The term first appears in medieval Javanese literature, notably the 14th century Javanese Majapahit court chronicle, and the Pararaton, which documents the history of the kings of Singhasari and Majapahit in eastern Java.

The latter records the Palapa (“spices, fruit”) Oath made to the queen by Gajah Mada, the powerful military leader and prime minister of the Javanese Majapahit empire, where he swore not to have any food containing spices – interpreted as not partaking of any earthly pleasures – until he had conquered all of Nusantara for Majapahit.

Derived from the Old Javanese nūsa, “island”, and antara “outer”, nusantara means outer or other islands. By Majapahit’s concept of the state, this encompassed the area outside the Javanese cultural sphere of influence, which was still obliged to pay fealty to Majapahit.

Post-Majapahit, the term subsequently disappeared from writings, until it was revived in the early 20th century by Indonesian nationalist leaders to contest and replace the colonial imaginary of the Dutch East Indies.

As a vernacular term, Nusantara gained support during the anticolonial struggle. (Indonesia was not the country’s official name until the time of independence, in 1945. Originating in the Ancient Greek indos for “Indus, India”, and nēsos “island”, Indu-nesia had been proposed by English ethnologist G.W. Earl in 1850.)

In the 1990s, the term was also adopted for Nusantara youth culture, as well as Islam Nusantara, introduced and promoted as an alternative to global Islam, and viewed as a more moderate form of Islam, compatible with Indonesian cultural values.

For many, Nusantara still represents a unified geopolitical region of indigenous communities of Southeast Asia, conveying profound common historical, cultural and sentimental values of the archipelago.