Singhasari - Expansion

Expansion

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Kutai 4th century
Tarumanagara 358–669
Kalingga 6th–7th
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In the year 1275, the ambitious king Kertanegara, the fifth ruler of Singhasari, launched a peaceful naval campaign northward towards the weak remains of the Srivijaya in response to continuous Ceylon pirate raids and Chola kingdom's invasion from India which conquered Srivijaya’s Kedah in 1025. The strongest of these Malaya kingdoms was Jambi, which captured the Srivijaya capital in 1088, then the Dharmasraya kingdom, and the Temasek kingdom of Singapore, and then remaining territories.

The expedition is named the Pamalayu expedition was led by Admiral Mahesa Anabrang (a.k.a. Adwaya Brahman) to the Malaya region, and was also intended to secure the Malayan strait, the ‘Maritime Silk Road’ against potential Mongol invasion and ferocious sea pirates. These Malayan kingdoms then pledged allegiance to the king. King Kertanegara had long wished to surpass Srivijaya as a regional maritime empire, controlling sea trade routes from China to India.

The Pamalayu expedition from 1275 to 1292, from the time of Singhasari to Majapahit, is chronicled in the Javanese scroll Nagarakrtagama. Singhasari’s territory thus became Majapahit territory. In the year 1284, king Kertanegara made a hostile Pabali expedition to Bali, which integrated Bali into the Singhasari kingdom’s territory. The king also sent troops, expeditions and envoys to other nearby kingdoms such as the Sunda-Galuh kingdom, Pahang kingdom, Balakana kingdom (Kalimantan/Borneo), and Gurun kingdom (Maluku). He also established an alliance with the king of Champa (Vietnam).

King Kertanegara totally erased any Srivijayan influence from Java and Bali in 1290. However, the expansive campaigns exhausted most of the Kingdom’s military forces and in the future would stir a murderous plot against the unsuspecting King Kertanegara.

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