Phnom Penh National Museum

Inscription K. 485 tells us that Queen Jayarajadeví distributed a large share of her wealth to the poor. And, as in art she is represented in the likeness of the Prájnápáramitá (Ka. 1724), it may be assumed that this queen was a benefactress. In the Vessantara Játaka, Madrí, Vessantara’s wife, like her husband, gives generous alms; she gives her property, her children and herself to the Jújaka benefactress.

With the development of religious worship, the ancient Khmers modeled the overall vision of Braahmanism and Buddhism to their own sensibilities, and replaced the major gods with their ancestors. There is clear evidence of this shift in the statues of deities built under the reign of Jayavarman VII, when they were designed to look like him or his wife, such as the statues of the kneeling Prajnaparamita and those of the king himself. Phimean Akas temple inscription K. 485, written by Indradeví, provides further insight into this practice, ‘Jayarájadeví, an intelligent women, erected everywhere statues of her mother, her father, her brother, her friends, her forebears and relatives that she knew or had heard of’ (stanza XCIII). There is mention of Indradeví herself in stanza XCVI, ‘[…] Thus, while erecting numerous images of Srí Jayarájadeví along with images of herself and the king, in every city, […]’. However, it is difficult to maintain and to accept that all the images of...

The representations of Siva’s wives, Durgá or Umá, Visnu’s wife, Laksmí , and Lokesvara’s wife, Prajnaparamitá, are merlu their embodiments. Their attributes make them easily identifiable. As the wives of the gods, the goddesses also symbolize nature. We already kwon that Durgá killed the Asura Mahisa. In this episode, Durgá symbolizes the power of nature; she is born of the coming together of the gods’powers, while the Asura symbolizes all that exists in nature. But, all that exists in nature must be destroyed by the power of nature, symbolized by the god or the goddess. Some documents present the god as a representation of the cosmos. As such, Durgá therefor represents the cosmic forces.

We know that a Preah Neang Deví can be the god’s sakti, his equivalent, or even his female energy. This energy is the very essence of the god, which represents all that exists in nature: inanimate objects, human beings and animals. We must give credit to the Indian philosopher Isvarakrsna for studying the Samkhyá-which means theory or analytical thinking - on the existence of things, human beings and animals. Taken as a whole, these notions have given rise to the two principles of Prakrti and Purusa. The Prakrti is like a body that provokes a reaction, a sort of catalyst that acts as a creative power. The Prakrti possesses three qualities, sattva, rajas and tamas. It is considered to be pure and natural, which means not altered. It is classified in the ‘woman and female’ category, and in identified with the earth. The Purusa is the spirit, the inactive principle that cannot create. The union of the spirit and the Prakrti causes life and pain. It is classified in the ‘ma...

Ancient Cambodia’s Indian cultural heritage does not only comprise religious art; but also includes the art of writing. The writings found on stones, which the Khmers call inscriptions or ‘stone writing’, were written in Sanskrit or ancient Khmer and are an undisputed source and undeniable source of information when studying Cambodian religion and history. Generally, Sanskrit inscriptions are verses introduced by invocations to the gods and praises to the kings; the inscriptions in ancient Khmer are written in prose and refer to social and religious events. Among these inscriptions, the one found at Phimean Akas temple (K. 485) is of particular significance in the study of the Preah Neang Deví. The inscription is written in Sanskrit on a four-sided boundary stone; fifty-two lines are written on three sides and forty-four lines on the fourth side. It was broken into 70 pieces that Henri Marchal, the then curator of Angkor Conservation, pieced back together to re-asse...