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ANGKOR TEMPLES
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| Kambuj was the ancient name of the country which comprised the whole of Cambodia and at different times, parts of Laos, Vietnam, Thailand and Myanmar of modern times. The Khmers of ancient Kambuj now live in Cambodia, also known as Kampuchea, which is the same word Kambuj but pronounced differently. In French, the name of the country is Cambodge, which is again derived from Kambuj. |
South East Asia |
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| The centre of the great Angkorean civilisation which flourished between the 9th and the 13th centuries was located in Siem Reap province in the north-west part of Cambodia. The word ‘Angkor’ is derived from the Sanskrit word ‘nagar’, usually meaning the capital town. Since the capital of the Khmer Empire was generally located in this region, the ‘nagar’ word was used for it. However, sometime later, the pronunciation of the word changed from ‘nagar’ to nokor and ‘Angkor’. Today, the word ‘Angkor’ represents the glorious Khmer civilisation that flourished in Kambuj between the 9th and the 13th centuries and also the whole site in Siem Reap Province where the main temples built by this civilisation are located. |
Cambodia - The Ancient
Kambuj |
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| The contact of Southeast Asia with India started somewhere in the pre-historic times when the sea trade relations between the two regions were established. Around the first century A.D. many parts of Southeast Asia had started undergoing a process whereby Indian culture was assimilated by the local people. This process of cultural assimilation and development continued for centuries and through peaceful cultural processes, the civilisation in this region continued to evolve further. |
Location of Angkor Temples |
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| The first Indianised state in the region accounted in the Chinese chronicles was known as Funan. Indian ideas were assimilated and absorbed by the people of Funan in the early centuries of the Christian Era. The Sanskrit language, script, traditions, customs, beliefs, religions, art, architecture, legal and administrative systems from India were adopted with suitable adaptations. In the early 7th century, the state of Funan was conquered by Kambuj known as Chenla in the Chinese chronicles. Rudravarman was the last known king of Funan. |
Ancient temple, Sambor Prei Kuk |
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| The inhabitants of Kambuj were from the ethnic Mon-Khmer group and were known as Khmers. Originally, Kambuj was a small vassal state of Funan and was situated in the north-east of Cambodia. The name of Kambuj meaning born of Kambu, according to the local traditions, was drawn from Kambu Svayambhuva. The Sanskrit inscription of King of Kambuj, Rajendravarman II, at Baksei Chamkrong temple near Phnom Bakheng in Siem Reap, in its verses, mentions Rishi Kambu Svayambhuva and Mera from whom the Khmers descended. It also mentions the Kaundinya Brahman who married Soma to establish the first Indianised state of Funan. |
Baksei Chamkrong temple |
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The inscription also mentions the names of Shrutavarman and his son Shreshthavarman, the two historical kings, from whom the subsequent kings of Kambuj traced their descent. Shreshthapur, the capital of the kingdom was in the neighbourhood of Wat Phu near Bassac in present day Laos. The dynasty of Shrutavarman was followed by Bhavavarman who flourished around the middle of the 6th century and founded a new capital at Bhavapur. The kings of this dynasty considerably expanded the kingdom of Kambuj and one of its renowned kings, Ishanvarman established his capital at Sambor Prei Kuk, one of the major sites of pre-Angkorean temples. Henceforth, Kambuj was the leading state and comprised the whole of Cambodia proper. Jayavarman I is the last known king of this family who supposedly ruled in the second half of the 7th century.
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Sanskrit Inscription, AD 947
Baksei Chamkrong temple |
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| The century following the death of Jayavarman I is a dark period in the history of Kambuj. According to the Chinese accounts, in the 8th century, the country of Chenla was divided in to land and water Chenlas. The obscurity prevails thereafter. The history, however, is traced again with the accession of Jayavarman II who founded the Angkor dynasty in 802 A.D. Jayavarman II established his capital first at Mahendra Parvat now known as Phnom Kulen. Later, he establsihed his capitals at Amerndrapur and Indrapur also but finally settled at Hariharalaya, the present site of Roluos group of temples. During his reign from 802 A.D. to 835 A.D., King Jayavarman II consolidated Kambuj and it became the centre of power and culture. |
Bakong temple, AD 889 |
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| Thereafter, Kambuj Desh evolved in to a powerful state from the 9th century onwards and the Khmers became one of the highly evolved societies in the world. The creative genius and the innate devotional nature of the Khmers combined with the basic principles of Indian civilisation in the fields of religion, culture, art and architecture, created the most beautiful temples in the world between the 9th and the 13th centuries including ‘Angkor Wat’. Built by the great King Suravarman II in the 12th century, Angkor Wat is the largest temple in the world and a rare creative work of human civilisation. |
Angkor Wat temple |
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| The history of Kambuj subsequent to the 14th century is known only from Khmer chronicles. During this period, the kingdom of Kambuj was gradually losing its glory and power to its two immediate neighbours, Thais and Champa. In the beginning of the fifteenth century, due to frequent external aggressions, Siem Reap was abandoned as the capital and a dark era dawned on the one-time great empire with one of the richest cultural histories in the world. The continuity of Khmer history was thus broken in the fifteenth century and the temples which were the concrete manifestations of the devoltion, spirituality and inner beauty of the ancient Khmers were lost to civilisation for over five hundred years. |
Angkor Watt |
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Angkor Temples
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