Indravarman I.

Indravarman I († 890 ) was a king of Angkor and ruled the Khmer Empire from 877 to 890 .

Indravarman I was not related to Jayavarman II or Jayavarman III. Instead, he attributed his claim to the throne to unknown pre-Angkorian rulers. In fact, he was not a prince, but "a nephew of the wife of Jayavarman II." His right to inherit the office of king was therefore questionable, which is why he was challenged. He was a usurper and had to fight for the crown. An inscription dedicated to him reads: “The right hand of this prince, long and mighty, was terribly in combat; when his sword fell on his enemies, it scattered limbs in every direction. He was only reassured by enemies when they fled or joined Indravarman. "

While Jayavarman II established the Khmer Empire in 802 AD, Indravarman was the builder of the former larger temples of Angkor, such as Preah Ko . He also had the first baray built. The main aim was to collect the water that rained from the sky during the monsoon season and to channel it through channels to the fields during the drought. Associated with this was a public service that was responsible for irrigation and rice cultivation. In Hindu mythology, the water reservoir represented an ocean and the temple mount called Prasat represented Mount Meru , where the home of the gods is. The king and his brahmin counselors performed many rituals throughout the year to strengthen faith and positively influence the natural cycles. For example, the rain-making ritual was practiced before the rice growing season. Immediately after Indravarman began, he announced: "In five days I want to start digging." He dug a basin of immense size: the Indratataka Baray was the largest basin (reservoir) that was ever built before Indravarman's time, 3, 8 kilometers long and 800 meters wide. Later rulers ordered the excavation of the reservoir and made the aforementioned basin "small". The basin was able to hold around 7.5 million cubic meters of water during the monsoon season.

Preah Koh

Indravarman built shrines that he dedicated to his god, ancestors, parents and others. At Hariharalaya , which served as the capital and now forms the Roluos Group , he had Preah Ko built, which he dedicated to his parents, his wife and the dynasty founder Jayavarman II. The architectural style was named after Preah Ko during the reign of Indravarman I.

A prasat was built in his honor and became his grave after his death. Codices identified 13 Angkorian kings after Jayavarman II, so Indravarman set up two shrines for each of these kings (nation and burial shrine). These shrines were built with stepped pyramids enclosed by lakes. In the center of the capital of Hariharalaya he built the state temple Bakong , which had two enclosing moats. The central shrine of the kingdom, which contained the official linga of the deity Shiva , was located in the Bakong .

Indravarman died in 890. His son Yasovarman I succeeded him as ruler .

Individual evidence

1. ^ Briggs, The Ancient Khmer Empire, p. 97
2. ^ Higham, The Civilization of Angkor, p. 60
3. ^ Chandler, A History of Cambodia, p. 37
4. ^ Marilia Albanese: Angkor . National Geographic Art Guide. Ed .: National Geographic Society . G + J / RBA GmbH & Co. KG, Hamburg 2006, ISBN 978-3-937606-77-4 , p. 24 (Italian: I tesori di Angkor . Translated by Wolfgang Hensel).

literature

• Lawrence Palmer Briggs: The Ancient Khmer Empire . Transactions of the American Philosophical Society 1951.
• David Chandler: A History of Cambodia . Westview Press 1996. Second Edition.
• Charles Higham: The Civilization of Angkor . University of California Press 2001.

predecessor	Office	successor
Jayavarman III.	King of the Khmer 877 to 890	Yasovarman I.