Javanese Court Society and Politics in the Late Eighteenth Century: The Record of a Lady Soldier Part II: Political Developments: The Courts and the Company, 1784-1791

The diary provides an extensive record of the political developments which took place in Surakarta over these years. Its information is not, however, presented as a continuous narrative, and the author never supplies a resume of previous events; nor does she set her narrative within a framework of political theory. It therefore often appears cryptic to an outsider, and more so on those occasions where it is clear that the diarist herself was not party to the political strategies of all those involved in the developments unfolding as she wrote. Even Mangkunδgara himself, with whom the diarist was closest, may at times have had reason to be less than frank and open with her about his intentions. Nevertheless, the general trend of developments in the different relationships involved could not be kept secret, and angry interviews and hurried nocturnal consultations did not escape the notice of the court abdi (retainers). It is clear too that MangkunSgara liked to maintain the morale of his followers by keeping them informed of any political gain he felt he had made, or any stand he took for what he believed was right. Because of the sometimes artless, sometimes summary, style of the diarist, and the sparseness of her interpretative comment, the present writer has found it essential to use the letters of V .O.C. officials, reporting on the political developments they saw, to fill in the lacunae and elucidate the way in which a linked series of events unfolded in Surakarta over this period: on their own, the entries of the diary often appear as a series of not obviously connected stills, like the changing pictures of a bioscope. The material of the diary has not been amalgamated with that from the V.O.C. archives, however: the testimony of the diarist is presented in italics followed by the data from V . O . C . archives and the present writer s comments and explanations. By this separation, it is hoped that the reader may be able to form some idea of the perceptions of the two sides of a particular political and cultural encounter, and to see where they diverge and where they coincide. It should be noted that only entries dealing with political events of major importance have been included, and that many others, noting less important "political" events, have