Greater Gowa’s heyday began in 1593 when Karaeng Matoaya (T7/TBB2), or Abdullah as he was later called, instigated the palace revolution which expelled Tunipasuluk. Because his father had been Gowa regent as well as king of Tallok (Figure 1), Abdullah had a direct claim both on Tallok and the regency. His fellow conspirators also joined the confederated power structure which blossomed particularly during the mid-seventeenth century reigns of Malikussaid and Hasanuddin (Reid 1987; Bulbeck 1992).

During the period, marriages involved a wide geographical range of lineage groups (Table 8), reflecting greater Gowa’s expanded sphere of political influence. Included are Gowa’s eastern Indonesian allies of Bima and Sumbawa, and Gowa’s Bugis allies on the east coast, Bulo-Bulo and Luwuk. The Gelarang now hardly figured at all.

Greater Gowa’s decentralized power structure is clearly reflected in the marriage patterns. The Gowa, Tallok and Lekokbodong nobilities now took a prominent part, while the frequency of daughter exchanges between the Gowa royalty and other lineage groups was reciprocal overall. Indeed the Tallok royalty provided rather than attracted wives; and by the end of the period the rulers of Gowa (Hasanuddin) and Tallok (Harrunarasyid) both had mothers whose common origin is revealed by their “Lokmok” title.

Sanrabone lost its independence during this period. Sanrabone had attracted wives during the reigns of Parallekkena (s5) and Campagana (s6), but then provided wives leading up to and during the period of chaotic succession in Sanrabone discussed above. This change is not apparent from the figures in Table 8 which are aggregated to reflect the political situation in greater Gowa rather than Sanrabone. Note that the Gowa prince who absorbed the Sanrabone throne, s10/G19 (later Sultan Abdul Jalil), was either the matrilateral grandson or matrilateral great grandson of a Sanrabone raja (depending on how we interpret Sanrabone’s mid-seventeenth century succession). He could claim the Sanrabone throne based on his descent from a woman either right within or one step removed from the royal Sanrabone core.