Historical figure
Jayavarman III
ជ័យវរ្ម័នទី៣
Jayavarman III (ជ័យវរ្ម័នទី៣) was a 9th-century king of the Khmer Empire who ruled from Hariharalaya (ហរិហរាល័យ). The historian Nhim Sotheavin calls Hariharalaya the first Angkorian capital.[1] He was the son of Jayavarman II (ជ័យវរ្ម័នទី២) and followed him on the throne.[2][3] His reign ended in 877.[2][3]
Dates of the reign
Sources differ on when the reign began. Maurice Glaize and Lawrence Palmer Briggs date it from 854.[2][4] Chun Chanboth heads his account of the king with the years 854 to 877.[3] Michael Vickery and Nhim Sotheavin give 834 instead.[5][1] Vickery took the earlier year from a 1972 study of Jayavarman II by Claude Jacques.[5]
Reign
Chun Chanboth gives the king's personal name, before he took the throne as Jayavarman III, in Khmer script as ជយវ៌ធន. In his account, the king reigned in peace for a long time and took care to keep and add to the wealth and glory his father had left. He was fond of hunting elephants, and he built some temples in the area of Angkor (អង្គរ).[3]
Like his father before him, he lived at Hariharalaya, at the site of Roluos (រលួស).[1][3][2] The court stayed there under his successor, and at the end of the 9th century Yasovarman I (យសោវរ្ម័នទី១) moved the capital a short distance to the northwest.[1]
Vickery placed the purohita among the top officials of the central government. He wrote that Nivasakavi, the purohita of Indravarman I and probably a royal purohita (rajapurohita), is said in the record of the time to have held that post under Jayavarman III as well.[5]
Succession
Chun Chanboth wrote that Jayavarman III remained at Hariharalaya to the end of his reign and died in 877, without leaving a son to succeed him.[3] His posthumous name was Vishnouloka (វិស្ណុលោក).[2][3] Chun Chanboth wrote that his younger cousin Indravarman I (ឥន្ទ្រវរ្ម័នទី១) came to the throne that year.[3] Glaize lists Indravarman I as a nephew of Jayavarman II.[2]
Vickery traced a later rift in the royal family back to this change of king. In his reading, the noble families who claimed descent from Jayavarman II lost their royal standing once the throne passed to Indravarman, and served from then on as officials.[5]
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 Institute of Asian Culture, Sophia University, Nhim Sotheavin, Factors that Led to the Change of the Khmer Capitals from the 15th to 17th century (undated)
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 2.5 Angkor Database, Maurice Glaize, The Monuments of the Angkor Group (1944; English translation of the fourth French edition)
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4 3.5 3.6 3.7 Radio Free Asia Khmer, Chun Chanboth, Kings of the Angkor period, part 10 of a history series (April 2, 2014; in Khmer)
- ↑ The Far Eastern Quarterly, Lawrence Palmer Briggs, A Sketch of Cambodian History (August 1947)
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 5.3 Angkor Database, Michael Vickery, The Reign of Suryavarman I and Royal Factionalism at Angkor (undated)