Page:History of the Indian Archipelago Vol 2.djvu/345

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ANCIENT HISTORY OF JAVA. 301 tion is determined by the foundations of a palace still distinctly to be traced. With respect to the era of the foundation of Fctjqjaran, I can discover no date to which I can refer with confidence. The pretended annals of the Javanese differ from each other on the subject, as widely as two hundred years. The probability is, that it flourished during the end of the thirteenth, and beginning of the fourteenth centuries of the Christian era. The origin of the last and best known of the Hindu states of Java, Mojopakit, * remains as un- determined as that' of Pqjqjaran, In the chrono- logies of the Javanese writers, there is here, too, an irreconcilable discrepancy of from 80 to 143 years. All accounts agree that Mojopahit was destroyed in the year of Salivana 1400, or 1478 of Christ, and, from presumptive evidence it is inferred that it may have been founded about a century and a half before. The dynasty of princes which reigned at Mojopahit, appears to have ex- tended its authority over the finest provinces of the island, and to have spread the name and arms of the Javanese nation beyond the precincts of their own country, for it was during this period of

  • The word means, " The place of the bitter Mojo tree,"

Places are very frequently named by the Indian islanders after trees or plants, as Pasuruhan, the place of the betel •vine ; and Pajarakan, the place of the PaUna Christi. The bitter Mojo is an imaginary fruit.