Heritage site
Sdok Kak Thom
Sdok Kak Thom is a Khmer temple in eastern Thailand, near the Cambodian border, where a stele of 1052 was found carrying the inscription known as K. 235.[1][2] The inscription is one of the fullest sources for the early history of the Khmer kings, and the text that tells of the cult called the Devaraja.[3][2]
The stele
The text was cut into a tall stone stele, taken from the temple ruins in the late 19th century. It has 194 lines in Sanskrit and 146 in Old Khmer.[2] The digital edition by the DHARMA research project dates it to 974 in the Saka era, the year 1052, when Udayadityavarman II was king.[4] Étienne Aymonier described the temple and the stele in the Journal Asiatique in 1901.[5] Its first edition, with a French translation, came from George Cœdès and Pierre Dupont in 1943.[4][6]
What it records
The inscription tells the story of one priestly family that served the kings for about two and a half centuries, beginning with Jayavarman II.[1] The Old Khmer part opens with the family's place in the royal cult. When Jayavarman II set up the "Sovereign High Lord of the World", in Khmer kamraten jagat ta raja, at his royal city on Mahendraparvata, he chose members of this family as its only officiants.[4][3] Its patriarch, Sivakaivalya, was the king's guru and royal chaplain. A Brahmin called Hiranyadama taught him the rite, which was meant to free Kambujadesa from Java.[4]
The text then follows the cult and the family from reign to reign. The god moved with each new royal city. When King Yasovarman I founded Yasodharapura, he brought it from Hariharalaya, and a member of the family set up a linga at the center of his temple-mountain.[4] The family's lands, villages and shrines are listed in detail. In the reign of Suryavarman I, a family head named Sadasiva left holy orders to marry the chief queen's younger sister and took the name Jayendrapandita. Under Udayadityavarman II, whom he taught, he became royal preceptor as Jayendravarman, and the king gave him land, slaves and great gifts.[4]
Debate
Sak-Humphry calls the inscription one of the fullest texts in Cambodian epigraphy and of great value for early Cambodian history.[2] Its account is also widely doubted. Penny and his co-authors write that much of what it says is regarded as questionable or invented.[1] Vickery notes that the Sanskrit word devaraja, which the inscription gives for the cult's Khmer name, appears in no other inscription.[3] Hermann Kulke's study of the cult appeared in English translation, from the German, in 1978.[7]
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 PLOS ONE, Dan Penny, Jean-Baptiste Chevance, David Tang and Stéphane De Greef, The Environmental Impact of Cambodia's Ancient City of Mahendraparvata (Phnom Kulen) (January 8, 2014)
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa, Chhany Sak-Humphry, The Sdok Kak Thom Inscription, with a Grammatical Analysis of Old Khmer (2005)
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 Angkor Database, Michael Vickery, The Reign of Sūryavarman I and Royal Factionalism at Angkor, Journal of Southeast Asian Studies (1985)
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3 4.4 4.5 DHARMA, Kunthea Chhom and Dominic Goodall (eds.), K. 235. Stela of Prasat Sdok Kak Thom, 974 Śaka (digital edition, 2026)
- ↑ Internet Archive, Étienne Aymonier, La stèle de Sdok Kak Thom, Journal Asiatique, ninth series, volume 17 (1901; in French)
- ↑ École française d'Extrême-Orient, Corpus des inscriptions khmères, Bibliographie (undated)
- ↑ Cornell University Southeast Asia Program, Hermann Kulke, The Devaraja Cult, Data Paper 108 (1978)