Kalingga | ||||||||
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Capital | Precisely unknown, suggested somewhere between Pekalongan and Jepara | |||||||
Languages | Old Javanese, Sanskrit | |||||||
Religion | Hinduism, Buddhism, Animism | |||||||
Government | Monarchy | |||||||
Raja | ||||||||
• | circa 674 | Shima | ||||||
History | ||||||||
• | Established | 6th century | ||||||
• | Disestablished | 7th century | ||||||
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Kalingga (Javanese: Karajan Kalingga; 訶陵 Hēlíng or 闍婆 Dūpó in Chinese sources) was the 6th century Indianized kingdom on the north coast of Central Java, Indonesia. It was the earliest Hindu-Buddhist kingdom in Central Java, and together with Kutai and Tarumanagara are the oldest kingdoms in Indonesian history.
The archaeological findings and historical records from this period are scarce, and the exact location of kingdom's capital is unknown. It is thought to be somewhere between present-day Pekalongan or Jepara. A place named Keling subdistrict is found in northern coast of Jepara Regency, however some archaeological findings near Pekalongan and Batang regency shows that Pekalongan was an ancient port, suggests that Pekalongan might be an altered name of Pe-Kaling-an. Kalingga existed between the 6th and 7th centuries, and it was one of the earliest Hindu-Buddhist kingdoms established in Java. The historical record of this kingdom is scarce and vague, and comes mostly from Chinese sources and local traditions.
The Chinese sources come from China and date back to the Tang Dynasty. According to the Chinese Buddhist monk Yijing, in 664 a Chinese Buddhist monk named Huining (會寧 Huìníng) had arrived in Heling and stayed there for about three years. During his stay, and with the assistance of Jnanabhadra, a Heling monk, he translated numerous Buddhist Hinayana scriptures.
In 674 the kingdom was ruled by Queen Shima, notorious for her fierce law against thievery, which encouraged her people to be honest and uphold absolute truth. According to tradition, one day a foreign king placed a bag filled with gold on the intersection in Kalingga to test the famed truthful and honesty of Kalingga people. Nobody dared to touch the bag that did not belong to them, until three years later when Shima's son, the crown prince, accidentally touched the bag with his foot. The queen issued a death sentence to her own son, but was over-ruled by a minister that appealed the queen to spare the prince's life. Since it was the prince's foot that touched the bag of gold, so it was the foot that must be punished through mutilation. According to Carita Parahyangan, a book composed in later period, Shima's great-grandson is Sanjaya, who is the king of Sunda Kingdom and Galuh Kingdom, and also the founder of Medang Kingdom.