I've been reading the sources on Vijaya, king of Java from 1293 to 1309. He's often viewed as a hero for defeating many enemies in battle and founding the Majapahit court, which would later become very powerful. But he strikes me as a confusing and slightly tragic person

Vijaya is probably the most well-documented Javanese monarch before 1600. We have detailed biographical inscriptions issued by him, contemporary Yuan records based on eyewitness accounts, and several Javanese traditions that give different perspectives

Vijaya grew up in the late 13th century, becoming an adult during the reign of Kṛtanagara (king of Java 1268–1292). Vijaya was the son of Kṛtanagara's second cousin; he was thus an important member of the royal family, but was unlikely to ever become king himself

Kṛtanagara was a fearsome character. He had been anointed from birth as the unifier of rival factions within the royal dynasty, and as he grew up, he proved an extremely effective politician and leader

As his reign progressed through the 1260s, 1270s and 1280s, Kṛtanagara brought most of eastern Java under his firm control. Ever since the death of Airlangga in 1052, the region had been fragmented into endlessly warring sub-kingdoms, but Kṛtanagara united it forcefully

Kṛtanagara pursued an aggressive foreign policy, launching successful military campaigns against Sumatra in 1275 and against Bali in 1284. Eventually he angered the most powerful person in the world: the Great Khan Khublai in China

Though Kṛtanagara had worked hard to impose his rule in Java, he still relied on vassals to control certain areas. One such vassal was Jayakatyeng, a man of similar age to Kṛtanagara who was in charge of the Gelang region (present-day Ponorogo and Madiun)

In 1292, both the Great Khan and Jayakatyeng were fed up with Kṛtanagara's grandstanding, and each of them attacked him. This is the immediate context for Vijaya's rise to power

This story is pretty well known; have a look at David Bade's book "Of Palm-Wine, Women and War" for a sensitive discussion of the period 1292–93. There's also a decent YouTube video on it:

Jayakatyeng's armies approach Kṛtanagara's capital Singhasari, and Vijaya led an army to head them off. What happened next is told in the Kudadu inscription, issued by Vijaya in 1294. After engaging successfully with Jayakatyeng's troops, Vijaya was betrayed by a fellow general

Vijaya was forced to flee, and as the enemy chased him, they kept picking off his soldiers until "only 12 companions remained to protect him". He sought refuge in the village of Kudadu, where the villagers hid him from the enemy and helped him to escape to the island of Madura

So far, Vijaya comes across as a loyal general attempting to protect his king, but honourably defeated in battle. But what's odd is that he runs away to Madura and into the company of Vīrarāja, a man who according to some sources had encouraged the rebellion in the first place

Furthermore, after building an alliance with Vīrarāja, these same sources (the later Javanese traditions) show Vijaya going to the victorious Jayakatyeng and offering him fealty! Why would Vijaya leave the safety of Madura to put himself at the mercy of his enemy?

Jayakatyeng apparently believed that Vijaya had switched sides to support him, supposedly because, now that Kṛtanagara was dead, there was no other viable option

Vijaya's submission to Jayakatyeng (whether genuine or feigned) happened around October 1293, according to Damais' timeline of events. Soon after, Vijaya was given permission to found a new settlement which became known as Majapahit, his new base.

The later Javanese sources, such as the Pararaton and the historical poems about Vijaya, emphasise a few things about this period: 1) they make clear that Vijaya was only pretending to serve Jayakatyeng, but that he and Vīrarāja were secretly planning a counter-coup

2) The sources talk a lot about Vijaya's comrades, who had fought by his side since the year before. Vijaya is shown to be generous to his friends and takes their opinions seriously when deciding his next move. The companions who'll become important later are Lawe, Sora and Nambi

3) Like the Kudadu inscription, the later sources draw attention to the hardships Vijaya endured, especially fleeing to Madura; there's a lot of sleeping in rice fields, and daring escapades together. All this shows genuine solidarity and loyalty between Vijaya and his people

So a few months later (March 1293), the Yuan troops arrive by sea. According to their records, they found Vijaya already in rebellion against Jayakayteng. In the Javanese sources, the arrival of the Yuan (called Tatars by the Javanese) was the trigger for Vijaya to rebel

The Yuan, who have arrive to find their original target (Kṛtanagara) already gone, were persuaded by Vijaya to assist him in attacking Jayakatyeng. The Yuan apparently also believed Vijaya's offer to submission to them

Within a month, Jayakatyeng was facing three enemies: Vijaya's army from Majapahit, Vīrarāja's army from Madura, and the Yuan army (which itself consisted of three divisions, led by a Han Chinese, a Mongol, and a Uyghur). Jayakatyeng was fairly easily defeated in late April

After Jayakatyeng's defeat, Vijaya then lured a small detachment of Yuan troops (200 or so) into a trap at Majapahit and destroyed them. Shocked by this and weary of the endless intrigue in Java, the Yuan commanders headed home to face some minor punishments for their mistakes

With the departure of the Yuan, Vijaya was finally able to claim the throne for himself, establishing Majapahit as the new royal capital of Java. It now seems like Vijaya's submission to Jayakatyeng and the Yuan was deceitful, but it's unclear if that was the case at the time

Soon after becoming king, Vijaya started to issue a lot of charters. These are documents, often written on copper or stone, that give certain privileges or obligations to communities. From the content of Vijaya's charters, it's obvious that he had a lot of political debts to pay

The Kudadu (11 Sep 1294) is the earliest extant charter, and it shows some very important features: 1) it provides a genealogy of Vijaya, stressing that he is of royal blood, 2) it describes the overthrow of Kṛtanagara in very negative terms; Jayakatyeng is portrayed as evil

3) It mentions that Vijaya is married to four daughters of Kṛtanagara and lists their names, 4) it shows that Vīrarāja had obtained one of the most powerful positions in Vijaya's court

I'll talk about the Kṛtanagara connection first. It seems that Vijaya was at pains to present himself as the legitimate heir to Kṛtanagara by constantly emphasising his marriage to the former king's daughters.

Vijaya never stops talking about Kṛtanagara. Even as late as 1305, Vijaya's charters are still talking about Kṛtanagara as an amazing conqueror who subdied the archipelago, and Vijaya as his son-in-law. I feel there's a bit of an inferiority complex going on here

Vijaya may well have felt overshadowed by Kṛtanagara, because as we'll see, his reign was nowhere near as successful or secure as that of his father-in-law

I mentioned that Vijaya had debts to pay for becoming king. The Javanese tradition makes clear that he was not able to give everyone what they thought they deserved. Very quickly, Vijaya's comrades started to bicker, and tensions from the wartime now led to political rivalries

The first revolt was by Lawe, who had been a courageous but hot-headed warrior for Vijaya's cause. There are conflicting reasons why he decided to break his allegiance to Vijaya: some say he was slandered, others say he was just too proud to accept a minor position in government

This story is told in detail in the poem "Rangga Lawe". Lawe's rebellion splits the court apart and many friendships are broken; when Lawe is defeated, no-one celebrates, because they remember how they were once all on the same side

The Lawe rebellion probably happened in 1295, a mere two years after Vijaya became king. By 1296 we have another charter and we see the ministers have been shuffled around a lot; this may be evidence that the Lawe rebellion (or other disturbances) were stirring trouble at court

Then in 1300, another close comrade of Vijaya breaks away: Sora, who the poems depict as a friend of Lawe who was must hurt by the earlier rebellion. It's reported that Sora became alienated because a rival minister had convinced Vijaya that he was a threat

The story of Sora's rebellion, and then a number of others, ending with the worst one of all, the rebellion of the former chief minister Nambi, are told of in the Pararaton and the poem Sorandaka

These are late sources and their story is not corroborated by primary sources, but they paint a compelling image: as Vijaya struggled to assert his authority, his friends and comrades became more disillusioned by his leadership, and this led him to fear and alienate them more

At some stage, probably soon after the Lawe rebellion, Vīrarāja decided to withdraw from Vijaya's court. Apparently citing the agreement they had made back in Madura, Vīrarāja claimed a huge chunk of territory in the far eastern part of Java as his reward

Vijaya apparently could do nothing to stop Vīrarāja's withdrawal from court and taking a third of the kingdom with him. This eastern region (around Lumajang) would become a huge problem at the end of Vijaya's reign, when Nambi used it as his base of resistance

Vijaya kept churning out charters promising rewards to his loyal followers, but his real allies were deserting him everywhere. Finally, in 1309, with his old comrades either dead (like Lawe and Sora) or in open revolt (like Nambi), Vijaya died of some kind of chronic disease

So to assess his reign: Vijaya started out as a minor royal never destined to rule, made a lucky escape from disaster, and used some tricky politics to become king. But as king, he seemed intimidated by the role, lost heaps of territory, and turned all his followers against him

Sometimes he seems devious and treacherous, but other times, he seems almost pathetic. The slow collapse of the camaraderie between Vijaya and his friends, due largely to his own weaknesses, is depicted in the later sources ("Rangga Lawe" and "Sorandaka") as high tragedy

These traditions emerged quite late (no earlier than 1500), so we don't know quite how seriously to take them. To my mind, the character of Vijaya as revealed in his contemporary inscriptions is fully consistent with how he appears in the Pararaton and later historical poems

Even if it's only half-true, the portrait of Vijaya that comes out of these sources is much richer than the standard heroic founder narrative that has since been foisted on him