Early history

The area near modern Bogor, in the river valleys of Cisadane and Ciliwung, has hosted settlements as early as the 5th century CE. The Ciaruteun area near the confluence of the Cianten and Ciaruteun rivers with Cisadane, around 19 kilometres to the northwest of Bogor, is an important ancient settlement. Within this area at least three stone inscriptions were discovered, one of them is the Ciaruteun inscription, linked to the illustrious king Purnawarman of Tarumanagara.^[2]: 16

Pakuan Pajajaran is believed to have been established by King Tarusbawa in 669 CE. The Sanghyang Tapak inscription (Jayabupati or Cicatih inscription) dated from 952 saka (1030 CE), was discovered on the Cicatih River bank in Cibadak, Sukabumi, South of Bogor. The inscription mentioned about king of Sunda Maharaja Sri Jayabupati Jayamanahen Wisnumurti who established a sacred forest in Cibadak. This suggested that the area in and around modern Bogor had been settled and hosted a royal court of Sunda. In this city, King Susuktunggal (1382–1482) established a palace called "Sri Bimapunta Narayana Madura Suradipati" circa the early 14th century.

Reign of Sri Baduga Maharaja

By the late 15th century, King Sri Baduga Maharaja (reigned 1482 to 1521) — popularly known in Sundanese oral tradition as King Siliwangi, became the monarch of the unified kingdom of Sunda and Galuh. He transferred the capital city from Kawali in Galuh to Pakuan Pajajaran. One of the Sundanese Pantun legends tells vividly about a beautiful royal procession for Queen Ambetkasih and her courtiers moving to the new capital of Pakuan Pajajaran, where her husband awaits.

The Batutulis inscriptions mentions that the King had embarked on several public projects which erected a wall and digging a defensive moat around his capital in Pakuan, built Gugunungan religious sacred mounds, built Balay or pavilions, and also created the Samida forest as a conservation forest. He also built a dam and created a lake called Sanghyang Talaga Rena Mahawijaya. The lake probably functioned as a hydraulic project for rice agricultural purposes, and also a recreational lake to beautify his capital city.

The tradition as mentioned in Carita Parahyangan hailed that King Sri Baduga ruled justly from his Kadatwan (palace) called Sri Bima Punta Narayana Madura Suradipati at Pakuan Pajajaran, and his reign is celebrated as the golden age for Sundanese people.^[3]: 393

The Bujangga Manik manuscript, composed circa the early 16th century, describes the travelogue of Prince Jaya Pakuan, also known as Bujangga Manik, a Sundanese Hindu hermit, who was also a prince at the court of Pakuan Pajajaran. He travelled extensively across Java and Bali. The Pakuan Pajajaran city was his home, where his mother resides. He describes his journey; from Kalapa Bujangga Manik comes first to the place of customs (Pabeyaan) and then proceeds to the royal court of Pakuan, in the present-day town of Bogor (Noorduyn 1982:419). He enters through the direction of the Pakancilan River (145), goes to the beautifully adorned pavilion, and seats himself there. Here the prince is called tohaan or "lord". He finds his mother engaged in weaving (160–164). She is surprised and excited to see her son back home. She immediately leaves her work, and enters the house, passing through several layers of curtains, and ascends to her bedroom. The mother prepares the usual welcome for her son, which consists of a tray of all the ingredients for preparing betel quids, combs her hair, makes herself up, and puts on expensive clothes. She then descends from her bedroom, leaves the house, seats herself under the palanquin, and welcomes her son.

The manuscript also describes the courting customs of ancient Sundanese society, where it was acceptable for a woman to court a man she desired. Bujangga Manik found himself being courted by Lady Ajung Larang, a princess living across the Pakancilan River within the city wall, that being enamoured him. The Lady sent her servant Jompong Larang to the Bujangga Manik's house bringing expensive gifts, and explained her intention to Manik's mother.

Bujangga Manik also describes the Great Mountain (Bukit Ageung, still known as the Gunung gede) which he calls "the highest point (hulu wano) of the realm of Pakuan" (59–64). During his travel, Bujangga Manik took a ride on a Malay Malaccan merchant ship. This suggests that the events in Bujangga Manik took place circa 1500, before the Portuguese conquest of Malacca in 1511.

The reign of Sri Baduga Maharaja also marked the earliest contact with Europeans. By 1511, the Portuguese had conquered Malacca and established the earliest European colony in Southeast Asia. According to Suma Oriental, written in 1512–1515, Tomé Pires, a Portuguese explorer reported about the Great city of Daio or Dayo, which corresponds to the Sundanese term Dayeuh (capital city).

Tomé Pires described that the city of Pakuan Pajajaran was beautiful, filled with houses made of wood with thatched roofs made of palm leaves. The residence of Sunda King is large and well-kept, a well-built wooden structure with hundreds of wooden columns, adorned with beautiful timberwork and wood carvings.

Destruction

In the 1550s, Sultan Hasanuddin of Banten decided to launch the final blow to what remained of the kingdom of Sunda. He sent his son, Prince Maulana Yusuf to lead the attack on Dayeuh Pakuan. After losing its most important port Sunda Kelapa, the Sunda kingdom, already deprived of its trading revenues, was of symbolic importance only. However, the fortified city walls and moats of Pakuan Pajajaran remained a formidable defense for the weakened Hindu kingdom. King Nilakendra (reign 1551 to 1567), also known as Tohaan di Majaya, most of the time could not stay in the Dayeuh because of ongoing battles with Banten.

During the reign of Raja Mulya (reign 1567 to 1579), also known as Prabu Surya Kencana, the kingdom declined essentially, particularly after 1576. In Carita Parahyangan, he is known as Nusiya Mulya. Probably due to Banten's siege of Dayeuh Pakuan, he moved his court further westward to Pulasari, in today's Pandeglang Regency, in Kaduhejo, Menes Subdistrict, on the slope of Mount Pulasari. The location of Pulasari despite inland, was curiously much closer to the Banten capital.

In 1579, the gates of Pakuan Pajajaran were finally breached, due to the betrayal of an official guard. Thus the city was razed and destroyed by the Sultanate of Banten. The sacred stone called watu gigilang that was serving as the sovereign's throne of the Sunda kingdom was taken away from Pakuan and put at the street intersection in the royal square of Banten, thus marking the end of the Sundanese dynasty. Henceforth, this stone was to serve as the Banten sovereign's throne.

The kingdom put up little resistance and henceforth Banten ruled over the entire territory of the former kingdom of Sunda, which corresponds to most of the current province of West Java.

Rediscovery

By the 17th century, the city of Pakuan Pajajaran had been reclaimed by tropical rainforest and infested by tigers. The first Dutch expedition into inland West Java was led in 1687 by Pieter Scipio van Oostende. He led his team to explore deep south from Batavia into the remnant of Pakuan and ended in Wijnkoopsbaai (present-day Palabuhanratu).^[6][7] One of the members of his expedition team was mauled by a tiger in the area two days earlier. Scipio learned from Lieutenant Tanuwijaya's men from Sumedang that the ruins were the remnants of the Pakuan or Pajajaran kingdom. On 23 December 1687, Governor-General Joanes Camphuijs wrote a report to his superior in Amsterdam. The report reads: dat hetseve paleijs en specialijck de verheven zilplaets van den javaense Coning Padzia Dziarum nu nog geduizig door een groot getal tijgers bewaakt en bewaart wort which translates to "that the hilted palace and the special exalted silver tablets of the Javanese King of Pajajaran, guarded by a large number of tigers."^[8] The report on the tiger sightings also comes from the residents of Kedung Halang and Parung Angsana who accompanied Scipio on this expedition. Perhaps this was the source of the popular belief that the Pajajaran king, nobles, and guards were transformed into mythical tigers.^[8]

Three years later, Captain Adolf Winkler was ordered to lead an expedition to map the location of the former Pakuan Pajajaran capital. On Thursday, 25 June 1690, Winkler and his entourage arrived at the site of the former palace. He found what he reported as "een accrate steen vloering off weg" (a very neat floor or stone paved road). The road leads to the old paseban (pavilion) and there he sees a row of seven banyan trees. The Parung Angsana residents who accompanied Winkler explained that what they saw was the remnant of King Siliwangi's palace.^[8]

It seems by the late 17th century, or approximately 130 years after its fall, the city of Dayeuh Pakuan Pajajaran was depopulated and abandoned, thus subsequently reclaimed by rainforest and infested by tigers. By this time, no tangible structures of the former Pajajar palace or any habitation area remain. Most probably, the ancient capital was originally made from organic, wooden, and thatched materials, which would be completely decayed and destroyed just for a few generations due to torrential tropical rains and termite infestation. The tangible remains were the former stone floor and stone-paved road, as well as several banyan trees in the regular distance, that seem most likely to have been planted by humans rather than by natural seeding. The Batutulis inscription is one of the few in situ inscriptions, still left intact in the location, which is still revered by locals as a site for pilgrimage of spiritual purpose.^[9]