[2]: 188  The Singasari dynasty had come to power in Java following the overthrow of the previous Kediri Kingdom by Ken Arok, the first Singhasari ruler in 1222.

Kublai Khan ordered that a strong punitive naval expedition be launched against the remote equatorial islands to punish Kertanagara in 1292.

With the bulk of the Javanese army in campaign overseas and Singasari's defense weakened, Jayakatwang seized his chance and launched a coup against Kertanagara.

[2]: 199 Among the few surviving relatives of Kertanagara was his son-in-law, Raden Wijaya, who fled to Madura Island, where he was sheltered by its regent, Arya Viraraja.

Wijaya then betrayed his Mongol allies,[2]: 200–201  who were exhausted after the war,[4] drove them from Java and established Majapahit as one of the greatest empires to arise from within the area covered by the modern territory of Indonesia.

It seems that Gajah Mada specifically held the late king Kertanagara in high esteem and pay special tribute even 58 years after his death, which led for historian to suggests a possible link between them.

The concept of Nusantara as a unified region was not invented by Gajah Mada in 1336, but was first coined by Kertanagara in Mula Malurung inscription dated 1255.

[9] Furthermore, in 1275, the term Cakravala Mandala Dvipantara was used by him to describe the aspiration of united Southeast Asian archipelago under Singhasari and marked the beginning of his efforts to achieve it.

Kertanagara envisioned the union of Southeast Asian maritime kingdoms and polities under Singhasari as a bulwark against the rise of the expansionist Mongol-led Yuan dynasty of China.