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'The Rise of Majapahit' Courage to combine colossal history with drama
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(JP/A. Kurniawan Ulung)
Kedasih birds were chirping at a night when Mongolian war commander Ike Mese was drunk after celebrating victory against King Jayakatwang in Kediri, East Java.
Local people believed that a bad thing would happen if the birds were twittering.
The belief was proven right. Prince Raden Wijaya of the Singosari Kingdom suddenly attacked the drunken commander and thousands of his troops. He defeated and chased them away and then established the Majapahit Kingdom in 1293.
'Mongolia was powerful everywhere, except Nusantara,' Setyo Wardoyo said about the climax of his first novel, The Rise of Majapahit, during a recent book discussion in Matraman, East Jakarta.
He said Mese was not the first commander sent by Mongolian Emperor Kubilai Khan.
In 1289, he said, Kubilai delegated Meng Khi to meet with Singosari Kingdom King Sri Kertanegara. Meng handed him a letter that instructed Kertanegara to recognize the sovereignty of Mongolia.
The letter made Kertanegara angry and offended him, since he had sworn that his kingdom would not bow to other nations. He then cut off one of Meng's ears and dismissed him, he said.
Kubilai, he said, was furious not only because Kertanegara rejected his demand for the third time, but also because he made his envoy return home with only one ear.
To express his anger, Kubilai instructed Mese to attack Singosari, leading some 20,000 troops and 1,000 warships, Setyo said.
When Mese was on the way to Java, he heard that King Sri Jayakatwang of the Gelang-Gelang Kingdom had destroyed Singosari and killed Kertanegara in 1292.
However, the revenge did not stop. Mese's new target was Jayakatwang because Java was under his power. Jayakatwang established Daha palace, he said.
Upon his arrival in Java, Mese met Wijaya, the son-in-law of Kertanegara. Like Mese, Wijaya also wanted to kill Jayakatwang for revenge. The two then decided to team up and won.
To celebrate the victory, Mese held a drinking binge, which was the moment Wijaya used to attack them.
Some of the Mongolian soldiers who escaped the bloodbath then informed Kubilai of their embarrassing defeat.
'Writing this novel took me one and half years. It combined historical facts with fictional plots. Around 75 percent of this story was fictional,' Setyo said.
He said that the inspiration to write the novel came to him when he and his friends were discussing colossal films, questioning why they could not be as popular as Hollywood and Bollywood movies. In January 2013, he began writing.
Although his story is a fiction, he said it did not change historical facts and details. He even conducted research by visiting various museums and cities in East Java believed to be the sites where the scenes happened. 'I also visited Singosari district in Malang [East Java],' Setyo says.
The Rise of Majapahit has received various comments from readers.
Historian Restu Gunawan, for example, criticized the word 'Nusantara' that frequently appears in the story, saying that it creates a perception that such word had existed since the era of Singosari.
He said the word Nusantara gained popularity after Gajah Mada, a powerful military leader and mahapatih (prime minister) of the Majapahit kingdom, vowed not to taste any spices until he had conquered all of the Southeast Asian archipelago, then known as Nusantara, for the empire. The oath is popularly known as the Sumpah Palapa (Palapa Oath). Ki Hajar Dewantara, the founding father of national education, then popularized the word again.
Restu said the author should be careful using word to prevent misunderstandings among readers, especially students. 'He [Setyo] also mentioned 'shiny clean floor' Kris on page 10. It was annoying because there were no ceramics during that era,' he said.
He also underlined a moment when Kertanegara cut Meng's ear by using a Javanese dagger, the kris. 'The kris is a weapon to stab, not to cut,' he added, deeming Setyo to be 'too dramatizing'.
However, Restu, who is also the Education Ministry's deputy director for cultural diplomacy, also praised Setyo for carefully describing things that were inappropriate for underaged readers, such as free sexual intercourse and binge drinking.
National Resilience Institute (Lemhanas) lecturer Adi Sujanto praised Setyo for having the courage to write a historical novel, something that many other writers find not attractive because of its high level of difficulty.
If Setyo plans to write a sequel to the novel, he encouraged him to add more about leadership values and add a map to help give a geographical sense to the readers.
'Setyo has worked hard and intelligently with full integrity and loyalty. We should appreciate his work since it is hard to find this kind of novel,' he said.
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The Rise of Majapahit
Written by Setyo Wardoyo
Edited by Adi Pramono
Published by Grasindo, 2014
399 pages
