The Struggle of RM Said to Defeat His Enemies to Build Mangkunegaran Dynasty

Before the dynasty of Mangkunegaran, the life of RM Said was full of misery. When he was 2 years old, his father was sent off to Srilanka by dutch while his mother, Raden Ajeng Wulan died when he was still young. Then, RM Said was raised by Raden Ayu Sumarno who was his grandmother. He lived outside the Keraton and he became stronger. In the book of “Sejarah dan Warisan Nilai-Nilai Perjuangan Raden Mas Said” said that RM Said loved spending his tim in the childhood with children or abdi dalem and kawulo alit.

He knew the reality of life for the society outside Keraton and also the life of Kawulo Alit. In his early struggle, RM Said was still teenager and he realized what happened to his father. It made him wanted to fight for justice against Dutch. Along with his friend Raden Mas Sutowijoyo and his uncle Wirodiwongso, he made an army. In 1742 together with Raden Mas Garendi or Sunan Kuning, RM Said tried attacking the Keraton Kartosuro. In this attack, the wall of fortress was fallen. RM Said and his army were helped by Chinese people.

Then, this war was known as Geger Pacinan. After the war, Paku Buwono II was forced to moved to Ponorogo and asked for help from Dutch in Batavia. The Dutch gave the help to Paku Buwono to take back the lead of Mataram in Kartosuro. The struggle of RM Said continued to other regions. When he arrived to Sukowati, Adipati Sujonopuro had the idea to make RM Said the King of Sukowati. As the leader, RM Said had more power to expand the strength of his army. It made VOC worried about what RM Said did.

VOC did everything to stop RM Said and one of them was by sending the representation to meet RM Said but he refused. His struggle was getting harder when he had to face the army of Paku Buwono III and Hamengku Buwono I along with the power VOC. However, he didn’t care about it and he kept fighting till the end. In the war against VOC in the southern Rembang at Sitakepyak forest, the RM Said’s army could defeat VOC. Though they were out of number, his army could kill more than 600 people from VOC.

Because of that, he was known as Pangeran Sambernyawa. Paku Buwono III appreciated RM Said for going back to Surakarta and he prepared the place for RM Said which was known as Puro Mangkunegaran. However, RM Said didn’t want that and he lived in the house of Tumenggun Mangkuyuda and it was known as Kampung Kauman Mangkunegaran. Then, he signed the agreement as the solution and it was known as Perjanjian Salatiga. This agreement brought dynasty of Mangkunegaran to alive and he could maintain and control his own land.