ofthe SAME TREE

zone where traders from the highlands and lowlands met. In 1275 the “Pamalayu”
expedition embarked from Tuban in east Java to Sumatra for reasons
that are still in dispute among scholars. But the true purpose of the expedition
was probably to extend Java’s dominance over the Sumatran polity. This was
clearly the intention of Kertanagara, ruler of Singosari in east Java, when he
sent a group of images with an inscription dated 1286 to Dharmasraya. While
the ostensible purpose of the inscription was to commemorate the arrival and
establishment of statues of the Tantric bodhisattva Amoghapasa with his thirteen
followers, 9 the accompanying religious figures would have represented
Kertanagara’s spiritual pretensions over Malayu. It was a message that would
not have been lost among the local inhabitants accustomed to such permanent
reminders of the ruler’s sacred powers in the form of inscriptions and
statuary scattered through the landscape.
Sometime in the 1340s Adityawarman, raised in Majapahit in east Java
of mixed Javanese and Sumatran parentage, was sent to govern Dharmasraya,
presumably because of his links to Malayu and because of the economic
importance of this gold-bearing region. 10 Wolters suggests that Adityawarman
was the same person as the Malayu ruler of Jambi known as Maharaja Prabhu,
and he reaffirms an earlier view that there were two parts of Malayu. He
believes that Maharaja Prabhu moved inland to become the ruler of Malayu
in the Minangkabau highlands, while coastal Malayu came to be associated
with Palembang. 11 When the Amoghapasa statue was sent by Kertanagara,
the reigning monarch in Malayu was Tribhuwanaraja Mauliwarmadewa. He
was succeeded by Akarendrawarman, who was ruling in 1316, and then by
Adityawarman in 1346 or 1347. Adityawarman also held the title of Maulimaniwarmadewa,
which indicates close links to Tribhuwanaraja. De Casparis
makes an interesting observation that the Kubur (or Kubu) Raja inscription
lists Adityawarman as the son of Adwayawarmadewa, but the succession
was not from father to son. In keeping with Minangkabau matrilineal laws
of succession, Adityawarman’s predecessor may have been his mamak, or his
mother’s brother. 12 Majapahit held Adityawarman in great regard, confirming
him on his throne and bestowing upon him a title reserved only for the most
esteemed rulers. 13
The first evidence of a new Malayu center in the Minangkabau highlands
is an inscription dated 1347 placed on the back of the Amoghapasa statue,
originally sent by Kertanagara to Dharmasraya in 1286. 14 The image was
taken to Malayupura by Adityawarman, who bore a title that Krom believes
is an attempt at a synthesis of the royal titles traditionally employed in Sriwijaya
Malayu. The inscription referred to Adityawarman as maharajadiraja,
“the great king of kings,” an epithet not of a vassal but of an independent
lord. It further describes him as a reincarnation of Amoghapasa, endowed
84 Chapter 3