but the morphology clearly denotes plurality. Thus, the term pararaton can best be translated into English as The Monarchs or The Royals. Prelude Pararaton commences with a brief prelude telling how Ken Arok incarnated himself in which he became the king. He offered himself as a human sacrifice to Yamadipati, the Hindu God of Death, in order to save himself from death. As a reward, he was promised that upon his death he would return to Vishnu's heaven and be reborn as a superior king of Singhasari. The promise was fulfilled. Ken Arok was begotten by Brahma of a newly-wed peasant woman. On his birth, his mother laid him in a graveyard where his body, effulgent with light, attracted the attention of Ki Lembong, a passing thief. Ki Lembong adopted him, raised him and taught him all of his arts. Ken Arok indulged in gambling, plunder and rapine. In the manuscript, it is written as such that Ken Arok was saved many times by divine intervention. There is a scene in Mount Kryar Lejar wherein Gods descend in conference and Batara Guru declares Ken Arok his son. Ken Arok is also destined to bring stability and power to Java. The prelude of Pararaton is followed by the meeting of Ken Arok with Lohgawe, a Brahmin who came from India to make sure Batara Guru's instructions were fulfilled. It was Lohgawe who asked Ken Arok to meet Tunggul Ametung, ruler of Tumapel. Ken Arok then killed Tunggul Ametung to gain possession of Ametung's wife, Ken Dedes, and also the throne to Singashari. Analysis of the manuscript Some parts of Pararaton cannot be accounted as historical facts. Especially in the prelude, fact and fiction, fantasy and reality go together. Scholars such as C. C. Berg argued that texts such as these are entirely supernatural and ahistorical, and intended not to record the past, but instead determine future events. However, the majority of scholars accept some historicity in the Pararaton, noting numerous correspondences with other inscriptions and Chinese sources, and accept the manuscript's frame of reference within which a valid interpretation is conceivable. The manuscript was written under the Javanese kingship. For the Javanese people, it was the function of the ruler to link the present with the past and the future and to give human life its appropriate place in the cosmic order. The king, in the Javanese realm, is the sacral