Historical figure
Harshavarman III
ហស៌វរ្ម័នទី៣
Harshavarman III (ហស៌វរ្ម័នទី៣) was a king of the Khmer Empire at Angkor (អង្គរ) who reigned from 1066 to 1080.[1][2] He was the younger brother of Udayadityavarman II (ឧទ័យាទិត្យាវរ្ម័នទី២) and took the throne after him.[2][1]
Reign
The reign before his had been shaken by revolts. Chun Chanboth's history for Radio Free Asia credits Harshavarman III with repairing the shrines and statues damaged in that unrest and with working to restore order within the kingdom. The same history counts two wars in his reign, one with Champa and one with Đại Việt, the Vietnamese kingdom.[2]
In Chun Chanboth's account, the Song dynasty of China drew Khmer and Cham troops into a campaign against Đại Việt in 1076. Song forces came south from Lạng Sơn toward Hanoi, while the Khmer and Cham armies attacked the region of Nghệ An. After talks, China pulled its troops back, and the Khmer and Cham armies withdrew as well.[2]
War with Champa
Cham inscriptions at Mỹ Sơn, in present-day Vietnam, record a war between Champa and the Khmer. R. C. Majumdar, writing in 1927, placed the start of the fighting after an expedition from Đại Việt against Champa in 1075, when the Khmer king also began raiding Champa.[3] The Cham king Harivarman IV defeated the Khmer army at a place called Someśvara and captured its commander, Prince Nandanavarmadeva, as a stele at Mỹ Sơn dated 1081 records.[3][4] Michael Vickery wrote in 2005 that a Cham inscription of 1080 to 1081 celebrates a Cham invasion of Cambodia, whose rich spoils went to the temples of Mỹ Sơn.[4] Both accounts rest on the Cham inscriptions of Mỹ Sơn, and neither names the Khmer king. Their dates, 1075 to 1081, overlap the reign as Radio Free Asia gives it (to 1080 or 1082); Glaize ends the reign in 1080, at the edge of the 1080 to 1081 inscriptions.[3][4][1]
End of the reign
Late in his reign, Jayavarman VI (ជ័យវរ្ម័នទី៦) rose in revolt in the west of the kingdom, at Mahidharapura (មហិធរៈបុរៈ).[2] The city was probably in the northwest of the plain of the upper Mun River (ទន្លេមូន), in present-day Thailand.[2] Jayavarman VI's reign began in 1080[1][5] or 1082,[2] and Maurice Glaize's list of kings names him a usurper.[1] Harshavarman III's royal priest, Divakarapandita (ទិវាករបណ្ឌិត), left Angkor and crowned Jayavarman VI.[2]
Harshavarman III died in 1080 or 1082 and received the posthumous name Sadashivapada (សទាសិវបទ).[2][1] Chun Chanboth writes that his lawful successor at Angkor was Nripatindravarman (នឫទិន្ទ្រវរ្ម័ន), crowned after his death, while Jayavarman VI declared himself king at Mahidharapura in 1082.[2]
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 Angkor Database, Maurice Glaize, The Monuments of the Angkor Group (1944; English translation of the fourth French edition)
- ↑ 2.00 2.01 2.02 2.03 2.04 2.05 2.06 2.07 2.08 2.09 Radio Free Asia Khmer, Chun Chanboth, Two kings reigning at the same time in the mid-11th century, part 13 of a history series (May 14, 2014; in Khmer)
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 Punjab Sanskrit Book Depot, R. C. Majumdar, Ancient Indian Colonies in the Far East, Vol. I: Champa (1927; pp. 84 to 85 and inscription No. 62)
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 Asia Research Institute, Michael Vickery, Champa Revised, ARI Working Paper No. 37 (March 2005)
- ↑ Angkor Database, Pia Conti, Tantric Buddhism in Phimai: A New Reading of its Iconographic Message (undated)