Rakai Pikatan was a king of the

Sanjaya dynasty The Sanjaya dynasty () was an ancient Javanese dynasty that ruled the Mataram kingdom in Java during the first millennium CE. The dynasty was an active promoter of Hinduism in ancient Java. Origin and formation According to the Canggal inscri ...

Mataram Kingdom The Mataram Kingdom (, jv, ꦩꦠꦫꦩ꧀, ) was a Javanese Hindu–Buddhist kingdom that flourished between the 8th and 11th centuries. It was based in Central Java, and later in East Java. Established by King Sanjaya, the kingdom was rul ...

in Central

Java Java (; id, Jawa, ; jv, ꦗꦮ; su, ) is one of the Greater Sunda Islands in Indonesia. It is bordered by the Indian Ocean to the south and the Java Sea to the north. With a population of 151.6 million people, Java is the world's mo ...

who built the

Prambanan Prambanan ( id, Candi Prambanan, jv, ꦫꦫꦗꦺꦴꦁꦒꦿꦁ, Rara Jonggrang) is a 9th-century Hindu temple compound in Special Region of Yogyakarta, Indonesia, dedicated to the Trimūrti, the expression of God as the Creator (Brahma), the P ...

temple, dedicated to

Shiva Shiva (; sa, शिव, lit=The Auspicious One, Śiva ), also known as Mahadeva (; ɐɦaːd̪eːʋɐ, or Hara, is one of the principal deities of Hinduism. He is the Supreme Being in Shaivism, one of the major traditions within Hind ...

, which was completed in 856 AD. Rakai Pikatan was also called Mpu Manuku. The monarch of the Mataram Kingdom before Rakai Pikatan was Samaratungga of the Shailendra Dynasty. He had one son,

Balaputra Balaputradewa was the maharaja of Srivijaya in the 9th century CE as well as the former head of the Sailendra dynasty. He was the youngest son of the preceding Sailendran maharaja, Samaratunga, through marriage with Dewi Tara who was in turn the ...

, and one daughter, Pramodhawardhani. Rakai Pikatan and the Sanjaya dynasty were Shivaite Hindus and is recorded in the Wantil Inscription as having married a daughter of another religion. This is most likely Pramodhawardhani, the Mahayana Buddhist daughter of Samaratungga. It's believed that Pikatan fought his brother in law Balaputra, forcing him to move to

Srivijaya Srivijaya ( id, Sriwijaya) was a Buddhist thalassocratic empire based on the island of Sumatra (in modern-day Indonesia), which influenced much of Southeast Asia. Srivijaya was an important centre for the expansion of Buddhism from the 7th t ...

in 856. Other interpretations based on the Kayumwungan inscription put Balaputra as Pramodhawardhani's uncle rather than her brother as inscriptions only list Pramodhawaradhani as a child of Samaratungga. Hence, Balaputra went to Srivijaya not because of force but because he had no claim as a brother of the monarch. According to the interpretation of Loro Jonggrang legend, Pramodhawardhani's likeness was the model for

Durga Durga ( sa, दुर्गा, ) is a major Hindu goddess, worshipped as a principal aspect of the mother goddess Mahadevi. She is associated with protection, strength, motherhood, destruction, and wars. Durga's legend centres around comb ...

's image in the

temple.

References

* Marwati Poesponegoro & Nugroho Notosusanto. 1990. ''Sejarah Nasional Indonesia Jilid II''. Jakarta: Balai Pustaka {{Indonesia-stub Indonesian monarchs Shailendra dynasty Central Java 9th-century Indonesian people