Historical figure
Jayavarman IV
ជ័យវរ្ម័នទី៤
Jayavarman IV (ជ័យវរ្ម័នទី៤) was a Khmer king of the 10th century who ruled from Koh Ker (កោះកេរ្តិ៍), a new capital he built northeast of Angkor (អង្គរ).[1][2] Maurice Glaize dated the royal city of the Khmer Empire at Koh Ker from 921 to 944.[3][4] UNESCO's listing has Koh Ker and Angkor as rival capitals from 921 to 928, and Koh Ker as the sole capital until 944.[2] His posthumous name was Paramasivapada.[3]
Coming to the throne
Jayavarman IV was the husband of Princess Jayadevi (ជ័យទេវី), a younger sister of King Yasovarman I (យសោវរ្ម័នទី១).[1] Glaize's list of kings calls him Yasovarman's brother-in-law, and Lawrence Palmer Briggs called him an uncle of Yasovarman's two sons, who ruled one after the other at Angkor until 928.[3][5] The younger of those sons was Isanavarman II (ឥសាណវរ្ម័នទី២).[1]
Chun Chanboth wrote that during the reign of Isanavarman II, Jayavarman IV rose against his nephew and took away various treasures. He left Yasodharapura (យសោធបុរៈ), the city at Angkor, for Chok Gargyar (គោកគគី), which is Koh Ker.[1] He carried the linga of the devaraja (ទេវរាជ) with him.[1] The devaraja, or god-king, was the divine essence of the king, worshipped in the form of a linga whose name joined part of the king's name to isvara, a name of Shiva.[5] Briggs wrote that Jayavarman IV took possession of the throne and made Koh Ker a rival capital.[5]
UNESCO's World Heritage listing dates the founding of Koh Ker by Jayavarman IV to 921.[2] Charles Higham also dates the move of the court to Koh Ker to 921.[6] When Isanavarman II died in 928, Jayavarman IV came to the throne at Koh Ker.[1] His reign is dated from 921[3] or 928,[1][7] and it ended in 940,[3] 941[1] or 942.[7]
Koh Ker (កោះកេរ្តិ៍)
Koh Ker stands on a gentle slope in thick forest, in the country between the Kulen and Dangrek ranges.[2] Its distance northeast of Angkor is given as about 70,[1] 80[2] or 100 kilometers[3] (43, 50 or 62 miles); Michael Vickery put it at about 60 miles,[7] and Briggs at about 100 miles (160 kilometers).[5]
Vickery wrote that the king built a wholly new city there, and that he may have tried to set up a stronger form of absolute royal rule.[7] Its construction took 23 years as one continuous project, and the city is believed to have been laid out after ancient Indian ideas of the universe.[2] UNESCO credits its unusual plan and architecture to the king's grand political ambition, carried out through a new style of sculpture and through building with very large single blocks of stone.[2]
In about 931, Jayavarman IV built Prasat Thom (ប្រាសាទធំ), a temple mountain on a base of seven tiers, 35 meters (115 feet) high.[1] It housed the linga of the devaraja, named Tribhuvanesvara (ត្រិភូវនេស្វរៈ).[1] In Higham's account, the linga at Koh Ker bore the name of the king joined with that of a god.[6] The king also built many other temples and the Rahal baray (បារាយណ៍រហាល), a reservoir.[1] Higham wrote that a reservoir at Koh Ker was partly cut out of the bedrock.[6] The sculpture made at Koh Ker, known as the Koh Ker style, has bold figures and a strong sense of movement.[2] UNESCO credits it with a lasting influence on later Khmer art and on art elsewhere in Southeast Asia.[2]
Late in his reign, Jayavarman IV drove back an invasion from Champa.[1]
The royal cult
Vickery wrote that the royal cult known in Old Khmer as the kamraten jagat ta rajya is first named in an inscription of its own time during the reign of Jayavarman IV. In his account, the king gave this cult a prominence it had nowhere else, apart from the claims of the 11th-century Sdok Kak Thom inscription.[7] An official named Rudracarya appears in the Koh Ker inscriptions in posts that may have matched the role of priest of the cult.[7] A later inscription names him as the king's purohita, a high court title of priestly origin, in a recarved section that Vickery called suspect but plausible.[7] Vickery wrote that the reign was poorly understood, with many of its inscriptions unedited and untranslated when he wrote.[7]
Succession
His son followed him on the throne as Harshavarman II (ហស៌វរ្ម័នទី២).[1][7] Chun Chanboth wrote that the new king was very young and reigned at Koh Ker.[1] Harshavarman II's reign is dated 942 to 944[7][3] or 941 to 944.[1] Glaize's list numbers him Harshavarman III.[3] Chun Chanboth wrote that the young king held the throne for just two or three years, and that some records say his elder cousin Rajendravarman II (រាជេន្ទ្រវរ្ម័នទី២) fought him for the throne in 944.[1] Sources differ on Rajendravarman II's place in the family: he was a nephew[3] or a brother[6] of Jayavarman IV, and the inscription of Pre Rup (ប្រាសាទប្រែរូប) names Harshavarman as his half brother.[4][1] Glaize's list of kings also calls him Jayavarman IV's son-in-law.[3]
In 944 the capital moved back to Angkor under Rajendravarman II.[7][4] Chun Chanboth wrote that the king took the linga of the devaraja back with him to Yasodharapura.[1] Vickery wrote that the kings who followed did not keep the new ways of Jayavarman IV's reign.[7] UNESCO calls Koh Ker's time as capital a short interlude in Khmer history, but credits its innovations with a deep and lasting influence on city building and art in the region.[2]
Usurper or heir
Vickery wrote that modern writers had long treated Jayavarman IV as the usurper above all others among the kings of Angkor, and that he appears instead as the rightful successor of Yasovarman I.[7] Vickery put forward the hypothesis that he was a grandson of Indravarman I through Mahendradevi, which in his view makes the conflicting statements about his family consistent.[7] In Vickery's view, kingship at Angkor passed in turn among branches of the royal family. Yasovarman I and Jayavarman IV broke that pattern by trying to pass the throne to their own sons instead of to brothers, cousins or nephews.[7]
References
- ↑ 1.00 1.01 1.02 1.03 1.04 1.05 1.06 1.07 1.08 1.09 1.10 1.11 1.12 1.13 1.14 1.15 1.16 1.17 1.18 Radio Free Asia Khmer, Chun Chanboth, Wars over the throne among kings of the Angkor period, part 11 of a history series (April 9, 2014; in Khmer)
- ↑ 2.00 2.01 2.02 2.03 2.04 2.05 2.06 2.07 2.08 2.09 UNESCO World Heritage Centre, Koh Ker: Archaeological Site of Ancient Lingapura or Chok Gargyar (inscribed 2023)
- ↑ 3.00 3.01 3.02 3.03 3.04 3.05 3.06 3.07 3.08 3.09 Angkor Database, Maurice Glaize, The Monuments of the Angkor Group (1944; English translation of the fourth French edition)
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 Maurice Glaize, The Angkor Guide, Pre Rup (undated online edition)
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 5.3 The Far Eastern Quarterly, Lawrence Palmer Briggs, A Sketch of Cambodian History (August 1947)
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 6.2 6.3 Proceedings of the British Academy, Charles F. W. Higham, The Origins of the Civilisation of Angkor (2003)
- ↑ 7.00 7.01 7.02 7.03 7.04 7.05 7.06 7.07 7.08 7.09 7.10 7.11 7.12 7.13 7.14 Angkor Database, Michael Vickery, The Reign of Suryavarman I and Royal Factionalism at Angkor (undated)