Historical figure
Jayavarman I
Jayavarman I was a Khmer king of the second half of the 7th century, in the period that Chinese records called Chenla. Heng Piphal and Paul Lavy date his reign to about 657 to 681.[1] The earliest known inscriptions that link a Khmer ruler to a palace and a capital city date from his reign and his daughter's.[1]
Family and accession
He followed King Bhavavarman II on the throne.[2] Earlier histories made him Bhavavarman II's son. The historian Michael Vickery wrote that he was not, and that he was instead a great-grandson of King Isanavarman I through another branch of the family.[3]
The start of his reign is dated differently. Heng and Lavy give about 657.[1] An inscription on the door of a small temple at Houay Kadienne, south of Wat Phu in present-day Laos, records the temple's founding on May 18, 654, in his reign. The French archaeological mission at Wat Phu wrote that this is the oldest known date of the reign and moves its start three years earlier.[4]
Capital
Heng and Lavy write that the seat of power had shifted to the Angkor region possibly as soon as 657. The king issued his edicts from a palace at Purandarapura, a city they place around the temple of Ak Yum. They read these royal edicts as a sign of growing central power.[1]
The location of his capital in the 660s is disputed. An inscription of 664 from his reign, found near Ba Phnom, says a royal order came from a place called Naravaranagara. George Coedès took that place to be his capital and thought it was probably at Angkor Borei. A later reading of the inscription places Naravaranagara near the find site instead, about 20 kilometers (12 miles) south of Ba Phnom.[3]
Reign
Inscriptions of his reign come from a wide area, from Wat Phu in the north to Kampot in the south.[4][3] An inscription of 674 in Kampot records a foundation in honor of a King Rudravarman, probably the last known king of Funan. Vickery saw this respect for a Funan king as a sign of continuity between Funan and Chenla.[3]
The land south of Wat Phu saw heavy building in his reign. Several small laterite temples there carry inscriptions, and they point to farming villages settled in his time.[4] Most of the temples in the northern group at Sambor Prei Kuk were probably built in the 7th century, before its last quarter, under Isanavarman I, Bhavavarman II and Jayavarman I.[1]
Religious foundations made directly by a 7th-century king are rare in the inscriptions. Those of his reign at Wat Phu record the work of officials he appointed. An inscription on a rock high on the mountain of Wat Phu, known as K. 1059, tells of a man named Jayantakuraja. His father had served Bhavavarman II. Jayavarman I gave him that title, with marks of honor such as a white parasol, and made him governor of Lingapura, a town near Wat Phu. As governor, he set up an altar to the god Vishnu on the mountain, which was sacred above all to Shiva.[2] A stela from Wat Phu, known as K. 367, is attributed to his reign. It declares the mountain a place of sanctuary and seems to forbid the use of palanquins there. Dominic Goodall, who edited K. 1059, notes that the stela may be later.[2]
The same official may have founded a shrine in present-day Prey Veng province, recorded in an inscription of 673. Goodall reads its founder as Kuraja, a servant of the king who headed the royal assembly. He installed a form of Shiva called Kedaresvara there and gave it a golden sheath, a crown, land and cattle.[2]
Succession
His daughter Jayadevi followed him, from about 681 to after 713. She ruled from the same area, from a palace called Kamyarama.[1]
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 Angkor Database, Piphal Heng and Paul A. Lavy, Pre-Angkorian cities: Ishanapura and Mahendraparvata (undated book chapter)
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 Udaya, Journal of Khmer Studies, Dominic Goodall, Two inscriptions from Lingaparvata (Vat Phu), one dating to Jayavarman I's reign (K. 1059) and the other to Jayavarman II's (K. 1060), along with a re-edition of K. 762 (No. 15, 2020)
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 Angkor Database, Michael Vickery, Funan Reviewed: Deconstructing the Ancients, Bulletin de l'École française d'Extrême-Orient 90-91 (2003 to 2004)
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 Marielle Santoni, Christine Hawixbrock and Viengkeo Souksavatdy, The French archaeological mission and Vat Phou: Research on an exceptional historic site in Laos, English version of a chapter in Recherches nouvelles sur le Laos (École française d'Extrême-Orient, 2008)