Historical figure
Bhavavarman I
Bhavavarman I was a king of Chenla in the second half of the 6th century.[1][2] Piphal Heng and Paul Lavy give his reign as about 550 to 600,[3] and Maurice Glaize's list of kings, published in 1944, places him in 598.[2]
War with Funan
Chenla had been a northern vassal of Funan. In the second half of the 6th century, Chenla under Bhavavarman and Chitrasena attacked Funan.[1] Glaize placed his reign within a period of war between Funan and Chenla, from about 545 to 627.[2] Minh Giang Vu dates an attack by Bhavavarman and Citrasena to 550.[4]
Haksrea Kuoch wrote that Bhavavarman's capital, Bhavapura, must have stood north of the Tonle Sap, close to Ampil Rolum, a site north-east of Kampong Thom.[1]
Succession
Chitrasena followed him on the throne and took the name Mahendravarman at his coronation, around 600.[1] Chitrasena was his cousin[1] or his brother.[2][4] The inscription K. 151 from Robang Romeas names Narasimhagupta as a samantanrpa of three kings in turn: Bhavavarman, Mahendravarman and Isanavarman.[5]
Gambhireshvara and Ishanapura
In the inscription K. 53, a King Bhavavarman, described as having won his kingdom by his own strength, names a form of the god Shiva called Gambhireshvara as the fruit of his kingdom. Dominic Goodall wrote that this king is presumably Bhavavarman I, since the description implies the first Bhavavarman of the line, not Bhavavarman II.[6]
At Sambor Prei Kuk, the city of Ishanapura, Heng and Lavy wrote that the chief god of the northern temple group was Gambhireshvara, "Lord of the Depths", a god who seems to have been tied closely to Bhavavarman I.[3] They also wrote that some inscriptions suggest the city's founding should perhaps be linked with him rather than with Isanavarman. Regional governors endowed smaller temples there in the reigns of both kings.[3] Goodall wrote that Pottier found no conclusive evidence of a Gambhireshvara at Sambor Prei Kuk.[6]
The inscription K. 439, from the northern group, is badly damaged. Goodall wrote that it seems to record a meritorious foundation tied to two brothers who served a King Bhavavarman. George Coedès took this king to be Bhavavarman II; Goodall suggested that, following Pottier, it may rather be Bhavavarman I.[6]
A figure of the god Vishnu as Kalpavasudeva was set up on April 13, 598, during the reign of a King Bhavavarman.[5]
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 Angkor Database, Haksrea Kuoch, Survey of the Southern Provinces of Cambodia in the Pre-Angkor Era (1976)
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 Angkor Database, Maurice Glaize, The Monuments of the Angkor Group (1944; English translation of the fourth French edition)
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 Angkor Database, Piphal Heng and Paul A. Lavy, Pre-Angkorian cities: Ishanapura and Mahendraparvata (undated)
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 VMOST Journal of Social Sciences and Humanities, Minh Giang Vu, FUNAN (Phu Nam) from a new perspective (December 2022)
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 Angkor National Museum, Angkor National Museum Bulletin, Volume 8 (October 2016)
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 6.2 Udaya, Journal of Khmer Studies, Dominic Goodall, Administrative zones for pious foundations under Īśānavarman I? Edition and translation of the seventh-century Sanskrit inscription K. 1418 (No. 16, 2025)