ln 1389 the Majapahit king Hayam Wuruk is believed to have died. The Malays of Palem- bang, according to Prof. Wolters' conclusions, then perceived an opportunity which they tried to exploit, to free themselves of Javanese pretensions to overlordship and to re-establish an in dependent nagara (a Sanskrit-derived Malay word which Prof. Wolters did not use, but which is used here to refer to a Malay site where there resided a court with kedaulatan, sovereignty which formed the axis mundi for its allied population, without possessing any definable ter ritorial boundaries). This nagara was founded with ceremony, but news of it reached Javanese ears quickly, and they attacked. The Malay prince who had been the central figure in the new nagara's founding then fled from Palembang to Singapore