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The Preah Neang Deví in literature


The museum’s collections illustrate two main epics in Khmer literature, the Reamkerti and the Vessantara játaka.

Among the ten játaka, only the Vessantara játaka describes the Bldhisttva Vessantara giving alms. One must remember that the Bodhisattva’s wife is his female energy, which manifests itself through physical beauty and morals. Thus, a handsome appearance creates beauty. In Brahnaism, Laksmi  is the goddess of beauty.

In the Vessantara játaka, Queen Mahámáyádeví, wife of Suddhodana, Buddha’s father, is granted ten favors by the god Indra, but only five of them relate to physical beauty:
  1.   Beautiful eyes with eyebrows curved as a bow
  2. A flat stomach during pregnancy
  3. Firm breasts
  4. The absence of white hair
  5. Smooth (and golden) skin
Khmer society admires women, who boast the physical beauty, or pancavidh kalyáni, that include the teeth, the lips, the skin and the hair, to which it adds ‘a beautiful life’. The lady in the Buddhist tale of the Visákhá is endowed with these five qualities of physical beauty.

Similarly to the conception of the canons of beauty, a code of conduct for the wives of the Bodhisattva appears in Khmer literature. Thus, in the Rámáyana, Sitá remains faithful to Rámawhen she rejects Rávana’s proposal. In the Vessantara játaka, Madrí gives her possessions and herself to the beggars. And in the Mahosatha játaka, Amará, Bodhisattva Mahosatha’s wife, is as intelligent as her husband.

Under the reign of Jayavarman VII, some Játaka are illustrated on the lintels and the pediments of the Ta Prohm and Bayon temples but also at the Ta Prohm of Bati, in Takeo province.
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