The “Suryengalagan affair” of 1883 and its successors: Born leaders in changed times

Abstract

[...]from among her blood and affinal relatives at court, of whom the most senior were her elder brother Tumenggung Sumadiningrat,9 and her son's brother-in-law Tumenggung Gandakusuma, who was a son of the former Patih Danureja V and now held the high office of nayaka.10 It is clear from testimony given by several of those involved that the Ratu Kedaton had approached Sumadiningrat on about the 28th or 29th of March but had received no support from the Tumenggung, who strongly disapproved of any plan to defy the government.11 According to the Ratu Kedaton and Suryengalaga himself, an approach had also been made to Gandakusuma, but there is no mention of this in any of the other testimonies, and Gandakusuma subsequently played a prominent part in the pursuit of the band of conspirators.12 Other relatives, however, did agree to support Suryengalaga's cause: two of Sumadiningrat's own sons (thus the Ratu's nephews and Suryengalaga's maternal cousins) by name of Tarunaatmaja (also known as Bagong) and Suwindu; three of the Ratu's younger brothers (Raden Mas Banteng, Raden Mas Sudigbyo and Raden Mas Mukaram); and a total of 9 other relatives, most of them blood kin.13 The most obvious The "Suryengalagan Affair" of 1883 255 common denominator among these relatives is their youth: apart from three men in their 50s (one of whom was Suryengalaga's father-in-law), the average age of the remaining 11 was 27-8 years.14 Eleven men and one woman from the kraton not related to the Ratu or her son by blood or marriage were also involved, and these appear to have been ordinary court retainers and servants (panakawans, kebayans or messengers, and so on).15 Only one of them was a man with any claim to rank, a man bearing the (lower) aristocratic title of Raden, who was employed as a lurah lampu.16 Youth had also been a common bond among those who had joined the great rebellion of Dipanagara, one of whose principal commanders, Sentot, was only 19 years old when appointed. According to tradition it is descended from a younger brother of Ki Pandan Arang, later called Sunan Tembayat, whose grave, at TSmbayat in the hills east of Yogyakarta, is one of the most important places of pilgrimage (ziarah) in Java today.22 The Kajoran family settled at Kajoran, a little to the north-west of Tembayat,23 and became allied by marriage to the royal houses of Pajang and Mataram. According to van Baak, part of this district had been the appanage of a son of the first Sultan of Yogyakarta named Pangeran Wiradiningrat, and a descendant of his had become the first Regent of Remame when the former mancanagara region of Kedu was annexed by the British government in 1821.31 There seems, however, to have been no son of Hamengkubuwana I by this name; the person concerned was probably R. T. Jayaningrat, a scion of an old Mataram Bupati family who married a daughter of the sultan and lived on lands in Remame (Carey 1981:289). [...]stress is also laid on the close association between the ruler and the Dutch Government, and on the beneficial role of the latter in maintaining Yogyakarta's prosperity: the Government does not take but rains down wealth; compensation is provided for those who suffer losses; education is provided for children (almost all of whom can be seen carrying pens); the ignorant are instructed; literature and other forms of cultivation flourish (LOr 6756:21 and40). [...]the author provides legitimation for the ruling order in terms of three systems: traditional Javanese ideas of a good ruler and blooming kingdom; the mutual support between the ruler and the Islamic establishment; and the firm alliance between the ruler and the colonial government.