Dalem Di Made

Dalem Di Made was a king of Bali who may have reigned in the period 1623–1642. He belonged to a dynasty that claimed descent from the Majapahit Empire of Java, and kept residence in Gelgel, close to Bali's south coast.

Reign

Dalem Di Made was one of the fourteen sons of the ruler Dalem Seganing. After the death of the former, dated 1623 in one source, he succeeded to the throne of Gelgel. The main source for his reign, the Babad Dalem, is a work from the 18th century, and the account of his reign is not entirely coherent. The Babad Dalem praises the royal splendour of his court in glowing terms, and provides a wealth of details about the noblemen tied to his court.^[1] Another historical text, Babad Ratu Tabanan, provides details about a military expedition to Java in his reign. The Balinese army, led by the vassal lord Gusti Wayahan Pamedekan, was met by Sultan Agung of Mataram (r. 1613–1646) and was decisively defeated.^[2]

Loss of power

The last section of the Babad Dalem relates that the powers of the king eventually declined, and that various noblemen left Gelgel. The chief minister of the king, Anglurah Agung (d. 1686), usurped power, and the old ruler was forced to flee to the highland village Guliang in the modern Bangli regency, where he finally died. Loyal aristocrats were later on able to support his two sons and defeat Anglurah Agung. A new royal palace was built in Klungkung (Semarapura), four kilometers north of the old Gelgel residence. The eldest son of the deceased king, Dewa Agung Jambe I, was established as ruler, but unlike his predecessors he was unable to wield power over entire Bali. The island was in effect split up in nine autonomous kingdoms, a situation that would endure until the 19th century.^[3]

External accounts of reign

From non-Balinese sources it is known that the Gelgel kingdom still made claims over Blambangan in East Java, Lombok, and Sumbawa (including its eastern part, Bima), in the 1630s. The Dutch East Indies Company (Vereenigde Oost-Indische Compagnie or VOC) tried to gain Gelgel as a political ally against the Muslim Mataram kingdom in 1633, which failed. Later, Bali fought a series of wars on its own with Mataram over the possession of Blambangan, in 1635-1647. In the end, the Balinese influence over Blambangan prevailed. According to VOC sources, the death of a Gelgel ruler in 1651 led to internal conflicts on Bali. Later on, from 1665, the Dutch entertained contacts with a new lord of Gelgel, Anglurah Agung of the Balinese accounts. This Anglurah Agung is mentioned by both Balinese and Dutch texts as having been killed in battle in 1686. The actual date of death of Dalem Di Made is in doubt. A number of Balinese sources give the date 1642. It has also been suggested that he was the ruler who died in 1651, or that his reign ended as late as c. 1665.^[4] He is the first Gelgel ruler who is mentioned by name in a Dutch source, since the Balinese prince Raja Sangsit, who settled in Batavia in 1687, claimed to be his nephew.^[5]

See also

• History of Bali
• List of monarchs of Bali
• Gelgel, Indonesia

References

1. I Wayan Warna et al. (tr.) Babad Dalem; Teks dan Terjemahan. Dinas Pendidikan dan Kebudayaan Daerah Tingkat I Bali 1986, pp. 94–5.
2. A.A. Gde Darta et al. (tr.), Babad Arya Tabanan dan Ratu Tabanan. Denpasar: Upada Sastra 1996, pp. 100-1.
3. A. Vickers, Bali, A Paradise Created. Singapore: Periplus 1989, p. 56–8.
4. H. Creese, 'Balinese Babad as Historical Sources; A Reinterpretation of the Fall of Gelgel', Bijdragen tot de Taal-, Land- en Volkenkunde 147 1991.
5. H. Hägerdal, 'Bali in the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries; Suggestions for a Chronology of the Gelgel Period', Bijdragen tot de Taal-, Land- en Volkenkunde 151 1995, p. 118.

Further reading

• C.C. Berg, De middeljavaansche historische traditië. Santpoort: Mees.