"This inversion of roles between men and women in Javanese court circles is mirrored in the 'Babad Bedhah ing Ngayogyakarta' (Chronicle of the fall of Yogyakarta), an account of events in Yogyakarta during the British occupation of Java (1811-1816). Thus the principal wife of Sultan Hamengkubuwana Ill (reigned 1812-1814), Ratu Kencana, is referred to repeatedly as having behaved 'like a man', indeed in a more manly fashion than the Javanese males themselves. At the time of the British assault on the Yogya kraton, she is described as having been one of the very few to stick by her husband (then Yogyakarta Crown Prince) despite a flesh wound in the foot due to Sepoy sniper fire. Later, after the third Sultan's untimely death in November 1814, she is mentioned as having manfully tried to control her grief and as having taken the necessary action to ensure the security of the inner kraton.
Another example of such a Srikandhi figure in the 'Babad Bedhah' is Radèn Ayu Yudakusuma, a daughter of the first Sultan (reigned 1746- 1792), who was married to the sickly Yogya Bupati of Grobogan-Wirasari. In July 1812, at the time of the British annexation of the outlying territories of the Sultanate, she is said to have refused to depart from her kabupaten without express instructions from the third Sultan and resolutely stood her ground against the British officer dispatched by Raffles to take over the administration of the province. After the arrival of a royal messenger from Yogyakarta confirming the annexation, she reluctantly agreed to depart, but had to take charge of all the removal arrangements for her household because of the indisposition of her husband. This she was able to do with great resourcefulness, because, in the words of the 'Babad Bedhah's' author, she was a lady of 'shrewd intelligence, outstanding ability and manly ingenuity'.
These qualities were subsequently much in evidence during the Java War when she masterminded the massacre of the Chinese community at Ngawi on 17 September 1825 and became one of Dipanagara's most feared cavalry commanders. At the time of her eventual surrender to the Dutch in October 1828, it was noticed that, like many of Dipanagara's male commanders, she had shaved off her hair as a sign of her dedication to the 'Holy War' against the Dutch and the 'apostate' Javanese.
An even better known example of such a well-born lady who played an active military role against the Dutch during these years was Radèn Ayu Sérang (ca 1766-1855). A scion of the prestigious Sunan Kalijaga wali (apostle of Islam) family and an ex-official of the Yogyakarta court, she is mentioned in the Dutch sources as having led a cavalry squadron in the Serang-Demak area in the first months of the war. Her fame as a lady of unusual spiritual power (kasektim) acquired through meditation in isolated caves on the south coast, enabled her to continue to exercise an influence over the populations of her home region of Serang-Demak long after formal hostilities had finished in March 1830.
