The island’s exceptional fertility allowed the development of an intensive sawah (wet rice) agriculture, which in turn required close cooperation between villages. Out of village alliances, small kingdoms developed, including that of King Purnawarman of Taruma, but the first major principality was that of King Sanjaya, who founded the Mataram kingdom at the beginning of the 8th century. Mataram’s religion centred on the Hindu god Shiva, and produced some of Java’s earliest Hindu temples on the Dieng Plateau.
The Sailendra dynasty followed, overseeing Buddhism’s heyday and the building of Borobudur. But Hinduism and Buddhism continued to coexist and the massive Hindu Prambanan complex was constructed within a century of Borobudur.
Mataram eventually fell, perhaps at the hands of the Sumatra-based Sriwijaya kingdom, which invaded Java in the 11th century. However, Javanese power began its revival in 1019 under King Airlangga, a semi-legendary figure who formed the first royal link between the island and Bali. Despite his role as a unifier, Airlangga later split the kingdom between his two sons, creating Janggala to the east and Kediri to the west.
It was only a matter of time before the balance of power was to change goeastjava once again. Early in the 13th century the commoner Ken Angrok usurped the throne of Singosari (a part of the Janggala kingdom), defeated Kediri and brought Janggala under his control. The new kingdom ended in 1292 with the murder of
