A Geographical Reconstruction of Northeastern Central Java and the Location of Medang

Of the Indonesian kingdoms which flourished before the coming of Islam (say before 1500 A.D.) only the last, Madjapahit, has left the remains of its capital city. No traces are left of the chief cities of the earlier kingdoms; Singhasari and Kadiri still preserve their names in the present towns of Singosari and Kediri, but there is no certainty that the latter were founded on the ruins of their capitals. Several inscriptions give the names of capital cities, but the epigraphic material fails to provide a clue as to their location. Toponymic surmises have been made, sometimes quite satisfactorily; but they have also yielded two or more possible locations and so have complicated matters further. This is precisely the problem with Medang, since its name is preserved in several places in both southern and northern Central Java.