Over 400 years ago most of East Java was exactly like Bali is today. Prior to 1815 Bali had a greater population density than Java, suggesting its Hindu-Balinese civilization was even more successful than Java's. When Sir Stamford Raffles wrote his History Of Java in the early 19th century, he had to turn to Bali for what remained of the once-great literature of classical Java. Even today Bali provides scholars with clues about India's past religious life, clues which long ago vanished in India itself.
The Warmadewa Dynasty
Bali first came under the influence of Indic Javanese kings in the
6th to 8th centuries. The island was conquered by the first documented
king of Central Java, Sanjaya, in 732; stone and copper inscriptions in
Old Balinese have been found that date from A.D. 882.
From the 10th to the 12th centuries, the
Balinese Warmadewa family established a dynastic link with Java. Court
decrees were thereafter issued in the Old Javanese language of Kawi and
Balinese sculpture, bronzes, and other artistic styles, bathing places,
and rock-cut temples began to resemble those in East Java. The Sanur pillar
(A.D. 914), partly written in Sanskrit, supports the theory that portions
of the island were already Indianized in the 10th century.
Bali's way of life was well defined by the
early part of the 10th century. By then, the Balinese were engaged in sophisticated
wet-rice cultivation, livestock breeding, stone- and woodcarving, metalworking,
roof thatching, canoe building, even cockfighting. The Balinese of the
time were locked into feudal genealogical and territorial bondage. They
were subjects of an autocratic Hinduized ruler—one of a number of regional
Balinese princes—who himself acknowleged the sovereignty of a Javanese
overlord.
Airlangga
The marriage of Balinese Prince Udayana of the Warmadewa dynasty to
east Javanese Princess Mahendradatta in A.D. 989 led to even closer cooperation
between Java and Bali. Airlangga (991-1046) was born to the royal couple
around 1001. As a young man, the prince was sent to Java for his education.
There, Airlangga married a princess and became a local chief in the kingdom
of his uncle Dharma Wangsa. Shortly after Airlangga's arrival, Wangsa was
attacked by the forces of Sriwijaya and murdered. Airlangga ascended to
the throne, becoming one of the most glorious monarchs in Java's history.
The dynasty he put in place—more centralized and less Indianized than any
up to that time—lasted for more than 300 years. As befits an Indic hero,
Airlangga ultimately renounced the kingdom he'd made great and died a hermit
under the guidance of his spiritual adviser.
A fascinating legend relates how Airlangga's
kingdom was nearly destroyed by a plague supposedly brought by the dreadful
witch Rangda, queen of evil spirits. According to some historians, Rangda
was Airlangga's own mother, Mahendradatta, whom her husband had sent into
the jungle for practicing black magic. Other theorists maintain Rangda
sought revenge against Airlangga because he did not side with her when
his father took a second wife. Out of the mythical struggle between the
magic of the witch and that of the great king arose the legend of Calon
Arang, depicted today in Bali's barong dance. Rangda, who died relatively
early in life, is thought to be buried in a tomb near Kutri. In Balinese
myth she is forever associated with witchcraft.
Balinization
For a long time Airlangga was forgotten in Java, whereas in his native
Bali he has always been much revered. With the royal compound established
near Batuan, his court's language became the common language of Bali. Another
feature of these early times was the practice on Bali of both Hinduism
and Buddhism (with a strong Tantric element) side by side.
This early period of Balinese history has
long been perceived as an age of darkness, but based on an analysis of
royal charters (prasasti) this is incorrect. Village communities
started to take part in masked dances, dramas, and puppet performances
staged by the royal courts. Tantric magical beliefs and rites surfaced,
building upon and infusing the native animism. This period was the origin
of the contemporary Balinese preoccupation with leyak (witches)
and such supernaturally charged characters as Rangda in the tale of Calon
Arang. Artistically, the style of the cliff candi of Gunung Kawi
was largely derived from East Javanese 11th-century architecture. The early
monuments of Bali from this era, exemplifed by the ghostly Gunung Kawi
tombs, have fascinated religious, social, and cultural anthropologists
the world over.
Division of the Kingdom
After the division of Airlangga's empire under his sons, Bali's next
indigenous ruler was Anak Wungsu, who became one of the island's greatest
kings. He and his predecessors are specifically connected by their monuments
with the remarkably rich stretch of land between the Petanu and Pakerisan
Rivers in south-central Bali.
According to Javanese court records, in 1284
the mysterious last king of the East Javanese Singosari dynasty, Kertanagara
(1268-92), sent a military force against Bali. During this expedition,
the last descendant of the Warmadewa dynasty was taken prisoner, and Bali
again became a vassal state of Java—yet another fluctuation in the turbulent
relationship between the two islands. When Kertanagara was assasinated
in 1292, the fierce Balinese took advantage of the confusion to rebel against
their Javanese overlords.
Majapahit Conquest
The fall of the Singosari Empire after Kertanagara's 1292 assassination
was followed by the rise of the new dynasty of Majapahit. Gajah Mada, the
grand vizier or patih of King Radjasanegara, was sent to Bali in
1343 to subjugate the semidemonic king of the Balinese Pejeng dynasty,
Dalem Bedulu, who refused to recognize Majapahit supremacy. A haunting
myth tells of how the demon-king exchanged his human head for that of a
wild boar, and how Gajah Mada tricked him so he could see the pig-head.
The effect was devastating—Bedulu literally burned up in indignation.
After Gajah Mada conquered Bali, East Javanese
influences spread from purely political and religious spheres into the
arts and architecture. Bali became an outpost in a mighty empire—Indonesia's
greatest—which encompassed nearly the entire archipelago.
The Javanese court chronicler, Prapanca,
relates how all the "vile, long-haired Balinese princes were wiped
out . . . now all the barbarian Balinese customs are consistent with Javanese
ones." This, of course, was not true, as elements of Old Balinese
culture—prestige stratification, endogamous patrilineages, a developed
witch-cult, and tight-knit irrigation societies—survive intact to the present
day.
A young Brahman nobleman, Mpu Kapakisan,
was appointed king of Bali by Gajah Mada, and a colony of Javanese settlers
was dispatched. The Balinese frequently revolted against the mighty Majapahit,
but the uprisings were put down in memorable battles. Military figures
(aryas) became rulers of Bali, and to them the present Balinese
aristocracy 'Wong Majapahit' traces its origins.
The first four vassal rulers under the Javanese
resided at a royal court in Samprangan near Gianyar. During Hayam Wuruk's
rule in the late 14th century a dissenting vassal, I Dewa Ketut Tegal Besung,
fell out with his elder brother—he'd married his sister to a horse—and
established a princely court in Gelgel near Klungkung. Bali was conquered
at the peak of Majapahit's artistic flowering, and thus Gelgel soon became
an artistic power center, exerting a powerful influence over Bali's subsequent
cultural development. Hinduistic concepts filtered down to the villagers
via the electrifying medium of the shadow play.
Historically speaking, Bali today is still
a fossil of Java during Majapahit's golden age, a living museum of many
elements of the old Indo-Javanese civilization. Through it's isolation
Bali kept its culture whole.
The Decline of the Majapahit Empire
Civil wars, revolts, and internal decay spread in Majapahit's colonies,
and soon the great empire went into decline. Muslim missionaries became
influential in Java, converting princes who, attracted to the economic
benefits of Islam, declared themselves sultans and repudiated their allegiance
to Majapahit. This gradual Islamization quickened the pace of deterioration
in Majapahit; eventually, peaceful religious propaganda turned to armed
force. When the empire crumbled under the military and economic invasion
of Islam at the dawn of the 16th century, the cream of Majapahit's scholars,
jurists, dancers, painters, craftsmen, intellectuals, and literati migrated
to isolated parts of East Java, and to Bali. Priests took with them all
the kingdom's sacred books and historical records. Because of the lack
of good harbors and the small volume of trade, Islam never succeeded in
taking a firm hold in Bali's coastal areas. Only in Bali's extreme west,
in Jembrana, did part of the population accept Islam. The regency to this
day is home to Bali's largest Muslim population.
Nirartha, a great Hindu sage from Kediri
in east Java, arrived in Bali in the 15th century, establishing a hermitage
(griya) in Mas. There he became famous for his teachings, attracting
many disciples. Nirartha created the system of village-level adat,
a microcosm of the larger order of the universe. He also conceived of the
open-roofed shrine (padmasana) found in every Balinese household
and temple courtyard. Nirartha's descendents now form one of Bali's four
most important Brahmana classes.
Over the years, as descendants of Majapahit
consolidated their power on the island, a Bali-Hindu civilization evolved
like nowhere else in the archipelago. Only the Bali Aga, aboriginal mountain
Balinese, resisted the Hindu inroads. Easternmost Java remained Hindu until
the end of the 16th century; the Blambangan region in far eastern Java
lost its independence only during the 17th century. Bali then became the
last refuge of Hindu culture in Asia, a splendid historical anachronism.
The Gelgel Period
In the 14th century a Javanese settlement was established at Samprangan,
at the foot of Gunung Agung. The capital was then moved to the south coast
at Gelgel in Klungkung Regency. Gelgel did not wield direct political power
over the other courts but became the passive and much respected nucleus
around which the other kingdoms revolved. Its powerful succession of rulers
were distinguished by the semidivine title of Dewa Agung ("Grand Lord")
and were no less than the titular leaders of Bali.
Here, for two centuries, successive kings
of Bali resided, developing unique Bali-Hindu customs and institutions
and welding together the traditions of East Java and old Bali. Complex
death rituals, offerings, and high ceremonial language were all probably
introduced during this period. The greatest ruler ot Bali's Gelgel dynasty,
Dalem Batu Renggong, expanded the island's influence east by conquering
and colonizing Lombok and Sumbawa, and the Blambangan Peninsula of East
Java.
Whole colonies of court artisans, carvers,
men of letters, painters, architects, and gold- and silversmiths created
the lavish trappings of royalty. Theater associations and orchestras sprang
up, folk art flourished. The arts were indistinguishable from the life
of the courts and the religious activity of the people. Art was never executed
for its own sake but presented as an offering or prayer in service to the
community and the gods. A woodcarver carved the eaves on a royal bale
from an almost client-like obligation to his lord, an architect designed
a stone altar in the temple as an act of faith in his religion. Gratuity
for the craft, product, labor, or service was given in the form of rice,
privileges, and/or political patronage.
During Dalem Batu Renggong's rule, the saka
calendar of Hindu Java and 30-week Balinese wuku calendar were combined
into the intricate schedule of religious ceremonies that exists today.
Cremations, until the Gelgel period the privilege of the nobility, began
to be practiced by the common people. The Dewa Agung also constructed nine
great temples throughout the land, with Pura Besakih serving as the island's
"mother temple." Numerous present-day Balinese temples—Gunung
Kawi, Pura Penulisan—are actually memorial shrines to ancient rulers and
their families.
Around the mid-17th century, the dynasty
moved north to Klungkung. Countless micro-revolts erupted among Bali's
seven principalities, sparked by conflicts over status relationships, prestige,
and pressure from upwardly mobile commoners. A state of constant war prevailed
throughout the 18th and 19th centuries and ended only when the various
kingdoms were forced to integrate into the Netherlands East Indies in the
early 20th century.
Gelgel remained the island's center of political
power, if only in name, until its final defeat at the hands of the Dutch.
The Balinese consider this dynasty their great classical period. Even after
the Dutch conquests of 1906 and 1908, the local regents of the Gelgel and
Klungkung districts retained their autonomy into the 1950s, when finally
the Indonesian republican government stripped them of their lands and feudal
authority.
Yet seven of the secondary principalities
of Batu Renggong's time survive as administrative districts today: Badung,
Gianyar, Bangli, Tabanan, Karangasem, Buleleng, and Jembrana, all based
on the seven kingdoms that emerged from the 17th-century Gelgel dynasty.
The metropolitan area of Denpasar, Bali's largest urban area and government
center, was declared a regency in the early 1990s.