Jayaviravarman

Angkor › Yasodharapura

1. Funanto about 550
2. Chenla6th to 8th century
3. Angkor802 to 1431
4. After Angkor1431 to 1794
5. Modern kingdomfrom 1794

BeforeUdayadityavarman I1001 to 1002 (Glaize 1944)

This reignJayaviravarman1002 to 1010 (Glaize 1944)Rival claim: Suryavarman I

AfterSuryavarman I1002 to 1049 (Glaize 1944)

All Khmer monarchs

Jayaviravarman (ជ័យវិរៈវរ្ម័ន) was an early 11th-century king of the Khmer Empire at Angkor (អង្គរ) who fought Suryavarman I (សូរ្យវរ្ម័នទី១) for the throne. He reigned from 1002 until about 1006 to 1010: Michael Vickery gives 1006 as the end of his reign, and Maurice Glaize gives 1010. Vickery, in agreement with the epigraphist C. Jacques, saw the two kings as the heads of rival branches of the royal family, neither of them a wholly illegitimate usurper.

Ta Keo, the temple at Angkor where work continued during his reign, 2011. Photo: Jorge Láscar from Australia, CC BY 2.0

Historical figure details
Khmer name	ជ័យវិរៈវរ្ម័ន
Roles	Khmer king
Period	1002 until about 1006 to 1010
Succeeded by	Suryavarman I
Country	Khmer Empire (present-day Cambodia)
Subjects	History & Remembrance

Accession

Jayavarman V (ជ័យវរ្ម័នទី៥) was followed by his nephew Udayadityavarman I (ឧទ័យាទិត្យាវរ្ម័នទី១), whose reign lasted a year or less. Jayaviravarman came to the throne after him, in 1002. No record of his parentage survives. Chun Chanboth wrote that he was chosen king at Yasodharapura (យសោធបុរៈ), the capital at Angkor, and that little is known of his background. Vickery noted that his name was a traditional one in a lesser branch of the royal family. In 921 an earlier Jayaviravarman, who was probably a prince, was one of the founders of the temple of Prasat Kravan at Angkor.

In Vickery's account, the new reign began without unrest at the capital. The government went on working as before, several major inscriptions of noble families date from his reign, and he held a large territory.

Inscriptions

Inscriptions from the start of Jayaviravarman's reign come from the capital and the land around it, in the present-day provinces of Siem Reap, Battambang, Kampong Thom and Kampong Cham. At the Khleang buildings in Angkor, where most of the inscriptions belong to Suryavarman I, one Sanskrit text is wholly given to Jayaviravarman. At Preah Ko, a stele dated 1005 praises him.

Work on the temple mountain of Ta Keo (តាកែវ), begun under Jayavarman V, went on under Jayaviravarman and then Suryavarman I, and the temple was never finished. Glaize's guide names Jayaviravarman as the king of Ta Keo. Inscriptions dated 1007 on the door jambs of its eastern gateways record gifts to the temple, not its founding.

Contest with Suryavarman I

The first inscriptions that name Suryavarman lie east, northeast and southeast of Angkor. They are not royal orders but records of gifts by officials who call him their ruler, and Vickery placed his base in eastern Cambodia. Chun Chanboth wrote instead that the rival king came from the west.

By 1005 Jayaviravarman was issuing warnings against rebels who were pulling up boundary markers. A year later, inscriptions of Suryavarman appeared at Angkor. Chun Chanboth wrote that the capital fell to Suryavarman in 1006, but that the civil war went on for four more years. In his account, Jayaviravarman was fully defeated in 1010 and died in that war. Vickery dates the full consolidation of Suryavarman's power to 1011, the year of the oath of loyalty that he required of his officials.

Suryavarman counted his own reign from 1002, the year Jayaviravarman took the throne. After his victory he was consecrated king together with Jayaviravarman's former chief queen. No posthumous name is recorded for Jayaviravarman.

Rival claims

Jacques concluded that Suryavarman did not necessarily seize the throne unlawfully, and that he seemed to have a better claim than his rival. Vickery agreed that the records of both kings argue against a takeover by a wholly illegitimate claimant, and found no evidence that a foreign army invaded. In his reading, Suryavarman and his supporters were heirs of the branch of the royal family descended from Indravarman I (ឥន្ទ្រវរ្ម័នទី១). Jayaviravarman stood for another branch, lost from the records, which may be the line of the earlier Jayaviravarman of Prasat Kravan.

Maurice Glaize called Suryavarman I the usurper who ousted Jayaviravarman. George Coedès held two opposite views over time. At first he took Suryavarman to be a foreign invader, a Tambralinga prince from the Malay Peninsula who overthrew Jayaviravarman, the more legitimate claimant. He later held that Suryavarman was the more legitimate Khmer claimant and that Jayaviravarman was the invader from the peninsula. Vickery rejected both versions.

References