I love the Pararaton. It's a disordered and chaotic text. It's often obscure and sometimes barely intelligible. Like in a kaleidoscope, every fragment gives us a new and different look at medieval Java. It's so much richer and more mysterious than its dreary title: "The Monarchs"

Many people are most familiar with the Ken Angrok part of the Pararaton. But to my mind, Angrok is a repulsive character and his story is one of the most boring parts of the text. He seizes power by theft, violence, and nasty politicking – who cares?

Far more interesting is the depiction of the remote ascetic communities called maṇḍala. In one of these, Angrok and his friend learn how to read and write, how to use the calendar, and how to compose chronograms. Though far from the court, these were learned and literate places

One is reminded of the 17th/18th century communities on the slopes of Merapi and Merbabu, source of some of the oldest surviving Javanese manuscripts. People there read voraciously, swapped manuscripts, were very aware of the world. A sophisticated culture outside the palaces

Another nice detail is about the performing arts. When Hayam Wuruk is introduced, a list of his titles are given, including some stage names he used as an actor. The Deśavarṇana (canto 91) confirms that the king performed in theatre, including in comedy (pabañolan)

The Pararaton says: "his stage name when performing tapuk [masked theatre?] was Ḍalang Tritaraju [Triple-Scales], when playing a woman he was Pagĕr Antimun [Fence-of-Cucumbers], when performing comedy he was Gagak Katawang [Crow-in-Flight]". Imagine watching the king's comedy!

There are clues about divorce customs among commoners. When a god impregnates Ken Ĕṇḍok, she can divorce her husband with her property returning to her and his property returning to him. Old Javanese law codes advised married couples to keep their finances separate at the start

Angrok as a child is tasked with caring for someone else's buffalo, which he loses because he's selfish and awful, and the owner demands 8000 cash from his poor parents. They tell Angrok: "if you stay with us, we'll go into debt bondage". A glimpse into tort law in medieval Java?

Some of the few natural events mentioned in the Pararaton are a series of eruptions of the 14th and 15th centuries. Curiously, these are named after particular weeks of the Javanese calendar: "the Watugunung eruption of 1481". As far as I know, few have investigated why this is

The text describes a series of athletic competitions between Raden Vijaya's entourage and the ministers of Jayakatwang: running races ("palayu") and duels with spears ("susudukan"). Similar maybe to the sports described in the Deśavarṇana (canto 87) at Bubat

The Deśavarṇana's list of sports is a bit obscure. There are various sorts of fighting: "prang taṇḍing" (duel in pairs?), "prang pupuh" (club fights?), "prĕp" (melée combat), "kañjar" (dagger fight?), tali-tali (some rope-based game?)

The Pararaton has some interesting terms for disease. Jayanagara is said to be "bubuhĕn" so he couldn't appear in public. Gajah Mada told Tañca to stab him with a needle ("taji"). People have interpreted "bubuhĕn" as "having a boil or cyst", but the word doesn't appear elsewhere

This is a pretext for assassination. But the fact that Jayanagara allows Tañca to stab him, and willingly sets aside his protective amulet ("kĕmitan") to allow the needle to penetrate his skin, suggests this is a consensual surgical procedure of some kind