Historical figure
Tribhuvanadityavarman
ត្រីភូវនាទិត្យាវរ្ម័ន
Tribhuvanadityavarman (ត្រីភូវនាទិត្យាវរ្ម័ន) was a king of the Khmer Empire who reigned at Angkor in the third quarter of the 12th century.[1][2] Older lists call him a usurper.[3] His reign ended when forces of Champa under the Cham king Jaya Indravarman overthrew him and attacked Angkor.[4] The temple of Banteay Samre dates from his reign.[1]
Dates of the reign
The sources give different dates for his reign. Maurice Glaize's list of kings calls him a usurper and dates his reign from 1165 to 1177, followed by a Cham occupation from 1177 to 1181.[3] Chun Chanboth gives the same years.[2] Louise Roche, writing in 2020, drew on two Sanskrit steles that were not yet published, K.1222 and K.1297. Both praise him as the direct successor of Suryavarman II (សូរ្យវរ្ម័នទី២). In her reading he reigned from 1149/50 to 1167 or 1177.[1] She took the year he came to the throne from K.1297, and noted that the last inscription to name him as the reigning king is dated 1167 (K.1219).[1] Michael Vickery wrote that a single inscription, K.418, dates him to 1166.[4]
Rise to the throne
Chun Chanboth places two kings, Dharanindravarman II and Yasovarman II (យសោវរ្ម័នទី២), between Suryavarman II and Tribhuvanadityavarman.[2] Roche noted that the inscriptions of this period name all three, which has made the order of kings hard to settle.[1] Chun Chanboth wrote that he was a senior official of Yasovarman II who rose against the king, killed him in 1165 and declared himself king that year.[2] In the inscription K.288, Jayavarman VII (ជ័យវរ្ម័នទី៧) set out the kings before him: Yasovarman II was dispossessed by Tribhuvanadityavarman, who was in turn dispossessed by the Cham king Jaya Indravarman.[4] A passage of the Phimeanakas inscription (K.485) says that Yasovarman was brought down by a servant who wanted royal power, whom Vickery took to be Tribhuvanadityavarman.[4]
Banteay Samre
Roche studied the remains of Banteay Samre and concluded that the temple was built in the third quarter of the 12th century, during his reign. The images of its central tower led her to see it as a foundation of tantric Buddhism.[1]
The Cham attack
Vickery identified the Cham king who overthrew Tribhuvanadityavarman as Jaya Indravarman of Gramapuravijaya. He wrote that earlier historians had merged two Cham kings of that name into a single Jaya Indravarman IV.[4] Chun Chanboth wrote that the Cham king brought a fleet up the Mekong and across the Tonle Sap, guided by a Chinese man who had been shipwrecked, and took Angkor in 1177.[2] Vickery questioned that account. The Phimeanakas inscription speaks of a single invasion by land, with the army carried on carts, and the Cham inscriptions say nothing of an attack in 1177 or an occupation of Angkor. In his view the year 1177 came from Chinese sources that are hardly credible.[4]
The sources differ on how he died. George Coedès read a badly damaged passage of K.485 as saying that Jaya Indravarman killed the usurper, meaning Tribhuvanadityavarman.[4] Roche wrote that the Prasat Chrung inscription K.597 suggests he may have been killed by Jaya Indravarman during the raid on Angkor.[1] Chun Chanboth wrote that the Cham king killed him when the city fell.[2] The future Jayavarman VII had been in Vijaya, in Champa, before the invasion. Vickery wrote that he did not challenge Tribhuvanadityavarman, but waited until the Cham had overthrown him.[4]
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 1.6 Arts Asiatiques, Louise Roche, Le sanctuaire de Banteay Samrae à Angkor : une fondation bouddhique du règne de Tribhuvanādityavarman (2020; in French)
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 2.5 Radio Free Asia Khmer, Chun Chanboth, The period after the reign of King Suryavarman II (part 15) (May 28, 2014; in Khmer)
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 Angkor Database, Maurice Glaize, The Monuments of the Angkor Group (1944; English translation of the fourth French edition)
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3 4.4 4.5 4.6 4.7 Asia Research Institute, National University of Singapore, Michael Vickery, Champa Revised, ARI Working Paper No. 37 (March 2005)