Kalingga, or Ho-ling, is a rather enigmatic polity that seems to be mostly known through contemporary Chinese documents. According to these annals, Kalingga was one of two Javanese coastal centres that interacted with the T’ang court in the fifth century CE, the other one being Ho-lo-tan, in the Tarum basin.
[1]
A North Indian Buddhist monk named Gunavarman wrote about his visit to Kalingga in 422, and we know that the polity sent envoys to China in 430, 440, and in the 640s and 660s.
[1]
[2]
According to Chinese records, by the seventh century, Kalingga had expanded inland, and counted twenty-eight small polities as its allies.
[3]
Population and political organization
Kalingga was likely a monarchy,
[2]
but overall the sources are silent on the exact details of its political organization. Similarly, no population estimates could be found in the specialist literature.
[1]: (Tarling 1993, 203)
[2]: (Hall 2011, 106)
[3]: (Hall 2011, 122)
| none |
| Medang Kingdom |
| Preceding: Java - Buni Culture (id_buni) [None] | |
| Succeeding: Medang Kingdom (id_medang_k) [continuity] |
| uncoded |
| inferred present |
| inferred present |
| unknown |
| unknown |
| unknown |
| inferred present |
| unknown |
| inferred present |
| unknown |
| unknown |
| Year Range | Kalingga Kingdom (id_kalingga_k) was in: |
|---|---|
| (500 CE 731 CE) | Central Java |
"One of these elusive ghost-countries is called "Ho-ling," if we are to follow the modern sound value of the Chinese characters; in the T’ang period (618-907), however, when this kingdom came to the fore, its name must have been pronounced (H)a ling, (H)a lng, (H)aring, or(H)aring. This country sent its first embassy to the T’ang court around the middle of the seventh century, while the last is mentioned under the year 818, about a century before the overthrow of the T’ang dynasty itself. For a long time scholars were satisfied that the name "Ho-ling" must have been a Chinese version of the Sanskrit "Kalingga" or of an Indonesian derivation of this name, "Kiling," and must have indicated a settlement of Indian immigrants from the Coromandel coast." [1] "The first scholar to question this Kalingga thesis exhaustively was Damais. He showed that the transliteration of Ho-ling as Kalingga or even Kiling ran counter to the constant practice and known principles of Chinese transcription for over a thousand years.4 He suggested instead that "Walaing" or "Walbng," a toponym or title which appears in a number of Javanese inscriptions between 856 and 919, may have been the indigenous matrix of the name Ho-ling. Yet both the justification of the transliteration of Ho-ling, as Walaing, and Walaing’s qualifications to be regarded as a kingdom are not entirely convincing, as Damais himself conceded. Yet he wants his thesis to be accepted "au moins provisoirement." " [2]
[1]: (van der Meulen 1977, 87)
[2]: (van der Meulen 1977, 89)
No political/military alliance. "Ho-ling, based in central Java, was one of two fifth-century Java coastal centres with which the Chinese court interacted (Ho-lo-tan in the Tarum River basin near modern Jakarta was the other). When in the seventh century the kings of Srivijaya created their polity, they subordinated and incorporated into their realm a number of previously independent river-mouth ports on the northern and western coasts of Java, but they made no effort to include the rest of the island. In particular, they made no effort to subordinate central Java and its Kedu Plain, a unique and valuable part of the maritime realm. The relationship that developed between Srivijaya and central Java was a mutually advantageous, symbiotic linkage between a state dependent on the control of international trade and a rice-plain that remained somewhat distant from that trade." [1]
[1]: (Tarling 1993, 203)
Sanjaya, founder of the Medang Kingdom, was great-grandson of the famous Kalingga monarch Queen Shima. (EXTERNAL_INLINE_LINK: http://historian-sholeh.blogspot.co.uk/2011/01/medang-kingdom.html )
"The Chinese sources from the fifth and seventh centuries mention several principalities in Jawa (to which Thromanagara may be added), without recording any dependencies (unless the note about Ho-lo-tan meant "dependent on Jawa"). These principalities each senttheir own envoys, only rarely banding together. There are indeed hints of fierce fratricidal wars and the subjection of neighboring states ina letter of the king of Ho-lo-tan to the emperor and in the story about Gunavarman. But the first reference to a true overlordship dates from the eighth century and is provided by both the Revised T’ang Annals and the proclamation of the king Sanjaya. Yet the extent of this overlord- ship remains a matter for conjecture." [1]
[1]: (van der Meulen 1977, 95)
levels. Before 500CE: "The archaeological record is yet to evince anything like the cities in Central Java, complete with streets, which some Chinese visitors reported as hearsay at about 1650 B.P. (Hall 1992: 194). However, Java and Bali certainly do present evidence of larger habitations, pre-1500 B.P., than had been established elsewhere in the archipelago. An average population of around 900 people has been estimated for Gilimanuk, which then may have been effectively a tiny island off Bali’s northwest coast (Soegondho 1995: 16-18). Elsewhere along the north coast, too, there is a persistent pattern of designated cemeteries within the settlement (Prasetyo 1994/1995), or else of burials underlying much of the settlement (Sukendar et al. 1982). This suggests nucle- ated villages whose inhabitants staked their claim to residence through burial of the ancestors within the village perimeter. A circular hole of 30 cm diameter at Anyar, West Java (Sukendar et al. 1982: 9), may reflect a house pile. Sukendar (1986) interpreted one circle of upright stones at Bandowoso, in East Java’s hinterland, as the stone piles for a ceremonial center, and Van Heekeren (1958: 48) offered a similar interpretation for the rectangular arrangements of stone uprights at the nearby site of Pakauman. Pakauman also contains a stone statue, presumed to represent an ancestor, as well as stone sarcophagi and dolmens. These Early Metal Phase megalithic complexes crop up on the volcanic soils in the flatter hinterland reaches right along Bali and Java, as well as the Lampung and Pagar Alam districts of Southern Sumatra (e.g. Bellwood 1997; Van Heekeren 1958)."
[1]
At the onset of the next period: "Like Sanjaya, initially the Sailendra leaders were rakrayan, or regional leaders, rulers of a watak that integrated village clusters (wanua) participating in a regional irrigation and/or otherwise networked society. As rakrayan, these earliest Sailendra rulers provided the political stability necessary to maintain the local irrigation and marketing networks, and through their patronage of Indic religion they constructed sacred cults to legitimize the regional integration of wanua into watak."
[2]
1. Towns? (reported by the Chinese but not confirmed archaeologically)
2. Villages (wanua)
[1]: (Bulbeck in Peregrine and Ember 2000, 104-105)
[2]: (Hall 2011, 123)
levels. "The circa 1500-1600 B.P. inscriptions at Kutai, East Borneo, and Taruma, Jakarta bay, refer to the kings’ gifts to their newly arrived Brahmans. Given the lack of wider direct archaeological evidence on religious specialization, we must revert to generalized Austronesian ethnographic analogy to imagine the late prehistoric situation. In that case, the single required qualification in egalitarian communities, of enhanced mystical prowess, would have increasingly been overshadowed by the religious authority of the head of the extended family in ranked societies, and the chief in kinship-centralized societies. Specialist priesthoods no doubt emerged along with other occupational specialists in the largest societies and so paved the way for the ready incorporation of Buddhist and Brahmanic concepts in the historical Indianized states."
[1]
" Purnavarman’s Brahmans, or the Indian Buddhist pilgrim Gunavarman who preached Buddhism in Ho-ling (Central Java) in 1538 B.P. (Hall 1985: 104-107), presumably had to content themselves with limited headway, as the earliest Indic religious architecture (at least, as preserved) post- dates 1300 B.P. (Van Bemme11994: 5). It can be assumed that specialist religious practicioners attached to the courts, and distributed through the countryside in various capacities, would have resisted the incursion of any Indian ideas that might have challenged the priests’ authority or conflicted with traditional beliefs."
[2]
At the onset of the next period: "Like Sanjaya, initially the Sailendra leaders were rakrayan, or regional leaders, rulers of a watak that integrated village clusters (wanua) participating in a regional irrigation and/or otherwise networked society. As rakrayan, these earliest Sailendra rulers provided the political stability necessary to maintain the local irrigation and marketing networks, and through their patronage of Indic religion they constructed sacred cults to legitimize the regional integration of wanua into watak."
[3]
Range of [1-2] given to reflect the presence of religious specialists but the possible absence of religious hierarchy.
[1]: (Bulbeck in Peregrine and Ember 2000, 88)
[2]: (Bulbeck in Peregrine and Ember 2000, 106)
[3]: (Hall 2011, 123)
levels. Before 500 CE: "Marked social stratification into a hereditary aristocracy, with privileged access to wealth and the power of life and death over slaves, is widely evidenced. Bali’s sarcophagi have been classified into 74 small (0.8-1.4 m in length), seven intermediate (1.5-1.7 m), and six large sarcophagi (2.0-2.7 m long), of which the latter all fall within 10 km of Manuaba (the site of a Pejeng stone mold). These tiers may correspond to increasingly exclusive ranks in the aristocracy and the centralization of prestige in the Manuaba area (Ardika 1987: 4, 42-44). The richly furnished child buried inside a Dong Son drum at Plawangan (Prasetyo 1994/1995: 19, 39) seems to be the prematurely deceased incumbent to the local chieftainship."
[1]
Chiefs seemingly attested before the Kalingga period.
"The story of the north Indian Buddhist pilgrim Gunavarman records the emergence of Holing (central Java) as a political entity. In 422, Gunavarman stopped at Holing on his way to China. He stayed there for several years, patronized by the queen mother and preaching Buddhist doctrine with great success; the king of Holing asked Gunavarman’s advice on whether to attack his enemies (Pelliot: 1904, 274-75). Herein in the Chinese accounts, the emergence of Holing from what was previously a tribal society involved competition among several communities and the productive outreach by one to a potential Indian advisor. This, like the Funan origin myth detailed in chapter 2, reflects the actual or symbolic use of Indic culture as the basis for the establishment of one enterprising chiefdom’s supremacy over its regional rivals. Holing sent envoys to China in 430 and 440 but is not mentioned in sixth-century Chinese records, suggesting that international contact with central Java was limited until two centuries later, when in the 640s and 660s Holing again sent embassies and around 640 welcomed a Chinese monk who remained to study under a Javanese Buddhist master (Pelliot: 1904, 286-88; Meulen: 1977, 90)."
[2]
At the onset of the next period: "Like Sanjaya, initially the Sailendra leaders were rakrayan, or regional leaders, rulers of a watak that integrated village clusters (wanua) participating in a regional irrigation and/or otherwise networked society. As rakrayan, these earliest Sailendra rulers provided the political stability necessary to maintain the local irrigation and marketing networks, and through their patronage of Indic religion they constructed sacred cults to legitimize the regional integration of wanua into watak."
[3]
1. King
2. Advisors
2. Rakrayan- regional leaders3. Village clusters (watak) chiefs?4. Village (wanua) chiefs?
[1]: (Bulbeck in Peregrine and Ember 2000, 106)
[2]: (Hall 2011, 106)
[3]: (Hall 2011, 123)
Full-time specialists "The circa 1500-1600 B.P. inscriptions at Kutai, East Borneo, and Taruma, Jakarta bay, refer to the kings’ gifts to their newly arrived Brahmans. Given the lack of wider direct archaeological evidence on religious specialization, we must revert to generalized Austronesian ethnographic analogy to imagine the late prehistoric situation. In that case, the single required qualification in egalitarian communities, of enhanced mystical prowess, would have increasingly been overshadowed by the religious authority of the head of the extended family in ranked societies, and the chief in kinship-centralized societies. Specialist priesthoods no doubt emerged along with other occupational specialists in the largest societies and so paved the way for the ready incorporation of Buddhist and Brahmanic concepts in the historical Indianized states." [1] " Purnavarman’s Brahmans, or the Indian Buddhist pilgrim Gunavarman who preached Buddhism in Ho-ling (Central Java) in 1538 B.P. (Hall 1985: 104-107), presumably had to content themselves with limited headway, as the earliest Indic religious architecture (at least, as preserved) post- dates 1300 B.P. (Van Bemme11994: 5). It can be assumed that specialist religious practicioners attached to the courts, and distributed through the countryside in various capacities, would have resisted the incursion of any Indian ideas that might have challenged the priests’ authority or conflicted with traditional beliefs." [2]
[1]: (Bulbeck in Peregrine and Ember 2000, 88)
[2]: (Bulbeck in Peregrine and Ember 2000, 106)
"The relationship between the village-based producers of the rice plain and international traders was always indirect and mediated by other communities more directly related to international commerce. Local produce reached the international ports only through an intricate, multi-layered system of markets. The farmers and artisans of the villages took their produce, principally rice, salt, beans, and dyestuffs, to a periodic farmers’ market that came to them every so many days, according to a fixed schedule. There they could find merchants who travelled with this market from place to place. The travelling merchants bought the local produce and passed it along in exchanges with intermediary wholesalers. Then merchants from the ports of Java’s north coast purchased the produce from the wholesalers and sold it to merchants who travelled the seas, who delivered it to the ports where international merchants congregated. There were thus at least four layers of merchants and of markets between central Java’s rice producers and the international traders.23" [1]
[1]: (Tarling 1993, 203)
At the onset of the next period: "Like Sanjaya, initially the Sailendra leaders were rakrayan, or regional leaders, rulers of a watak that integrated village clusters (wanua) participating in a regional irrigation and/or otherwise networked society. As rakrayan, these earliest Sailendra rulers provided the political stability necessary to maintain the local irrigation and marketing networks, and through their patronage of Indic religion they constructed sacred cults to legitimize the regional integration of wanua into watak." [1]
[1]: (Hall 2011, 123)
“Central Java has been the dwelling place of humans and their supposed predecessors since the earliest times, and the world’s oldest human remains have been found in that island, specifically around Merapi. In prehistoric times, Java was visited by traders from the surrounding countries, who introduced the technology of metalworking. Maritime relations with China and India increased enormously in the first centuries of the common era, and Javanese ships sailed the Asian waters as far as Madagascar." [1]
[1]: (Raben 2004, 687)
Sanskrit is phonetic - the spoken and the written always match. (EXTERNAL_INLINE_LINK: http://www.sanskritsounds.com/about-sanskrit/46/index.html )
"In Java’s epigraphy, there are frequent references to the utilization of money (or the weights of precious metals relative to monetary equivalents) in payments of taxes or the purchase of land. Evidence of the use of locally minted coinage begins in the eighth century." [1]
[1]: (Hall 2011, 153)
This refers to Island Southeast Asia until 500 CE more generally. “It may be surmised that subsistence produce (e.g., rice for sandal- wood timber or resins) made up a large portion of the goods exchanged over the short distance, but at greater distances high-value produce increasingly monopolized the traders’ cargos. Manufactured goods from India and even Rome are quite common finds in the major Southeast Asian entrepots of the period, whereas the lack of archaeologically preserved Chinese wares suggests that silk was almost certainly the dominant import from China. The main exports from Island Southeast Asia would have included cloves, nutmeg, resins, and aromatic woods, in demand everywhere, tin and gold destined for India, and animal products (rhinoceros horn, tortoiseshell, and the feathers of kingfishers and other brightly coloured birds) for China." [1]
[1]: (Bulbeck in Peregrine and Ember 2000, 86)
Indian military terms surviving in Javanese include ’fortress’ and ’siege’. [1] "’In this country they have made the city walls of piled-up bricks, the wall has double gates and watch-towers,’ wrote a Chinese voyager who went to Java fourteen centuries ago." [2]
[1]: (Kumara 2007, 161) Sasiprabha Kumara. 2007. Sanskrit Across Cultures. Special Centre for Sanskrit Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University. New Delhi.
[2]: Hickman Powell. 1936. Bali: The Last Paradise. Dodd, Mead & Company.
Historical records show "good quality Indian steel" was reaching Ethiopia in 200 BCE [1] - did they also export across the Bay of Bengal? Island South East Asia: ’Bronze and iron metallurgy appear to have arrived together, perhaps after 300 BC’. [2]
[1]: (Biggs et al. 2013 citing Tripathi and Upadhyay 2009, p. 123) Lynn Biggs. Berenice Bellina. Marcos Martinon-Torres. Thomas Oliver Pryce. January 2013. Prehistoric iron production technologies in the Upper Thai-Malay Peninsula: metallography and slag inclusion analyses of iron artefacts from Khao Sam Kaeo and Phu Khao Thong. Archaeological and Anthropological Sciences. Springer.
[2]: (Bellwood 2004, 36) Bellwood, Peter. The origins and dispersals of agricultural communities in Southeast Asia. Glover, Ian. Bellwood, Peter. eds. 2004. Southeast Asia: From Prehistory to History. RoutledgeCurzon. London.
“Iron tools, best evidenced in Southern Vietnam, West Malaysia, and Java, were attached to handles (presumably wooden) via tangs, sockets, or shaft holes." [1] Island South East Asia: ’Bronze and iron metallurgy appear to have arrived together, perhaps after 300 BC’. [2]
[1]: (Bulbeck in Peregrine and Ember 2000, 86)
[2]: (Bellwood 2004, 36) Bellwood, Peter. The origins and dispersals of agricultural communities in Southeast Asia. Glover, Ian. Bellwood, Peter. eds. 2004. Southeast Asia: From Prehistory to History. RoutledgeCurzon. London.
Island South East Asia: ’Bronze and iron metallurgy appear to have arrived together, perhaps after 300 BC’. [1]
[1]: (Bellwood 2004, 36) Bellwood, Peter. The origins and dispersals of agricultural communities in Southeast Asia. Glover, Ian. Bellwood, Peter. eds. 2004. Southeast Asia: From Prehistory to History. RoutledgeCurzon. London.
“Bronze metallurgy was practiced in at least Southern Vietnam, the islands surrounding the Sulu and Sulawesi seas, West Malaysia, South Sumatra, and especially Java and Bali." [1] Island South East Asia: ’Bronze and iron metallurgy appear to have arrived together, perhaps after 300 BC’. [2]
[1]: (Bulbeck in Peregrine and Ember 2000, 85)
[2]: (Bellwood 2004, 36) Bellwood, Peter. The origins and dispersals of agricultural communities in Southeast Asia. Glover, Ian. Bellwood, Peter. eds. 2004. Southeast Asia: From Prehistory to History. RoutledgeCurzon. London.
The ruling class were Hindu Indians and their contemporaries in the Indian Chalukyan Kingdom had "swords, shields, spears, clubs, lances, bows and arrows etc." [1]
[1]: (Sreenivasa Murthy and Ramakrishnan 1975, 93) H V Sreenivasa Murthy and R Ramakrishnan. 1975. A History of Karnataka. Vivek Prakashan.
The ruling class were Hindu Indians and their contemporaries in the Indian Chalukyan Kingdom had "swords, shields, spears, clubs, lances, bows and arrows etc." [1]
[1]: (Sreenivasa Murthy and Ramakrishnan 1975, 93) H V Sreenivasa Murthy and R Ramakrishnan. 1975. A History of Karnataka. Vivek Prakashan.
Dewawarman I may have founded Salakanagara in west West Java 130 CE. He followed Aji Saka who may have introduced ’Buddhism, letters, calendar, etc.’) into Central and East Java 78 CE. [1] Indian military terms surviving in Javanese: "war, weapon, sword, lance, armour, shield, helmet, banner, battle, siege, fortress, soldier, officer, enemy, spy, etc." [2] The ruling class were Hindu Indians and their contemporaries in the Indian Chalukyan Kingdom had "swords, shields, spears, clubs, lances, bows and arrows etc." [3]
[1]: (Iguchi 2015) Masatoshi Iguchi. 2015. Java Essay: The History and Culture of a Southern Country. Troubador Publishing Ltd.
[2]: (Kumara 2007, 161) Sasiprabha Kumara. 2007. Sanskrit Across Cultures. Special Centre for Sanskrit Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University. New Delhi.
[3]: (Sreenivasa Murthy and Ramakrishnan 1975, 93) H V Sreenivasa Murthy and R Ramakrishnan. 1975. A History of Karnataka. Vivek Prakashan.
Dewawarman I may have founded Salakanagara in west West Java 130 CE. He followed Aji Saka who may have introduced ’Buddhism, letters, calendar, etc.’) into Central and East Java 78 CE. [1] Indian military terms surviving in Javanese: "war, weapon, sword, lance, armour, shield, helmet, banner, battle, siege, fortress, soldier, officer, enemy, spy, etc." [2] The ruling class were Hindu Indians and their contemporaries in the Indian Chalukyan Kingdom had "swords, shields, spears, clubs, lances, bows and arrows etc." [3]
[1]: (Iguchi 2015) Masatoshi Iguchi. 2015. Java Essay: The History and Culture of a Southern Country. Troubador Publishing Ltd.
[2]: (Kumara 2007, 161) Sasiprabha Kumara. 2007. Sanskrit Across Cultures. Special Centre for Sanskrit Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University. New Delhi.
[3]: (Sreenivasa Murthy and Ramakrishnan 1975, 93) H V Sreenivasa Murthy and R Ramakrishnan. 1975. A History of Karnataka. Vivek Prakashan.
Dewawarman I may have founded Salakanagara in west West Java 130 CE. He followed Aji Saka who may have introduced ’Buddhism, letters, calendar, etc.’) into Central and East Java 78 CE. [1] Indian military terms surviving in Javanese: "war, weapon, sword, lance, armour, shield, helmet, banner, battle, siege, fortress, soldier, officer, enemy, spy, etc." [2] The ruling class were Hindu Indians and their contemporaries in the Indian Chalukyan Kingdom had "swords, shields, spears, clubs, lances, bows and arrows etc." [3]
[1]: (Iguchi 2015) Masatoshi Iguchi. 2015. Java Essay: The History and Culture of a Southern Country. Troubador Publishing Ltd.
[2]: (Kumara 2007, 161) Sasiprabha Kumara. 2007. Sanskrit Across Cultures. Special Centre for Sanskrit Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University. New Delhi.
[3]: (Sreenivasa Murthy and Ramakrishnan 1975, 93) H V Sreenivasa Murthy and R Ramakrishnan. 1975. A History of Karnataka. Vivek Prakashan.
"There have been several finds of stone or terracotta valves from the bivalve molds used for casting cuprous axes from sites in Java, Sabah, the Talaud Islands, Palawan, and Batanes, all of which show quite conclusively that some casting of either local or imported raw materials was being carried out during the early to middle first millennium ce." [1] Dewawarman I may have founded Salakanagara in west West Java 130 CE. He followed Aji Saka who may have introduced ’Buddhism, letters, calendar, etc.’) into Central and East Java 78 CE. [2] Indian military terms surviving in Javanese: "war, weapon, sword, lance, armour, shield, helmet, banner, battle, siege, fortress, soldier, officer, enemy, spy, etc." [3] The ruling class were Hindu Indians and their contemporaries in the Indian Chalukyan Kingdom had "swords, shields, spears, clubs, lances, bows and arrows etc." [4]
[1]: (Bellwood 2017 :318) Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/itemKey/6SNCDM28.
[2]: (Iguchi 2015) Masatoshi Iguchi. 2015. Java Essay: The History and Culture of a Southern Country. Troubador Publishing Ltd.
[3]: (Kumara 2007, 161) Sasiprabha Kumara. 2007. Sanskrit Across Cultures. Special Centre for Sanskrit Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University. New Delhi.
[4]: (Sreenivasa Murthy and Ramakrishnan 1975, 93) H V Sreenivasa Murthy and R Ramakrishnan. 1975. A History of Karnataka. Vivek Prakashan.
"By 1650 B.P., one king in southeastern Sumatra imported horses from India (Hall 1992: 194), which might suggest that the bronze statuette of a mounted archer from Tiris and the bronze horse miniatures from Malang (Van Heekeren 1958: 39, 43) both reflect the beginnings of equestrian skills in Java by 1500 B.P. However, there is little reason to suspect the existence of specialist cavalries as opposed to spectacular mounts used in bearing the wealthiest aristocrats aloft." [1] According to the Chinese Nan chou i wu chih (A Record of Strange Things in the Southern Regions) written about 222-228 CE a volcanic country called ’Ge-ying’ (thought to be western Java) traded with the Malay Peninsula and imported horses from India. They were used by warriors. [2] Dewawarman I may have founded Salakanagara in west West Java 130 CE. He followed Aji Saka who may have introduced ’Buddhism, letters, calendar, etc.’) into Central and East Java 78 CE. [3]
[1]: (Bulbeck in Peregrine and Ember 2000, 105)
[2]: (Miksic and Goh 2017, 215) John Norman Miksic. Geok Yian Goh. Routledge. 2017. Ancient Southeast Asia. London. p. 215
[3]: (Iguchi 2015) Masatoshi Iguchi. 2015. Java Essay: The History and Culture of a Southern Country. Troubador Publishing Ltd.
The donkey was probably domesticated from the African wild ass ’in more than one place’ but for the Nubian subspecies 5500-4500 BCE in the Sudan. [1] It could only have reached the island of Java by sea. There is no evidence that this occurred at this time.
[1]: (Mitchell 2018, 39) Peter Mitchell 2018. The Donkey in Human History: An Archaeological Perspective. Oxford University Press. Oxford.
inferred continuity with previous polities in region
Indian military terms surviving in Javanese include ’shield’. [1] The ruling class were Hindu Indians and their contemporaries in the Indian Chalukyan Kingdom had shields. [2]
[1]: (Kumara 2007, 161) Sasiprabha Kumara. 2007. Sanskrit Across Cultures. Special Centre for Sanskrit Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University. New Delhi.
[2]: (Sreenivasa Murthy and Ramakrishnan 1975, 93) H V Sreenivasa Murthy and R Ramakrishnan. 1975. A History of Karnataka. Vivek Prakashan.
inferred continuity with previous polities in region