The Queen of the Southern Sea

SENAPATI entered the ocean. He concentrated his mind, held a moment of silence, and meditated to ask for guidance from the Omniscient. A storm came. The wind raged. Lightning flashed. The sea went turbulent.

Nyai Roro Kidul rose from her resting place. In her palace courtyard, a man stood by the sea. She then descended to the edge of the sea and approached Senapati.  

"O King, eliminate these turmoils that make the South Sea turbulent. You are the owner of this sea and everything in it. Why are you destroying it? If you wish, you can rule as you like. If you go to war, order the spirits and jinns to help defeat your enemies, the kings of Java."

Roro Kidul's words struck a chord in Senapati's heart. Thus, everything was restored as before. Roro Kidul went home immediately. Senapati followed her. Arriving at the palace, Roro Kidul and Senapati sat together. Their hearts were in harmony. They looked at each other and made love. After three days and nights, Senapati returned to Mataram.

Political Legitimization

The romance between Senapati, the founder of the Mataram dynasty, and Nyai Roro Kidul is recorded in the Balai Pustaka edition of Babad Tanah Jawi (History of the Land of Java), also known as Babad Mayor Surakarta, compiled by Yasadipura I in the first decade of the 19th century.

Babad Tanah Jawi summarizes Javanese history to show Mataram's position as the legitimate successor of all its predecessor kingdoms. The first version of the Babad was written by order of Sultan Agung in 1626 and revised in 1633 after his failure to invade Batavia in 1629.  

"The rewriting of the story was necessary to explain the event in such a way that it did not damage the Susuhunan's reputation but rather enhanced it," Bernard H.M. Vlekke wrote in Nusantara: Sejarah Indonesia (Nusantara: A History of Indonesia).

To immortalize the romance, Sultan Agung created the bedhaya dances. After the Giyanti Agreement that divided Mataram in 1755, the Yogyakarta Palace was given the bedhaya semang while Surakarta Palace got bedhaya ketawang. This dance became sacred and mandatory during the coronation ceremony of the new king. Among the palace community, there is a belief that when bedhaya ketawang is performed, Ratu Kidul is present and even dances along.

The relationship with Ratu Kidul then gave the ruler a source of legitimacy to occupy the throne of Java. It is no wonder that the Babad continues to be rewritten.

Various other Javanese texts also place importance on the alliance with Ratu Kidul. For example, Serat Surya Raja, written by the crown prince of Yogyakarta who would later become Sultan Hamengkubuwono II in early March 1774. According to M.C. Ricklefs in Yogyakarta di Bawah Sultan Mangkubumi 1749–1792 (Yogyakarta Under Sultan Mangkubumi 1749-1792), the crown prince identified himself with the mystical prince Pujakusuma, who in the Babad united the kingdom. This seems to have something to do with the Sultan's plan to abdicate, which was aborted because the Dutch didn't give their permission.

Babad Diponegoro, which was written when Prince Diponegoro was exiled in Manado, Sulawesi in 1832-1833, also mentions a meeting with Ratu Kidul in mid-1826. However, Diponegoro refused the offer of supernatural troop assistance to eliminate the Dutch.  

"As a pious Muslim, he put his trust in Allah," historian Peter B.R. Carey said in an email to Historia. "So, it's not at all appropriate for Diponegoro to ask for help from the supernatural world."

Although Diponegoro seemed to want to demythologize Ratu Kidul, the myth of Ratu Kidul didn’t necessarily disappear from the inner world of the Javanese. She still exists until now.

A Sundanese Princess

The origin of Ratu Kidul continues to be studied. Various versions emerge regarding who exactly Ratu Kidul is. However, most versions generally associate her with a princess from Pajajaran in West Java.

In Babad Tanah Jawi, the Senapati-Ratu Kidul romance doesn't appear out of nowhere. At the beginning of the text, Ratu Kidul already appears as Cemara Tunggal, who in reality was a princess from the Kingdom of Pajajaran.

Cemara Tunggal, who was able to switch between male and female forms, left the capital because she refused to marry. In her incarnation as a sage (ajar), she predicted that Raden Susuruh who appeared in the Babad as the founder of Majapahit (later known as Brawijaya) would rule all of Java and whoever ruled Java would marry her.

"Her covenant with the ousted crown-prince of Pajajaran who becomes the founder of the dynasty of Majapahit is the prototype of the agreement to be concluded by her with Senapati as founder of the dynasty of Mataram," J.J. Ras wrote in "The Genesis of the Babad Tanah Jawi: Origin and Function of the Javanese Court Chronicle", published in Bijdragen tot de Taal-, Land- en Volkenkunde 143 (1987).  

According to Robert Wessing, since Raden Susuruh came from West Java, his spiritual origin lay there, in the sense that his Sundanese spirituality was superior to Javanese. For the Javanese, Pajajaran had a certain spiritual significance. At the same time, the ruling line of Majapahit, as well as Mataram II, was older and higher than Pajajaran. Thus, the two were brought together to bring about a balance between Javanese and Sundanese, between the worldly (outer) and spiritual (inner).  

"While Java–now Mataram II–may be politically in the ascendant, Sunda is the source of its spiritual power as well as of its rulers' spirit-consorts, Cemara Tunggal and Nyai Roro Kidul," Wessing wrote in "A Princess from Sunda: Some Aspects of Nyai Roro Kidul", published in Asian Folklore Studies Vol. 56 in 1997.

Ras found similar representations in ancient texts from other kingdoms in Indonesia. In Pararaton, for example, Ken Dedes, the daughter of a Mahayana monk, is described as an ardhanareswari, half man half woman, a union of Siva-Durga.

"It is quite clear that Ratu Kidul as ruler of the realm of the spirits is a representation of Siva's spouse Durga, while Senapati, in consequence of his marriage to her, is placed in the position of Siva (Batara Guru), similarly to Angrok in the Pararaton," Ras wrote.

Labuhan

For Wessing, the origin of the reverence for Ratu Kidul is unclear. There are indications of her existence in Majapahit in the 14th century, when King Hayam Wuruk regularly made sacred trips to the south coast. The kingdom of Pajang, which was later succeeded by Mataram II, had an association with river deities. Sea spirit worship, either indigenous or Islamic (for instance to Prophet Khidr), also existed throughout Indonesia. Furthermore, Wessing mentions similar myths in India, China, and mainland Southeast Asia. Thus, it can be concluded that the perception of Ratu Kidul is influenced by elements from various sources.

"She is the ruler of the spirit world of Java and, as a nagini, the owner of the soil and the essence of its fertility," Wessing wrote.

Meanwhile, Ras pointed out that a special ritual has been practiced from time immemorial on Parangtritis beach, south of Yogyakarta. Certain objects are thrown into the sea as offerings or labuhan to Ratu Kidul; a ritual that still survives today.

"It is more than likely that this sacrificial rite in honor of Ratu Kidul was older, as a tradition, than the realm of Mataram," Ras wrote.