Post by hi224 on Jan 22, 2022 7:25:25 GMT
Background
Javanese court poet Raden Ngabahi Ranggawarsita spent decades researching and writing a sprawling history of Java entitled the Book of Kings, the first edition of which was published in 1869. Side note: this book is thousands of pages long and it was said that Ranggawarsita wrote three pages of it per day for thirty years. A reference to the eruption appears in the early part of his history called "The Book of Ancient Kings" and reads as follows:
The whole world was greatly shaken, and violent thundering, accompanied by heavy rain and storms took place, but not only did not this heavy rain extinguish the eruption of the fire of the mountain Kapi, but augmented the fire; the noise was fearful, at last the mountain Kapi with a tremendous roar burst into pieces and sank into the deepest of the earth. The water of the sea rose and inundated the land, the country to the east of the mountain Batuwara, to the mountain Raja Basa, was inundated by the sea; the inhabitants of the northern part of the Sunda country to the mountain Raja Basa, were drowned and swept away with all their property.
A second edition of Book of Kings was published in 1885 and provides a much more detailed account of the eruption, as well as including the year of the event this time, which you can see in the following short excerpt:
In the year Shaka* 338 (AD 416) a thundering noise was heard from the mountain Batuwara, which was answered by a similar noise coming from the mountain Kapi, lying westward of the modern Bantam. A great glaring fire which reached the sky came out of the last-named mountain. The whole world was greatly shaken and violent thundering accompanied by heavy rains and storms took place.
It is unknown to which mountain "Kapi" is referring, since that name is no longer used, but due to certain geographical clues in the text, it is thought that "Kapi" is actually Krakatoa.
It is believed that Ranggawarsita likely referenced primary source material in the writing of his book, but there is a question as to which sources he used, since we know very little about his bibliography. However, it can be surmised that he most likely referenced ancient Javanese manuscripts that had been written on palm leaves, and of which the Kraton library in Solo (in Java) possessed many. Ten thousand of these palm leaf texts, written in a variety of manuscript styles, survive today. Though relatively few of them actually relate to the ancient history of Java.
Ranggawarsita's book also mentions a man named Jayabaya, the monarch who supposedly oversaw the documenting of the accounts of this volcanic eruption. According to this story, Jayabaya was visited by a Hindu god named Naraddha, who informed him of this eruption and encouraged him to make a record of it. Naraddha told Jayabaya that this event took place in the 338th year of the Shaka Calendar (AD 416). Jayabaya was a real Javanese king in the 12th century. So, was this myth built around a real event?
Beyond the aforementioned sources, there is no further evidence that this eruption actually happened.
Did he get the date wrong?
There is both ice core and tree ring evidence for a massive eruption having occurred in either Java or Sumatra around AD 535. Possibly an eruption of Krakatoa? Going back to the Book of Kings, Ranggawarsita included entries relating to a large portion of the days covered by the book. However, there are notably far fewer entries for the eighteen years following the eruption of AD 535, suggesting that something happened that was a big enough deal to disrupt the palm leaf writings of the scribes for nearly two decades.
It's also important to note that the years following AD 416 hint at no such disruption in the writing of the palm leaf histories.
Conclusion
Were these two supposed early eruptions of Krakatoa actually just one eruption?
*The Shaka Calendar was the Hindu dating system used exclusively on these islands and which began in the year AD 78.
Sources:
www.history.com/topics/natural-disasters-and-environment/krakatoa
www.britannica.com/place/Krakatoa
www.volcanodiscovery.com/krakatau.html
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Volcanic_winter_of_536
Krakatoa: The Day the World Exploded: August 27, 1883 by Simon Winchester
Javanese court poet Raden Ngabahi Ranggawarsita spent decades researching and writing a sprawling history of Java entitled the Book of Kings, the first edition of which was published in 1869. Side note: this book is thousands of pages long and it was said that Ranggawarsita wrote three pages of it per day for thirty years. A reference to the eruption appears in the early part of his history called "The Book of Ancient Kings" and reads as follows:
The whole world was greatly shaken, and violent thundering, accompanied by heavy rain and storms took place, but not only did not this heavy rain extinguish the eruption of the fire of the mountain Kapi, but augmented the fire; the noise was fearful, at last the mountain Kapi with a tremendous roar burst into pieces and sank into the deepest of the earth. The water of the sea rose and inundated the land, the country to the east of the mountain Batuwara, to the mountain Raja Basa, was inundated by the sea; the inhabitants of the northern part of the Sunda country to the mountain Raja Basa, were drowned and swept away with all their property.
A second edition of Book of Kings was published in 1885 and provides a much more detailed account of the eruption, as well as including the year of the event this time, which you can see in the following short excerpt:
In the year Shaka* 338 (AD 416) a thundering noise was heard from the mountain Batuwara, which was answered by a similar noise coming from the mountain Kapi, lying westward of the modern Bantam. A great glaring fire which reached the sky came out of the last-named mountain. The whole world was greatly shaken and violent thundering accompanied by heavy rains and storms took place.
It is unknown to which mountain "Kapi" is referring, since that name is no longer used, but due to certain geographical clues in the text, it is thought that "Kapi" is actually Krakatoa.
It is believed that Ranggawarsita likely referenced primary source material in the writing of his book, but there is a question as to which sources he used, since we know very little about his bibliography. However, it can be surmised that he most likely referenced ancient Javanese manuscripts that had been written on palm leaves, and of which the Kraton library in Solo (in Java) possessed many. Ten thousand of these palm leaf texts, written in a variety of manuscript styles, survive today. Though relatively few of them actually relate to the ancient history of Java.
Ranggawarsita's book also mentions a man named Jayabaya, the monarch who supposedly oversaw the documenting of the accounts of this volcanic eruption. According to this story, Jayabaya was visited by a Hindu god named Naraddha, who informed him of this eruption and encouraged him to make a record of it. Naraddha told Jayabaya that this event took place in the 338th year of the Shaka Calendar (AD 416). Jayabaya was a real Javanese king in the 12th century. So, was this myth built around a real event?
Beyond the aforementioned sources, there is no further evidence that this eruption actually happened.
Did he get the date wrong?
There is both ice core and tree ring evidence for a massive eruption having occurred in either Java or Sumatra around AD 535. Possibly an eruption of Krakatoa? Going back to the Book of Kings, Ranggawarsita included entries relating to a large portion of the days covered by the book. However, there are notably far fewer entries for the eighteen years following the eruption of AD 535, suggesting that something happened that was a big enough deal to disrupt the palm leaf writings of the scribes for nearly two decades.
It's also important to note that the years following AD 416 hint at no such disruption in the writing of the palm leaf histories.
Conclusion
Were these two supposed early eruptions of Krakatoa actually just one eruption?
*The Shaka Calendar was the Hindu dating system used exclusively on these islands and which began in the year AD 78.
Sources:
www.history.com/topics/natural-disasters-and-environment/krakatoa
www.britannica.com/place/Krakatoa
www.volcanodiscovery.com/krakatau.html
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Volcanic_winter_of_536
Krakatoa: The Day the World Exploded: August 27, 1883 by Simon Winchester