Mataram Sultanate

The Sultanate of Mataram /məˈtɑːrəm/ was the last major independent Javanese kingdom on Java before the island was colonised by the Dutch. It was the dominant political force radiating from the interior Central Java from the late 16th century until the beginning of the 18th century.

Mataram reached its peak of power during the reign of Sultan Agung Hanyokrokusumo (r. 1613 - 1645), and began to decline after his death in 1645. By the mid-18th century, Mataram lost both power and territory to the Dutch East India Company (Dutch: Vereenigde Oost-Indische Compagnie; VOC). It had become a vassal state of the company by 1749.

Etymology

The name Mataram itself was never the official name of any polity, as Javanese often simply refer to their kingdom as Bhumi Jawa or Tanah Jawi (land of Java). Mataram refers to the historical areas of plains south of Mount Merapi around present-day Muntilan, Sleman, Yogyakarta, to Prambanan. More precisely, it refer to Kota Gede area, the capital of the Sultanate in the outskirt of southern Yogyakarta. There is a common practice in Java to refer their kingdom by the location of its capital, thus Mataram is their capital. Historically, there were two kingdoms that have existed in this region and both are called Mataram. The later kingdom however, is often called as Mataram Islam or "Mataram Sultanate" to distinguish it from the Hindu-Buddhist 9th-century Kingdom of Mataram.