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sence of trustworthy information on politi cal history. By studying Old Javanese charters and by other means, Dutch scholars have drawn a provisional outline of Old Javanese politi cal history. The “Hindoe-Javaansche Ge schiedenis” by professor Krom (1926 and 1931) is still the fundamental book in this field. It appears that in the pre-Islamic period kingdoms existed in Central Java (Mataram) and afterwards in East Java. The crucial date was about 1000 A.D. The ancient Central Javanese Kings built the famous temples of Barabudur and Pramba- nan, and many Royal charters issued in these centuries have come down to us. The number of literary works which are ascribed to this far-off period is very small, though, and the evidence to show that they are of ancient Mataram origin is not very strong. In East Java, after 1000 A.D. approxi mately, the cultural centre was in the basin of the Brantas, the great river which empties itself into Strait Madura near Surabaya. The first centre of the Brantas basin culture seems to have been near the delta, in Ka- huripan (King Erlarjga). That is the period when the Mahabharata parwas were ren dered into Old Javanese prose (see 20.100). In the twelfth and thirteenth centuries a kingdom on the middle and upper course of the river Brantas became the centre of culture. It is called Kadiri. In the Kadiri period Old Javanese Court literature, espe cially epic kakawin literature, was flour ishing. It was not before the fourteenth and fif teenth centuries, during the reign of the Siijasari-Majapahiit Kings, that some books concerning political and dynastic history

were written. The central districts of the Sirjasari- Maj apali it realm were situated on the slopes of the Arjuna-WlirarpPenatjgutjan massif. In this period China was ruled by the Mogul Emperor Kublay Khan, and he sent an expedition to East Java, probably in the first place in search of booty. In the course of a few years two Royal residences were sacked, and the Chinese penetrated into the inland districts of East Java. It seems probable that the Chinese invasion and subsequent penetration were important factors in the further development of Java nese economy and culture. In the Majapahit period, after the foreign invasion, the re membrance of the frightful experience gave the impulse to write a historical account. In a long preamble of a charter issued by the first King residing in Majapahit (the Royal residence in use after Sitjasari), he gave an account of the events of the Chinese war. This text (discussed by Brandes in his Pararaton edition) is to be considered as one of the earliest specimens of Old Javanese historiography. It seems that the so-called Calcutta char ter, which contains an account of the exploits of the eleventh century King Èrlaijga of Kahuripan (East Java), is a comparable case. This text was also written by a man who looked back over a period of disorder and wars. In the Majapahit period, in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, three remarkable books on history, seen from different points of view, were written in East Java: the Nagara Kërtagama, the Pararaton and the Tantu Paijgelaran. The first, originally called Désa Warnana, Description of the Country, is a panegyric poem in honour of