Kutai Martapura

The Martapura kings, known to historians as the dynasty of Kutai Martadipura, ruled the oldest Hindu kingdom attested in the Indonesian archipelago from Muara Kaman on the upper Mahakam river in eastern Borneo. Seven Sanskrit yupa, or sacrificial posts, preserve its early line: the founder Kudungga, his son Asvavarman, and his grandson Mulavarman, who around 400 styled himself lord of kings and recorded gifts of gold and thousands of cattle to brahmin priests.

After Mulavarman the sources fall silent for centuries. The inland kingdom was the older neighbour of Kutai Kartanegara, founded around 1300.

In 1635 Kartanegara attacked upriver and, after seven days of fighting, killed Maharaja Dermasatia and annexed Muara Kaman, merging the realms as Kutai Kartanegara ing Martapura.