Page:Scidmore--Java the garden of the east.djvu/291

Rh long afternoon, with great complacency—a feat that nothing could induce us to repeat, however.

It is all historic and sacred soil in the region around Djokja, and we returned with the greater interest for our real visit to the city, where one touches the age of fable in even the geographic names of the place and its environs, since the modern Dutch rendering of Djokjakarta, and the older Yugya-Karta of Sir Stamford Raffles, are only variants of the native Ayogya-Karta, the Ayudya mentioned in the Javanese Parvas, or Ramayan, as the capital established by Rama. The exploits of Na-yud-ya, the earliest ruler of Djokja, are described in the same sacred Parvas, and this was the center of the early Hindu empire, whose princes were great builders and for ten centuries were busy erecting temples, palaces, and towers in the region around this their city of Mataram.

Na-yud-ya's descendants resisted the Arab invaders to the last, and the Hindu princes of Middle Java retained their independence long after Islam's susunhan had declared himself supreme over the eastern empire of Majapahit and the western empire of Pajajaran. These Hindu or native princes, as they were considered, resisted susunhan and Dutch alike, and the Java war of the last century against the two usurpers was a long and bitter struggle, lasting from 1745 to 1758. The susunhan's brother, the second prince, who had joined the native or Hindu princes, was won back to