A Geographical Reconstruction of Northeastern Central Java and the Location of Medang

Of the Indonesian kingdoms which flourished before the coming of Islam (say before 1500 A.D.) only the last, Madjapahit, has left the remains of its capital city.No traces are left of the chief cities of the earlier kingdoms; Singhasari and Kadiri still preserve their names in the present towns of Singosari and Kediri, but there is no cer tainty that the latter were founded on the ruins of their capitals.Several inscriptions give the names of capital cities, but the epigraphic material fails to provide a clue as to their location.Toponymic surmises have been made, sometimes quite satisfactorily; but they have also yielded two or more possible locations and so have complicated mat ters further.This is precisely the problem with Medang, since its name is preserved in several places in both southern and northern Central Java.The primary focal region of Indonesian history from the eighth to the tenth centuries was Central Java, and Medang was the capital of its principal kingdom.Now it happens that the southern part of Central Java provides historical documentation in the form of an accumulation of architectural monuments (tjandi) while the northern part is very poor in archaeological remains.It is therefore only natural that archaeologists and historians have sought to locate Medang in the south.1 On the other hand, the folk memory of a "Kingdom of Mendang Kemulan," handed down to the present day through legends and stories, has it that Mendang KemulanW4@ situated in the Grobogan district of northeastern Central Java.There, indeed, we find a number of villages bearing the name "Medang": Medang, Medang Ramesan, Medang Remit* Medang Kemulan, and others.A river Medang also runs through the area.We must, of course, treat tradition and legend with caution as historical material.Stutterheim, however, was of the opinion that a tradition as deeply rooted as that con cerning the location of Mendang Kemulan must have its histori cal basis and that therefore the question should be investigated 1

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