Java, Sumatra and the other islands of the Dutch East Indies

Front matter

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Chapter I Page

Historical Sketch . . . . i

I. The lost continent of the Pacific. — The significance of coral. — The old theory of the Asiatic irruption. — The new theory of the Polynesian migration. — Both anthropology and philology unreliable. — Probable origin of the Malays. — Traces of their passage in India. — Two languages. — The Hindu or Buddhist invasion. — Adjih Saka. — The nomadic legend. — Its probable interpretation. — Buddhist missions. — Immigration in bulk. — Javanese chronicles. — Lack of political cohesion. — Was the Javanese civilisation a high one ? — Monuments. — The Hindu dynasties. — The Arab missionaries. — Demak. — The Arab warrior priests, and the fall of the Hindu Empire. — II. Arrival of the Europeans. — The Portuguese, Dutch, French, and English. — III. Sir Stamford Raffles and English rule. — Recent developments.— Education and future prospects.

Chapter II

I. The importance, area, and population of the Dutch East Indies. — II. Administrative divisions of the Dutch East Indies, and the best method of studying them. — III. European, and, in particular, Dutch intervention, in the East Indies. — IV. Physical characteristics of the Archipelago. — V. The races which inhabit it. — VI. The principal languages spoken ; and which must be learned by the European settling in the Indies.

CHAPTER III Java and Madura : Physical Geography . . 45

I. Their shape. — II. Their geological constitution and orographical aspect, — III. Streams and rivers of Java and Madura ;

vii viii CONTENTS

PAGE their qualities as alluvial agents, and their insufficiency as water-ways ; their influence upon the coast-line and the harbours. — IV. The climate : its stability. — V. The Javanese flora. — VI. The Javanese fauna.

CHAPTER IV Administrative Divisions of Java . . • 57

I. — The seventeen Residencies. — The western Residencies : Bantam, Batavia, Cheribon, the Preangers. — II. The central Residencies : Pekalongan, Samarang, Banjumas, Kedu. — III. Kedu and Boro-Budur. — IV. The Vorstenlanden or Principalities, Surakarta and Djokjakarta. — V. Rembang, Madiun. — VI. The Residencies of the East : Surabaja, Kediri, Pasuruan, Besuki, and Madura.

Chapter V

I. Distribution of the native element in Java : the Sundanese and Madurese compared with the Javanese. — II. The Javanese. — III. The Javanese house and village. — IV. The family and marriage. — V. Daily occupations : agricultural labour, hunting, and fishing. — VI. The batik industry : Javanese clothing. —

VII. The love of pleasure, and the means of satisfying it : betel-nut, tobacco, opium, and hemp ; cock-fighting and gambling. —

VIII. Failings with which Europeans reproach the Javanese, nearly all of which have some historic excuse.

Chapter VI

I. The religious question in Java is involved in the historic evolution of the masses. — The religion of Java is a sincere Islamism, modified by the survivals of earlier cults ; tolerant and kindly, like the character of the nation. — II. How the Dutch Indies escaped Christianity. — III. The problem of education in Java ; its various phases since the Dutch occupation. — IV. The awakening of the Javanese people and their leaders ; their claims.

CONTENTS ix

Chapter VII Page

The Oriental Foreign Element . . 154

I. The Oriental foreign element in Java and Madura : the Japanese, Arabs, and Chinese. — The Japanese are the latest arrivals, and the least numerous, but also the best treated. — II. The Arabs : the religious and economic danger represented by the Arab element in the Dutch Indies. — III. The Chinese : their numbers, their activity, their wealth. — Why they are considered detrimental to the political and economic power of the rulers, and the morality and prosperity of the native. — IV. The various solutions of the problem. — Their injustice, or insufficiency, or the impossibility of applying them. — The only remedy is to educate the Javanese so that they may take their place as loyal collaborators and agents of the administration and the European industries.

Chapter VIII

I. The three aspects of the European element in the Dutch Indies : army, colonisation, bureaucracy.-— The army .—I I. The colonists : foreigners, and why so few settle in Java. — The French colony.— III. The Dutch colony.— Its relation with the State and the natives : despite the vast area of the plantations, there are few private freeholds ; the planter is the tenant of the State or of the natives ; sometimes of both together. — IV. His life ; his house, furniture, and costume ; his food, servants, and amusements. — V. The instability of European families in Java ; why they do not settle there without thought of return.— -VI. The half-breeds.

Chapter IX

I. The important position of the European officials in Java. — Their restricted numbers are due to the form of government which obtains in the Dutch East Indies : the Dutch govern the natives through their own chiefs.— II. Relations between the native and European administrations. —III. The hierarchy, privileges, and importance of the European officials.— IV. Complaints against the officials made by colonists and natives.

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Chapter X Page

I. The various phases of the economic history of Java under Dutch rule.— -II. The Van den Bosch or "forced cultivation " system.— III. The help given by the State to free labour. The Botanical Institute at Buitenzorg. — IV. Native property in land. V. Native crops : rice, coco-palms, areca- and betel-nuts,— VI. Bamboo ; bamboo huts.

Chapter XI

I. Coffee. — II. Sugar-cane. — III. Tobacco. — IV. Tea. — V. Quinine. — VI. Indigo. — VII. Lesser crops : pepper, cinnamon, cotton, &c.

Chapter XII

Forests and Mines. Industry. Commerce . . 240

I. The forests of djati and of "natural woods." — II. The mines of Java ; the mining system ; petroleum. — III. Salt. — IV. Industries : their character ; the industrial future of Java. — V. Institutions of credit and thrift. — VI. Internal trade and the means of transport and communication : roads, railways, rivers ; steamer services between the various islands of the Archipelago. — The merchant marine of the Archipelago. — VII. Post and telegraphs. — VIII. Weights and measures. — The monetary system. — IX. The export trade ; customs ; transport.

Chapter XIII

The Outer Possessions (Buitenbezittingen). Sumatra and the Archipelago of Riouw Lingga . . 257

L The various divisions of the "Outer Possessions," and the importance of Sumatra. — II. The dimensions, physical aspect, and coast-line of Sumatra.— III. The rivers and the sea-coast of Sumatra. — IV. The climate, flora, and fauna. — V. The native races : their origin, beliefs, and manners. — VI. The principal languages ; the most useful language for the visitor to or inhabitant of Sumatra.

CONTENTS xi

Chapter XIV Page

The Political and Economic Condition of Sumatra and the Archipelago of Riouw Lingga . . 283

I. The Dutch have been hampered by certain European Powers and certain of the races of Sumatra in their endeavour to establish the power of Holland in Sumatra. — II. The present administrative divisions of Sumatra. — The principal towns and their future. — III. Economic value of Sumatra : the wealth of its natural resources. — IV. How far the natives have exploited the natural resources. — V. How far the Europeans have done so : the mines. — VI. Coffee and tobacco ; spices. — VII. The means of communication with Sumatra : railways, packet-boats. — The means of communication must be greatly enlarged before the island can be pacified and its wealth developed.

Chapter XV

I. Dimensions of Borneo : how divided among the Powers. —

II. Orography and hydrography. — III. Climate, flora, and fauna. — IV. The inhabitants : their manners and their civilisation. — V. The establishment of Dutch supremacy in Borneo. — VI. Administrative divisions and principal towns. — VII. The economic situation ; what it may one day become.

Chapter XVI

I. The situation and aspect of Celebes.— II. The physical geography of the island ; its climate, fauna, and flora.— III. The inhabitants : Bugis, Macassars, Alfours, Toradjas. — IV. The establishment of the Dutch in Celebes. — V. Administrative divisions : i. Residency of Celebes and dependencies ; 2. Residency of Menado, — VI. The economic outlook and the future of Celebes.

Chapter XVII

I. Physical geography of the Moluccas.— II. Their inhabitants.—

III. The Dutch in the Moluccas.— IV. Administrative divisions ; (a) the Residency of Ternate and dependencies ; (b) The Residency of Amboin.— V. The Residency of the West of New Guinea.— VI. The economic future of the Moluccas, xii CONTENTS

Chapter XVIII Page

Timor and its Dependencies — Bali and Lombok . 353

I. The physical aspect of Timor and the character of its inhabitants. — II. The dependencies of Timor t Flores, Solor, Alor, Sawu, Sumba. — III. Administrative divisions of Timor and its dependencies. — IV. Bali : the island and its people. — V. Lombok : the island and its people. — VI. The establishment of the Dutch power in Bali and Lombok ; the administrative divisions, and the future of the Residency,

Conclusion ...... 368

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

Bromo and the Sea of Sand . ,

A Wayside Fountain, Java

Avenue of Banyans, Buitenzorg

Temple of Boro Budur

Tiger-baiting, Java

The Kali Mas, Surabaja

Grimm's Restaurant, Surabaja

The Old Simpang Club, Surabaja

Native Boats, Willemskerke, Surabaja

Chinese Kampong, Surabaja

Arab Mosque, Surabaja

Chinese Temple, Surabaja

A Tenggri Village, Tosari

The Hill Station, Tosari

The Sanatorium, Tosari

A Javanese Bridegroom

A Javanese Bride

A Gamelan, or Native Orchestra

A " Wayang " : Javanese Players

A Batik Factory

An Arab Trader, Surabaja

An Arab Trader's Wife

a sundanese peddler selling " batavia goods "

A Chinese Merchant and Family .

Frontispiece

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LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

Chinese New Year's Festival ,

Native Policemen . . •

Chinese Kampong, Batavia

Back of the Chinese Kampong, Batavia

Sugar-cane, Java

Rice and Coffee Lands, Java

Coffee Plantation, Java

Making a Garden in the Virgin Forest, J.

Native Irrigation Wheels

Native Engineering : A Bamboo Cantilever

A Javanese Tea Plantation .

Malays of Menangkabau, Kota Gedang

Dwelling-house and Rice Granary, Batipu

Achinese Boys ....

Native Loom, Acheen .

A Malay Dwelling-house, Kota Gedang,

A Kanari Kampong, Solok, Sumatra .

Government Official's House, Borneo

A Rope Ferry, Borneo

Dyaks at Kutjung, Sarawak .

Sumatrese Girls at Work

Market at Celebes

"Wayang" Actors, Singaradja, Bali

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Java .

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?u, Sumatra

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Sumatra

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NOTE

The official Dutch orthography, with one or two slight modifications, has been preserved throughout the book. The Dutch oe has been represented by u ; the exact sound inclines to that of the German ii ; dj and tj should be pronounced dchy, tchy, but with a very slight insistence on the y ; nj is like the Spanish n, or the ni in onion ; g is always hard. In the atlases those names commencing with tj which are most familiar to the traveller are spelt commencing with ch; but for the sake of uniformity the translator has, hardly without exception, kept to the correct spelling, only substituting u for the Dutch oe.

In addition to the works cited in the footnotes, the author's

principal sources of reference have been : the Encyclopcedie

van N ederlansch-Indie . . . Samengesteld door P. A. Van der

Lith, A. J. Spaan, F. Fokkens, J. F. Snelleman (Leyden,

1896-1905,4 vols., large 8vo) ; a vast compilation of everything

relating to the Dutch Indies, of which the Dutch are justly

proud ; the masterly work by P. T. Veth, Java, geographisch,

J. F. Niermeyer (Leyden, 1896-1907, 4 vols., 8vo) ; the

sincere and picturesque study by the deputy H. van Kol, Uit

and a lucid, methodical work by the same author on Dutch

and European colonial systems, the Regeerings Almanak voor

Nederlandsch-Indie igog (Batavia, Landsdrukkerij, 2 vols. 8vo),

and the Kolonial verslag van igo8. Zitting igo8-g (The

*= island. Oedjoeng, udjung = point. Tandjong = cape.

xvi NOTE

The best atlas of the Dutch Indies is that by J. W. Steemfoort and J. J. Ten Siethoff : Atlas der N ederlandsche bezittingen in Oost-Indie (The Hague, Smulders) ; but the Atlas van Nederlandsch Oost-Indie, by W. Van Gelder (Groningen, Wolters), a convenient and classical publication, issued at a moderate price, will answer all practical purposes.

The translator has to thank Mrs. George Watson for the use of a number of photographs ; and the publisher's thanks are due to M. Cabaton for the use of a series of photographs issued by the Dutch Colonial Institute.

JAVA

CHAPTER I By the Translator

The lost continent of the Pacific. — The significance of coral. — The old theory of the Asiatic irruption. — The new theory of the Polynesian migration. — Both anthropology and philology unreliable. — Probable origin of the Malays. — Traces of their passage in India. — Two languages. — The Hindu or Buddhist invasion. — Adjih Saka. — The nomadic legend. — Its probable interpretation. — Buddhist missions. — Immigration in bulk. — Javanese chronicles. — Lack of political cohesion. — Was the Javanese civilisation a high one ? — Monuments. — The Hindu dynasties. — The Arab missionaries. — Demak. — The Arab warrior priests, and the fall of the Hindu Empire. — II. Arrival of the Europeans, — The Portuguese, Dutch, French, and English. — III. Sir Stamford Raffles and English rule. — Recent developments, — Education and future prospects,

I

A glance at the map of the Pacific will show us that the innumerable small islands lying between the Malay Archipelago, Australia, and America, fall roughly into five or six groups : in other words, they are the peaks of as many vast ranges of submarine mountains. Each of these groups represents such an archipelago of small mountainous islets as would take the place, let us say, of Java and Sumatra, were a stupendous volcanic catastrophe or a gradual subsidence to sink them some thousands of

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feet below the surface of the sea. It is therefore reasonable to suppose that they represent a sunken continent, which was traversed by many mountain ranges ; or if not a continent, several islands of gigantic area.

That the islands of the Pacific were not thrown up as they now stand, and are not now rising, is proved by the existence, round nearly all of them, of coral reefs ; while in many cases the peak has disappeared altogether, leaving only an atoll, or a vast circular reef of coral. Moreover, there are long lines of such reefs enclosing large areas of shallow sea. The coral polyp cannot live below a very moderate depth of water, and builds with extreme slowness : conclusively proving these islands to be the summits of large bodies of land, which have been slowly sinking during a period of incalculable duration.

A few years ago the theory was generally accepted that the whole of Polynesia, the Malay Archipelago, and Madagascar, were populated by a Mongolian irruption from Asia, which passed from the Peninsula to Java before the Straits existed, and, finally becoming a maritime nation, spread east and west over the entire Pacific and Indian Oceans. This theory was accepted in spite of the very obvious differences between the best type of Maori and the ordinary Malay ; between the coast and the inland Malay ; between the black Polynesian and the fairskinned Polynesian ; and the distinct cleavage of languages. The presence of negroid or Negrito peoples was explained by an immigration from India, and perhaps from Africa also.

Lately the opposite theory has been favoured : that the sunken Pacific continent was the home of a Pacific race, perhaps of considerable civilisation, which emigrated northward and westward as the continent sank, while also retiring to the mountains, which finally became islands. It is also suggested that various races of South-Eastern Asia which show affinity with the Malays had the same origin. 1

1 Anthropologists are apt to lose sight of the fact that all problems of ethnology cannot be settled by measurements of the skull.

Were either the Polynesian or the Mongolian theory true, we should expect to find a homogeneous race and language from New Zealand to Madagascar. Setting aside such minor problems as certain fair-haired races who may represent remnants of some Celtic movement, or of the migration of Arabs with a Gothic strain, and black races who may be aborigines of Australia, Africa, or Hindustan, the unprejudiced observer is inclined to see two principal races : a true Polynesian race, of which the finest and most highly specialised type is the Maori, and a true Malay or Mongolian race. The Polynesian languages have little in common with Sanscrit : the Malay tongue has much in common with it. There are Malays speaking the Malay tongue upon the Malay Peninsula, the natural highway from Asia. The true Polynesian is peculiar to the Pacific ; and the Polynesian language has as many dialects as the Polynesian skin has shades of brown. Moreover, the Malays, although bold navigators, have not pervaded the whole of Polynesia, and their vessels, houses, and

Round-headedness and long-headedness, wherever two races mingle, are presumably Mendelian characteristics, one of which is dominant, so that in the process of natural selection we may reasonably expect to see one type of skull predominate, or pass from one race to another, which would preserve, in an unmixed state, the opposite type of skull.

Philologists, again, do not always remember that while a conquering and civilising race may either stamp out or adopt the tongue of its inferiors, or produce a hybrid language as the result, it is also true that when a highly organised and simplified language with a rich practical vocabulary comes into even casual contact with a lower, and in some senses a more complex tongue, devoid of generalisations and of qualifying terms, there is likely to be an absorption of the more highly organised tongue which need not be accompanied by any racial admixture, or more than a slight racial contact. The reader must remember that theories are changing every year, and that the specialist in one science contradicts the specialist in another. The present writer, in attempting to give some account of the peoples of Indonesia, can but endeavour to keep the middle line and to avoid improbable extremes, while adducing certain facts in support of the theory of dual origin.

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art in general show more Chinese and Arabian than Polynesian influence. This suggests a recent arrival ; while the varieties of the Polynesian suggest long specialised evolution.

There is no race in Asia resembling the Polynesian of the south : whereas there are races in South-Eastern Asia having affinities with the mixed Indonesians and Malays.

The inhabitants of Java were called Rasaksa by the first Hindu invaders. In many parts of India, on the borders of the forests, the natives to this day believe in and fear a demon known as the Raksha. 1 They describe it as having eyes set obliquely in the head ; it is ugly, broad, bulky, mis-shapen, and has terrible teeth. It haunts only the forest and the tops of hills, and is given to decoying children or solitary women. It also has a terrible cry : an important point, of which more anon.

A race of Mongols or Huns was for a long period kept out of China only by the Great Wall. This would seem to show that they for some reason desired to migrate, to extend their nomadic empire ; probably because the plains of Asia were overpopulated, for a nomadic people requires a large country for its support.

Now the Malays themselves had a legend that they came from the East, crossing to Java and Sumatra when the Straits were solid land. Any great migration across India or the slopes of the Himalayas would have driven the then inhabitants of the concealing forests

1 See, for particulars of this very significant superstition as found among the eastern hills of India, "Old Deccan Days, or Hindoo Fairy Legends/' collected by Mary Frere. Her mention of this superstition as existing in Scinde (where the demon is known not as a Raksha, but as a Djinn) seems to lend support to the legend as related by Raffles, to the effect that the invading nomads came from the neighbourhood of the Red Sea (Persian Gulf ?). Their route would then lead them through Baluchistan to Scinde, whence they would presumably have crossed India by keeping to the hills and forests. Even did they come from Central Asia (as seems most probable) they may well have entered India vie Persia, Baluchistan, and ScindQ, to seek safety in flight. But now let us consider the tail-end of such a migration, when the normal population would have returned to their homes. Dangerous, furtive savages would continue, perhaps for years, to slink through the Himalayan passes, cross India by means of the hills and forests, and so make their way southward. They might well, being a people of the plains, employ a mustering call or shriek in the forests, or employ a ritual marching-cry. They would not encourage stray children or women. They disappeared untold centuries ago ; they are not met with, now, as human passengers through the woods. What could the Hindu make of them, when once they had passed, but slant-eyed demons who shrieked in the woods ?

Again, the nomads of Central Asia were horsemen. This we know from the writings of classic and early mediaeval writers. But they could not ride their horses through the Himalayas or the forests. The hordes which invaded Europe — Tartars, Huns, and Vandals — were chiefly or entirely a pastoral people. Only their custom of driving with them the herds of cattle upon which they lived could give them the mobility which rendered raiding possible. That there were agricultural nomads in Central Asia, who sowed and reaped and migrated yearly, we know from the Vedic writings : the Aryans who settled India were such.

Bearing all these facts in mind, let us now go forward to the commencement of the historical era in the Malay Archipelago.

According to Raffles, the tradition concerning the race whom the first Hindus found established in Java was as follows : they were nomadic, travelling in hordes, but they lived by agriculture and migrated afoot. Only the elder of the tribe, who was its chief and high-priest, was carried with his family in a litter or borne upon an elephant. The year's crop being gathered, the fresh migration was directed by an omen — the flight of a bird. Apparently the sun and moon were worshipped ; but a certain amount of general animism appears to have pre-

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vailed. At times of augury or sacrifice, or to express homage to the chief while travelling, or to frighten away wild beasts, the young men set up loud shouts and screams ; " as do the Dayas of Borneo to this day on like occasions." I These people were known as Rasaksa.

These Rasaksa, or Malays, have remained almost unmixed in Sumatra, except upon the coast, where there has been a considerable interfusion of Chinese and also of Arab blood. The civilisation of the Sumatrese is largely Arab with traces of Chinese influence ; their religion was brought by the Arabs. In Java there has been a very considerable interfusion of Hindu blood, which is betrayed by the darker tint of the Javanese natives and by their finer features. Animists, or sunworshippers, in prehistoric times, they were rapidly converted to Buddhism, which in time merged into the Shivaite cult ; and until the Mahomedan conquest of Madjapahit their civilisation was of the Hindu feudal type.

Of the outlying islands some are still Hindu ; others are largely animistic. The religion of the Polynesians may be roughly described as a mixture of fetishism, idolworship, animism, taboo, and in some cases, apparently, ritualistic or sacramental cannibalism.

We must remember that this early legend may have been "telescoped" by the Hindu or Javanese historians, who may have inserted echoes of the Vedic hymns. But regarding it as authentic, and bearing in mind all the preceding facts, and in especial the partly Asiatic character of the Malay ships and houses and the limits of Malay colonisation, is not the conclusion almost irresistible that a tribe of Mongolian nomads, driven from Central Asia by fiercer or more mobile enemies, or by some unknown catastrophe, such as a disease, a

1 Raffles states that the princes of the eastern part of Java used to favour a dance performed by men with tangled hair, clad in leaves, who shouted and leaped and shook the angklung, a rude instrument which is mentioned in the early legend : these dancers represented the supposed aborigines.

blight, a cattle pest, or by a prophecy or a superstition, found their way across or around the Himalayas, through the forests and the uplands of India, down the Burmese border, finally reaching the Malay Archipelago, and perhaps the regions to the east thereof ? Whether they remained there, as appears probable, until they learned navigation from the settled inhabitants of the country, 1 or whether they were able to march into Java by land, is not a matter of great importance ; but the fact that the Peninsula contains a large Malay population inferior in civilisation to the Malays of the Indies seems to favour the theory of a temporary halt. Then, it seems, they spread through the Archipelago, sometimes exterminating but more often absorbing the aborigines, or driving them to the mountains ; finally colonising the borders of Polynesia and superimposing themselves upon that ancient oceanic race, whose peculiar conditions had perhaps caused a relapse from a higher and more ancient continental civilisation, while they had prevented any physical degeneration. We may regard the true coast Malay as the Asiatic nomad with Chinese and Arabian blood in his veins, and the various peoples of mixed Malay blood who are known as Indonesians as a hybrid between the Mongolian and Polynesian elements, though here and there the Malays or Indonesians may have mingled with the black races of African or Indian origin.

Proceeding now from tradition to the chronicles, we find ourselves in a maze of contradictions, inconsistencies, miraculous anecdotes, and legends, compiled in all probability (since the adventurers who settled Java are not likely to have brought court records with them) from the boastful oral traditions and narratives of warriors, priests, and female elders of the palace. From these chronicles it is not possible to judge which princes may be supposed to have reigned in Java and which were actually Indian rulers.

It is apparently agreed, however, that the first Hindu

1 These may have been Chinese or black aborigines from India ; probably both were present, the Chinese as maritime settlers.

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to send or to bring an expedition to Java was Adi Saka, or Adjih Saka. His advent, or expedition, is by some attributed to the year 75 a.d. While he may have been merely a nameless ruler (Adi) or a prince who afterwards took his name from Atjeh (Achin), it is not altogether improbable that we have here a mention of the great Buddhist ruler Asoka, King of Behar, who in 244 B.C. commenced that wonderful Buddhist propaganda which established Buddhism in India and gave it a settled hierarchy. His policy, which resembled that of the Jesuits in that road-making and preaching, well-sinking and education went hand in hand, resulted in a vast missionary organisation which is known to have spread as far as Ceylon. His son carried on his work. The great Buddhist ruler of the first century of our era was Kunishka, whose name cannot by any corruption have come to resemble Adi Saka. 1

When we remember that Saka means the founder of an era, therefore a prince, and also Buddha himself, it is evident that the first chapter of Javanese history does not carry us very far.

Some chroniclers attribute the introduction of Buddhism, or rather of Brahminism, to one Tritestra, a priest ; others regard him as identical with Adi Saka. His descendants are supposed to have ruled Java.

It seems certain that further Buddhist invasions took place in the fifth and seventh centuries. There are mentions of rulers coming from abroad and of expeditions of as many as twenty thousand priests, warriors, and craftsmen. For centuries, we may suppose, Java was regarded as an Eldorado where any refractory vassal or adventurous refugee or superfluous prince might win a kingdom ; standing in relation to India as Brazil did to Portugal.

Powerful states must have arisen early in the history of Java, as is attested by the remains of gigantic temples,

1 The constant mention of Asoka as the great patron of Buddhism may have led remote chroniclers to believe that he was alive centuries after his death. Adi Saka is perhaps Adi Asoka primitive in respect of construction, but superb in decoration and finish. Whether these wonderful monuments are proof of a very cultured state of society is doubtful. There was more movement in Asia a thousand years ago than now ; craftsmen of all countries may have been attracted to the new, fertile, wealthy land, which was full of royal courts and powerful feudal chiefs. Of the condition of their employers we know little. Hindu art, however, touched its zenith in Java, though, as we have seen, the architecture was primitive in plan, having usually an earthen core.

It is difficult to judge how soon Java became, even nominally, a single kingdom. We are told, however, that in the year 1157 the kingdom of the second Aji Saka was divided into four kingdoms, which then became incorporated into the empire of Pajajaran, which was afterwards known as the empire of Madjapahit. This lasted from 1376 or 1396 to 1476, when it fell before the assault of the Mahomedans. The empire being a feudal State, there still remained Hindu kingdoms, most of which were rapidly broken up or converted. The first Mahomedan State of Demak became the empire of Mataram. Gradually the States were absorbed by the Dutch, with the exception of the empire, which was divided into the two Principalities which are still extant. But the feudal framework of society has remained and is to-day employed as the means of government and administration.