Untung Surapati

Untung Surapati, born Surawiraaji at Gelgel, Bali, about 1660, was a warfighter in the East Indies who led several rebellions against the Dutch East India Company (VOC); some of his exploits are written in the Babad Tanah Jawi.¹ Bought in the Bali market by a VOC captain, he lived as a slave in Batavia, was sold on until the edeleer Moor bought him and nicknamed him "Untung" (lucky) because his fortune improved after the purchase.¹²

Surapati began a relationship with Moor's daughter Suzanne and had a son, Robert, and was imprisoned for it; in prison — the English article alone records this — Wirayuda and Kiai Ebun Jaladirya taught him Islam and formulated a plan against the Dutch with him, and in 1678 he fled to the mountains south of Batavia and became a brigand.¹ The name "Surapati" came to him at Cirebon, where he was accused of undermining the sultan in a conflict with Raden Surapati, proved his innocence, and received the condemned man's name from the sultan.¹³

Surapati joined Captain Ruijs on 5 May 1683 as lieutenant of the Balinese and fought in the Banten war, but after Vaandrig Kuffeler threatened to return him and his followers to slavery and slapped him, he attacked Kuffeler's camp in January 1684 and his group was declared an enemy of the VOC.¹ Moving east, he was received at Kartasura by Amangkurat II as bodyguard and protégé; when Captain François Tack came in 1686 to arrest him, Surapati's men killed Tack and 74 other soldiers.¹³

Surapati carved out a stronghold at Pasuruan in East Java, ruling as Tumenggung Wiranegara (the fifth Adipati of Pasuruan, by the Babad tradition), defeated an army Amangkurat II sent in 1690, and by 1699 held much of East Java including Madiun.¹³ After Amangkurat II's death in 1703, his successor Amangkurat III, contested by Pakubuwono I, fled to join Surapati; Surapati was killed in 1706 in an attack by the joint forces of Pakubuwono, the Madurese and the VOC — the English and Arabic articles give 5 December 1706, the Indonesian article 17 October 1706 at the Bangil fort, adding that he ordered his death concealed and that his grave was later exhumed and his remains burned in 1707.¹³² The Suharto regime conferred on him the title National Hero of Indonesia in 1975.¹