Warring Societies of Pre-colonial Southeast AsiaHowever, Sumbawa was not politically strong and had the most tenuous
relations with its new overlord, the VOC.^48
Under these circumstances, a wave of Balinese incursions in Lombok
commenced in 1676, apparently leading to the steady presence of Karan-
gasem settlements in the western parts of the fertile central corridor of the
island. There exists a plethora of later Balinese and Sasak texts that seek a
rationale for the Balinese success. Karangasem superiority is here seen as
supernaturally fated – hardly surprising considering local perceptions of
the past. At the same time the stories emphasize how inner dissent in the
Selaparang Kingdom causes one faction to invite the Balinese. Although
the Sasak elite belonged to a localized brand of Islam, they had no qualms
of contacting a foreign Hindu raja to further their ends. VOC sources
indicate that Karangasem invaded East Lombok in 1692. Selaparang was
subjugated and assistance from Sumbawa was beaten back. The period
up to about 1748 saw repeated Sasak uprisings and attempts by Sumbawa
and Makassarese adventurers to regain control over Lombok. Karan-
gasem, apparently allied with some of the Sasaks, defeated all of these
attempts. The ambitions of Karangasem did not stop there, for in the
1750s and 1760s a number of attempts were made on Sumbawa itself.^49
The Balinese wars of expansion in the east exhibit both similarities
and differences with those in the west. In both cases they occurred in
areas with Indianized (and partly Islamized) but weak polities, and were
underpinned by local infighting. Their success was ultimately contingent
on the weakening of larger powers in the neighbourhood, in both cases
kept in check by VOC politics. Balinese intervention in the west (as far
as known) commenced twelve years after the devastating Trunajaya
Rebellion in Mataram, while warfare in the east started seven years after
the defeat of Makassar in 1667–69. However, while the Balambangan
kingship was left intact, this was not the case in Lombok. Selaparang
disappeared after a rebellion in 1748, while a few minor princedoms
survived until the nineteenth century. Six Balinese kingdoms, headed by
branches of the Karangasem Dynasty (Singhasari, Mataram, Pagesangan-
Tanjung Karang, Pagutan, Kediri, Sengkongo), occupied fertile parts
of West Lombok. Pambencangah Dane Poleng, a family chronicle that
makes a relatively trustworthy impression, recounts in some detail how
- Hägerdal, Hindu Rulers, Muslim Subjects, 15–23, 51.
- Ibid., 43–45, 53–54, 63–64, 115–17, 155–56.