Kedatuan

Kedatuan (ancient spelling: Kadatuan; Javanese romanization: Kedaton) were historical semi-independent city-states or principalities throughout ancient Maritime Southeast Asia in present-day Indonesia, Malaysia, and parts of the Philippines. In a modern Malay and Indonesian sense, they could be described as kingdoms or polities. The earliest written record mentioning the term kadatuan was the 7th-century Srivijayan Telaga Batu and Kota Kapur inscription.

The term Kadatuan in Old Malay means "the realm of Datu" or "the residence of Datu". Constructed from old Malay stem word Datu with circumfix ke- -an to denote place. It derived from Datu or Datuk, an ancient Austronesian title and position for regional leader or elder that is used throughout Maritime Southeast Asia. It was mentioned in several inscriptions such as 7th century Srivijayan Old Malay Telaga Batu inscription, and 14th century Sundanese Astana Gede inscription. In wider sense it could refer to the whole principality, on smaller sense however, it could refer to palace where Datu resides. The Kota Kapur inscription mentioned "manraksa yan kadatuan çrivijaya" (to protect the Kadatuan of Srivijaya), thus Srivijaya is described as a kadatuan. In Srivijayan perspective, the realm of the Kadatuan Srivijaya was described consists of several wanua (settlements) each led by a datu (datuk), which means community leader or elder. All of this realm are under control of central kadatuan which also led by a datu. The highest datu in Srivijaya was Dapunta Hyang.

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