HERALD van der Linde has just published the book, "Majapahit" (Intrigue, Betrayal and War in Indonesia's Greatest Empire), under the imprint of Monsoon Books in London. All of us who went to grade school in the 1970s have a cursory knowledge of the Majapahit and Sri Vijayan empires — two empires that allegedly ruled our part of the world known as the Malay archipelago, parts of which were also known to constitute Nusantara.
Nusantara can be translated as the Island Realm. It was supposed to cover Madura Sumatra, Bali, Kalimantan and other islands of the Indonesian archipelago. It existed under King Kertanagara in the 13th century and is also found in the chronicle "Nagarakertagama" (or Nagarakretagama) written in the old Javanese kawi language by the Buddhist monk and court poet Prapanca in the 14th century.
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