Digital Archetypes: Adaptations of Early Temple Architecture in South and Southeast Asia by Datta Sambit; Beynon David

Author:Datta, Sambit; Beynon, David [Datta, Sambit; Beynon, David]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Taylor and Francis
Published: 2016-04-21T17:00:00+00:00

Indian Influence in Pre-Angkor Cambodia

Leading up to Jayavarman II’s declaration as inscribed in the Prasat Sdok Kak Thom stele was a long process of integrating indigenous and Indian traditions for religious and political purposes.1 Connections between the earliest identifiable states in the region and Brahmanic Hindu traditions have been made based on archaeological evidence that predates any extant buildings. Indian script has been found on artefacts at the site of Oc-Eo in the Mekong Delta which have been dated from the late first and early second centuries CE (Higham 2002: 236). The foundations of both Brahmanic/Hindu and Buddhist buildings at Oc-Eo can be dated from as early as the fourth century, and by the seventh century Indian religious traditions are clearly dominant (Jacques and Lafond 2007: 54).

At Angkor Borei and Sambor Prei Kuk there are inscriptions in both Sanskrit and Khmer, the former only being predominant in matters specifically related to religion and ritual. Local rulers took on Indic names, indicating the integration of Brahmanic/Hindu or Buddhist practices into local institutions of power. However, as noted by several scholars (Stark 2006; Lavy 2003; Wolters 1999), these local institutions involved worship of ancestors that were often linked to specific locations, and then ostensibly Hindu or Buddhist temples were constructed at these sites (Stark 2006: 155). Vickery’s dissection of pre-Angkorian beliefs points out the coexistence of kpoñ (usually local Khmer deities, with a few Indian examples) and vrah (generally Indian deities, with a few local representatives). Interestingly, while vrah were nearly all male, kpoñ were nearly all female. Vickery sees this as cultural parallelism which gradually merged into a more integrated belief system in which Sanskrit names may have been applied to Khmer deities, rather than being imported as complete entities (Vickery 1998: 154; Smith 1999: 4). It is agreed that all Southeast Asian alphabets are of Indian origin, but the use of both an Indian and an indigenous language for temple inscriptions in Cambodia suggests questions as to the nature of Indian influence on local culture (Jacques and Lafond 2007: 15).

Other connections are derived from the interpretation of myths. A legend about the origins of Cambodia relates the name of the country to the hermit figure Kambu, who was given a nymph, Mera (from which the term ‘Khmer’ is possibly derived), as a gift by Siva and thus founded its earliest dynasty. This creation myth’s similarity to Pallavan myths of origin is noted as evidence for specific contact between Pallava and Funan (Munoz 2006: 11, 76). In terms of the interplay between indigenous and Indian traditions, Dowling hypothesises that the first few centuries of the first millennium CE were a period of political experimentation by local rulers, during which Indian models were gradually seen to be the most advantageous in reinforcing an integration of cosmological and political power. By the mid-seventh century, this process had coalesced into what she refers to as a ‘strategy of monumental self-validation’ in which the construction of temples was a key component (Dowling 1999: 53). This

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.