Devarája cult

In the brief overview of Cambodia history, we mentioned that King Jayavarman II first instituted Devarája cult in Phnom Kulen. This cult is an expression of the absolute respect granted to the god and the king.

Kamaleswar Bhattacharya explains the meaning of the word Devará as ‘god-king’, i.e. a single word to refer to a character that is both a god and a king. But in no way does it refer to ‘the king of the gods’ or ‘the god of the kings’.

In addition, K. Bhattacharya states that in the 7^th century, the Khmer kings were an embodiment of either Siva or Visnu, according to their own devotion to the supreme god.