Historical figure

Jayarajadevi

Jayarajadevi was the first chief wife of King Jayavarman VII of the Khmer Empire, who came to the throne in 1181.[1][2] She took in abandoned girls, and her life is told in the Sanskrit poem that her elder sister Indradevi wrote for the great stele of Phimeanakas.[2][3][4]

Life

Jayarajadevi and Indradevi came from a family of the kshatriya, the warrior and royal class, and both received a Buddhist education.[1][5] Jayarajadevi married the future king before he took the throne. Indradevi is credited with comforting her with Buddhist teachings in times of distress.[1][5]

The Angkor National Museum holds a kneeling statue of a thin woman with a small Buddha, Amitabha, in her hair. Citing the Phimeanakas inscription, the museum says the statue is thought to be Jayarajadevi in the form of Prajnaparamita, the Buddhist goddess of wisdom. The museum says she is believed to have gone through severe austerities while praying for her husband's safe return from Champa.[6]

Good works

Jayarajadevi took in hundreds of abandoned girls, trained them and settled them in life.[2] Jayarajadevi died before her sister's poem was composed, about 1190 to 1200.[4] Jayavarman VII then took her elder sister Indradevi as his chief queen.[2][4]

The Phimeanakas poem

Indradevi's poem of 102 Sanskrit stanzas, carved on all four faces of a stele found at Phimeanakas in 1916, praises her late sister and Jayavarman VII.[4][3] It tells Jayarajadevi's life and good works.[3] The three were patrons of Mahayana Buddhism and of the king's temples, and the two sisters are thought to have drawn him toward Buddhism.[4]

References 6
  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 Wikipedia, Jayarajadevi (2026)
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 OUPblog, Craig A. Lockard, Southeast Asia and the Kingdom of Angkor, excerpt from Southeast Asia in World History (May 19, 2009)
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 Hello Angkor, Phimeanakas (undated)
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3 4.4 Words Without Borders, Queen Indradevi, From the Great Stele of Phimeanakas, translated by Trent Walker (November 2, 2015)
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 Cambodge Magazine, History of the Khmer Empire: Queen Indradevi, royal functions and intellectual leadership (undated)
  6. ↑ Angkor National Museum, Highlight artifact: Prajnaparamita (undated)
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This page was last edited on 27 October 2026, at 14:53.