respectively.
The history of these eight Balinese radjadoms of modern times— and those of adjacent Lombok—is closely linked to that of Dutch colonial penetration. It is a story which remains as yet to be very accurately reconstructed from fragmentary and conflicting records, many of which are still lost in Dutch and Indonesian archives. Some inspired student may one day search out the sources in order to write what could be a classic of East–West relations as revealed in the vivid Balinese microcosm. For present purposes and with present resources, it must suffice merely to identify the protagonists and to establish the progression by reference to radjas and radjadoms.
The Dewa Agung and his radjadom of Klungkung survived but did not flourish, for the Dewa Agung himself was powerless and his kingdom was minute. Little Gianjar rivaled Klungkung as a center of traditional Balinese culture and even presumed at times to military might. But until the latter part of the nineteenth century, Gianjar was never at the focus of Balinese events, and neither were the neighboring states of Bangli, Tabanan, or, except for brief intervals, Badung. These states shared with Gianjar and Klungkung the fertile rice lands of the southern slopes of the central mountains and shared also the rich culture which rich rice lands nourished. Mengwi, a state of the center, enjoyed occasional prominence but overreached itself and was partitioned among its neighbors (1891), surviving today only in the loyalty of the people to the family of the traditional ruler and to the state shrines. The Dewa Agung’s military and political powers passed first to Buleleng, the large northern state which was the first focus of foreign commerce and international competition; next to Karangasem, the large eastern state which came to dominate also the island of Lombok; and eventually to the Dutch. Buleleng and Karangasem, sometimes friends, sometimes enemies, generally under the rule of members of the same royal family, were to become the two power factors of modern Bali.
Gusti Pandji Sakti, who came to the throne at the end of the seventeenth century, was primarily responsible for Buleleng’s assertion of island hegemony. By skillful political and military maneuvers he extended his own authority throughout most of Karangasem and Djembrana, exacted deferential treatment from the southern states, and concentrated next upon Blambangan. He listened sympathetically to an appeal from Mas Purba, the heir-apparent to the throne of Blambangan, who sought military aid in ousting a rival and resisting Mataram pressures. Gusti Pandji Sakti sent an expedition to Java (1697), which placed Mas Purba more or less securely on the throne, but succeeded more convincingly in establishing his own claim to succession to the Dewa Agung’s former power. But Gusti Pandji Sakti’s son-in-law, Gusti Agung Sakti, the ruler of Mengwi, presently usurped his father-in-law’s own kingdom of Buleleng (1711). He went on to consolidate his position by another adventure in Java, where Mas Purba had wavered in loyalty and flirted both with Mataram and the Dutch. The joint radjadom of Buleleng–Mengwi flourished for the better part of the eighteenth century but then separated again and forfeited power to Karangasem.
Karangasem began its rise to prominence by seizing the opportunity to champion Balinese interests in Lombok at a time when Buleleng was preoccupied by exploits in Java. Upon slipping from Balinese control in the time of Di Made, Lombok had fallen under the domination of Sumbawa and Goa (Makassar), sometimes one, sometimes the other, sometimes both. It had been subjected by and through these states to strong Islamizing influences. The paramount radja was converted to Islam along with various of his court; aided if not in fact compelled by soldiers from Sumbawa and Goa, the radja then attempted to expel the large Balinese Hindu population already living in the island. The new Muslim clique in Lombok had to contend meanwhile with very troublesome little rebellions among the warlike Sassak tribespeople, who made up the greater part of the population. Karangasem found this situation conducive to its own endeavors to bring Lombok once again under Balinese control, an objective which, after half a century of intermittent effort, it quite clearly accomplished. By the mid-seventeenth century Lombok was parceled out among four weak little radjadoms, each ruled by a Balinese prince who owed his allegiance to Karangasem.
It may be of help in fixing in mind the main currents of Balinese history to do as many of the Balinese themselves do, which is to accept a much abridged version of events from Modjapahit times onward and to dwell upon a simplified pattern of conflict mainly between the North and the South. According to popular Balinese account, the Modjapahit conquest of Bali and collapse in Java occurred in quick succession and the leading characters in the former, Gadjah Mada and Arja Damar, accompanied Bra Widjana, the fallen Madjapahit Emperor to Gelgel to re-establish his court. In appreciation for his distinguished services, Bra Widjana named Arja Damar as Prime Minister and assigned him extensive lands to be divided among himself and his followers. Arja Damar received, in fact, virtually the whole of the lush rice growing area of the south which then constituted the states of Tabanan and Mengwi, from which later split off Badung and Bangli. To Gadjah Mada went the large but not so desirable central mountain region and the coastal areas beyond, out of which, presently, were created the radjadoms of Buleleng. Karangasem, and Djembrana. Gadjah Mada’s services in the Bali campaign had not been deemed especially meritorious, for he had idled away his time in various pleasures leaving it to Arja Damar to fight the major battles and to lead the main invasion forces southward from Buleleng. Thus there originated the jealousies and rivalries of two different sets of rulers, those of the South, who stemmed from Arja Damar, and those of the North, who stemmed from Gadjah Mada. The latter all but openly repudiated their allegiance to the Dewa Agung in the mid-eighteenth century. The former continued to pay homage and tribute, however meager, up until the late nineteenth or very early twentieth century.
Decline of Dewa Agung’s Authority
The conspicuous decline of the Dewa Agung’s own power and prestige, according to this reading, dates from approximately the year 1750 when there occurred a series of incidents which shocked all of Bali. The Radja of Karangasem, an ascetic sage of repulsive physical habits and appearance, generally so engrossed in meditation that he let his excrement drop where it might, paid a visit of homage to Klungkung in the course of which he greatly shocked and outraged the Dewa Agung. When the Radja set out again for home, the Dewa Agung gave orders that he should be ambushed and assassinated, and the Radja was accordingly murdered. His three filial sons immediately sought to take vengeance. They raised an army and marched into Klungkung to invest the puri. Some residue of respect for tradition deterred them from either killing or deposing the Dewa Agung or even depriving him of much of his realm. But they made virtual declaration of independence and returned home to rule Karangasem without much further regard for the Dewa Agung’s authority. The eldest son succeeded as radja; presently, he conquered Buleleng, where he made his younger brother radja, and then Lombok, which he assigned to the other. From that time on, Karangasem, Buleleng, and Lombok were more often hostile than amenable to Klungkung. But at the time of the Balinese–Dutch wars of 1846–1849, both Karangasem and Buleleng, but not Lombok, solicited and reciprocated the Dewa Agung’s support.
The long and the short versions of centuries of Balinese history, much of which, technically, is pre-history, converge upon one famous personage, Gusti Gde Karangasem, Radja of Karangasem at the turn of the nineteenth century, the gadfly of the Dewa Agung and the kingpin of a new coalition. Once having made himself master of Buleleng as well as of Lombok and having made his brothers the radjas, he next added Djembrana to his domain. He did so over the vigorous protest of Badung, which had recently treated that state as an appendage of its own but had tolerated the rule of a Bugis prince from Makassar named Kapiten Patimi. Karangasem put rude pressures upon other states as well and stirred up widespread resentment and resistance.
By this time the patterns of Balinese power and politics were becoming almost incomprehensible even to the Balinese, as is still further indicated by the sudden emergence in the late eighteenth century of the state of Gianjar as a rival to Klungkung and a military threat to Buleleng, Karangasem, Mengwi, and Bangli. Buleleng itself presently rebelled successfully against Karangasem (1823), and the Radja of Karangasem, Gusti Gde Ngurah Lanang, was forced to flee to Lombok. There he built a new puri and attempted to impose central authority over the mutually jealous little Lombok radjadoms, which welcomed his defeat in Bali as an invitation to defiance; he sought at the same time to force his
