The Pararaton (''Book of Kings''), also known as the Katuturanira Ken Angrok (''Story of Ken Angrok''), is a Javanese historical chronicle written in Kawi (Old Javanese). The comparatively short text of 32 folio-size pages (1126 lines) contains the history of the kings of

Singhasari Singhasari ( jv, ꦏꦫꦠꦺꦴꦤ꧀ꦱꦶꦔ꧀ꦲꦱꦫꦶ, translit=Karaton Singhasari or , id, Kerajaan Singasari) was a Javanese Hindu kingdom located in east Java between 1222 and 1292. The kingdom succeeded the Kingdom of Kediri as ...

and

Majapahit Majapahit ( jv, ꦩꦗꦥꦲꦶꦠ꧀; ), also known as Wilwatikta ( jv, ꦮꦶꦭ꧀ꦮꦠꦶꦏ꧀ꦠ; ), was a Javanese Hindu-Buddhist thalassocratic empire in Southeast Asia that was based on the island of Java (in modern-day Indonesia ...

in eastern

Java Java (; id, Jawa, ; jv, ꦗꦮ; su, ) is one of the Greater Sunda Islands in Indonesia. It is bordered by the Indian Ocean to the south and the Java Sea to the north. With a population of 151.6 million people, Java is the world's mo ...

. Pararaton opens with a formal incarnation of the founder of

kingdom (1222–1292), Ken Arok (or Ken Angrok). Almost half of the manuscript is the story of Ken Arok's career before his accession to the throne in 1222. This part is clearly

mythical Myth is a folklore genre consisting of narratives that play a fundamental role in a society, such as foundational tales or origin myths. Since "myth" is widely used to imply that a story is not objectively true, the identification of a narrati ...

in character. There then follow a number of shorter narrative fragments in chronological order. Many of the events recorded here are dated. Towards the end the pieces of history become shorter and shorter and are mixed with

genealogical Genealogy () is the study of families, family history, and the tracing of their lineages. Genealogists use oral interviews, historical records, genetic analysis, and other records to obtain information about a family and to demonstrate kin ...

information concerning the members of the

royal family A royal family is the immediate family of kings/queens, emirs/emiras, sultans/ sultanas, or raja/ rani and sometimes their extended family. The term imperial family appropriately describes the family of an emperor or empress, and the term pa ...

of the

empire. Since the oldest colophon in the

manuscript A manuscript (abbreviated MS for singular and MSS for plural) was, traditionally, any document written by hand – or, once practical typewriters became available, typewritten – as opposed to mechanically printed or reproduced i ...

s contains the date 1522

Saka The Saka ( Old Persian: ; Kharoṣṭhī: ; Ancient Egyptian: , ; , old , mod. , ), Shaka (Sanskrit ( Brāhmī): , , ; Sanskrit (Devanāgarī): , ), or Sacae (Ancient Greek: ; Latin: ) were a group of nomadic Iranian peoples who histo ...

(1600 AD), the final part of the text must have been written between 1481 and 1600 AD.

Title

This chronicle is most commonly known as the Pararaton, a title which does not appear in the body of the text, but only in the colophons of around half of the surviving manuscripts.Wayan Jarrah Sastrawan (2020
"How to read a chronicle: the ''Pararaton'' as a conglomerate text"
''Indonesia and the Malay World'', pp. 4 The body of the text itself begins with the statement: "Thus follows the Story of Ken Angrok" (''nihan katuturanira Ken Angrok''), which indicates that this was the original title of the text or at least of its first part, which focuses on Ken Angrok's life. The edition of the text published by J.L.A. Brandes furnishes both alternative titles: ''Serat Pararaton atawa Katuturanira Ken Angrok'' ("The Book of Kings, or the Story of Ken Angrok"). The addition of ''serat'', a Modern Javanese term for "book", seems have been an innovation by Brandes. It is inappropriate to refer to the ''Pararaton'' as a ''serat'', because it does not belong to the Modern Javanese tradition in which ''serat'' are found. Furthermore, no manuscript of the ''Pararaton'' refers to the text as a ''serat''. The most widely acceptable title for this text is the ''Pararaton'', often translated as ''Book of Kings''. This term is clearly a nominal derivation from the stem ''ratu'' ("monarch"). In the ''Pararaton'' itself, the word ''ratu'' is completely gender-neutral, so it should be translated as "monarch" or "royal", rather than as "king". The analysis of the derivation from ''ratu'' to ''pararaton'' is not fully certain, but the morphology clearly denotes plurality. Thus, the term ''pararaton'' can best be translated into English as ''The Monarchs'' or ''The Royals''.

Prelude

Pararaton commences with a brief prelude telling how Ken Arok incarnated himself in which he became the king. He offered himself as a

human sacrifice Human sacrifice is the act of killing one or more humans as part of a ritual, which is usually intended to please or appease gods, a human ruler, an authoritative/priestly figure or spirits of dead ancestors or as a retainer sacrifice, wherei ...

to Yamadipati, the Hindu God of Death, in order to save himself from death. As a reward, he was promised that upon his death he would return to

Vishnu Vishnu ( ; , ), also known as Narayana and Hari, is one of the principal deities of Hinduism. He is the supreme being within Vaishnavism, one of the major traditions within contemporary Hinduism. Vishnu is known as "The Preserver" withi ...

's heaven and be reborn as a superior king of Singhasari. The promise was fulfilled. Ken Arok was begotten by

Brahma Brahma ( sa, ब्रह्मा, Brahmā) is a Hindu god, referred to as "the Creator" within the Trimurti, the trinity of supreme divinity that includes Vishnu, and Shiva.Jan Gonda (1969)The Hindu Trinity Anthropos, Bd 63/64, H 1/2, pp ...

of a newly-wed

peasant A peasant is a pre-industrial agricultural laborer or a farmer with limited land-ownership, especially one living in the Middle Ages under feudalism and paying rent, tax, fees, or services to a landlord. In Europe, three classes of peasa ...

woman. On his birth, his mother laid him in a

graveyard A cemetery, burial ground, gravesite or graveyard is a place where the remains of dead people are buried or otherwise interred. The word ''cemetery'' (from Greek , "sleeping place") implies that the land is specifically designated as a buri ...

where his body, effulgent with light, attracted the attention of Ki Lembong, a passing thief. Ki Lembong adopted him, raised him and taught him all of his arts. Ken Arok indulged in

gambling Gambling (also known as betting or gaming) is the wagering of something of value ("the stakes") on a random event with the intent of winning something else of value, where instances of strategy are discounted. Gambling thus requires three ele ...

, plunder and rapine. In the manuscript, it is written as such that Ken Arok was saved many times by

divine Divinity or the divine are things that are either related to, devoted to, or proceeding from a deity.divine< ...

intervention. There is a scene in Mount Kryar Lejar wherein

Gods A deity or god is a supernatural being who is considered divine or sacred. The ''Oxford Dictionary of English'' defines deity as a god or goddess, or anything revered as divine. C. Scott Littleton defines a deity as "a being with powers greater ...

descend in conference and ''

Batara Guru Batara Guru (also called Bhattara Guru, Debata Batara Guru and Batara Siwa) is the name of a supreme god in Indonesian Hinduism. His name is derived from Sanskrit ''Bhattaraka'' which means “noble lord".R. Ghose (1966), Saivism in Indonesia dur ...

'' declares Ken Arok his son. Ken Arok is also destined to bring stability and power to Java. The prelude of Pararaton is followed by the meeting of Ken Arok with Lohgawe, a

Brahmin Brahmin (; sa, ब्राह्मण, brāhmaṇa) is a varna as well as a caste within Hindu society. The Brahmins are designated as the priestly class as they serve as priests ( purohit, pandit, or pujari) and religious teachers ( ...

who came from

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area, the List of countries and dependencies by population, second-most populous ...

to make sure

's instructions were fulfilled. It was Lohgawe who asked Ken Arok to meet Tunggul Ametung, ruler of Tumapel. Ken Arok then killed Tunggul Ametung to gain possession of Ametung's wife,

Ken Dedes Ken Dedes was the first queen of Singhasari. She was the consort of Ken Arok, the first ruler of Singhasari, Java, Indonesia. She was later considered the origin of the lineage of kings that rule Java, the great mother of the Rajasa dynasty, the ...

, and also the throne to Singashari.

Analysis of the manuscript

Some parts of Pararaton cannot be accounted as historical facts. Especially in the prelude, fact and fiction, fantasy and reality go together. Scholars such as C. C. Berg argued that texts such as these are entirely supernatural and ahistorical, and intended not to record the past, but instead determine future events. However, the majority of scholars accept some historicity in the Pararaton, noting numerous correspondences with other inscriptions and Chinese sources, and accept the manuscript's frame of reference within which a valid interpretation is conceivable. The manuscript was written under the Javanese kingship. For the Javanese people, it was the function of the ruler to link the present with the past and the future and to give human life its appropriate place in the

cosmic Cosmic commonly refers to: * The cosmos, a concept of the universe Cosmic may also refer to: Media * ''Cosmic'' (album), an album by Bazzi * Afro/Cosmic music * "Cosmic", a song by Kylie Minogue from the album '' X'' * CosM.i.C, a member of ...

order. The king, in the Javanese realm, is the sacral embodiment of the total state, just as his palace is a microcosmic copy of the macrocosmos. The king (or a founder of a

dynasty A dynasty is a sequence of rulers from the same family,''Oxford English Dictionary'', "dynasty, ''n''." Oxford University Press (Oxford), 1897. usually in the context of a monarchical system, but sometimes also appearing in republics. A ...

) possesses an innate divinity to a far higher degree than ordinary men. Hans Ras in 2001 compared the Pararaton with the

Pallava The Pallava dynasty existed from 275 CE to 897 CE, ruling a significant portion of the Deccan, also known as Tondaimandalam. The dynasty rose to prominence after the downfall of the Satavahana dynasty, with whom they had formerly served as f ...

Canggal inscription (732 AD), the Śivagŗha (Siwagrha) inscription (856 AD), the Calcutta Stone (1041 AD) and the

Babad Tanah Jawi ''Babad Tanah Jawi'' ( jv, ꦧꦧꦢ꧀ꦠꦤꦃꦗꦮꦶ, "History of the land of Java"), is a generic title for many manuscripts written in the Javanese language. Their arrangements and details vary, and no copies of any of the manuscripts are ...

(1836 AD). These show clear similarities in character, structure and function and also similarity with texts from the Malay

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 h ...

. J.J. Ras, 2001, ''Sacral kingship in Java''. In: Marijke J. Klokke and Karel R. van Kooij (eds.), Fruits of inspiration. Studies in honour of Prof. J.G. de Casparis, pp. 373-388. Groningen: Egbert Forsten, 2001. onda Indological Studies 11.

Title

Prelude

Analysis of the manuscript

Notes

References

Further reading