycle (3 1/2 months, which translated as 3 1/2 years of Japanese occupation), and after that Java would be freed from foreign domination. To most of the Javanese, Japan was a liberator: the prophecy had been fulfilled.R. B. Cribb, Audrey Kahin: 2004. ''Historical dictionary of Indonesia: Volume 51 of Historical dictionaries of Asia, Oceania, and the Middle East''. Scarecrow Press, 2004. , . 583 pages. pp210 The Japanese freed Indonesian nationalists from Dutch prisons and hired them as

civil servant The civil service is a collective term for a sector of government composed mainly of career civil servants hired on professional merit rather than appointed or elected, whose institutional tenure typically survives transitions of political leaders ...

s and administrators. In the waning days of 1944, however, it was clear that Japan could not win the war. The Japanese officially handed its authority over to Indonesia to be independent on 9 August 1945, and the commander of Japan's Southeast Asian forces appointed future President

as chairman of the preparatory committee for Indonesian independence. As one account of Indonesian history puts it, ''"With the minor exception that three crops had been harvested, Jayabaya's prophecy had been realized."'' Many believe that the time for the arrival of a new ''Ratu Adil'' is near (as the prophecies put it, ''"when iron wagons could drive without horses and ships could sail through the sky"''), and that he will come to rescue and reunite Indonesia after an acute crisis, ushering in the dawn of a new golden age.

References

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Prophecies

References

Further reading