This suspicion was because although Airlangga was the eldest son of Mahendradatta, curiously he was not chosen as the crown prince of Bali, his younger brother Marakata and later Anak Wungçu rose to the Balinese throne instead.

Mahendradatta was known to be promoting the cult of Durga in Bali, and curiously later associated with the Balinese legend of the evil witch Rangda, which translates to "widow".

The Calcutta Stone inscription (dated from 1041 CE), describes a terrible calamity that befell the East Javanese kingdom of Ishana dynasty in the early years of the 11th century.

[5] According to tradition the calamity, dubbed as Pralaya (destruction) of Mataram, took place during Airlangga's wedding ceremony in Dharmawangsa palace.

With Srivijaya's assistance, Wurawari managed to sack and burn Watugaluh Palace during Mataram's most unexpected time; the Airlangga's royal wedding.

Airlangga, accompanied by his guard Narottama, escaped westward into the jungle and retreated as a hermit in Vanagiri (today Wonogiri, Central Java).

In 1019, after several years in self-imposed exile in a Mount Vanagiri hermitage, Airlangga rallied support from officials and regents that are loyal to the former Ishana dynasty and began to unite the areas that had formerly been ruled by the Mataram kingdom, which had disintegrated after Dharmawangsa's death.

The king seems to be sympathetic to the poor fate of the Srivijayan princess, having lost her family and her kingdom, and probably genuinely fell in love and devoted to her, thus promoting her as prameswari (the queen consort).

The decline of Srivijaya due to the Chola invasion gave Airlangga opportunity to consolidate his kingdom without foreign interference.

The tale of Airlangga's life was illustrated in the Belahan Temple on the flanks of Mount Penanggungan, where he was portrayed in stone as Vishnu on Garuda.

He embarked on a grand irrigation project by constructing the Wringin Sapta dam (located in today's Jombang Regency).

By building a dam on the Brantas River, he provided irrigation to surrounding paddy fields and maintained a hydraulic system in the area.

His heiress, the crown princess Sangramawijaya, decided to become a Bhikkuni Buddhist hermit rather than succeed Airlangga as queen regnant.

The story of a crown princess who renounced the throne to become a hermit is linked with the popular legend of Dewi Kilisuci who resides in the Selomangleng Cave beneath Mount Klothok, 5 kilometers to the west of the city of Kediri.