Dewa Cawu

Who is Dewa Cawu?

Dewa Cawu was a prince on the Island of Bali, who possibly reigned as king for a short while in the 1650s. He belonged to a dynasty that claimed descent from the Hindu-Javanese Majapahit Empire, and kept its palace in Gelgel near Bali's south coast. According to Balinese historiography, written much later, he was one of the fourteen sons of the king Dalem Seganing, and born from a co-wife. He seems to have held a high position during the reign of his brother Dalem Di Made. Dutch sources from the 1630s mention a brother of the current ruler called 'T'jouw' or 'Tchau' who negotiated with the Dutch East Indies Company on the ruler's behalf. According to an annual entry in the Balinese text Pawawatekan the Gelgel kingdom fell apart in 1651, at the same time as Dewa Cawu was enthroned as king. The outbreak of internal fighting on Bali in 1651 is likewise mentioned in Dutch sources. Dewa Cawu is not mentioned as ruler in his own right in later Balinese historiography. Also, his time as ruler or pretender-ruler was apparently short and hampered by the ongoing internal warfare.