Southeast Asia did not
become a cultural battlefield between China
and India.
In the field of religion, for instance, there was no rivalry between the two
great Asian peoples to save souls in Southeast Asia.
On the contrary, the Chinese adopted Buddhism, which was introduced from India by way of central Asia
at the court of the eastern Han emperor in the 1st century AD.
Throughout the first millennium, scholars and pilgrims from China as well as Southeast Asia visited places
of worship and scholarship in India.
Many Chinese scholars and pilgrims stopped halfway in Sumatra and Borneo to
learn Sanskrit and Pali before proceeding to India for advanced study. China and Southeast Asia
both were areas of Indian religious influence in this period.
Most of Southeast Asia followed the Indian cultural patterns. The relative
acceptability of Indian culture may be further attributed to geographical
commonness, relative lack of Indian political ambition in the region, and the
sate of commerce between India
and Southeast Asia. Geographically, India and Southeast Asia
share the tropical monsoon climate, with all its implications for a way of life
based on irrigate agriculture. Indian culture was welcome in Southeast
Asia because it came without political strings. Also, it should be
noted that commerce had been an important carrier of culture throughout
history. Traditional Chinese shyness towards the sea left the field largely to
Indians at first and, later, to the Arabs, Persians, and to the Southeast
Asians themselves.
However, the large
scale acculturation of Southeast Asian elite on the Indian pattern could not
have been the work of Indian traders, who belonged to the Vaishya class, or
sailors, who came from the Shudra group. Indeed the prime agents of the process
of Indianization were the Brahmins, the priestly class, who had knowledge of
the sacred lore, the rites and the rituals and laws. The initiative for the
Indianizing process in Southeast Asia most
certainly came from the region’s ruling class, who invited Brahmins to serve at
their courts at priest, astrologers, and advisers.
Chenla is claimed to
have been the original home of the Khambuja people.
The Khambuja royalty,
traced its descent from Rishi Kambu Svayambhuva, the King of Aryadesa (India) and the apsara Meera, which is another
version of the recurrent motif of foundation myths of royal families in South India. Kambuja
(Cambodia)
according to tradition was established by Kambu Svayambhuva after whom the
country was named Kambuja. Some of its famous rulers bore names ending in
Varman as in South Indian; examples are Jayavarman, Yasovarman, and Suryavarman.
The two earliest known
kings are Srutavarman and his son Sreshthavarman, who secured Chenla’s freedom
from Funan. About the middle of the 6th century, when the last king
of Funan, Rudravarman died, the king of Chenla, Bhavavarman – possibly a
grandson of Rudravarman of Funan – underttok to conquer Funan with the help of
his brother Chitrasena.
A good deal is known
of Bhavavarman from inscriptions, one of which, written in Sanskrit verse,
announces the consecration by the King, of a Sivalinga named Tryambaka.
Another describes him as King of Kings, strong as Mount Meru.
When he died in 598 the unification of the two kingdoms was well advanced, and
he has been described, therefore, as the founder of the glory of Kambujadesa.
After his death, his brother, Chitrasena ascended the throne as Mahendravarman.
He built numerous Shiva temples throughout his domains. All the known
inscriptions of Mahendravarman resemble Pallava inscriptions of the early 7th
century. In marked contrast to Funan and other Southeast Asian states which
frequently sent embassies to China,
Chenla dispatched its first embassy to China in 616-617, during
Chitrasena’s reign.
After his
Chitravarman’s death, his son Isanavarman ruled over the whole of Cambodia, Cochin China, and the valley of the Mun River to
the north of the Dangrek
Mountains. On the site of
the modern Sambor Prei Kuk (Kampong Thom) on the Mekong River,
he founded a new capital city, called after his name Isanapura.
The Khambuja or the Khmer Kingdom
gradually emerged from the fusion of Chenla and Funan, and became the most
powerful state in Indochina.
It survived for almost
seven centuries and attained an unparalleled height of political prestige and
cultural advancement until it was destroyed by the Thais in the 15th
century. At about the same time this empire emerged, the Pyu kingdom of Sri Ksetra
in Burma, the Mon kingdom of Dvaravati
in Siam, and the Empire
of Sri Vijaya in Indonesia
were flourishing. The seventh century was a formative one in Southeast
Asia.
Until the end of this
century, the Khmer kings concentrated on consolidating their hold over lower
Meking (Ma Ganga) region and around
Tonle Sap. Both Hinduism and Buddhism were practiced, with the former
predominating; Saivism appears to have been the court religion. The
worship of Harihara, in which Shiva and Vishnu are united in a single body, was
the main feature of this period. Most inscriptions are in Sanskrit and the
literary culture was based upon the Ramayana, the Mahabharata, and the Puranas.
Phnom Kulen -- This is
where the 500-year long Age of Angkor began. Phnom Kulen is the mountain on
which Jayavarman II initiated a royal 'devraja' king in 802AD, declaring a
unified and independent Cambodia under a single ruler.
Until the rise of
Jayavarman II the capital of the Kambuja was in the south at Isanapura where
the earliest types of Khmer temples are found, all dedicated to the Hindu
religion. Indian models, especially of the post-Gupta style, were generally
imitated, but the wood originals in India have perished. Indian influence in
early Khmer or Sambor art is so marked that some scholars have suggested the
artists came from India. The statues are extremely beautiful, but only a few
have survived.
The most exquisite of
these are the statues of Harihara, Uma and Lakshmi in the Phom Penh museum.
Jayavarman introduced into
Cambodia with the help of a Brahmin guru, Hiranyadama, the idea of the
Deva Raja (the king-God) which was somewhat similar to that of the Sailendra
King of the Mountain cult. Jayavarman based his power on religion. He organized
the state, founding several capitals – Hariharalaya, modern Roluous,
Amarendrapura, probably built around Akyum, and finally Mahendraparvata or the
Phom Kulen. Excavations on the summit of Phnom Kulen have revealed a number of
temples that were completely hidden by thick forests and were mainly discovered
by Philippe Stern and Henri Mouhot. In style, they provide a link between
pre-Angkor and classical Angkor art.
The Khmers were
accomplished builders; Jayavarman’s successors built temples enthusiastically.
The cult of the King of the Mountain inspired each king to erect a magnificent
shrine to perpetuate his memory. Thus arose the complex of Angkor Thom.
Yasovarman I (889 – 901) was one of the outstanding rulers of the dynasty, and
the founder of the first city of Angkor. This covered a much larger area than
Angkor Thom, which was founded later by Jayavarman VII at the end of the
twelfth century. These two cities partly overlap, but the former lies outside
the southern wall of Angkor Thom. Yasovarman issued a large number of Sanskrit inscriptions written
in Kavya style and built the Saiva temple of Phnom Bakheng.
Indravarman who laid the
foundation of Angkor, is said to have studied the monistic Vedanta philosophy
of the great Indian Sage Shankaracharya, with a Brahmin learned
in that tradition.
Hydraulic Capital
Cambodia reached its
peak during the reign of Suryavaman II (1113 – 1152), the builder of the
matchless Angkor Wat, an epic in stone. With the death of Jayavarman II (1181 –
1220) the kingdom began to decline, falling finally before the advancing
Thais.
Angkor is a derivative
of the Sanskrit Nagara, meaning city, and thom a Khmer word meaning great.
Angkor can reclaim the reputation it once had as a "hydraulic
capital".
Angkow wat covering an
area of five hundred acres is the largest and most impressive temple in the
world. According to Henri Mouhot, who discovered it for the modern world: “this
architectural work perhaps has not, and perhaps never has had, its equal on the
face of the globe.”
Since his day,
countless people, both admirers and skeptics, have stood spellbound before this
majestic temple of Vishnu.
A raised causeway of
flagstones, lined by a naga-balustrade, leads from the main road over a moat to
the main gate of the temple. This gate house, which is a spacious building
forming the front part of the wall that goes around the enclosure, is in itself
a remarkable creation. A paved road 400 yards long leads to the temple. At the
base, the temple is 223 by 242 yards, and its main tower is about 80 yards
high. Structurally it is a three-stepped pyramid. Each storey is punctuated by
towers at the corners and pavilions in the center. The main tower is on the
third storey. The temple rises steeply in the form of three concentric
rectangular galleries, each double the height of the preceding one, and
connected by stairs and intervening open terraces. The inner most gallery is
dominated by five tall domes, the central one of which dominates the plain
below. The entire building is constructed in sandstone, and if any wood was
used, it has long since perished.
The building has been
chiseled with endless bas-reliefs and beautiful designs and patterns. Flowers,
birds, and dancing maidens decorate the walls. Hundreds of Khmer artists must
have spend their entire lives on the work, yet is impossible to detect a single
flaw in these acres of carved panels. The sculptors of Angkor wat who executed
many scenes from the Ramayana, the Mahabharata, and the Harivamsa, must have
had an intimate knowledge of Indian epic literature. Vishnu predominates but
other gods also adorn the temple with their various incarnations and
emanations. The outer gallery, running
around the whole building, itself contains a half-mile of bas reliefs on the
back wall, and there are about 1750 life-size apsaras, practically everyone in
a different, magnificent head-dress.
Although the Khmers
are so admirably remembered for their superb achievements in art, they
patronized all branches of Indian learning. All the princes received training
in Indian philosophy and literature. A number of persons of apparent Indian
origin were present in the Khambuja kingdom and Brahmins were held in high
esteem. For instance, Hiranyadama came from a janapada in India to teach
Tantric texts to the royal priest, Sivakaivalya.
When Buddhism became
the paramount religion of Cambodia is uncertain. It had long been flourishing
and occasionally enjoyed royal patronage, but it was never the state
religion and never held a dominant position. It seems likely that Siam,
which was first influenced by Cambodia, later aided Cambodia’s conversion to
Buddhism. The change was almost complete; today Hinduism is practically extinct
in Cambodia, except in a vestigial form in certain ceremonies and festivities.
Hindu deities have been absorbed by Buddhism and relegated to subordinate
positions, and even the Hindu gods in the great temples, such as Angkor Wat,
have long been replaced by the images of the Buddha.
The Thais
attacked Angkor Wat several times in the 1300s and 1400s and sacked the seat of
the Khmer regime in 1431.
Over the centuries,
numerous different groups - including Thai and Vietnamese invaders, French colonizers
and Khmer
Rouge guerrillas and the Americans with their carpet bombing - have
trampled over Cambodia's ancient sites, each contributing to the damage.
To the
French conservators, Angkor was archeological champagne, the best of the best. Rescuing it became a technical passion. For 40 years the French concentrated on arresting further deterioration and by 1970 a hundred-man team, cranes and heavy cement-mixing equipment were reinforcing the massive jumble of stonework. Four out of Angkor's nine towers are gone, irretrievably lopped off by crunching weather forces.
(source: India
and World Civilization – D P Singhal part II p. 124 - 131 and Southeast Asia- Past and present
– By D R Sardesai p. 15 - 20).
Architectural Symbolism - Astronomy and
Cosmology at Angkor WatIndia was the spark that fired the blaze
One of the most spectacular structures of astronomical significance that has ever been built is the temple of Angkor Wat in what is now Cambodia.
Angkor Wat is the most famous temple at Angkor, a former capital of the Khmer empire. It was built by King Suryavarman II in the 12th century, and is as immense as it is beautiful.
Lotus-spired Angkor Wat rises like a mirrored
image above the waters of the moat. Angkor reflects classic Khmer temple
architecture; Its central tower symbolizes sacred Mount Meru, the surrounding
spires chains of mountains, the encircling moat the oceans.
In orderly magnificence, the capital unfurled
its artistic splendor with the growth of empire.
The origins of the temple lie in what may be
the world's oldest religious text, the Rig Veda,
one of the four Veda Samhitas of Hindu literature. This text describes the gods
of heaven and earth, including the earthly god Vishnu, "The
Preserver." It is to Vishnu that Angkor Wat is consecrated, and with more
than mere symbolic intent.
***
Surrounded by
a rectangular moat 1.5 kilometers (0.9 mile) long and 1.3 kilometers (0.8 mile)
wide, the structure itself consists of two rectangular walls enclosing three
nested rectangular galleries that culminate in a central spire surrounded by
four smaller towers. The straight lines of its moat, walls and galleries are
oriented along the north-south, east-west directions, and unlike most temples
in the area its entrance faces west, being approached by way of a long bridge
that spans the moat. The origins of the temple lie in what may be the world's oldest religious text, the Rig Veda, one of the four Veda Samhitas of Hindu literature. This text describes the gods of heaven and earth, including the earthly god Vishnu, "The Preserver." It is to Vishnu that Angkor Wat is consecrated, and with more than mere symbolic intent. Hindu temples were built to be earthly abodes for the gods. The central sanctuary was the most sacred place, directly inline with the vertical axis of the central spire that provided the connection between the realms of heaven and Earth. The surrounding architecture of the temple would then mirror Hindu cosmology, being essentially a mandala in stone—a diagram of the cosmos itself. Furthermore, the Khmer civilization had by the time of Angkor Wat's construction incorporated the idea that a king would, after his death, be transmuted into one of the gods. Hence, it was at Angkor Wat that Suryavarman II, after his death, was believed to reside as Vishnu.
Astronomical
significance:
Astronomy and Hindu cosmology are inseparably entwined at Angkor Wat. Nowhere is this more evident than in the interior colonnade, which is dedicated to a vast and glorious carved mural, a bas-relief illustrating the gods as well as scenes from the Hindu epic The Mahabharata. Along the east wall is a 45-meter (150-foot) scene illustrating the "churning of the sea of milk," a creation myth in which the gods attempt to churn the elixir of immortality out of the milk of time. The north wall depicts the "day of the gods," along the west wall is a great battle scene from the Mahabharata, and the south wall portrays the kingdom of Yama, the god of death. It has been suggested that the choice and arrangement of these scenes was intended to tie in with the seasons—the creation scene of the east wall is symbolic of the renewal of spring, the "day of the gods" is summer, the great battle on the west wall may represent the decline of autumn, and the portrayal of Yama might signify the dormancy, the lifeless time of winter.
The
architecture of Angkor Wat also has numerous astronomical aspects beyond the
basic mandala plan that is common to other Hindu temples. As many as
eighteen astronomical alignments have been identified within its walls. To
mention but three of them: when standing just inside the western entrance, the
Sun rises over the central tower on the spring (vernal) equinox; it rises over
a distant temple at Prasat Kuk Bangro, 5.5 kilometers (3.4 miles) away, on the
winter solstice; and on the summer solstice it rises over a prominent hill 17.5
kilometers (10.9 miles) away.Astronomy and Hindu cosmology are inseparably entwined at Angkor Wat. Nowhere is this more evident than in the interior colonnade, which is dedicated to a vast and glorious carved mural, a bas-relief illustrating the gods as well as scenes from the Hindu epic The Mahabharata. Along the east wall is a 45-meter (150-foot) scene illustrating the "churning of the sea of milk," a creation myth in which the gods attempt to churn the elixir of immortality out of the milk of time. The north wall depicts the "day of the gods," along the west wall is a great battle scene from the Mahabharata, and the south wall portrays the kingdom of Yama, the god of death. It has been suggested that the choice and arrangement of these scenes was intended to tie in with the seasons—the creation scene of the east wall is symbolic of the renewal of spring, the "day of the gods" is summer, the great battle on the west wall may represent the decline of autumn, and the portrayal of Yama might signify the dormancy, the lifeless time of winter.
Finally, some researchers have claimed that the very dimensions of many of the structures at Angkor Wat have astronomical associations. These associations emerge from consideration of the unit of length that was in use at that time, a unit known as the hat or "Cambodian cubit." There is some question as to how long a hat was, and indeed its definition may not have been uniformly applied; but a value of 43.45 centimeters (17.1 inches) for the length of a hat is suggested by the structures themselves.
Using this value, archaeologists discovered numerous dimensions of the temple that seem to have astronomical and cosmological significance—for example, the following:
·
The dimensions of the highest rectangular level of the temple are
189 hat in the east-west direction and 176 hat in the north-south direction.
Added together these give 365, the number of days in one year.
·
In the central sanctuary, the distances between sets of steps is
approximately 12 hat. There are roughly 12 lunar cycles, or synodic months
(from full Moon to full Moon, say—the basis for our modern month) in one year.
·
The length and width of the central tower add up to approximately
91 hat. On average, there are 91 days between any solstice and the next equinox,
or any equinox and the next solstice.
Because of
its orbit around the Earth, the Moon's apparent position in the sky relative to
the background stars will appear to shift from night to night. Since it takes
the Moon just over 27 days to complete one orbit (known as its sidereal
period), it will during this time appear to move through 27 successive regions
of the sky. In Hindu cosmology, these regions were known as the naksatras,
or lunar mansions. In some contexts there were 27 lunar mansions, while in
other contexts an additional naksatra containing the star Vega was included,
giving 28 lunar mansions.
·
The central tower at Angkor Wat contains nine inner chambers. If
you total the dimensions of all of these chambers it equals 27 hat in the
north-south direction and 28 hat in the east-west direction, corresponding to
the possible number of lunar mansions. Also, the libraries have lengths
measured along their interiors of 16 hat in the east-west direction, and either
12 or 11 hat in the north-south direction, depending upon whether or not the
doorways are included. Added together, these also give either 28 or 27 hat.
Finally, the north-south width of the libraries measured from the exteriors of
the walls is again 28 hat.
Hindu
cosmology recognizes four time periods, or Yugas, that are represented in the
dimensions of the temple:
·
The length of the Kali-Yuga, our current time period, is 2
x 603 years, or 432 thousand years. The width of the moat that
surrounds the temple, measured at the water level, is approximately 432 hat.
·
The length of the Dv apara-Yuga is 4 x 603
years, or 864 thousand years. The distance from the entrance to the inner wall
is 867 hat.
·
The length of the Treta-Yuga is 6 x 603 years,
or 1,296 thousand years. The distance from the entrance to the central tower is
1,296 hat.
·
The length of the Krita-Yuga is 8 x 603 years,
or 1,728 thousand years. The distance from the moat bridge to the center of the
temple is 1,734 hat.
Rarely in
history has any culture given rise to a structure that so elaborately and
expansively incorporates its concept of the cosmos. Angkor Wat stands as a
striking and majestic monument in honor of the Universe and our place in it. (source: Angkor - The History of Astronomy - planetquest.org).
The Solar Numbers at Angkor Wat
Dr Subhask Kak (1949 - ) is a widely known scientist and a Indic scholar. Currently a Professor at Louisiana State University, he has authored ten books and more than 200 research papers in the fields of information theory, quantum mechanics, and Indic studies. He is a Sanskrit scholar and is author of Astronomical Code of the Rig Veda, and India at Century's End: Essays on History and Politics.
He has observed:
"The great Vishnu temple at Angkor Wat is known to have been built according to an astronomical plan. A little understood solar formula of the temple is identical to the one in the 2nd millennium BC Indian text called Shatapatha Brahmana. It was an expression of the Shatapatha astronomy."
Architectural plans
published by Nafilyan (1969) were examined to Assess possible astronomical
alignments in context of written records of the Khmer empire and specifically
the reign of Suryavarman II (1113-1150AD) during which the complex was
built. Twenty-two possible alignments
are identified and their relationship to bas relief and Hindu time cycles
examined.
Conclusions: 1. The
rising sun appears aligned on equinox and solstice days with the western
entrance of Angkor Wat.2. The movements of the moon can be observed from a
variety of positions within the temple, and lunar cycles may have been recorded
in the three sets of libraries.3. The bas reliefs of the third gallery can be
understood in relation to the movements of the sun, which establish their
counterclockwise direction. 4. The measurements of the temple appear
proportional to calendric and cosmological time cycles.
(source: http://arxiv.org/abs/physics/9811040
and http://www.du.edu/~rstencel/Courses/angkor.htm).
Jean Fillozat was the first to
perceive that the relief function could be part of broader astronomical and
numerological concepts embedded in Khmer architecture.
In 1976, a group of
American scholars R. Stencel, F Gifford and E Moron, published a paper
revealing a cosmic symbolism created by the relationship between structures and
meaning in the design of Angkor wat. The theme was considerably expanded by Eleanor
Mannikka in her book of 1996. On the basis of the study of a very large
number of measurements of architectural elements at Angkor Wat, she established
that the temple’s dimensions are encoded with the meanings of Indian cosmology
and numerology. She also noticed that some alignments of the monument’s
structures are closely related to astronomical events. The temple’s
architecture is a sort of religious and astronomical text, a text that could be
read by knowledgeable people walking along its main pathways. For example, as
the sun progresses on its annual round, it illuminates in a specific way the
great continuous series reliefs of the 3rd gallery, revealing a most
intriguing relationship between the passage of the sun and the content of the
reliefs. In the first part of the year, it illuminates the main protagonists of
the creation act (Churning of the Ocean of Milk). During the autumn equinox, on
the side of the setting sun, the highlighted reliefs depict the terrible battle
of Kurukshtra. During the dry season, the north gallery loses the sun, while
the reliefs on the south gallery, lit up by the sun, take as their theme the
kingdom of death.
Architectural
symbolism
In ancient Cambodia,
as in India, the highest religious authority, the Brahmins, formulated the
sacred concepts on which the temple was based, and the main architect, who was
also a religious teacher, carried out its construction according to the science
of sacred architecture (vastu-vidyah)
The great Vishnu temple at Angkor Wat is known to have been built
according to an astronomical plan. A little understood solar formula of the
temple is identical to the one in the 2nd millennium BC Indian text
called Shatapatha Brahmana. It was an expression of the Shatapatha astronomy."
In ancient Cambodia, as in India, the highest religious authority,
the Brahmins, formulated the sacred concepts on which the temple was based, and
the main architect, who was also a religious teacher, carried out its
construction according to the science of sacred architecture
(vastu-vidyah).
***
The Khmer temple was
conceived according to the Indian tradition of a temple-mountain, of being the
image of the mountain where the gods lived, Mount Meru. This mountain was
located north of the Himalayas, surrounded by the four water extensions which
separate the continents. Mount Meru floats over the primordial ocean,
symbolically represented by moats or the baray surrounding the temple. Since
this mountain had four peaks with a higher fifth at the center, the central
sanctuary of Angkor Wat had to have a similar configuration. Moreover, since
Mount Meru was the center of the universe in Indian cosmology, Angkor wat too
had to be the center of the cosmos. Thus this place was charged with sacred meaning.
(source: Sacred
Angkor - By Vittorio Roveda p. 1 – 22).
Symbolic diagram of
the Universe ?
According to Graham Hancock,
Angkorwat and all the temples were conceived by its builders as a symbolic
diagram of the universe. The notion of a land that is the ‘image of heaven’
on which are built cosmic temples with ‘halls that resemble the sky’ was an
idea that took root in Angkor wat. Angkor wat consists of a series of
five inter nested rectangular enclosures. The short dimensions are aligned with
high precision to true north-south, showing ‘no deviation whatever’ according
to modern surveys. The long dimensions are oriented, equally precisely, to an
axis that has been deliberately ‘diverted 0.75 degrees south of east and north
of west’.
The first and
outermost of the five rectangles that we find ourselves looking down on from
the air is the moat. Measured along its outer edge it runs 1300 meters north to
south and 1500 meters from east to west.
Its ‘ditch’, (moat)
190 meters wide, has walls made from closely fitted blocks of red sandstone set
out with such precision that the accumulated surveying error around the entire
5.6 kilometers of the perimeter amounts to barely a centimeter.
Angkor wat’s principal
entrance is on the west side where a megalithic causeway 347 meters long and
9.4 meters wide bears due east across the moat and then passes under a massive
gate let into the walls of the second of the five rectangles. This second
enclosure measures 1025 x 800 meters. The causeway continues eastward through
it, past lawns and subsidiary structure and a large reflecting pool, until it
rises on to a cruciform terrace leading into the lowest gallery of the temple
itself. This is the third of the five inter nested rectangles visible from the
air and precision engineering and surveying are again in evidence – with the
northern and southern walls, for example, being of identical lengths, exactly
202.14 meters.
Ascending to the
fourth rectangle, the fourth level of Angkor Wat’s gigantic central pyramid,
the same precision can be observed. The northern and southern walls measure
respectively 114.24 and 114.22 meters. At the fifth and last enclosure, the top
level of the pyramid – which reaches a height of 65 meters above the entrance
causeway – the northern wall is 47.75 meters in length and the southern wall
47.79 meters.
According to a study
published in the journal Science, these minute differences, ‘less
than 0.01 percent’, demonstrates an ‘astounding degree of accuracy’ on the part
of the ancient builders.
The Draco-Angkor
correlation
The principal
monuments of Angkor model the sinuous coils of the northern constellation of
Draco. There seems to be no doubt that a correlation exists: the correspondence
between the principal stars of Draco and at least fifteen of the main
pyramid-temples of Angkor are too close to be called anything else.
Cycles of the
Ages
A detailed survey of
Angkor Wat published in Science magazine in July 1976 reveled that even
the causeway incorporates cosmic symbolism and numbers encoding the cycles of
time .
The axis of the arrow-straight causeway of Angkor can be seen to
extent beyond the temple's moat and to reach out towards the distant horizon -
showing that its builders thought expansively, in very large-scale terms.
Within its moat, all the dimensions of the temple are precisely calibrated to
express a grand cosmological and numerological scheme related to the precession
of the equinoxes.
***
After establishing the
basic unit of measure used in Angkor as the Khme hat (equivalent to 0.43434
meters) the authors of the survey go on to demonstrate that axial lengths along
the causeway appear to have been adjusted to symbolize or represent the great
‘world ages’ of Hindu cosmology:
“These periods begin
with the Krita Yuga or ‘golden age’ of man and proceed through the Treta Yuga,
Dvarpara Yuga and Kali Yuga, the last being the most decadent age of man. Their
respective durations are 1,728,000 years; 1,296,000 years; 864,000 years; and
432,000 years.”
It therefore cannot be
an accident that key sections of the causeway have axial lengths that
approximate extremely closely to 1,728 hat, 1,296 hat, 864 hat, and 432 hat –
the yuga lengths scaled down by 1000. ‘We propose’, conclude the authors, ‘that
the passage of time is numerically expressed by the lengths corresponding to
yugas along the west-east axis.”
Angkor wat’s dominant
feature is its long and massive east-west axis which locks it uncompromisingly
to sunrise and sunset on the equinoxes. In addition, the temple is cleverly
anchored to ground and sky by markers for other key astronomical moments of the
year. For example, reports Science:
“It is interesting to
note that there are two solstitial alignments from the western entrance gate of
Angkor Wat. These two alignments (added to the equinoctial alignment already
established) mean that the entire solar year was divided into four major
sections by alignments from just inside the entrance of Angkor Wat. From this
western vantage point the sun rises over Phnom Bok (17.4 kilometers to the
north-east) on the day of the summer solstice…The western entrance gate of the
temple also has a winter solstice alignment with the temple of Prast Kuk
Bangro, 5.5 kilometres of the south-east.”
(source: Heaven's Mirror: Quest for the Lost Civilization - By
Graham Hancock and Santha Faiia p. 115 - 199)
Henri Parmentier writes in his book, Guide
to Angkor:
"The temple of
Angkor Wat, contrary to most other monuments which face east, extends from west
to east, this transposition is doubtless explained by the fact that it was a
funeral temple."
George Coedes writes of Angkor
Wat:
"It is a
masterpiece of Khmer art, built during the life time of the King to serve him
afterwards as a funeral temple in which he was to be deified as a statue of
Vishnu with the posthumous name of Paramavishnuloka."
Win Swaan in his book, Lost
Cities of Asia writes
"Though many
Khmer temples seem to have fulfilled both these functions (temple and
mausoleum), at Angkor Wat alone were the death-centred attributes triumphant
and paramount. Thus, it alone is oriented not towards the source of light and
life, the east; but towards the west, the direction associated with the setting
sun, darkness and death."
Some scholars have
advanced another argument that one has to move in anti-clockwise direction a
full circle to see the bas-reliefs of Angkor Wat’s third enclosure, which is
also the direction of going round a funeral pyre, thereby concluding that
Angkor Wat is a funerary temple. However, even if Angkor Wat was not a funerary
temple, the only way of seeing the bas relief of third enclosure is by
circling it in anti-clockwise direction. This is simply because the
Devanagari script is written from left to right and so is art and sculpture. To
see a sculpture of 60 meters or more in length, there is no escape from moving
left to right, and hence circling in the anti-clockwise direction.
Donatella Mazzeo and Chiara Silvi
Antonini rightly observe:
"At the time when
he set about building his monumental temple-mountain Suryavarman II confronted
a problem: the finding a site sufficiently vast to enable him to construct an
edifice worthy of his greatness and his aspirations. Whatever the layout of the
city of Angkor was at this time, including the area of ancient Yasodharapura
and of the future Angkor Thom, the constructions of the 10th and 11th
century occupied a considerable part of the available land. As a result,
Suryavarman chose the southeast corner of Yasodhapura, a space evidently free
of buildings of durable materials, yet one where he could take advantage of the
network of canals laid out by Yasovarman for his capital."
It is plainly evident
that the most appropriate access route to the site of Angkor Wat temple was from
the west. Attributing unsubstantiated explanations or meaning to a fact of
purely physical constraint is unwarranted.
***
Hindu traditions
dominated Angkor civilization up to the 13th century even if
some sovereigns of this period had Buddhist leanings, or were even devout
Buddhists. King Suryavarman II (1113-1150), the builder of Angkor Wat was a
devotee of Lord Vishnu. In the Hindu tradition, no one ever builds a funerary
temple or mausoleum for the simple reason that the mortal remains, with a few
exceptions, are cremated and the ashes left over are consigned to the waters.
The philosophical understanding behind cremation is that this body made of five
basic elements, namely Earth, Water, Air, Space and Fire, returns to those
elements after the migration of the soul.
. Shiva-lingam is a sign by which Shiva is symbolized. Linga
means a "mark" in Sanskrit. It is a symbol that points to an
inference. The Linga is only the outward symbol of the formless being,
Lord Siva— Lord Siva incarnate, who is the indivisible, all-pervading, eternal,
auspicious, ever-pure, immortal essence of this vast universe, who is the
undying soul seated in the chambers of one's heart, who is one's Indweller,
innermost Self or Atman and who is identical with the Supreme Brahman.
Shiva is represented by the Lingam or Mark, which is manifestly
the Creative power of Divinity. To the Westerner, imbued with the Puritan and
Victorian ethics, it is difficult to grasp the meaning of a Shiva
linga. Prudery was quite unknown to ancient Indian artists, who had no
conception of ‘the sins of the flesh’ with which Western civilizations are so
preoccupied even today.
***
But it is also true
that the palace and the dearest possessions belonging to the departed person,
become a kind of a memorial for successive generations. Thus, in case of
Angkor chakravartins, their linga or personal gods and the shrines housing
them, were their most sacred possessions. These temples were not for public
prayer or assembly but for the exclusive worship by the King of his personal
God. The successor King thus had a new personal shrine built, and the
shrine of his predecessor was always regarded with utmost reverence and high
esteem. They thus became not mausoleums or funerary temples, as many
western scholars have suggested, but revered memorials.
As a rule, Hindu
temples face north or east, which is linked to the most effective use of the
sun. But where circumstances do not permit, temples can face south or west. There
are temples in India facing west. Furthermore, the main Garbha Griha or Sanctum
Santorum at Angkor Wat does not face west alone but faces all the four
directions in an identical manner. The approaches to the main shrine under the
central tower are identical from all directions. Only the main royal approach
to the whole temple complex is from the west, which, as already seen, was the
only logical approach from the King’s main dwelling site.
***
As for deifying
Suryavarman II as stuate of Vishnu in Angkor Wat with the posthumous name of
“Paramavishnuloka” it should be understood that all Gods are formless as nobody
has seen them. All forms of manifestations as seen in pictures of statues are
the individual maker’s impressions. It was, therefore, natural for the
craftsmen to see the image of their Kings in those of the Gods. King Jayavarman
VII as Avalokitesvara is omnipresent in all the monuments built by him. This
was not dictated by the King himself.
The name
“Paramavishnuloka” is nothing majestic or deifying. It is a combination of three Sanskrit words –
Parama (meaning great), Vishnu and Loka (meaning place or shrine), i.e. a
“Great Vishnu Shrine” which it was, and still is. The suffix Loka is not to be
associated with the name of a person, but of place. In this respect Coedes has
misinterpreted Paramavishnuloka to mean Suryavarman’s posthumous name…Had
Angkor Wat been meant for deifying Suryavarman II, it should have been called
after his death “Suryavarmanpura” or “Paramasuryavarmanloka”, like
“Yashodharpura” , “Mahendrapura” or “Bhimapura.” For example, Jayavarman II’s
capital at Rolous was called “Hariharalaya” but this was not his posthumous
name.
(source: Saving
Angkor - By C M Bhandari p. 151 - 153)
Angkor Wat: A City within a City
Angkor Wat itself,
built to honor the Hindu god Vishnu, is often hailed as one of the most
extraordinary architectural creations ever built, with its intricate bas
reliefs, strange acoustics and magnificent soaring towers.
The grandeur of this ancient civilization is truly astounding.
Covering an area of one square mile, Angkor Wat is one of the largest temple
complex in the world. The temple is dedicated to the God Vishnu from
whom the king was considered a reincarnation. Essentially a three-layered
pyramid, Agkor Wat has five distinctive towers, 64 meters high. On the outer
wall are eight panels of bas-relief depicting scenes of Hindu epics Ramayana
and Mahabharata.
Erected by Suryavarman
II (1113- 1150) , the famous and most glorious of all Khmer rulers, Angkor
Wat is indeed the largest and the most beautiful of all the temples built in
the Indo-China peninsula. Remarkable for its quality and its perfect feeling
for form and volume, its over-all lay-out and the arrangement of its various
components, this magnificent monument is the masterpiece of classical Khmer
aesthetics and city-planning.
Angkor Wat lies in the
southeast sector of the ancient city of Yosodharapura, built in the late 9th
century and surrounded by an enormous moat the perimeter of which measures 10
miles. This part of the urban complex had to be wholly reorganized in order to
make room for Suryavarman II’s gigantic creation. The temple complex takes up
almost all the available space. The temple itself is surrounded by a moat
almost 660ft wide contained within a rectangular enclosure 4925 ft long and
4270 ft wide covering an area of about two square km. The park surrounding the
temple covers an area of one million square meters (1,200,000 sq.yd) minus
100,000 sq. meters occupied by various buildings and galleries which divide the
park into four square basins. What can we conclude from these colossal
dimensions? They bear witness to the fact that the great temple-palaces were
the center of urban complexes of which the stone structures alone have
survived.
Angkor Wat attests its
architect’s feeling for sculptural form and arrangement. Crossing the threshold
of the propylaea, one gets a sensational view of the façade of the main temple
culminating in five towers, the quincuncial arrangement of which resembles a
tiara. One is truly struck with astonishment at this amazing and enrapturing
sight. The size and magnificence of the monument by no means detract from its
refinement. As a whole, it bears witness to an authentically dynamic perception
of space. Khmer art reaches one of its peak here.
On the inside a kind
of pictorial chronicle of the Khmer empire embellished with legendary scenes
from the Ramayana and Mahabharata portraying all the fabulous beings in Hindu
mythology unfolds here before our eyes. These enormous “frscoes” carved in fine
sandstone display an extraordinary feeling for monumental composition. The
sculptural carvings cover an area of almost 1200 square meters (1440 sq.yd).
The Wealth of Angkor
Yet this stupendous
achievement makes us ask one meanly materialistic question: what did the Khmer
kings owe their wealth to? What enabled them to produce such an enormous
monument? The construction of the temple of Angkor Wat called for 350,000 cubic
meters of building materials, ie. Almost one million metric tons of rock which
had to be brought from the far-off sandstone quarries situated near Kulen, 40
km (25 miles) north of Angkor. But once again, how was it possible to support
the tens of thousands of workmen employed in this tremendous undertaking:
quarrymen, cart and raft-makers, stone cutters, masons, sculptors etc? Where
could they get the raw materials for the bronze statues, so few of which
have survived, the doors set off with gold and silver inlays, the brocade and
gauze adorning the altars where offering were placed? How did they pay the
artists and craftsmen who worked on this marvelous temple for decades and
decades?
The Khmers used precious metals in their buildings; the inner
walls of the cells were covered with bronze plates and the cusps of some
temples also have been plated. Everything has been stolen, but this gold panel
gives some idea of the wealth of the Empire.
The Birth of Rice
Plantations - The Indian traders who settled on the southern coast first
introduced advanced farming methods into Southeast Asia. Thanks to them, the
first rice plantations appeared on the peninsula. The variety of rice grown was
obtained by selection. It was already sown in India in the third millennium
B.C. To ripen, this rice requires constant care and a well regulated irrigation
system. The Mekong delta was the center of this agricultural system based on
irrigated rice-fields.
The Creation of
Artificial Lakes or Barays - To go from simply cultivating rice-fields yielding
one crop a year to conceiving the desire to make them produce two or three, a
very important step must be taken. This progress implies the will to free human
communities from their subservience to the rhythm of nature. This step was
taken by the rulers at Angkor when they decided to create enormous artificial
reservoirs, known as barays. The main purpose of these reservoirs was a better
distribution of the region’s water resources, above all rainfall which some
months is extremely abundant but more often wholly lacking.
The irrigation system
which, between the 8th and 10th century transformed
Angkor into a genuine rice factory, was basically organized according to these
simple principles. Water, indispensable for agriculture, was also one of the
fundamental factors taken into account by architects and city-planners. Canals
proceeding from the baray brought fresh water to the town’s inhabitants. Waster
water was carried away by the current. The water in the moats traced the town
boundaries and also served to defend Khmer urban centers.
Scientific Agriculture
The rulers adopted a
kind of “scientific” agriculture in which rice was looked upon as a bedding
plant. Instead of going through the whole process consisting of plowing,
sowing, irrigating and reaping on the spot in the flooded fields, the Khmers
realized that it would be advantageous to sow the rice in beds where the shoots
come up very thick; when they reach a height of 8-10 inches, these shoots were
transplanted in the freshly harvested, plowed and submerged fields. These beds
take up only a tenth of the land under cultivation. They make it possible to
sow a second time before reaping the first crop. This method was capable of
transforming Angkor into the tremendous rice factory which was the main cause
of its rulers’ wealth and power and made it possible to erect their admirable
temples.
The term “environment”
is nowhere more meaningful than at Angkor. The capital of the Khmer kingdom is
indeed perfect example of how man can give nature a helping hand. Without the
irrigation system, the birth of an important civilization would have been
altogether impossible in the heart of the hostile jungle. Angkor is actually a
miracle, an agreement entered into by earth, water, men and gods. The uniting
of these four factors thoroughly changed the appearance of the plain in the Angkor
area. The rice plantations make it resemble a chequer-board. Thanks to them,
this part of the world has become an ecological masterpiece. Rice and religion
link up a whole series of phenomenon controlling national development.
(source: The
Cultural history of Angkor – By Henri Stierlin p. 1 – 54).
Its sheer size and
scope reflect the power, resources, and loyalty that the Khmer Empire had
achieved. The buildings of Angkor Wat are built solely from sandstone
from a quarry a fair distance away. Engineers estimate that the amount of
sandstone used in Angkor Wat is at least equivalent to the volume of stone used
in the great Egyptian pyramid of Khafre. This is yet another
indication of the power that the Khmer Empire had reached at the time of Angkor
Wat’s construction
The decorative lintels
over almost every doorway in a Khmer temple provided the carvers with a
standard rectangular frame in which to work. Although by no means the only
surfaces that were decorated with reliefs, Khmer lintels were of great
importance. They often carried with most significant icons: divinities and
scenes from Hindu epics in particular. From their designs and locations,
lintels can often be read for information about the temple, such as the god to
whom it was dedicated, and the importance of a particular sect. Even more that
this, lintels are a means of dating temples. The motifs and styles changed over
the centuries, and minute variations have been studied.
Khmer temples are full
of symbolism – not just in the details of lintels and pediments, but in the
architecture itself, and on the largest scale. One of the pleasurable surprises
in discovering Khmer architecture is to realize that the logic behind it is an
attempt to recreate an entire cosmology on Earth. Nagas themselves are rich in
symbolism in both Hinduism and Buddhism: they play a part in a number of key
events, including legends, and are associated with water.
The most common Hindu
icons found in Khmer temples in Thailand are Vishnu Reclining (Vishnu
Anantasayin), Shiva Dancing (Shiva Nataraj) and Shiva riding with Uma on the
bull Nandi (Umamaheshvara); these occur mainly on pediments and lintels. There
is less Buddhist imagery built into the architecture.
The Ramayana furnishes
the material for many lintels and pediments. Scenes from the life of Krishna
also occur, as does the Churning of the Milk of Ocean. The Hindu epics and
legends provide for a wealth of imagery
Did You
Know?
The 500 year old Tamil
Bell in New Zealand
Tamils
have long been seafarers and traders. It is believed that they reached northern
Australia by the 14th century, and there is a suggestion that they may have got
as far as New Zealand.In 1836 the missionary explorer William Colenso found this bell, which had been used by Māori as a cooking vessel for generations. Inscribed on it in Tamil are the words ‘Mohoyideen Buk’s ship’s bell’. The bell is now held at the national museum, Te Papa. Theories abound, but the precise origins of the bell and how it got to New Zealand remain a mystery.
(source: www.teara.govt.nz).
Refer to India once ruled the Americas! – By Gene D Matlock
Around 1836,
the missionary William Colenso met Māori near Whangarei using the bell as a
kohua (iron pot) to cook potatoes. It is bronze, thirteen centimetres long and
nine centimetres deep, and has an inscription. Colenso was told that the bell
had been found after a heavy gale had blown down a large tree; it was uncovered
from the tree roots. Its owners believed that the bell had been in the
possession of the iwi (tribe) for several generations. Colenso swapped an iron
pot for the bell. After his death he bequeathed the bell to the Colonial
Museum, forbear to Te Papa Tongarewa. The bell produced a lot of interest when it was exhibited, and discussions and theories abounded about its origins. The bell was photographed and copies sent to England and various people in India.
Tamils in Southern India immediately recognised the writing on the bell.
The bell has been identified as a type of ship's bell. Some of the characters in the inscription are of an archaic form no longer seen in modern Tamil script; thus suggesting that the bell could be about 500 years old.
(source: www.tepapa.govt.nz).
Om Tat Sat
(Continued...)
( My humble Pranam, Honour
and also gratefulness to
Ms. Sushma Londhe ji for her noble, magnanimous and eminent
works on the peerless Wisdom of our Sacred Scriptures)
(My
humble salutations to , H H Swamyjis, Hindu Wisdom, great Universal
Philosophers, Historians, Professors and Devotees for the
discovering collection)
( The Blog is
reverently for all the seekers of truth and lovers of wisdom and also
purely a non-commercial)
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