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A doctor stabbed the king's boil
A hated king
Jayanegara was disliked enough that the dynasty's chronicle nicknamed him weak villain. He survived attempts on his life and rebellions worse than his father's. He once considered marrying his own two sisters so that no rival could come from the royal line, dropped the idea when the court and their mother protested, and still forbade them to marry anyone, keeping them in the women's quarters for years.
The lancet
The chronicle gives the doctor a motive: his wife had spread word that the king treated her dishonorably. The king, confined to his chambers with a swelling, ordered the doctor, Tanka, to cut it with a sharp lancet. Two stabs failed to burst it because the king wore an amulet of protection around his neck. He took it off and laid it beside the bed, the next stab burst the boil, and Tanka kept stabbing until the king died.
Who ruled next
Gaja Mada, the head of the royal bodyguard, killed Tanka at once, so the doctor's side of the story was never told. Some historians wonder whether Gaja Mada and Gayatri, the founder's widow and a Buddhist nun, plotted the killing together and framed the doctor.
Neither could rule. Gaja Mada was a commoner, and Gayatri's vow as a nun barred her from earthly power. Her daughter Gitarja, freed from the palace after years of confinement, was crowned queen and took the name Tribhuwana, and Gaja Mada later became her prime minister.
Why did Majapahit struggle over who would rule?
Majapahit had no firm rule fixing which royal child inherited the throne, so each ruler faced rival claimants from inside his own family. Its founder, Raden Wijaya, had married several daughters of the last Singasari king, which gave his heirs competing branches of the family. Rebellions marked the reigns of both Wijaya and his son. A full civil war over the succession broke out in 1404, known as the Regreg war.
How did Tribhuwana's reign shape Majapahit?
Tribhuwana ruled from 1328 until 1350, and her reign is when the empire's expansion began. Under her, Gaja Mada rose from bodyguard commander to prime minister and led campaigns across the islands. Her son Hayam Wuruk took the throne in 1350. His reign, which lasted until 1389, is remembered as the empire's golden age.
How do we know about Majapahit's kings?
Most of what survives about the dynasty comes from the Pararaton, or Book of Kings, an Old Javanese chronicle. It mixes legend with dated events and was written well after the period it describes. The other major source is the Nagarakretagama, a court poem completed in 1365 under Hayam Wuruk. Chinese records and temple inscriptions fill in gaps that neither text covers.
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