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The inscription K. 733 from Phnom Preah Vihear and the root vidyā- in Cambodia
 
PIIS086919080006819-7-1
DOI10.31857/S086919080006819-7
Publication type Article
Status Published
Authors
Anton Zakharov 
Occupation: Leading Research Fellow, Institute of Oriental Studies, Russian Academy of Sciences; Professor, Moscow State University of Psychology and Education
Affiliation:
Institute of Oriental Studies, Russian Academy of Sciences
Moscow State University of Psychology and Education
Address: Russian Federation, Moscow
Journal nameVostok. Afro-Aziatskie obshchestva: istoriia i sovremennost
EditionIssue 5
Pages21-32
Abstract

Early political, social and cultural history of Cambodia remains the realm of enigmas. Traditional accounts of a succession of the great kingdoms of Funan, Chenla and Angkor Empire (Briggs 1951; Cœdès 1968) seem but a simplification. Recent scholarship tends to view the early political landscape of Cambodia in terms of many small principalities and unstable claims to sovereignty (Vickery 1998). Furthermore, scholars have changed the term ‘Indian’ to ‘Indic’, stressing the local culture substratum prevalence over external influence and the outward resemblance of scripts, linguistic features and sculptural styles.

In 1937, the famous French historian and epigrapher George Cœdès opened his seminal Inscriptions du Cambodge (1937–1966) with the Sanskrit Phnom Preah Vihear inscription K. 733. He gave its French translation and chose this text because of its brilliant Sanskrit poetry and many references to Indian culture. Recently Swati Chemburkar and Shivani Kapoor (2018), and Dominic Goodall (2019) made use of this text examining the Pāśupata School in early Cambodia.

My present article focuses on a few points. First, I discuss how many kings named Bhavavarman are known from early Cambodian inscriptions of the sixth and seventh centuries. Second, I offer English and Russian translations of the Phnom Preah Vihear inscription K. 733. Third, I hope to bring together all the references to the Sanskrit root vidyā- in Cambodian Sanskrit and Old Khmer epigraphy and to examine its relation to the Pāśupata School of Shaivism. Fourth, I aim to show the Indic or Indian traits in ancient and medieval Cambodia.

KeywordsCambodia, inscriptions, epigraphy, Sanskrit, Indian philosophy, vidyā-, King Bhavavarman, Funan, Chenla
AcknowledgmentI am deeply grateful to Jeffrey Sundberg for his invaluable comments on the draft of my paper and for its English editing.
Received25.09.2019
Publication date16.10.2019
Number of characters29447
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Table of contents

Introduction
The Si Thep mystery: how many Bhavavarmans were in the sixth and seventh centuries?
The inscription K. 733 from Phnom Preah Vihear (Kompong Chnan, Cambodia)
The English translation with a commentary
The Indian Philosophy in Cambodia
The Pāśupata School and the root vidyā- in Cambodia
Russian Translation = Русский перевод
Conclusions
1

Introduction
2 The National Museum of Cambodia possesses many unique objects of ancient Khmer art and sculpture as well as inscriptions written on various materials. The early history of Cambodia is still full of mystery. The earliest kingdom in the Lower Mekong Delta known from the Chinese texts was Funan 扶南, which emerged in the beginning of the Common Era. During the sixth century CE, another kingdom emerged in the areas of the Tonle Sap Lake and the Dangrek Mountains. The medieval Chinese authors called this kingdom Zhenla, or Chenla 真臘; the latter spelling still predominates in modern scholarly discourse.
3 But recent historians, and Michael Vickery (1998) among them, have pointed out that there were many political centres in the territories of Cambodia during the first millennium CE. These centres often left few or no signs of their activity, but there is no contemporary text, written in Old Khmer and/or Sanskrit, which mentions the kingdoms of Funan or Chenla. On the contrary, the early inscriptions often mention no king at all; for example, see the Angkor Borei inscription K. 557/600 of 611 CE (Cœdès 1942: 21–23; Zakharov 2019: 66–80; 2016: 190–213).
4 The early inscriptions seldom give chronological and genealogical data. The scholars do agree that there were at least the two kings who reigned under the name Bhavavarman in the sixth to seventh centuries. The first Bhavavarman was the elder brother of the king Citrasena-Mahendravarman and an uncle of the king Īśānavarman I. This Bhavavarman and Citrasena-Mahendravarman were the two kings who, according to Chinese sources, were the rulers of Zhenla and who conquered Funan. Bhavavarman I issued the inscription K. 213 from Phnom Banteay Neang in the Battambang Province of Cambodia (Barth 1885: 26–28). Bhavavarman I is mentioned in the Prasat Roban Romas inscription K. 151 dated from 624 CE, which places the king to 598 CE (Cœdès 1943: 5–8). The inscription was found in the Kompong Thom Province of Cambodia; its original place was near the famous Sambor Prei Kuk temple site.
5 The second Bhavavarman was a successor—possibly even a son—of Īśānavarman I and left more inscriptions of greater eloquence. Among these texts are the inscriptions K. 79 dated from 639 or 644 CE and examined by Vickery in detail (1998: 281–284, 430–432, pl. II), and K. 1150 (Jacques 1986: 79–86). The inscription K. 79 was probably found in Ta Kev of the Ta Keo Province while K. 1150 was found in 1986 by Madame Anchana Chittasutthiyan in the area of Aranyaprathet, Prachinburi Province, Thailand.
6

The Si Thep mystery: how many Bhavavarmans were in the sixth and seventh centuries?
7
1

The Map 1: The Ancient Khmer Sites with the Si Thep and Preah Vihear locations marked in red. The source: Jacques & Lafond 2007: 13. Courtesy: River Books.
8 Since George Cœdès (1964: 156–158) had published the inscription K. 978 from around Si Thep in the Phetchabun Province of Thailand (see the Map 1), the number of Bhavavarmans in early Cambodia again became a point at issue. The French scholar read the inscription as follows:
9

1. – – śakapatisaṃva[tsare]

2. – – śubhrāṣṭamo – – –

3. – [di]kṣūrvy advayā na pra – – –

4. – ler abhyastabhūri – – –

5. … nanda – –

6. vidito dikṣu vikhyāta – –

7. kāṭā vai – – bhūtyaiṣa –

8. śivāṃs sthāpayet so pi rā[jā]

9. śrīcakravarttinaptā śrī

10. prathivīndravarmmatanayo ya[ḥ]

11. śrībhavavarmmendrasamas tasya

12. ca rājyodbhave kāle || (Cœdès 1964: 158)
10 He translated it as follows:
11 “In the year of the Śaka king…, in the eighth day of the waxing (or crescent) Moon… the eastern earth, undivided by two… famous in the east… (The statues of) Śiva were erected by this king, a grandson of Śrī Cakravartin, a son of Śrī Prathīvindravarman, (named) Śrī Bhavavarman, who is like Indra, when he ascended the kingdom” (Ibid.).
12 Cœdès was convinced that the inscription K. 978 did mention Bhavavarman I. He knew well that several inscriptions of Citrasena-Mahendravarman detail his pedigree. The king and his elder brother Bhavavarman were the sons of a certain Śrī Vīravarmman and grandsons of a certain Śrī Sārvvabhauma; see inscriptions K. 496–497 from Pak Mun or Khan Thevoda1, K. 508 from Tham Prasat or Tham Phu Ma Nai in the Ubon Province, Thailand; K. 1102 from Khon Kaen, and K. 1106 from Phimai in Thailand (Barth 1903: 445; BEFEO 1922: 385; Cœdès 1931, pl. I; Cœdès apud Seidenfaden 1922: 58; Jacques 1986: 66; Vickery 1998: 74–75). Cœdès identified Śrī Vīravarmman with Śrī Prathīvindravarman and Śrī Sārvvabhauma with Śrī Cakravartin. His main argument was the similarity of the names’ meanings: Sārvvabhauma means ‘the universal monarch’ and Cakravartin means ‘the sovereign of the world or the ruler of the country that borders with the sea everywhere’ (Cœdès 1964: 157). 1. The inscriptions K. 496–497 are engraved on two sandstone stelae. The height of both stelae is 1.7 m. Both stelae have a Sanskrit inscription of six lines. Their texts are poetic and composed as three stanzas in the anuṣṭubh metre. The stelae are located on a Khan Thevoda Hill on the right bank of the Mun River near her confluence to the Mekong River.
13 Pace Cœdès, the difference between the inscriptions issued by Bhavavarman I and that of Si Thep is striking. First, the texts of Bhavavarman I are poetic: they are composed in verse, whereas the K. 978 from Si Thep lacks evidence of any poetic nature; it looks like a damaged prose text. Second, the inscriptions of Bhavavarman I give no chronological data, contrary to the Si Thep text. Third, Cœdès took for granted that there could be only one monarch who claims a universal sovereignty but this is not self-evident. Last but not least, the identification of Śrī Vīravarmman and Śrī Prathīvindravarman remains hypothetical. We know that Citrasena adopted a royal name Mahendravarman but it gives no proof that the king could have two royal abhiṣeka, or consecration, names with the root -varman.

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