Jayavarman II

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Jayavarman II (Tutu)
Jayendrabhā
IssueJyeṣṭhāryā, Jayavarman III
ReligionHinduism
This article contains Khmer text. Without proper rendering support, you may see question marks, boxes, or other symbols instead of Khmer script.

Jayavarman II (

Amarendrapura, and Hariharalaya. Before Jayavarman II came to power, there was much fighting among local overlords who ruled different parts of Cambodia. The most well known opposition were the Shailendra Kings[4]. In 781, Jayavarman II took action by claiming independence on the land of Chenla.[5] By starting off with small weak kingdoms, he built himself up from there eventually leading to the Khmer Empire. No inscriptions by Jayavarman II have been found. Future kings of the Khmer Empire described him as a warrior and the most powerful king from that time frame that they could recall.[6] Historians formerly dated his reign as running from 802 AD to 835 AD.[7]

Universal monarch

See also:
Chakravartin, Divine right of kings, and History of Indian influence on Southeast Asia

Zabag installed a new king, Jayavarman II, on the throne as his vassal. Jayavarman first remained subordinate to Java for some time and thereafter declared independence.[1]

Jayavarman II became king in

Sambhupura Chenla, in order to unite Cambodia under one king.[8]

Jayavarman II is widely regarded as the king that set the foundation of the Angkor period in Cambodian history, beginning with the grandiose consecration ritual he conducted in 802 on Mount Mahendraparvata, now known as Phnom Kulen.[9] At that ceremony, he was proclaimed a universal monarch (Kamraten jagad ta Raja in Khmer) or God King (ទេវរាជ in Khmer,Deva Raja in Sanskrit).[10]: 58–59 [11] An inscription from the

Sdok Kak Thom temple recounts that at Mahendraparvata, Jayavarman II took part in a ritual performed by the Brahman Hiranyadama, and his chief priest Lord Sivakaivalya, a devaraja (Khmer: ទេវរាជា) which placed him as a chakravartin, Lord of the Universe.[12]
: 99–101 

Taken in sum, the record suggests that Jayavarman and his followers moved over the course of some years from southeast Cambodia to the northwest, subduing various principalities along the way.

Dangrek Mountains to arrive in the Angkor region. Later he brought pressure on local Khmer leaders located to the west, but they fought back and drove him to the summit of present-day Phnom Kulen
, about 50 kilometers east of Angkor, where the Brahman declared independence. Jacques suggests that this step might have been intended to affirm Jayavarman's authority in the face of strong resistance.

Once established in the Angkor region, Jayavarman II appears to have reigned not only in Hariharalaya, located just north of the

architectural form of later Khmer kings.[10]
: 57 

Despite his key role in Khmer history, few firm facts survive about Jayavarman. No inscriptions authored by him have been found, but he is mentioned in numerous others, some of them written long after his death. He appears to have been of aristocratic birth, beginning his career of conquest in the southeast of present-day Cambodia. He may have been known as Jayavarman Ibis at that time. “For the prosperity of the people in this perfectly pure royal race, great lotus which no longer has a stalk, he rose like a new flower,” declares one inscription.[13] Various other details are recounted in inscriptions: he married a woman named Hyang Amrita;[14] and he dedicated a foundation at Lobok Srot, in the southeast.[10]: 54–56 

Sdok Kak Thom

The most valuable inscription concerning Jayavarman II is the one dated to 1052 AD, two centuries after his death, found at the

purohit, was serving as his guru and held the post of royal chaplain to His Majesty,” using the king’s posthumous name.[16]
In a later passage, the text says that a Brahman named Hiranyadama, “proficient in the lore of magic power, came from Janapada in response to His Majesty’s having invited him to perform a sublime rite which would release Kambujadesa [the kingdom] from being any longer subject to Java.” The text also recounts the creation of the cult of the devaraja, the key religious ceremony in the court of Jayavarman and subsequent Khmer people.

Interpretations on "Java"

The word in the inscription that has often been translated as "Java" has caused lingering debate. Some early scholars, such as

George Coedès and Lawrence Palmer Briggs, have established the notion that it refers to the island of Java in present-day Indonesia. The mythical stories of battles between the Khmers and Javanese correspond in their view to the Sailendra dynasty that ruled both Java and Sumatran Srivijaya
.

Later scholars such as Charles Higham doubt that the word refers to the island. Michael Vickery has re-interpreted the word to mean "the Chams", the Khmers' neighbors to the east, described a chvea.[10]: 56 

In 2013 Arlo Griffiths refuted these theories and convincingly demonstrated that in almost all cases the inscriptions mention Java they refer to the island of Java in the Indonesian archipelago.[3]

Historical assessment

More broadly, debate continues as to whether Jayavarman II’s rule truly represented a seminal turning point in Khmer history, the creation of an independent unified state from small feuding principalities, or was instead part of a long process toward that end. Inscriptions indicate that later Khmer kings treated him as the august first in their line and font of their own legitimacy, but Hindu civilization had existed already for centuries in the region; the fact that Jayavarman was the second monarch to carry that name is a sign that there was already long line of kings of significant states in the region.[17]

Posthumous name

Jayavarman II died in 850 AD

Parameshwara,[12]: 103  "the supreme ruler," an epithet of Sri Shiva. After him, the throne was held by his son Jayavarman III and two other kings of the family into which he had married. He was formally honored along with these two kings and their wives in the Preah Ko temple in Roulous, built by King Indravarman I
and inaugurated in 880 AD.

Notes

  1. ^
    ISBN 978-81-7017-006-8
    .
  2. ISBN 0877277052
    .
  3. ^
    ISSN 0044-8613
    .
  4. ^ "The Rise of Angkor and the Khmer Empire". National Library of Australia. Retrieved 2024-04-24.
  5. ^ "Jayavarman II | Cambodian Ruler, Founder of Angkor | Britannica". www.britannica.com. 2024-03-15. Retrieved 2024-04-24.
  6. ^ Wolters, O. (1973). Jayavarman II's Military Power: The Territorial Foundation of the Angkor Empire. Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland, (1), 21. Retrieved July 8, 2020, from www.jstor.org/stable/25203407
  7. ISBN 9780520234420
    .
  8. ISBN 978-87-7694-001-0
    .
  9. ISBN 88-544-0117-X
    .
  10. ^
    ISBN 9781842125847
  11. ISBN 9780742555532
    . Retrieved 25 February 2013.
  12. ^
    ISBN 978-0-8248-0368-1
    .
  13. ^ Briggs, The Ancient Khmer Empire p. 83.
  14. ^ DiBiasio, Jame (2013). "Chapter 1: King of the Gods". The Story of Angkor. Silkworm Books.
    ISBN 978-1-6310-2259-3
    . Retrieved 2 December 2014.
  15. ISBN 9786167339443
  16. ^ Sak-Humphry, “The Sdak Kok Thom Inscription,” p. 46.
  17. ^ Mabbett and Chandler, The Khmers’’ pp. 87-89.

References

External links
Jayavarman II
Emperor of Angkor
Born: 770 Died: 850
Preceded by
Bosakak Reach
 Khmer Empire
802–835 		Succeeded by
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