Java in the 14th Century

Book excerpt: Essentially the following commentary on the contents of the Nägara-Kertägama has been made up from notes by former editors of the text together with remarks, criticisms and digressions by the present author. As Kern, Krom and their contemporaries were especially interested in dynastie history and archeology their notes on those subjects are legion, and as a result of their studies on many points a communis opinio has been reached. The argumentations which led up to this end are not reproduced in the present edition. The interested reader is referred to Krom's great books: Oud-Javaansche Kunst and Hindoe-Javaansche Geschiedenis. It is to be expected that before long the results of Krom's life-work will be made accessible for English readers by De Casparis. On the other hand cultural history, religion, economics and sociology have been rather neglected by the first editors of the Nägara-Kertä gama. The present author has done his best to remedy that omission. The reader will find that the greater part of the following commen taries is concerned with those subjects. The contemporaneous minor texts and the charters that are published, translated and annotated in the present book in the same manner as the Nägara-Kertägama have been chosen almost exc1usively for the valuable information on social, economic and religious conditions in the 14th century Majapahit realm that is afforded by them.