Historical figure
Indradevi
Indradevi (ឥន្ទ្រទេវី) was a queen of the Khmer Empire, the second chief wife of King Jayavarman VII, who came to the throne in 1181.[1][2] She wrote the long Sanskrit poem carved on the great stele of Phimeanakas, and she ran schools of Buddhist learning at Angkor.[2][1] She is regarded as one of the first known women poets of Cambodia.[3][1]
Family and marriage
Indradevi came from a family of the kshatriya, the warrior and royal class, and was the elder sister of Jayarajadevi, the first wife of Jayavarman VII.[1][4] Both sisters were raised as Buddhists. While the future king was away, Indradevi is said to have taught her sister the Buddha's teachings to comfort her.[1][4]
Jayarajadevi died before Indradevi composed her poem, about 1190 to 1200.[2] The king then married Indradevi, who became his chief queen.[1][2] The three were patrons of Mahayana Buddhism. During his reign the king built temples, among them Ta Prohm and the Bayon.[2] Words Without Borders credits the two sisters with drawing the king toward his unusual devotion to Buddhism.[2]
Teacher
After Jayarajadevi's death Indradevi took over her sister's schools. She was made head of three temple schools, Nagendratunga, Tilakottara and Narendrashrama, which taught Buddhist doctrine and other subjects and seem to have been mainly for women and girls.[1][4]
The Phimeanakas stele
In 1916 the French archaeologist Henri Marchal found a large stele at the foot of the east entrance of Phimeanakas, the temple of the royal palace at Angkor Thom. It lay broken into 70 pieces.[5] Once rebuilt, it was listed as inscription K. 485. Louis Finot and later George Cœdès translated it.[5] The stele is thought to have been covered in gold.[2]
Indradevi's poem fills all four faces of the stele with 102 stanzas of Sanskrit verse.[2][5] It is not dated. Cœdès dated it from its content to the 1190s.[5] The poem praises her late sister and Jayavarman VII. It tells Jayarajadevi's life and good works, recalls the king's defeat of the Cham and records the gilding of a monument called Vasudhatilaka, which may be Phimeanakas itself.[5][2]
Words Without Borders describes the poem as showing "a nearly flawless command" of Sanskrit and its poetic forms. In 2015 it published Trent Walker's English version of the final stanzas, in which the poet calls herself "wise by nature, a polymath".[2]
References 5
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 1.6 Wikipedia, Indradevi (2026)
- ↑ 2.00 2.01 2.02 2.03 2.04 2.05 2.06 2.07 2.08 2.09 Words Without Borders, Queen Indradevi, From the Great Stele of Phimeanakas, translated by Trent Walker (November 2, 2015)
- ↑ Words Without Borders, Queen Indradevi, contributor page (undated)
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 Cambodge Magazine, History of the Khmer Empire: Queen Indradevi, royal functions and intellectual leadership (undated)
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 5.3 5.4 Hello Angkor, Phimeanakas (undated)
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