Priyayi

Priyayi (former spelling: Prijaji) was the Dutch era class of the nobles of the Robe, as opposed to royal nobility or bangsawan (Indonesian) or ningrat (Javanese), in Java, Indonesia's most populous island. Priyayi was a Javanese word coined for the descendants of the adipati or governors, the first of whom were appointed in the 17th century by the Sultan Agung of Mataram to administer the principalities he had conquered. Initially court officials in pre-colonial kingdoms, the priyayi moved into the colonial civil service, and then on to administrators of the modern Indonesian republic.

The Mataram Sultanate, an Islamic polity in south central Java that reached its peak in the 17th century, developed a kraton ("court") culture from which the Sultan emerged as a charismatic figure that rules over a relatively independent aristocracy. Named para yayi ("the king’s brothers"), nobles, officials, administrators, and chiefs were integrated in a patron-client relationship with the Sultan to preside over the peripheries of the kingdom. The homeland of priyayi culture is attributed to Mataram’s center, namely the Javanese-speaking middle and eastern parts of Java. Although "Javanized" by Mataram’s political expansion, the Sundanese-speaking western part of Java, the easternmost parts of Java, and the nearby island of Madura retain ethnic, linguistic, and cultural differences from the Mataramese heartland.

After the arrival of the Dutch East India Company (VOC) and the collapse of Mataram, the Sultanates of Surakarta and Yogyakarta became centers of Javanese political power since the 1755 Treaty of Giyanti. Although Dutch political influence severely limited their autonomy throughout the colonial period, the two kingdoms continued to serve as symbols of Javanese courtly culture. In the lowland rural areas of Java, the presence of a centralized indigenous bureaucracy strengthened state control over uncultivated land, and helped transform the peasantry from independent smallholders to agricultural laborers.

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