Situated between India and China, Southeast Asia has been the birthplace of several cultures, some of which rank among the world’s greatest civilizations. Among the Indianized kingdoms which sprang up in Southeast Asia before the Common era, the great Khmer civilization and its capital, Angkor, in modern day Cambodia. The advent of Indians in Southeast Asia has hardly a parallel in history. In view of the ethnic affinities between the prehistoric Austro-Asiatic races of India and those of Suvarnabhumi, contact between the two regions may well go back to the remotest antiquity. Most of the countries of Southeast Asia came under the cultural and religious influence of India. This region was broadly referred to by ancient Indians as Suvarnabhumi (the Land of Gold) or Suvarnadvipa (the Island of Gold). Vedic Indians must have charted Java, Yawadvip, thousands of years ago because Yawadvip is mentioned in India's earliest epic, the Ramayana. The Ramayana reveals some knowledge of the eastern regions beyond seas; for instance Sugriva dispatched his men to Yavadvipa, the island of Java, in search of Sita. 

Southeast Asia was often called by many British, French and Indian scholars as Farther India, Greater India, L’Inde Exterieure, and the Hinduized or Indianized States. The whole area was so influenced by India, that according to a European scholar who wrote in 1861, that "the Indian countries situated beyond the Ganges hardly deserve the attention of History." The various states established in this region can therefore be called Indianized kingdoms. Invasion nor proselystism was by no means the main factor in the process of Indianization which took place in the Indian Archipelago. International trade was very important. Angkor Wat indeed deserves to play the leading part not only because of its exceptional artistic and architectural achievements but also on account of the hydrological, agricultural and ecological problems solved there. 

Angkor wat is often hailed as one of the most extraordinary architectural creations ever built, with its intricate bas-reliefs, strange acoustics and magnificent soaring towers. Angkor Wat, originally named Vrah Vishnulok - the sacred abode of Lord Vishnu, is the largest temple in the world. It was built by King Suryavarman II in the 12th century. The Sanskrit Nagara (capital) was modified by the Cambodian tongue to Nokor and then to Angkor. The word Angkor is derived from the Sanskrit word 'nagara' meaning 'holy city'. Vatika is Sanskrit word for  temple. "The city which is a temple," Angkor Wat is a majestic monument, the world's largest religious construction in stone, and an architectural masterpiece. The Khmers adhered to the Indian belief that a temple must be built according to a mathematical system in order for it to function in harmony with the universe. Distances between certain architectural elements of the temple reflect numbers related to Indian mythology and cosmology. The sheer size of the place leaves visitors in awe and the complex designs illustrate the skills of long gone priest architects.  Every spare inch has been carved with intricate works of art. The sculptures of Indian icons produced in Cambodia during the 6th to the 8th centuries A D are masterpieces, monumental, subtle, highly sophisticated, mature in style and unrivalled for sheer beauty anywhere in India says Philip Rawson. The scale of Angkor Wat enabled the Khmer to give full expression to religious symbolism. It is, above all else, a microcosm of the Hindu universe.

It is frequently said that Angkor was 'discovered' by the Europeans but this is patently nonsense and simply reflects a Eurocentric view. The Khmer never forgot the existence of their monuments. French naturalist Henri Mouhot stumbled across the city complex of Angkor Wat while on a zoological expedition. He was overwhelmed by the magnificence of these ruins hidden in the jungle and wrote: “One of these temples – a rival to that of Solomon, and erected by some ancient Michael Angelo  - might take its place besides our most beautiful buildings – Grander than anything left to us by Greece or Rome …it makes the traveler forget all the fatigues of the journey, filling him with admiration and delight, such as should be experienced on finding a verdant oasis in the sandy desert."

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 Lord Vishnu from whom the king was considered a reincarnation. Essentially a three-layered pyramid, Angkor 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. These relics of past grandeur bear mute testimony tone of the least known yet most glorious chapters in the history of mankind: that of the classical culture of ‘Greater India.’ 

Unlike other countries, Cambodia does not minimize Indian influence on the local culture. On the contrary, the people of the country generously acknowledge it. Prince Norodom Sihanouk of Cambodia recalled the close cultural ties that have existed for two thousand years between India and Cambodia. He said: "When we refer to 2000 year old ties which unite us with India, it is not at all a hyperbole. In fact, it was about 2000 years ago that the first navigators, Indian merchants, and Brahmins brought to our ancestors their gods, their techniques, their organization. Briefly India was for us what Greece was for the Latin Occident."

                   


Introduction
Angkor Wat: Symphony in stone
Background of Vrah Vishunlok
Breath Taking Carved Bas-Reliefs


© Michael Freeman

For the rest of the chapter refer to the links listed below:

Sacred Angkor part 2
Sacred Angkor part 3
Sacred Angkor part 4

Introduction:

Jon Ortner ( ? ) author of Sacred Places of Asia: Where Every Breath Is A Prayer has remarked:

"As I walked along the huge, ancient stone of the causeway leading to Angkor Wat, I was forced to look inward and question my own significance in the universe. Everything here, from the huge moat protecting the complex to the giant nagas flanking my path, is designed to make one shrink before the majesty of Vishnu. 

"After passing through a succession of courtyards, each grander and more elaborate than the last, I arrived at an enormous Meru with its five soaring peaks and exquisitely carved walls. What a spectacle this all must have been long ago....Angkor Wat is the representation of the Khmer universe, reflecting a relationship to nature on such a deep level, that it makes modern architecture seem spiritually empty. The soul of the Khmer is alive in these temples and mirrored in the faces of today's Cambodians, the recipients of a rich artistic and spiritual heritage."

(source: Sacred Places of Asia: Where Every Breath Is A Prayer - By Jon Ortner  p. 113).

 

Lord Vishnu: 12th century bronze housed in Phnom Penh Museum.

Everything here, from the huge moat protecting the complex to the giant nagas flanking my path, is designed to make one shrink before the majesty of Vishnu. 

The sculptures of Indian icons produced in Cambodia during the 6th to the 8th centuries A D are masterpieces, monumental, subtle, highly sophisticated, mature in style and unrivalled for sheer beauty anywhere in India. - says Philip Rawson. 

(image source: Angkor: Splendors of the Khmer Civilization - By Marilia Albanese p. 77).

***

Henri Mouhot (1826 -1861) a French naturalist and explorer, who had gone to South-east Asia in the late 1850's and succumbed to fever there in 1861. Mesmerized by what he saw at the temple of Angkor Vat, Mouhot in lyrical descriptions said: 

"At the sight of this temple, one feels one's spirit crushed, one's imagination surpassed. One looks, one admires, and, seized with respect, one is silent. For where are the words to praise a work of art that may not have its equal anywhere on the globe? ... What genius this Michalangelo of the East had, that he was capable of concaving such a work.'' 

(source: Le Tour du Monde, 2-1863-299). 

He said: "See Angkor and Die."

He was staggered by his discovery. There was a city so vast and so sophisticated that it must have been built by people with an advanced knowledge of engineering, science, mathematics and art. The young Frenchman soon sent word back to Europe telling of the most beautiful lost city ever to be discovered. The monumental scale, grandeur and beauty of Angkor justifies its reputation as one of the world’s great creations.  

Mouhot wrote: What strikes the observer with not less admiration than the grandeur, regularity, and beauty of these majestic buildings, is the immense size and prodigious number of the blocks of stone of which they are constructed. In this temple alone are as many as 1532 columns. What means of transport, what a multitude of workmen, must this have required, seeing that the mountain out of which the stone was hewn is thirty miles distant!...."

(source: Angkor: Heart of an Asian Empire - By Bruno Dagens  p. 140-141).

 

 

"It is grander than anything left to us by Greece or Rome."

Henri Mouhot was staggered by his discovery. There was a city so vast and so sophisticated that it must have been built by people with an advanced knowledge of engineering, science, mathematics and art.

***

"It is grander than anything left to us by Greece or Rome." "To obtain any idea of its splendor on one must imagine the most beautiful creations of architecture transported into depths of the forests in one of the more remote countries in the world."

Mahout recorded excitedly in his diary for January 1860 after gazing on the 200-ft temple of Angkor Vat. 

(source: The World's Last Mysteries - Readers Digest  ASIN 089577044X  p. 243).

When he first brought it to the knowledge of the modern Western world in 1860, the explorer, Henri Mouhot, said of it, quite simply, “this architectural work perhaps has not, and perhaps never has had, its equal on the face of the globe.”

(source: The Culture of South-East Asia - By Reginald Le May p. 133).

 

Splendid sweep of graceful symmetry.

Artist view of life in ancient Angkor wat. A mesmerizing monument and the largest stone building in the world.

Louis Delaporte produced the official drawings for the Mekong Exploration Commission.

(image source: Angkor: Heart of an Asian Empire - By Bruno Dagens  p. 52 and Angkor: Splendors of the Khmer Civilization - By Marilia Albanese  p. 57).

***

Henri Mohout could hardly believe his eyes in 1860. He wrote of:

"ruins of such grandeur, remains of structures that must have been raised at such an immense cost of labor, that, at the first view, one is filled with profound admiration....One of these temples - a rival to that of Soloman, and erected by some ancient Michael Angleo - might take an honorable place besides our most beautiful buildings. It is grander than anything left to us by Greece and Rome, and presents a sad contrast to the state of barbarism in which the nation in now plunged."  To Mahout, those "prodigious works" were nothing short of astounding. 

(source: Splendors of the Past: Lost Cities of the Ancient World - National Geographic Society. p. 186).

At Ongcor, there are ...ruins of such grandeur... that, at the first view, one is filled with profound admiration, and cannot but ask what has become of this powerful race, so civilized, so enlightened, the authors of these gigantic works? 

(source: In Mouhot's Footsteps).

Francis Garnier (1839 – 1873), the Deputy leader of Louis Delaporte and the chronicler wrote of Angkor Wat: 

"Perhaps no where else in the world, has such an imposing mass of stone been arranged with more sense of art and science...a spark of sheer genius....what grandeur and at the same time what unity..." 

Garnier’s narrative and Louis Delaporte’s art together resurrected Angkor Wat from ruin and decay to restoration and eventually a World Heritage status.

(source: Mekong magnificent obsession - tribuneindia.com).

Bernard Philippe Groslier (1926 -1986)  the great French conservator and archaeologist discussing the genius of the Khmer empire, a restless creativity that left scattered over thousands of square miles of tropical forest some of the finest sculpture and architecture ever produced. To Professor Groslier, Angkor wat was “the highest architectural achievements of all Asia”  

“They were the masters of their world. It was quite wonderful. There was peace and order. Temples full of riches. Happy Brahmins full of good rice, good food. And, of course, some of the most magnificent temples ever built. Nothing in that part of the world would compare. Nothing! That’s quite something, n’est-ce pas? – isn’it?”  

"The Khmer took everything from India, from irrigation to astronomy and including Shiva and the rest of Hindu religion...And the Khmer built Angkor. "

“The expansion of India towards the countries of the East, at the very moment when by a striking coincidence China seemed to be moving southwards to encounter it, constitutes one of the turning points of history…”

(source: Splendors of the Past: Lost Cities of the Ancient World  - National Geographic Society  p. 184 - 190).

Groslier who was the author of Angkor: Art and Civilization, describing the incomparable perfection of Angkor Wat wrote:

"The Khmer civilization was the most important, the most brilliant and original in ancient Indo-China. The brilliant achievements of ancient Cambodia were due primarily to the country’s wealth of natural resources. No other country of the peninsula could boast of such an unbroken extent of fertile and well-watered. Cambodia, being a strictly defined and admirably situated geographical unit, was the cradle of a powerful and gifted race.  

But neither favorable environment nor limitless resources nor years of peace would have sufficed without the spiritual contribution of India. 

India was the spark that fired the blaze."

(source: Angkor: Art and Civilization - By Bernard-Philippe Groslier and Khmer: The Lost Empire of Cambodia - By Thierry Zephir  p. 114).

 "There is hardly anything in the world comparable to the Angkor complex in terms of the number, size and perfection of its buildings."

"one of the supreme architectural triumphs of all time. There can be no doubt that it was conceived by one man, by the genius of a great architect. It is a masterpiece without a successor." "All these details, together with the size of the building which bursts into sight at the end of the triumphal avenue and at every embrasure open to the view, contribute to the impressiveness of Angkor Wat "

(source: Can Angkor be saved? - Angkor Wat, Cambodia - By Frank  Bequette Feb 1994 and Sacred Places of Asia: Where Every Breath Is A Prayer - By Jon Ortner  p. 109 and Angkor and the Khmer empire - By John Audric p. 146).

 

        

Charles Carpeaux and Henri Parmentier at Angkor wat. 

***

Charles Carpeaux a photographer who worked with French archaeologist Henri Dafour in 1901, wrote:

"Not an inch of this stone that isn't carved with an incredible richness and a charming naivety of expression. The fifty two towers, each adorned with four colossal heads of Brahma, are capped with a tangle of creepers and even big trees....You can't imagine the effect produced by these heads of Brahma, with the patina of so many centuries, covered in lichen, enveloped in creepers through which rays of sunlight still manage to filter, playing on these enormous figures and giving each a different expression: some smile, others appear sad, yet others are impassive."

 

The "mother of all temples" -- Angkor Wat. 

A mesmerizing monument - No photograph can quite capture the immensity of it.

"Let it be said immediately that Angkor, as it stands, ranks as chief wonder of the world to-day, one of the summits to which human genius has aspired in stone, infinitely more impressive, lovely and, as well, romantic, than anything that can be seen in China...

"The flow of history and culture from India, across Burma and into Indochina is an epic saga of history," Pran a guide at Agnkorwat.

(image source: greatbuildings.com). 

***

Henri Parmentier (1871 -1949) has observed the intricacy of details at Angkor Wat:

"This decorative minuteness is pushed to the extreme; if one is stuck by the work and the formidable expense represented by the ten kilometers of border chiseled sandstone of the moats, one is no less stupefied when one thinks of the execution of the 10,000 ridge-crests which are aligned on all the ridges, so delicate that not a single entire specimen has come down to us."

(source: Angkor: The Hidden Glories - By Michael Freeman and Roger Warner  p. 182 - 190).

Diego do Couto (1543 - 1616) a 16th century, Portuguese traveler became the first of many Western chroniclers to visit Angkor and he express amazement at its prodigious stone masterpieces, calling the city:

"one of the wonders of the world."

“Half a league from this city of Angkor Thom is a temple named Angkor, which is built on beautiful, flat and open terrain. This temple is hundred and sixty paces long and so strangely constructed that it cannot be described in writing any more than it can be compared to any other existing document. The central body of the building comprises four naves and their vaults rise up, heavily decorated, to form lofty, pointed domes supported by numerous columns worked with all the intricacy of which the human genius is capable. The temple is built on a magnificent platform of massive slabs of the same stone as the rest of the edifice. …These pointed towers with their globes can be seen from more than four leagues away..”

"The city is surrounded by a moat, crossed by five bridges. These have on each side a cordon held by giants. Their ears are all pierced and are very long. The stone blocks of the bridges are of astonishing size. The stones of the walls are of an extraordinary size and so jointed together that they look as if they are made of just one stone. The gates of each entrance are magnificently sculpted, so perfect, so delicate that Antonio de Magdelena, who was in the city, said that they looked as if they were made from one stone the source of which is, amazingly, over 20 leagues away. So you can judge the labor and organization dedicated to construction."

(source: Angkor: Heart of an Asian Empire - By Bruno Dagens  p.133 - 135 & The Civilization of Angkor - By Charles Higham p. 1 - 2).

Joao Dos Santos (  - 1622)  a Dominican missionary born in Portugal and died in Goa wrote in 1609:

“Half a league from the city is a temple called Angor. It is of such extraordinary construction that it is not possible to describe it with a pen, particularly since it is like no other building in the world. It has towers and decoration and all the refinements which the human genius can conceive of. One know nothing of the origins of the city, nor why it was abandoned.” 

Christoval de Jacques (  ? )  wrote in 1606

“In 1570, there was discovered an amazing city with numerous buildings. In the interior were great houses and fountains. There is a great bridge supported by sixty giants. The city is called Angkor, or the city of five peaks, because one can see five elevated towers with balls of gilded copper.”

(source: The Civilization of Angkor – By Charles Higham p. 1 - 3).

Sir Francis Osbert Sacheverell Sitwell, 5th Baronet (1892- 1969) in his book Escape with Me - an Oriental Sketch Book (1941),  has written:

"Let it be said immediately that Angkor, as it stands, ranks as chief wonder of the world to-day, one of the summits to which human genius has aspired in stone, infinitely more impressive, lovely and, as well, romantic, than anything that can be seen in China...

The material remains of a civilization that flashed its wings, of the utmost brilliance, for six centuries, and then perished so utterly that even his name has died on the lips of man." 'the neighboring Bayon can be said to be the most imaginative and singular in the world, more lovely than Angkor Vat, because more unearthly in its conception, a temple from a city in some other distant planet...imbued with the same elusive beauty that often lives between the lines of a great poem."

Round the great temple of Angkor Vat is a vast area of mighty ruins with artificial lakes and pools, and canals and bridges over them, and a great gate dominated by ' a vast sculptured head, a lovely, smiling but enigmatic Cambodian face, though one raised to the power and beauty of a god.' The face with its strangely fascinating and disturbing smile - the 'Angkor smile' is repeated again and again. 

(source: The Discovery of India - By Jawaharlal Nehru p. 208-209).

Robert Joseph Casey (1890 - 1962) a reporter with Chicago Daily News, writing in his book Four faces of Shiva in 1926 wrote: 

"Angkor vat, supreme architectural effort of this culture, not only the most grandiose temple of the group but probably the most stupendous undertaking attempted by man since the corner-stone was laid for the tower of Babel."

Here at Angkor was the finest metropolis in Asia – a town whose splendor is permanently embossed in temple wall and tower and terrace. The people were called the Khmer and were either of Hindu extraction or the diligent pupils of Hindu teachers. There is mention of a kingdom under Hindu direction, if not domination, in Indo-China as early as the year 238 AD and there is evidence that the Khmer flourished during the 13th and possibly into the 14th century."     

(source: Four faces of Shiva - By Robert J Casey  p. 31 - 32).

Amaury de Riencourt (1918 - ) was born in Orleans, France. He is author of several books including The American empire and The Eye of Shiva and The Soul of India has written: 

"Art flourished in Kamboja as never before, centered around a capital city known to all Asia as Angkor, the Magnificent, a city of more than a million inhabitants - which when it was extricated from the jungle in modern times, contained not a single human being. 

Chinese and Indian envoys could hardly believe their eyes when they gazed at the splendid temple of Angkor Vat, a sublime work of art that was inspired by India but shaped by the genius of Khmer people."

"Indian inspiration provided the religion and the philosophy, the artistic forms and the technique with which Angkor was built."

(source: The Soul of India - By Amaury de Riencourt  ISBN 0907855032  p. 160-161).

Jeannine Auboyer ( ? ) was the curator of the Musee Guimet, Paris, and author of The Oriental World has said:

"Its splendid plan, the balance of its proportions, the elegance of its pillared cloisters and the beauty of its decoration make it one of the masterpieces of world architecture." 

(source: The Oriental World - By Jeannine Auboyer Landmarks of World's Art quoted from Appendix page). 

Sir H G Rawlinson (1880 -   ) the great historian has observed: 

“Had the Khmers left but this single monument, it would have placed them among the great artists of the world, so perfect is its architecture and so rare its art.”

Ramesh C Majumdar (1888-1980) eminent Indian historian, who points out that from a very remote past, the Indians possessed a vague idea of the countries in the Far East. Fabulous wealth earned by trade gave rise to stories of Suvarnabhumi or Golden Land. 

“The Indian colonies in the Far East must ever remain as the high watermark of maritime and colonial enterprise of ancient Indians”

“In the domain of art, Kambuja towers head and shoulders above the rest. A general view of the city of Angkor Thom and of the monuments round about it creates a solemn impression of dazzling brilliance which does not suffer in diminution on a closer examination of the remains. Indeed it may be said with perfect truth, that no other equal space on earth can show anything comparable to Angkor monuments in massive grandeur…The Angkor wat is justly regarded as the grandest of the monuments in Kambuja.”  

"If art is an expression of national character and a fair index of the culture and civilization of a people, Kambuja easily takes the leading position among the Indian colonies in Indo-China and constitutes an important landmark and the greatest living testimony to the splendor of the civilization of which it is a product."

(source: Ancient India - By V D Mahajan  p. 752 - 769  and Greater India - By Arun Bhattacharjee  p. 120).

George Coedes (1886 - 1969) former Director of L'Ecole Francaise d'Extreme Orient, who had spent thirty-five years in French Indochina, eminent French scholar, author of The Indianized States of Southeast Asia. He has found that the story of India’s expansion is woven into the cultures of Southeast Asia.  “I am convinced that such research will reveal numerous facts which will indicate a much deeper Indianization of the mass of the population than the sociologists will at present admit.” 

He has written:

"Any attempt to understand the culture of Southeast Asia, and Cambodia in particular, must take account of Indian influence. "

India’s civilizing influence beyond the Ganges “is one of the outstanding events in the history of the world.” Although the peak of her influence was over by 1500, India’s heritage permeates the art, law, literature, religion, and politics of present day Southeast Asia. It is with justifiable pride that Indian scholars refer to the history of Southeast Asia as the history of “Greater India.” The geographic area called “Father India” consists of Indonesia, or island of Southeast Asia and the Indochinese Peninsula, or India beyond the Ganges, including the Malay Peninsula. Around the beginning of the Common Era, Southeast Asia was the “land of gold” toward which the Indian navigators sailed…” 

Culturally speaking, Farther India today is characterized by more or less deep traces of Indianization that occurred long ago:  the importance of the Sanskrit element in the vocabulary of the languages spoken there; the Indian origin of the alphabets with which those languages have been or still are written; the influence of Indian law and administrative organization; the persistence of certain Brahmanic traditions in the countries converted to Islam as well as those converted to Singhalese Buddhism; and the presence of ancient monuments which, in architecture and sculpture, are associated with the arts of India and bear inscriptions in Sanskrit.

The history of the expansion of Indian civilization to the east has not yet been told in its entirety. The relations between India proper and Farther India date back to prehistoric times. But from a certain period on, these relations resulted in the founding of Indian kingdoms on the Indochina Peninsula and in the islands of Indonesia. The oldest archaeological remains these states have left us are not necessarily evidence of the first civilizing wave. It is probable a priori, that the priests who consecrated the first Brahmanic or Buddhist sanctuaries and the scholars who composed the first Sanskrit inscriptions were preceded by seamen, traders, or immigrants – founders of first Indian settlements. These settlements, in turn, were not always entirely new creations; in many cases (Oc Eo in Cochin China, Kuala Selingsing in Perak, sempaga in Celebes etc). they were built on Neolithic sites that the seamen from India had frequented perhaps from time immemorial. 

Indianization must be understood essentially as the expansion of an organized culture that was founded upon the Indian conception of royalty, was characterized by Hindu or Buddhist ideas, the mythology of the Puranas, and the observance of the Dharmasastras, and expressed itself in the Sanskrit language. "

"A study of ancient India, viewed from the East, which has scarcely begun, seems to promise rich results."

(source: The spread of Indian culture in Southeast Asia - By George Coedes p. 98 - 99 and The Indianized States of Southeast Asia - By George Coedes  p. xv – xvii and p. 14).

Helen Churchill Hungerford Candee (1859 -1949) who was a noted author and lecturer on the arts and travel and survivor of the Titanic and author of Angkor the Magnificent, must have been standing on this terrace almost 70 years ago when she wrote:

"Away from the plateau of entry the causeway stretched over the moat, a veritable avenue to the temple walls. It is balustraded with Nagas on either side, it is 36 feet wide, and its length is the unbelievable width of the moat, over two hundred meters, nearly 700 feet. A moat for us means a grassy cincture sunk around a castle. The moat of Angkor vat has no such niggard measure. It is a lake in width, it is enclosed in masonry, and it measures about three miles around! Superb! 

"Few architects think in measurements as big as that."

“Any architect would thrill at the harmony of the facade, an unbroken stretch of repeated pillars leading from the far angles of the structure to the central opening, which is dominated, by three imposing towers with broken summits.”  

"The Vat rises in fair majesty against the heavens. "

"All the ancient power of the temple and its gods is puissant still. It surrounds those who look upon the wonder. The eyes sweep upwards over the rising storeys, up, up, to the mounting towers, to the pure firmament, and pause subdued.  It is ever thus. Some power overcomes, some mysterious spell is caste, one never look upon the ensemble of the Vat without a thrill, a pause, a feeling of being caught up into the heavens. Perhaps it is the most impressive sight in the world of edifices. The whole place is covered, once you open your eyes to it, columns, lintels, surbases, panels, pediments, jambs of doors and windows.  One says that this holy sanctuary contained a wondorus statue of God Vishnu carved from precious stone. "

"The portico is magnificent in a way not unfamiliar. One is at once in harmony with the plan. Nothing exotic about it, nothing that shocks Western traditions, simply grandeur and dignified beauty as we know it in our own architecture."

(source: Angkor the Magnificent - By Helen Churchill Candee   p. 65 - 90).

Will Durant (1885-1981) American historian, would like the West to learn from India, tolerance and gentleness and love for all living things:

“Angkor wat is a masterpiece equal to the finest architectural achievements of the Egyptians, the Greeks, or the cathedral builders of Europe. An enormous moat, twelve miles in length, surrounds the temple; over the moat runs a paved bridge guarded by dissuasive Nagas in stone; then an ornate enclosing wall; then spacious galleries, whose reliefs tell again the tales of the Mahabharata and the Ramayana; then the stately edifice itself, rising upon a broad base, by level after level of a terraced pyramid, to the sanctuary of the God, two hundred feet high. Here magnitude does not detract from beauty, but helps it to an imposing magnificence that startles the Western mind into some weak realization of the ancient grandeur once possessed by Oriental civilization." 

"Indian art had accompanied Indian religion across straits and frontiers into Sri Lanka, Java, Cambodia, Siam, Burma, Tibet, Khotan, Turkestan, Mongolia, China, Korea and Japan; “in Asia all roads lead from India.” 

(source: Story of Civilization: Our Oriental Heritage - By Will Durant MJF Books. 1935. p. 605).

Lonely Planet  travel guide gives this description of Angkor wat:

“Angkor Wat, with its soaring towers and extraordinary bas-reliefs, is considered by many to be one of the most inspired and spectacular monuments ever conceived by the human mind. It was built by King Suryavarman II reigned 1112-52) to honour God Vishnu...

 

Magnificent statue of Lord Vishnu - located in the entrance of Angkor wat.

Lord Vishnu, considered the preserver of the Cosmos in the Hindu Trinity, characteristically stands upright and balanced. As the preserver, Vishnu embodies compassion, which is considered the self-existent, pervasive power maintaining the universe and cosmic order (Dharma). Vishnu holds his attributes, the discus and conch.

 King Suryavarman II (reigned from 1113 - 1150 AD) dedicated the temple to Lord Vishnu. 
On his death the great king took the posthumous name Paramavishnulok (he who has gone to the paradise of the supreme Vishnu). 

(image source: webmaster's own collection of photos taken during a recent visit).

***

The central temple complex consists of three storeys, each of which encloses a square surrounded by intricately interlinked galleries. Rising 31m [102 feet] above the third level and 55m above the ground is the central tower, which gives the whole ensemble its sublime unity. The temple is surrounded by a vast moat, which forms a rectangle 1.5km by 1.3km.... “  

Han Suyin (1917 - )  is a prominent writer on modern Chinese and Asian subjects. Author of several books including A Many-splendoured Thing

She has observed:

“No film, no photograph, nothing can prepare one for Angkor and its impact. It is even difficult to speak of it in other than superlative terms. For it is colossal, enormous, prodigious, startling, awesome…” 

"But what formidable, what enormous, what impossibly incomparable monuments! Testimony to the greatness and beauty, the vast wealth and strength of the Angkorean civilization, which lasted for some five centuries. 

"And along the galleries, hundreds of yards long, are the scenes from the great Indian epics, the Ramayana and the Mahabharata. There is a superb Vishnu Churning of the Sea of Milk to gain the elixir of life: a great serpent coils itself around a mountain, and the gods and demons pull and spin the mountain to churn the sea, and all sorts of wonderful things come of the sea, all the creatures of the world, including Vishnu's wife Lakshmo, born of the sea spray....there are so many sculptures that each stone on the outside is covered with carvings; some are delicate as lace, others are monumental. "

(source: Ancient Cambodia - By Donatella Mazzeo and Chiara Antonini - Foreward  p. 6 - 8).

Lord Alfred Harmsworth Northcliffe (1865 - 1922) remarked when he went to Cambodia as a reporter for his newspaper, 

“No Sultan’, he cabled, ‘no Mikado, No Viceroy of India could offer his guests a comparable spectacle.” 

(source: The Road to Angkor - By Christopher Pym  p. 176 - 180). For more refer to Glimpses XIX.

K M Srivastava (1927 -  ) who has served for 33 years with the Archaeological Survey of India, and has conducted several excavations at many important sites in India. In 1982 he led a nine member team to Kampuchea to prepare a project report on the preservation of the temple of Angkor Wat.  

“The Hindu culture was deeply rooted in the soil of Kambuja as is evident from the perfect Sanskrit kavya style used in the inscriptions at Mebon and Pre-Rup which clearly indicates that their authors possessed deep knowledge of all the metres. They were also acquainted with Sanskrit rhetoric and prosody. An adequate knowledge of the Indian epic, Kavyas Puranas and other literature was also possessed by them. Indian philosophical theories and spiritual conceptions, besides religious and mythological beliefs of various sects in India were very well known to them. They were well versed in the grammatical treatise of Panini. Four verses of Pre-Rup, inscription allude without any doubt to Kalidasa’s Raghuvamsa, sometimes repeating the words used by the great poet. “

(source: Angkor Wat and cultural ties with India - By K M Srivastava  p. 25).

Helen Ibbitson Jessup (? )  author of Sculpture of Angkor and Ancient Cambodia: Millennium of Glory captures to near perfection the overwhelming sensation of awe and mystery that Angkor – among the greatest, and the most ambitious, of architectural monuments in the world – produces in the heart of even the most hardened, or casual, visitor. For the site, with its sprawling, seemingly endless, expanse and decay does not sum up the past of Cambodia alone, but, in some ways, of mankind itself.  The majestic site: miles of ‘gallery and tower’, ancient temples soaring heavenwards and crumbling at the same time, monuments to man’s faith and energy, stone and root and dust.

(source: Angkor: The curling roots of time - tribuneindia.com).  

Dr. H G (Horace Geoffrey) Quaritch Wales (1900 -   )  author of The Making of Greater India: A Study in South-East Asian Culture Change and Towards Angkor in the footsteps of the Indian invaders. Lecturer in Thailand from 1936 - 48). He was a great lover of Indian civilization, and expert upon it, who yet writes of Cambodian art, and of the Hindu influence upon it, in these very just terms: 

“When the guiding hand of India was removed, her inspiration was not forgotten, but the Khmer genius was released to mould from it vast new conceptions of amazing vitality different from, and hence not properly to be compared with, anything matured in a purely Indian environment…It is true that Khmer culture is essentially based on the inspiration of India, without which the Khmers at best might have produced nothing greater than the barbaric splendor of the Central American Mayas; but at the same time it must be admitted that here, more than anywhere else in Greater India, this inspiration fell on fertile soil.” 

(source: Escape with me – By Sir Osbert Sitwell p. 82 – 83).  Refer to chapter on Seafaring in Ancient India, War in Ancient India and India on Pacific Waves?

Sardar Kavalam Madhava Panikkar (1896-1963) Indian historian, in his book A Survey of Indian History, was the most impressive in depicting how South India’s expansion into “further India” was achieved by the very sea power that ten centuries later was to open India to colonization by the West: 

“At the end of the fifth century the area of the Mekong valley, Malaya and the Indonesian islands were dotted with Hindu principalities some of which, like the kingdom of Funan, had attained considerable importance and prosperity. This was the formative period. Hindu culture and organization had been established on a firm basis, and the local population – at least the higher strata – assimilated with the Indian emigrants and colonists. The next five centuries witness a great flowering of Indian culture in these areas which properly belong to Indian history, because at least till the twelfth century, these people considered themselves as integrally belonging to the Indian world.” 

"The early inscriptions are in classical Sanskrit, full of allusions to ancient India..."Kambuja was ardently Hindu till the middle of the seventh century when Buddhism is first alluded to. The two religions co-existed as in India, though till the very end Hinduism continued predominant."

(source: Under Western Eyes  - By Balachandra Rajan  p. 37 – 38 and
A Survey of Indian History - By K M Panikkar p. 94).

Rabindranath Tagore (1861-1941) poet, author, philosopher, Nobel prize laureate. Tagore was deeply critical of the British Raj in India.

He has remarked: 

“To know my country in truth he wrote in 1934, one has to travel to that age when he realized her soul and thus transcended her physical boundaries; when she revealed her being in a radiant magnanimity which illumined the Eastern horizon."

(source: The Journal of the Greater India Society - Preface By Rabindranath Tagore vol 1, 1934).

Benjamin Rowland (  - 1972) Curator of American Art and author of The Art and Architecture of India

"Perhaps it might be compared’, ‘to the impression that would be produced on a wanderer in another millennium coming suddenly upon the ruins of Manhattan rising silent and empty above the Hudson."

(source: The Art and Architecture of India - By Benjamin Rowland and The Road to Angkor - By Christopher Pym  p. 176 - 180).

Wim Swaan ( ? )  author of The Lost Cities of Asia has observed:

"Gupta India is in its heyday could well claim to be the best governed and most civilized country in the world. Such was the culture and the extraordinarily rich and complex body of religion and philosophy which Indian traders and missionaries carried throughout ‘Greater India’. To these lands she brought also her knowledge in irrigation, husbandry and metallurgy, mathematics and astronomy, a literary language and an alphabet. Significantly, the cultural dominance of India was achieved not through force but by the voluntary acceptance of her manifestly superior gifts on the part of eager and apt pupils. This was in marked contrast to the southward march of China, an armed expansion on the regular Roman model. 

A fascinating question, and one which has had a far-reaching effect on world history, is why China – particularly in the case of Indo-China – did not exercise a dominant influence during these early years. Chinese ships and navigation methods were both greatly inferior. Long after Indian ships were able to strike out boldly across the open seas, Chinese ships were still forced to hug the shore, and this made them all the more vulnerable to the attacks of the numerous pirates that infested the waters off her southernmost provinces. The zenith of Indian power during the Gupta Period coincided with the most unsettled period in Chinese history.  

 


India was the spark that fired the blaze.

Map showing relations and Sea routes between India and Greater India.  Long after Indian ships were able to strike out boldly across the open seas, Chinese ships were still forced to hug the shores.

"The whole of Asia was to remain forever heavily in debt to India." 

(image source: A Survey of Indian History - By Sardar Kavalam Madhava Panikkar).

***

Louis De La Haba ( ? )  in the book Splendors of the Past: Lost Cities of the Ancient World wrote:

“This was the time of the great Indian expansion, when seafaring merchants fanned out across the Indian Ocean and brought to Southeast Asia a seething ferment of new ideas. From Burma to Indonesia, they established a chain of settlements along the coasts from which they traded for gold, precious stones, perfumes, and spices. The merchants brought with them their religions, Hinduism and then Buddhism; their literary language, Sanskrit, their art and technology; their science and mathematics.

It would be difficult to overestimate the influence India brought to bear on the native cultures of Southeast Asia and on the civilizations that evolved there over the next millennium."

(source: Splendors of the Past: Lost Cities of the Ancient World  - National Geographic Society p. 184 - 190). 

Heinrich Zimmer (1890-1943) the great German Indologist, in the noblest of many books, in his book, Asia before Europe: Economy and Civilization of the Indian Ocean from the Rise of Islam to 1750, writes of the Indian cultural world: 

“Each of the colonial cultures and art styles of Ceylon, Indonesia, and Further India, as well as that of Tibet, China, Korea and Japan, took over in a worthy way the Indian heritage, giving to it an original and happy local application. Out of various ethnological and biological requirements self-contained styles were formed that were the peers in originality, nobility and delicacy of the Indian.” 

India remains “the creative hearth”: Indeed, whenever the incredible brightness of the spiritual, the balanced repose of the dynamic, or the brilliant power of the triumphantly omnipotent are made effectively manifestation in Oriental art, an Indian model is not far to seek.”

(source: Under Western Eyes  - By Balachandra Rajan  p. 37 – 38). Recently an Ancient statue of Lord Vishnu has been found in Russian town of the Volga region For more on The Glorious Hindu Legacy: Indic influence in Southeast Asia refer to the chapters Suvarnabhumi and Glimpses XII to Glimpses XIX.

Dr. Ananda Kentish Cooraswamy (1877-1947) the late curator of Indian art at the Boston Museum of Fine Arts, was unexcelled in his knowledge of the art of the Orient, and unmatched in his understanding of Indian culture, language, religion and philosophy. 

He so aptly put it: “although Far-Eastern races developed independently elements of culture no less important than those of India – almost all that belongs to the common spiritual consciousness of Asia, the ambient in which its diversities are reconcilable, is of Indian origin.” 

Indeed, the whole of Asia was to remain forever heavily in debt to India."

(source: Lost Cities of Asia - By Wim Swaan  p. 13 - 16).

Geoffrey Gorer (1904 -  ?) British anthropologist and author of Bali and Angkor, a trenchant critic of Khmer architecture, found much that is worthy of high praise at Angkor Wat:

"...Angkor Wat is the most perfect building in Angkor, and one of the loveliest pieces of architecture in the world...it makes it almost unique in the big buildings of the world. Space is treated as a constituent part of the whole."

Remarking to Andre Malraux (1901-1976) author of Anti-memoir, profound thinker and French prolific writer, about the Apsaras at Angkor, he remarked: 

"to me the Apsaras are Grace personified, the highest expression of femininity ever conceived by the human mind."

(source: Angkor: The Hidden Glories - By Michael Freeman and Roger Warner p. 182 - 190).

Footprint handbook on Cambodia has said:

"Angkor architecture is remarkable both for its majestic scale and its intimate and intricate details.  

Angkor wat has been described as the largest religious monument in the world. The first glimpse of its five heaven wards soaring towers cannot fail to stir the soul and quicken the pulse.  

Angkor wat is an architectural allegory, depicting in stone the epic ales of Hindu mythology. The temples greatest sculptural treasure is its 2 meters high bas reliefs, around the walls of the outer gallery. It is the longest continuous bas reliefs in the world. In some areas traces of paint and gilt that once covered the carvings can still be seen. The bas reliefs narrate stories from the Ramayana and Mahabharata, as well as legends of Lord Vishnu, and are reminiscent of Pallava and Chola art in Southeast India.  

The Angkor period  encapsulated the greatest and best of Cambodia's art and architecture. Much of it shows strong Indian influence."

(source: Cambodia - By Footprint handbook).

Dr. Nandita Krishna (  ?  )  Director, C.P.R. Ayar Environmental Education Centre, India has written:

“It is a pity India has forgotten the Angkors. A visit to Siem Reap is essential to understand Hinduism and to appreciate Indian art. There is a visible happiness in the deities that is rare in the more withdrawn imagery of India. 

The temples are mysterious and haunting as they brood over the dark jungle, guarding secrets of an ancient people lost in time. The tall pyramids of Meru give the impression of sanctums reaching the skies.  While the rest of the world has rushed to save the monuments, we have taken a tentative step to restore Ta Prohm (“grandfather Brahma”) temple."

(source: The Temples of Angkor - By Nandita Krishna).

Malcolm Macdonald ( ? ) author of the book, Angkor has remarked:

"Angkor vat is the supreme masterpiece of Khmer art. Built in the first half of the 12th century, it is an Asian contemporary of Notre dame de Paris and Chartres Cathedral in France, and of Ely and Lincoln cathedral in England. But in spaciousness and splendor it is more ambitious than any of these. It is said to be the largest religious building ever constructed by man. 

One can best gain an impression of its size and plan by viewing it from the air. The measurements of the place are impressive. Each of the four sides of the moat, which forms an almost exact square, is about a mile in length. The outer and inner enclosures are huge open spaces to accommodate congregations of many thousands of people. Even the walls of the central sanctuary measure more than half a mile in circumference, and the pile is massive not only in length and width, but also in height. A pyramid temple, it climbs in three successive stages to its central cluster of five towers, the topmost of them rising two hundred and fifteen feet about the surrounding forest. Each tower is crowned with a soaring pinnacle shaped like a bursting lotus bud. That was the vision which took Henri Mouhot’s breath away, when he came upon it suddenly amongst the jungle trees.  

Fortunately Angkor vat is not only the finest but also one of the best-preserved of Khmer monuments. It was built with superb, enduring strength. It has handsome, masculine grace. It combines a glorious mixture of qualities. It sprawls spaciously, and yet its overall proportions are perfect; there is a suggestion of austerity about its simple, massive design, but the details of its decoration are in places riotously lovely; and the contrast between its wide, smooth, grassy enclosures and its acres of sculptured masonry is almost theatrical. The galleries, stairways, libraries and shrines in its courtyards are palatial, and they stand solidly. No building on earth seems more sure of itself. 

Angkor vat’s glory should abide unspoilt as long as any scrap of evidence of human civilization lasts on the planet Earth."

(source: Angkor - By Malcolm Macdonald  p. 101 - 108).

Philip Rawson (  ?  ) academic, artist, Keeper of the Gulbenkian Museum of Oriental Art and archaeology at the University of Durham and author of The Art of Southeast Asia has written:

“The culture of India has been one of the world’s most powerful civilizing forces. Countries of the Far East, including China, Korea, Japan, Tibet and Mongolia owe much of what is best in their own culture to the inspiration of ideas imported from India. The West, too has its own debts. But the members of that circle of civilizations beyond Burma scattered around the Gulf of Siam and the Java Sea, virtually owe their very existence to the creative influences of Indian ideas. No conquest or invasion, no forced conversion imposed upon them. They were adopted because the people saw they were good and that they could use them. “ 

“The sculptures of Indian icons produced in Cambodia during the 6th to the 8th centuries A.D. are masterpieces, monumental, subtle, highly sophisticated, mature in style and unrivalled for sheer beauty….”   

“One of the most interesting pieces of all is a fragmentary bronze bust, from the western Mebon, of the God Vishnu lying asleep on the ocean of non-being. Head and shoulders and the two right arms survive. It shows the extraordinary, delicate integrity and subtle total convexity of surface, which these sculptors could achieve by modeling. Eyebrows, moustache and eyes seem to have been inlaid, perhaps with gold, silver or precious tone, though the inlay is gone and only the sockets remain. This was one of the world’s great sculptures. "

 

Lord Vishnu: Lying on his couch, the serpent Ananta  (without end) alludes to the story of the creation of the world.

“One of the most interesting pieces of all is a fragmentary bronze bust, from the western Mebon, of the God Vishnu lying asleep on the ocean of non-being. The bust is 6 1/2 foot wide. It is the largest antique bronze sculpture discovered so far from Cambodia. This was one of the world’s great sculptures. 

Most of the elegant bronze statues in the temples have all but disappeared, except portion of this huge statue of Lord Vishnu. It testifies to the excellent workmanship of the Khmer. The smaller statues and ornaments found reveal a high level of technical and artistic skill. They were made by the lost wax technique and some parts were often cast separately and then riveted together. Some were decorated with precious metals. Sadly none of the articles made of gold, silver or alloys of precious metals referred to in the Khmer inscriptions, known as samrit, have survived, apart from the magnificent Nandi, the bull ridden by Lord Shiva.

(image source: The Art of Southeast Asia - By Philip Rawson).

***

Another magnificent bronze of Shiva, from Por Loboeuk, suggests the wealth of metal art that once must have existed in Cambodia (Kamboja) at the height of its power."

"The genius of the artists of that age was for relief. Indeed one might say that Angkor Wat is a repertory of some of the most magnificent relief art that the world has ever seen. The open colonnaded gallery on the first storey contains over a mile of such works,  six feet high. The main sources for the relief subject matter are the Mahabharata and Ramayana, as well as legends of Vishnu and his incarnation Krishna. The wars of classical legend, in which incarnations of the various persons of the Hindu deity triumph at length over demonic adversaries. The artists’ skill is everywhere apparent."

(source: The Art of Southeast Asia - By Philip Rawson p. 1 - 77. For more refer to chapter on Suvarnabhumi, Seafaring in Ancient India, War in Ancient India and India on Pacific Waves?

Earl A. Powell III (  ? ) Director, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.   

"Angkor is utterly transforming. The jungle and the ruins intertwine in beautiful and mysterious harmony. Sunset from the top of Angkor Wat has to be one of the most extraordinary experiences any traveler could possibly have."    

P. Jennerat de Beerski (  ? ) author of  Angkor, Ruins in Cambodia has remarked: 

"Go to Angkor, my friend, to its ruins and to its dreams."  

(source: Angkor Ruins in Cambodia - By P. Jennerat de Beerski  Boston & New York: 1924  Houghton Mifflin p.20).

Donatella Mazzeo (  ?  ) author of Ancient Cambodia has remarked:

"In an imaginary history of the masterpiece created by human genius through the centuries, Angkor wat would certainly be given its place as the supreme work of the “classical” period of the Khmer civilization. In fact, this is the monument that most effectively sums up the artistic, technical, and spiritual experiences of this people, and then expresses all this most creatively and thoroughly.  

Angkor wat stands as a mature classic. It is perhaps in its bas-reliefs that Angkor wat attains its pinnacle of artistry, and these made use of mythological, epic, or historical scenes for their subject matter. We meet these bas-reliefs in the galleries around the perimeter of the first level of the temple-mountain. "

(source: Ancient Cambodia - By Donatella Mazzeo and Chiara Antonini  p. 100 - 106).

Jawaharlal Nehru (1889-1964) first prime minister of free India, was more than a deeply moral human being. He yearned for spiritual light. He was particularly drawn to Swami Vivekananda and the Sri Ramakrishna Ashram. The Upanishads fascinated him.

He writes: 

“In Cambodia the mighty remains of Angkor the only artistic influence that has been so far detected came from India. But Indian art was flexible and adaptable and in each country it flowered afresh and in many new ways, always retaining that basic impress which it derived from India. The capital became famous in Asia and was known as ‘Angkor the Magnificent’, a city of a million inhabitants, larger and more splendid than the Rome of the Caesars.” 

(source: The Discovery of India - By Jawaharlal Nehru Oxford University Press. 1995  p. 204 – 205).

David P Chandler (  ? )  author of A History of Cambodia writes: 

“The close fit of these spatial relationships to notions of cosmic time, and the extraordinary accuracy and symmetry of all the measurements of Angkor, combine to confirm the notion that the temple was, in fact, a coded religious text that could be read by experts moving along its walkways from one dimension to the next. “

Rudolph Wurlitzer ( ? ) screenwriter, novelist and author of Hard Travel to Sacred Places has observed:

"We stumble around the massive solemnity of this temple mountain, which offers not so much solace or refuge as it does awe and even a shiver of atavistic fear at the omniscience of its precision. It is a place of power, once ruled by Hindu devarajas, under whose totality religious art and sculpture reflect Shiva and Vishnu…."

"One huge bas relief in particular stuns us with its fluid elegance in depicting the Hindu creation myth, “churning the sea of milk” In a union between gods and demons, the giant serpent Vasuki is pulled back and forth between the monkey god, Hanuman, and a line of demons. Vasuki who has wrapped himself around Mount Mandara, is supported by a giant turtle in the Sea of Milk, the ocean of immortality. As Vishnu overseas this divine rhythm of opposites, the gods and demons rotate the mountain and churn the sea into foam, releasing a seminal fluid which creates a divine ambrorsia, or amrita, the essence of elixir of life. Much of the bas relief has faded from centuries of worshippers rubbing their hands over the figures, but overall it is still exquisitely defined. 

Angkor wat has overpowered as much as inspired me. It is as if I’ve trapped myself my wishing for relief, for a transcendent moment, or even, on a more banal level, a catalyst that would revive our sagging energies. The magnificence of the sheer mass of Angkor Wat, the weight and abundance of imagery, has become oppressive. I am disoriented by so much visual grandeur."

(source: Hard Travel to Sacred Places  – By Rudolph Wurlitzer p. 128 - 138).

Maurice Glaize (1886 -1964)  was the conservator of Angkor from 1937 to 1945. In 1944 he published a guide to the temples, entitled Les Monuments du groupe Angkor (The Monuments of the Angkor Group), which is still widely read and used by visitors to the temple,

"If Angkor Wat is the largest and the best preserved of the monuments, it is also the most impressive in the character of its grand architectural composition, being comparable to the finest of architectural achievements anywhere." Angkor Wat is a work of power and reason.

"attains a classic perfection by the restrained monumentality of its finely balanced elements and the precise arrangement of its proportions. It is a work of power, unity and style."

(source: Angkor Wat - psychecentral.com).

Arun Bhattacharjee (  ?  ) author of Greater India has observed:

“This classic art of Kambuja is associated with Angkor and shows the high-water-mark of its glory. In massive grandeur on other equal space on earth cannot show anything comparable to Angkor monuments. The exquisite temples of Angkor provide the main example of Khmer art that has been left to us. Angkor ranked as a chief wonder of the world today – one of the summits to which human genius has ever aspired in stone.” 

The Angkor vat is not remarkable for architecture only. The walls of the galleries are covered with continuous friezes of bas reliefs and other sculptures. The scenes are largely drawn from the Indian epics and are full of life and movements. The plastic art of Kambuja is revealed at its best in the graceful and refined bas reliefs that decorate the long galleries. Thus Angkor shows the vastness of dimensions and fineness of decoration. So the artists of Kambuja conceived like giants and finished like jewelers.” 

(source: Greater India - By Arun Bhattacharjee  p. 118 - 119).

For more refer to chapter on Suvarnabhumi, Seafaring in Ancient India, War in Ancient India and India on Pacific Waves? and Glimpses XIX.

Arnold Toynbee (1889-1975) the great British historian. His massive research was published in 12 volumes between 1934 and 1961 as `A Study of History'. Author of several books, including Christianity: Among the Religions of the World and One World and India.

"Angkor is not orchestral; it is monumental. It is an epic poem which makes its effect, like the Odyssey and like Paradise Lost, by the grandeur of its structure, as well as by the beauty of its details. Angkor is an epic in rectangular forms imposed upon the Cambodian jungle."

(source: East to West: a journey round the world - By Arnold Toynbee Publisher: New York, Oxford).

“India is the central link in a chain of regional civilizations that extend from Japan in the far north-east to Ireland in the far north-west. Between these two extremities the chain sags down southwards in a festoon that dips below the Equator in Indonesia. It is not of course only in a geographical sense that India is in a key position. At the present moment, for instance, it is widely recognized that India holds the balance in the world-wide competition between rival ideologies."

(source: Greater India - By Arun Bhattacharjee - Munshiram Manoharlal Publishers Private Limited, 1981, New Delhi  p. 7).

Michael Buckley (  ? )  Moon Handbooks

“Occupying an entire square kilometer, Angkor Wat is the world’s largest temple and the best preserved of all the Angkorian temples. This masterpiece of Khmer design is contemporary with the major Gothic cathedrals of Europe. Angkor Wat’s central tower soars 65 meters, equivalent to Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris. Angkor Wat is estimated to contain the same cubic volume of stone blocks as Egypt's pyramid of Cheops. Every stone surface at Angkor is carefully dressed, carved, and decorated.” 

(source: Laos and Angkorwat ceramic excursion).

Vimla Patil ( ? ) associated with Femina, India’s number one women’s magazine, published  for 29 years. 

She has remarked:

"The Angkor Wat temple is the biggest Hindu temple in the world. It is counted among the seven modern wonders of the world and is a UNESCO World Heritage Site visited by millions of tourists each year. Imagine that till 150 years ago, this whole city was undiscovered, being covered by thick jungles and overgrown trees! 

This temple is a wonderful example of the Hindu concept of the cosmos. The moat represents the oceans. The temple is the Mount Meru and the galleries, which lead up to the sanctum, are the various continents. The constant upward movement of the building from one gallery to the next represents the spiritual path of a human being. The final destination is the sanctum sanctorum where he/she comes face to face with divinity."

(source: A Fascinating Page From History – Monuments of Angkor Wat - By Vimla Patil - South Asian Women's Forum).

King Norodom Suramarit of Cambodia (1920 - 1960) in a banquet in honor of Dr. S Radhakrishnan in Cambodia in 1957 he said: 

“We are your spiritual descendants. A man called Kaundinya (Brahmin) came from South India years ago, defeated the Cambodian princess, married her, settled down, established his dynasty, and, we are the spiritual descendants of that dynasty. The name Khmer civilization which you give to that comes from the word Kh-Meru of which Kaundinya was a citizen here."  

 

          

King Norodom Suramarit of Cambodia (1920 - 1960) and Dr. S Radhakrishnan (1888-1975) President of India.

In a banquet in honor of Dr. S Radhakrishnan in Cambodia in 1957 he said:  "We are your spiritual descendants." 

***

(source: Our Heritage - By S Radhakrishnan  p. 26).

Michael Freeman (1972 -  ) a noted photographer has written in his visually stunning book, Angkor: The Hidden Glories:

"We look up and stand transfixed.
The great towers rise ahead,
black against a crimson band of sky.
We are within the temple precincts,
yet we still have far to go,
The causeway, broad enough for a cavalcade
of elephants, stretches on ahead."

We have been walking into a schematic version of a Hindu temple-mountain, with its concentric series of oceans and mountain ranges surrounding the five peaks of Mount Meru. The scale of Angkor Wat is so vast that it is hard to appreciate the layout without some kind of plan ore aerial view. The view from the central tower is magnificent, and the way in which the builders have recreated the experience of climbing a mountain is uncanny. To the left and right rise the corner towers; galleries link the five peaks. In the middle, under the central and largest tower, is the sanctuary that once contained the sacred image dedicated to Lord Vishnu. 

The temple contains world’s longest continuous expanse of bas-reliefs, all in the form of narrative sculpture. The first one, taking up the entire section as far as the corner pavilion, more than fifty yards away, is the Mahabharata. The narrative thread of The Great Epic of the Bharata Dynasty is the feud between the Pandava and Kaurava families. A poem of hundred thousand couplets seven times longer than the combined Odyssey and Iliad. It contains Hinduism’s most famous and important religious text, The Bhagavad Gita (The Lord’s Song). Lord Vishnu appears in the epic as Krishna to assist the heroes of the story, the Pandava family; since Angkor Wat is consecrated to Vishnu, the presence of the Mahabharata is especially appropriate. 

The Churning of the Sea of Milk is the masterpiece of the bas-reliefs. Its theme is one of the most important in Khmer mythology, the treatment is an enormous but unified tableau, and the execution is of the highest order, probably by one supremely talented artist. "

(source: Angkor: The Hidden Glories - By Michael Freeman and Roger Warner p. 160 - 167). Refer to Marco Polo’s epic journey to China was a big con Team Folks

Reginald Le May ( ? ) Vice president, Royal India, Pakistan and Ceylon Society and author of The Culture of South-East Asia wrote:

"The beginnings of Indian colonization overseas eastward go back a very long way in time and it is almost certain that the results seen today were, in the main, not achieved by military expeditions, but by peaceful trading and religious teaching - and thereby all the more permanent."

"Indian religious art and culture seem naturally to have exercised an extraordinary fascination over the indigenous peoples of all these territories, no doubt, owing to the attractions offered by Hinduism and Buddhism, while Chinese art, not bearing any particular religious message, apparently made but little impression in spite of the fact that the Chinese, too sailed the southern seas in search of trade from very early times."

“To sing the praises of this superb work of art to their fullest height would require the knowledge of a skilled architect, the imagination of a poet, the flair of a born artist, and the fluent pen of a master prose-writer.”  

 

Lord Shiva from Vietnam, 

(image source: Musee Guimet, France).

Also two magnificent images of Hari-Hara (Vishnu and Shiva combined in one) both from the southern part of Funan and now in the Museum in Phnom Penh."

***

To a true lover of art who has acquired a sense of world values and is free from the narrow vision given by his European training, the study of ancient Cambodian (Khmer) art is entrancing. It is rich without being gaudy, and magnificent without being garish, and if I have to find some European parallel for comparison, the nearest I can point to is the late, rich Norman style, such as we see in the deep recessed cathedral and church doorways in England, which, strangely enough, is almost contemporaneous with classical Khmer architecture at its best. The interesting point is that, while China employed military force to conquer that portion of Indo-china which still shows her influence, India never used aggression to obtain her ends. Indeed, so far from being exterminated by their ‘conquerors’ the aborigines of various Indianized States found, as Coedes says, ‘a framework inside which their own social life and customs could merge and develop.’

The Indianization of these States is borne out by the statues of the Buddha, as well as the splendid stone statues of Vishnu and other Hindu gods which have been found, not only in Cambodia and Cochin-China, but also in the Malay Peninsula and as far north as Sri-Deb in the valley of the Pa-Sak river in Northeastern Siam. Also two magnificent images of Hari-Hara (Vishnu and Shiva combined in one) both from the southern part of Funan and now in the Museum in Phnom Penh."

(source: Greater India - By Arun Bhattacharjee  p.11 - 15 and The Culture of South-East Asia - By Reginald Le May - p. 133).

Paul M Collard ( ? ) author of Cambodge et Cambodgiens, métamorphose du royaume khmer par une méthode française de protectorat, Paris, 1925 wrote:   

“A book in stone, a tangible document of history, they at least remain, the astonishing proof of a Cambodian civilization which has disappeared forever.” 

(source: Angkor and the Khmer empire- By John Audric  p. 19).

Rene Grousset (1885-1952) wrote in the Historie de l’Extreme-Orient He writes about the Indian influence in South East Asia:

"In the high plateau of eastern Iran, in the oases of Serindia, in the arid wastes of Tibet, Mongolia, and Manchuria, in the ancient civilized lands of China and Japan, in the lands of the primitive Mons and Khmers and other tribes of Indo-China, in the countries of the Malaya-Polynesians, in Indonesia and Malay, India left the indelible impress of her high culture, not only upon religion, but also upon art, and literature, in a word, all the higher things of spirit."

"There is an obstinate prejudice thanks to which India is constantly represented as having lived, as it were, hermetically sealed up in its age-old civilization, apart from the rest of Asia. Nothing could be more exaggerated. During the first eight centuries of our era, so far as religion and art are concerned, central Asia was a sort of Indian colony.

It is often forgotten that in the early Middle Ages there existed a "Greater India," a vast Indian empire.

A man coming from the Ganges or the Deccan to Southeast Asia felt as much at home there as in his own native land. In those days the Indian Ocean really deserved its name." 

“This conquest, these spiritual colonies represented by Angkor and Borobadur, constitute India’s greatest title to fame, her contribution to mankind.”

(source: Civilizations of the East - By Rene Grousset Vol. II, Chapter - Farther India and the Malay Archipelago p. 275-343 and Angkor and the Khmer empire- By John Audric  p. 19).

John Audric ( ? ) was a French scholar whose interest in the Khmers lasted some forty years. He was the author of Angkor and the Khmer Empire has observed:

"The great edifice of Angkor Wat with its huge lotus-bud-shaped towers, the glory of Khmer architecture and of its founder Suryavarman II stands out above them all. It is a spectacle of beauty, wonder and magnificence. One is struck by its sheer enormity. It is 5,000 feet by 4,000 feet. What brilliant scenes in Khmer history had this causeway witnessed. Armies had marched, cavalry had galloped, priests had walked in procession with all the ceremonial of their office. It continues on to a majestic, five-storeyed and flame-crested triumphal entrance gateway which had been set in the middle of an outer enclosure 600 feet long, which in turn is continued in the form of galleries in both directions and along all four sides. This huge gateway is crowned by three magnificent towers with broken summits."  

 

It is often forgotten that in the early Middle Ages there existed a "Greater India," a vast Indian empire.

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India left the indelible impress of her high culture, not only upon religion, but also upon art, and literature, in a word, all the higher things of spirit."

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Angkor Wat was a miniature universe, a microcosm, a magnificent replica in stone of Khmer cosmology. Its five towers symbolized the peaks of Mt. Meru, the enclosing wall the mountain at the edge of the world, the surrounding moat the ocean beyond. Angkor Wat is an architectural masterpiece. It is also the culmination of the efforts of the Khmers over the centuries to produce a monument of outstanding merit to the gods of Hindu trinity….”

"The bas-reliefs are one of Angkor Wat’s greatest treasures and outstanding attractions. In the lower terrace they continue for over half a mile, which gives some idea of the vastness of the temple. Every stone is decorated. The bas-reliefs are about 8 feet high. The whole effect is that of an almost endless tapestry in stone. The subjects are principally religious, of legends and of war. The scenes from Ramayana and Mahabharat take up nearly half a mile, and the total number of figures of men, animals and birds has been calculated to be nearly 20,000. There are combats between opposing forces who are mounted on elephants. Hundreds of elephants have been sculptured on the walls, and illustrate some incidents from these two epics; warriors fighting from chariots, scenes from the lives of the God Rama and his wife Sita, who was kidnapped by the demon Ravana, armies of men and monkeys. Vast stretches depict Khmer victories on land and sea, naval pageants, victory marches with bands and banners. The God Vishnu is mounted on a Garuda; there are invocations to the Hindu trinity, goddesses, and guardian deities." 

"The sculptors were fortunate in being provided with a most sensitive, ideal and endless canvas upon which to exercise their talents. This was polished sandstone. They used about 4,000 feet of it. The bas-reliefs decorate eight panels, four of which are over 100 yards long. Everything about Angkor Wat is on a massive and lavish scale, as if time, expense and labor were of little importance. The bas reliefs in the majority of cases are executed with exquisite beauty, and the most minute attention to detail, symmetry and proportion." These were not only men of culture; they possessed a knowledge of medicine produced from the herbs, were familiar with the anatomy, and were well versed in cultivation and irrigation."

(source: Angkor and the Khmer empire- By John Audric  p.136 - 146).

Donatella Mazzeo and Chiara Silvi Antonini author of Ancient Cambodia: Monuments of Civilization have remarked: 

“No film, no photograph, nothing can prepare one for Angkor and its impact. It is even difficult to speak of it in other than superlative terms. For it is colossal, enormous, prodigious, startling, awesome..”

(source: Ancient Cambodia: Monuments of Civilization - By Donatella Maezzo and Chiara Silvi Antonini).

C M (Chandra Mohan) Bhandari (1949 -  )  Indian Ambassador to Cambodia has observed in his book Saving Angkor, in the chapter, A Golden Era of Ties with India:

"Twelfth century Angkor Wat, the largest Hindu temple in the world is dedicated to Lord Vishnu. To the Cambodian people it symbolizes their nation's soul. Angkor Wat, the most precious jewel of the Angkor period, was built during the reign of King Suryavarman II whom Cambodian history recognizes as the one ushering in the Golden Age of the Khmer Empire. Unlike the previous kings who were devotees of Shiva - the God all creation and destruction, Suryavarman's personal deity was Vishnu, the nourisher or preserver. 

"that Angkor Wat's inspiration was derived from Indian Vedic literature is beyond doubt. The scores of learned Brahmin priests who controlled and advised the Angkor sovereigns, were responsible not only for deciding the themes of the art and architecture but also for ordering numerous steles which have helped in piecing together Cambodia's early and medieval history. The word 'Angkor' in written text is exactly like the Sanskrit word Nagarah, the only difference lies in script and phonetics. Khmer language derives its origin from Sanskrit."

(source: Saving Angkor - By C M Bhandari  p. 1 - 17).

D G E Hall ( ? )first head of the Dept of History in the University of Rangoon and later Professor of History of Southeast Asia in the University of London and author of A History of South-East Asia, rightly points out: 

"Both politically and culturally south-east Asia has been overshadowed by India."

Dr. P C Bagchi ( ? ) writes: "The history of the Indian colonization of Indo-China and the Malay Peninsula forms a glorious chapter to the history of India."

(source: The Indian Colony of Siam - By Phanindra Nath Bose p. foreword 1927 Lahore).

King Sihanouk (1922 - ) very often reminds his Indian visitors that Khmers are the progeny of an Indian prince named Kambu (ja in Sanskrit means 'born of, hence Kambu = ja). He also very warmly explains, which in many ways brings out the pride Prince Sihanouk and indeed all Khmers have for their Angkorean ancestors of Indian descent, that the river Mekong is actually the Khmer equivalent of the holy river 'Mother Ganges of India (Sanskrit name 'Ma Ganga' in Khmer becomes 'Mai Kong'). 

King Sihanouk reminisces in his book ‘Cambodia owes its cultural roots to India’ and “more than a thousand years ago an Indian prince Kambu, reached our shores and also saw wild people. The Indians brought us civilization; architecture, philosophy, our alphabet (which derives from Sanskrit and Pali) and our religions (both Hinduism and Buddhism, latter ultimately prevailed).”

(source: Saving Angkor - By C M Bhandari  p. 1 - 17 and Sihanouk Reminisces - World Leaders I have Known - By Prince Sihanouk with Bernard Krisher  p. 55). Watch Scientific verification of Vedic knowledge

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Angkor Wat: Symphony in stone

Hinduism’s patrimony at its most magnificent.

India is a country of temples without equal but there is a certain irony in that one of the largest and most dramatic monuments to Hinduism rests not in India but thousands of miles away from the subcontinent amid the ruins of a metropolis hidden in the jungles of Cambodia. One of the largest cities of the ancient world, Angkor was built at the height of the Khmer Empire's supremacy in South East Asia. In the 12th century the vast temple of Angkor Wat, which is larger even than the Vatican, was built in the heart of the city by King Suryavaranm II to honor Lord Vishnu. 

Angkor Wat, originally named Vrah Vishnulok - the sacred abode of Lord Vishnu. 

 

 

   

Lord Vishnu on Garuda and Lord Vishnu statue

This man-made wonder is seductively unique. Originally all nine great pinnacles of the temple were plated with gold, while the sculptures of incredible richness, covering the walls in high and low relief, were ablaze with color. 

(image source: Guimet Museum, France and National Museum, Thailand).

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Angkor Wat's distinctive terraced towers rising above the skyline are in the from of lotus buds, one of Lord Vishnu's principal symbols. It was a place of devotion as well as an astronomical observatory. The legend was that the temple was not built by human hands but by Indra, the Lord of Heaven, who sailed down to earth for the purpose. Originally all nine great pinnacles were plated with gold, while the sculptures of incredible richness, covering the walls in high and low relief, were ablaze with color. 

The central shrine contained a gold statue of Vishnu mounted on a garuda, which was taken out of its sanctuary on festival occassions.

The approach to Angkor Wat is dramatic in the extreme. The deep shade of encircling jungle opens on to a spacious expanse of water, shimmering in the sunlight, the great moat, some 600 ft wide enclosing a rectangle nearly a mile square. A single monumental causeway lined by a magnificent balustrade of hooded serpents and lions spans the moat, like an umbilical cord, affording access to the triple entrance gateways, the two wide-spreading, arcaded galleries, forming a composition no less than eight hundred feet in width.  

 

Angkorwat - originally named Vrah Vishnulok - the sacred abode of Lord Vishnu

One of the most spectacular and mesmerizing structures of astronomical significance that has ever been built is the temple of Angkor Wat in what is now Cambodia.

"Its splendid plan, the balance of its proportions, the elegance of its pillared cloisters and the beauty of its decoration make it one of the masterpieces of world architecture." 

It is a pity India has forgotten the Angkors. A visit to Siem Reap is essential to understand Hinduism and to appreciate Indian art.

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Itself a stupendous work of architecture, the proplylaeum provides a fitting prelude to the breathtaking vista that expands before one’s gaze on emerging from its dark, deliberately constricted chambers.  

A thousand foot long, raised, processional way, flanked midway by elegant library pavilions and later by immense reflecting pools – microcosms of the Cosmic Oceans – leads to a cruciform podium from which the sovereign could watch processions and the performances of the temple dancers; and up to the main structure. Here is the apotheosis of the abode of the Devarja, a temple-mountain of stupendous proportions flaring skyward in a vision of otherworldly splendor. Each of the terraces of the three-tiered pyramid has continuous galleries accented with gateways and towers, elaborate stairways, and the plan is further enriched by additional ‘libraries’ and subsidiary cruciform galleries.  

The miracle of Angkor Wat lies, above all, in the ensemble; in the fact that these numerous and complex elements have not merely been combined in an assemblage but have been orchestrated into a stupendous symphony in stone; that a Euclidean clarity of form in the total layout can be intuitively sensed by the spectator even if it can only be confirmed from the vantage point of the gods – or modern man: the air.   

Imperial Scale of Angkor Wat

A sacred site of Angkor, a sprawling archeological treasure trove covering 250 square miles of jungle in the centre of Cambodia. 

The sculptural decoration of Angkor Wat, is if anything, even more astonishing than the architecture. That the main temple alone should constitute the largest religious building in all history, covering an area as great as that of the largest pyramids, is astounding enough; that every square inch of such a structure should be carved and decorated, passes imagination. Yet so it has been, and with a loving care and skill which have infused the cold stone with pulsating life.   

Angkor Wat, in its beauty and state of preservation, is unrivaled. Its mightiness and magnificence bespeak a pomp and a luxury surpassing that of a Pharaoh or a Shah Jahan, an impressiveness greater than that of the Pyramids, an artistic distinctiveness as fine as that of the Taj Mahal.

Angkor Wat, the largest monument of the Angkor group and the best preserved, is an architectural masterpiece. Its perfection in composition, balance, proportions, relief's and sculpture make it one of the finest monuments in the world. The general appearance of the wonder of the temple is beautiful and romantic as well as impressive and grand it must be seen to be understood and appreciated. One can never look upon the ensemble of the vat without a thrill, a pause, a feeling of being caught up onto the heavens. Perhaps it is the most impressive sight in the world of edifices.

 

 

The great Vishnu temple at Angkor Wat is known to have been built according to an astronomical plan.

Visitors are amazed at the scale of Angkor City. The complex covers around 400 square kilometers and comprises over 100 monuments and edifices of temples, sculptures, statues and incomparable bas-relief that have withstood the ravages of time.

(image source: Lost Civilizations - By Austen Atkinson p. 164).

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One stands dumbfounded at the mere thought of the labor involved in the six miles of exquisitely carved moldings on the steps which line the great moat; or at the ten thousand stone pinnacles of lace-like intricacy assembled to crown each of the five towers; or the two thousand life-size reliefs of apsaras, ranged like some celestial corps de ballet, clothed in the most gorgeous stuffs and sporting unbelievable head-dresses, no two alike; or at the acres of background ornament, carved to represent the floral patterns. One of the supreme masterpieces of world sculpture in terms of quality alone, this bas-relief is some six feet high and over a mile in length.

Exquisitely carved reliefs

 

     

Richly adorned walls of Angkor wat: The Epic Battle of Kurukshetra in the Mahabharata. The sculptural decoration of Angkor Wat, is if anything, even more astonishing than the architecture. 

Arjun and Krishna, his charioteer. The Bhagavad Gita is the essence of the symbolic meaning of the battle of Kurukshetra as a conflict between the sons of Darkness (the Kauravas) and sons of Light (the Pandavas). Arjuna is the soul of men and Krishna the charioteer of the soul.

 Lord Krishna says: "I am the seed of all things that are; not a being, standing or moving, can exist without me."

The Bhagavad Gita has influenced great Americans from Thoreau to Oppenheimer. Its message of letting go of the fruits of one’s actions is just as relevant today as it was when it was first written more than two millennia ago.  The Bhagavad Gita, a world beloved, timeless classic was treasured by American writers from Emerson to T S Eliot.

(image source: webmaster's own collection of photos taken during a recent visit).

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The themes of the continuous reliefs are taken from Hindu epics. Particularly noteworthy are the battle scenes from the Mahabharata and the Ramayana. At Angkor Wat the great battle between the forces of the demon-king and the cohorts of the monkey general is depicted with enormous verve in a monumental composition. 

In this temple, Vishnu's heaven, he was depicted as merciful and compassionate, despite his mighty power. Deep in cosmic sleep, he creates a new world. His great deeds of chivalry were described in the Mahabharata and handed down from generation to generation. They provided the sculptors of Angkor Wat with subject matter as well as inspiration for their sandstone canvases.

The most monumental relief and possibly the most magnificent, is the depicting of Samudra Manthan - ‘the Churning of the Sea of Milk’. 

The Gods and Titans (asuras) though in eternal conflict, formed a temporary alliance to procure the drink of immortality, amrita or ambrosia. The body of the Cosmic Serpent, Vasuki, an avatar of Vishnu, was twined around the ‘World Mountain’ Mount Madara placed in the primal void of the ‘Sea of Milk’ and teams of ninety-two demons and eight-eight gods ranged on either side, grasped the head and tail of the serpent and enacted a celestial tug-of-war under the direction of Vishnu. They pulled the serpent back and forth and the mountain, pivoted on the back of the Cosmic Tortoise, Kurma – yet another manifestation of Vishnu – rotated, acting as a churning stick. As the Milky Ocean turned to butter, various symbols of power and delight emerged: apasaras, jewels, a milk-white charger and elephant, and Dhanvantari, the physicians of gods, bearing a bowl of brimming with amrita.   

The proudest of achievements of the ASI - The Archaeological Survey of India has been restoration of the Samudra Manthan Gallery which, had been dismantled by the French.

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S
amudra Manthan:  Lord Vishnu directing the Churning of the Milk Ocean.

The Puranic story of the Churning of the Primeval milk ocean (kshirasagara) by the gods and the demons, using the primeval serpent, Vasuki, as a rope and Mount Meru as a churning stick with Kurma, the tortoise as the base.

Fluid Elegance of Samudra Manthan: The Churning of the Milk Ocean.

Lord Vishnu at the center directing the Churning of the Milk Ocean.

(image source: webmaster's own collection of photos taken during a recent visit).

Ravana on the left as the head of the asuras.

(image source: webmaster's own collection of photos taken during a recent visit).

  

Human on the right as head of the devas.

The most monumental relief and possibly the most magnificent, is the depicting ‘the Churning of the Sea of Milk’. 

One of the supreme masterpieces of world sculpture in terms of quality alone, this bas-relief is some six feet high and over a mile in length.  

(image source: webmaster's own collection of photos taken during a recent visit).

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Executed at it was, on a scale of imperial magnificence, the building of such a structure as Angkor Wat presupposed ‘a high degree of economic and social integration, plus a government strong enough to command the labor and talents of vast numbers of trained participants. All told, we are dealing with a concurrence of favorable circumstances on a vast scale such as has occurred only a dozen times in world history.  

Angkor Wat is the world's largest sacred building and an architectural masterpiece that took more than thirty years to build. Angkor Wat, originally named Vrah Vishnulok - the sacred abode of Lord Vishnu. For centuries it was known only to locals, existing as a myth for the rest of the world until the early 1850's, when French explorer Henri Mahout 'rediscovered' the site deep within thick jungle. It would take weeks to view all of the ruins and truly understand the magnitude of Angkor.

The sight of the ruins, he wrote in his diary, made the traveler “forget all the fatigues of the journey, filling him with admiration and delight, such as would be experienced in finding a verdant oasis in the sandy desert. Suddenly, and as if by enchantment, he seems to be transported from barbarism to civilization, from profound darkness into light.” The French (with their Eurocentric attitude) could not imagine that the Khmer kings were responsible for such monumental work. The theories as to who constructed Angkor’s monument ranged from the ancient Romans to Alexander the Great. Indeed, the structures echo styles from other monumental ruins. Angkor Wat is built in classical Indian style, and yet the numerous bas-reliefs have a strangely Egyptian character. The columns and arches at Preach Khan Temple, evoke those of the Greeks and Romans, while the Pyramid of Phimeanakas resembles those of the Maya at Tikal, Guatemala

 

Angkor wat: Hinduism’s patrimony at its most magnificent.

Angkor Wat is visually, architecturally and artistically breathtaking. It is a massive three-tiered pyramid crowned by five beehive-like towers rising 65 meters from ground level. Angkor Wat is the centerpiece of any visit to the temples of Angkor.

At the apex of Khmer political and military dominance in the region, Suryavarman II constructed Angkor Wat in the form of a massive 'temple-mountain' dedicated to the Hindu God, Vishnu.

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If you are looking for Hinduism’s patrimony at its most magnificent, you won’t find it within our borders of India. 

For that, you’ll have to take a flight to Bangkok. From there, it’s a short hop to a rural town in the middle of nowhere in Cambodia. Here in an area that stretches 25 km east to west and 10 km north to south, the local Hindu kings built a hundred or so temples in praise of Vishnu and Shiva a thousand years ago. The temple at Angkor Wat is the center piece. It rivals the monuments of ancient Greece and Rome and is the largest religious structure in the world. 

Angkor Wat is impressive for its majestic scale as well as for exquisite, intricate details. There are bas-reliefs of scenes from the Mahabharata and the Ramayana. An entire stretch of wall has the Kauravas and the Pandavas in furious battle. On another wall, Vishnu, Shiva, Brahma, Lakshmi and even Hanuman make an appearance at the churning of the oceans.

 

An entire stretch of wall has the Kauravas and the Pandavas in furious Battle of Kurukshetra in the Epic of The Mahabharat.

(image source: webmaster's own collection of photos taken during a recent visit).

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From the ninth to the fifteenth century the Khmer Empire was the greatest civilization in Southeast Asia, and gave birth to some of the world’s richest works of art. Inspiration from the magnificent temples and cities of this period, which contained exquisite carvings in wood and stone seemingly adorning every nook and cranny, and whose kingdom stretched from the coast of Vietnam to present-day Thailand. At the heart rose the magnificent towers of Angkor Wat, now a World Heritage site.

Combining great technical mastery on an unprecedented scale with extraordinary architectural and artistic innovations, Angkor Vat has a unique place in the long ancient Khmer tradition of the royal "Temple-Mountain.". Built in the 12th century in the reign of King Suryavarman II, this was the residence of Vishnu

The inspiration for Angkor architecture come from Hinduism. The early rules of Angkor promoted various Hindu sects, mainly dedicated to Shiva and Vishnu.  

 

   

Lord Vishnu and Lord Shiva 
Vishnu and Shiva were later worshipped together as Harihara. 

The inspiration for Angkor architecture come from Hinduism. The early rules of Angkor promoted various Hindu sects, mainly dedicated to Shiva and Vishnu.  

Today there seems to be an active scheme to de link Hinduism from Angkor wat, much like the de linking Yoga from Hinduism in the West.

(image source: Museum Guimet).

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Visitors are amazed at the scale of Angkor City. The complex covers around 400 square kilometers and comprises over 100 monuments and edifices of temples, sculptures, statues and incomparable bas-relief that have withstood the ravages of time.

The enormous temple complexes had been expanded to the large area by successive kings. The architectural style of Angkor is largely based on Indian (Hindu) cosmology to symbolize the center of the universe and mixed with local architecture. At the fall of the Empire, the jungle reclaimed the decaying ruins until being rediscovered in 1861.

No photograph can quite capture the immensity of this monument. Some of the apparent grandeur of the complex is due to clever perspective. The tip of the central tower is only 65 meters high. However, many of the other statistics of the temple are still quite impressive. The temple is surrounded by a 200 meter wide moat (that's more than two football fields to you Americans). The main temple is built on three levels.

(image source: Angkor: Splendors of the Khmer Civilization - By Marilia Albanese p. 57).

The first level consists of an open gallery, with the inner wall continuously covered with bas-reliefs depicting the Mahabharata, the Ramayana and other stories from the Hindu pantheon. Its nearly a kilometer walk to see the whole thing, but its worth it.

Angkor Wat was built at the height of Cambodian political power in the late 8th century by King Jayavarman II (802-834), a fervent follower of Hinduism, he dedicated the temple to God Vishnu.

Angkor Wat, originally named Vrah Vishnulok - the sacred abode of Lord Vishnu. The temples were designed to represent Mount Meru, The name "Angkor" is derived from the Sanskrit word nagara meaning "city", successing kings continued the practice of building temple mountain at the heart of their capital. Angkor Wat is the largest religious building in the world, it measures more than a half mile long on each side. Angkor was a metropolis of a million or so people, the capital of Khmer kingdom, which flourished for 500 years, peaking in the 12th century. Angkor Wat is the most perfect of the Angkor temples. Built in monumental proportions on three levels, its symmetrical five tower layout symbolizes the peaks of Mount Meru and were designed to be a microcosm of the Hindu universe. There is not only the grandeur, for every spot in the temple is ornamented with sculptures and bas-reliefs of wonderful detail.

These relics of past grandeur bear mute testimony tone of the least known yet most glorious chapters in the history of mankind: that of the classical culture of ‘Greater India.’ 

(source: Lost Cities of Asia - By Wim Swaan  p. 148 - 160 and p. 13).

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Background of Vrah Vishnulok
Architectural Grandeur

Angkor Wat, originally named Vrah Vishnulok - the sacred abode of Lord Vishnu, is the largest temple in the world. It was built by King Suryavarman II in the 12th century. Angkor wat is often hailed as one of the most extraordinary architectural creations ever built, with its intricate bas-reliefs, strange acoustics and magnificent soaring towers.

 

Angkor Wat dedicated to Lord Vishnu was originally named Vrah Vishnulok - the sacred abode of Lord Vishnu.

(image source: webmaster's own collection of photos taken during a recent visit).

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Angkor Wat is an architectural masterpiece. Built at the end of the eleventh century by King Suryavarman II, (reigned from 1113 - 1150 AD) it is larger than Paris. A shrine dedicated to Lord Vishnu, it is the largest religious building in the world and took over thirty seven years to build. 

The layout of its remarkable mathematic design forms a diagram which corresponds symbolically with the Hindu stories of the creation of the universe. 

 

Angkor wat was built by King Suryavarman II and was dedicated to Lord Vishnu.

Divakarapandita, the Brahmin in Suryavarman’s service, contributed to its conception and planning.

(image source: webmaster's own collection of photos taken during a recent visit).

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Angkor Wat is the grandest and most sublime of all Khmer temples. It is the world's largest religious monument. A completely realized microcosm of the Hindu universe, culminating in the five peaks of Mt. Meru. It is an architectural masterpiece in fine proportions and rich in detail; apogee of classical, Khmer construction. 

Angkor Wat is the supreme masterpiece of the Khmer art. The great size, the perfect proportions and the astoundingly beautiful sculptress everywhere presents itself to the viewer. Its architecture is majestic and its representation of form and movement from Indian mythology and epics has astounding grace and power.  The temples are designed to teach spiritual knowledge as one traverses their interior.

Divakarapandita, the Brahmin in Suryavarman’s service, contributed to the conception and planning of Angkor wat.

Divakarapandita was from a long line of illustrious Brahmins, and he must have been quite old by Suryavarman’s accession, having served the previous two kings Jayavarman VI and Dharanindravarman I. The building of the temple commenced upon Suryavarman taking the throne and continued for approximately the next thirty years.  

In 1080, Divakara, a Brahmin who had been in the service of Harshavarman II, brought a new dynasty to the throne which was unrelated to the previous one, and crowned the new king under the name of Jayavarman VI. This king seems to have resided, not at Yashodharapura, but somewhere farther north, which is probably where his family came from. Upon his death in 1107, his elder brother Dharanindravarman, was crowned by the Brahmin Divakara; but five years later his grandnephew, who was still quite young, seized power and was in turn consecrated as king by Divakara in 1113 under the name of Suryavaman II.

(source: The Making of South East Asia - By George Coedes p. 100 – 101).

A variety of legends from Hindu texts are skillfully illustrated at Angkor wat in the reliefs of the 3rd enclosure.  

Angkor wat’s narrative reliefs clearly refer to popular events from the Epics - The Ramayana and The Mahabharata and the Puranas, visually narrated in a way which is generally faithful to the original Sanskrit texts in terms of the plot – even down to the last detail.  Ramayana The story of Rama is the most widely diffused tale in South and Southeast Asia. In Cambodia of the Angkorean  period, it seems that the Ramayana in use pertained to Valmiki’s tradition.  

The word Angkor is derived from the Sanskrit word 'nagara' meaning 'holy city'. Vatika means temple. "The city which is a temple," Angkor Wat is a majestic monument, the world's largest religious construction in stone, and an architectural masterpiece.

Cambodia, the ancient Khamboja, boasts the largest temple complex in the world, named Angkor, from the Sanskrit language meaning "the capital city." It was built in the 9th century C. E. in honor of the Hindu god Vishnu. The complex extends over an area more than twice the size of Manhattan and took thirty-seven years to complete. Its physical and spiritual grandeur if found elsewhere only in ancient Greece, Egypt, and among the Mayan and Aztec civilizations. Cambodia's principle river is today called Me Kong, which is derived from India's Ma Ganga. It rises 200 feet from the Cambodian jungle floor like a gigantic mandala, its walls adorned throughout with scenes from the Hindu epic Ramayana and legends of the god Vishnu and his incarnation, Krishna. Built between the ninth and the thirteenth centuries by a succession of twelve Khmer kings, Angkor spreads over 120 square miles in Southeast Asia and includes scores of major architectural sites. In 802, when construction began on Angkor Wat, with wealth from rice and trade, Jayavarman ll took the throne, initiating an unparalleled period of artistic and architectural achievement, exemplified in the fabled ruins of Angkor, center of the ancient empire. According to the poem inscribed on its walls, the temple at Angkor Wat was not built by humans, but by Celestial architect commanded by Indra, chief of the gods

The Hydraulic Empire

Angkor is located at the foot of Mount Kulen, a large natural water-tower from where many rivers flow down. But water was an irregular resource and the surplus had to be stored for use in the dry season. The Angkorian kings understood this and chose to build barays. These were large artificial reservoirs supplied by rainfall and diverted rivers. They were well thought out: instead of digging into the ground, people raised dykes to hold water. Water would enter through the north dyke and would later be released to irrigate rice fields.  

Indratataka, Sanskrit for "Indra's basin," was the first baray. 

It was built around 880 by Indravarman I near Roluos, south of Siem Reap. The reservoir was a perfect rectangle four times longer than wide. The dykes were 2 to 5 meters high, and as much as 10 million m3 of water was stored there! The Roluos river supplied the baray, which provided for tens of thousands of people.

A baray is a water reservoir - an area of land where dikes have been raised to catch and hold water. Angkorian kings built massive barays, and such projects became one of the marks of Angkorian kingship. At the center of each baray is an island temple.

The prosperity of the Khmer state was determined by an unfailing abundance of three resources: fish, rice, and water. Angkor, the capital of the Khmer empire from 802 to 1431, is well-placed on the northern margin of the Great Lake, to take advantage of the inexhaustible supply of fish which the lake produces. Equally important was plentiful water for farming rice. This water was supplied by rains and rivers, stored in artificial reservoirs, and distributed to the rice fields by irrigation canals. 

Hariharalaya is the first hydraulic city of classical Angkorian type. The baray of Lolei (Indratataka) is the first of its kind.

The first great barays in the Angkor region were Indratataka at Hariharalaya, built by Indravarman I in the late 9th century, and the East Baray at Angkor, also begun by Indravarman but completed by his son and successor, Yashovarman I. The East Baray is a monumental artificial lake measuring 1.8km by 7.5km, which is 1.1 miles wide and 4.7 miles long. As with all the great barays, it was built by excavating and piling up an enormous earthen retaining wall, about 4m-5m (14') tall, around the perimeter, so that the water was held above ground behind what is, essentially, a giant dyke. The East Baray was fed by the Siem Reap river, and would have held 37.2 million cubic meters of water at a depth of 3m (10'). (A figure of 55 million cubic meters of water is also quoted; the larger figure assumes an average water depth of 4.5m). 

The amazing scale of such a construction, and the amount of labor (about 10,000 man-years) necessary to dig and pile up the reservoir walls, can hardly be put into adequate words.

Most likely the water was used for irrigation (this has been questioned, but recent surveying and satellite imagery seem to confirm it). Waterworks on this scale must also have had stunning religious and political implications.

The major problem with the baray system was siltation - the gradual influx of sand, carried by the river, into the reservoir. The East Baray was completed around 890. During the next century, as it gradually became filled up with sand, it was periodically renovated by raising its banks, and new, smaller, barays were constructed to supplement the water supply (Srah Srang, east of Banteay Kidei, mid-10th century). The enormous West Baray was completed in the mid-11th century, followed later by diversion of the Siem Reap river around the East Baray and into excavated canals. The last great baray at Angkor was the Jayatataka, built by Jayavarman VII (1181-1218). 

What is now called the Eastern Baray was the second baray built. Work was completed in the late 10th century under Yasovarman I's rule. The baray was five times larger than Indratataka. Just imagine a 7 km-long and 2 km-wide reservoir with dykes 5 to 8 m high! Hundreds of thousands of people could be supplied with water. The Eastern Mebon, a temple-mountain dedicated to Lord Shiva, was completed later on in 953. Located in the center of the reservoir, it used to be accessible only by boat.  

The Khmer had developed an elaborate irrigation system of canals, dikes, moats, and large reservoirs. The water was drawn from the Tonle Sap, Cambodia's huge central lake, which floods 'every year during the rainy season. In the 1960s, the French archeologist Bernard-Philippe Groslier made a series of aerial photo-graphs of the district, revealing that the Khmer had harnessed the lake's flooding cycle, filling upland reservoirs to insure abundant rice crops each year. 

Agronomists rate this thousand-year-old irrigation system higher than any used by modern Cambodians.  

 

Map of Angkor with its barays.

(image source: www.art-and-archaeology.com).

***

Srahs and barays were reservoirs, generally created by excavation and embankment respectively.

(source:  online sources).  Also refer to The application of microwave scattering mechanisms to the study of early Angkorean water management  

The laterite bridge of Kompong Kdei, known as Spean Praptos, is one of the most impressive of the Khmer barrage-bridges. It dates from the first half of the 13th century and is 285 feet (87 meters) long. The arches are very narrow because of the method of construction by a system of corbels. The architect Jacques Dumarcay has shown how these arches could be fully or partially closed in order to contain the water upriver from the bridge. This method of irrigation, where a noria was needed to contain the water subsequently used to irrigate the surrounding fields, was very different from the barray system. At the end of the bridge, there is the head and the tail of a snake with 9 heads, the naga. The bridge of Kompong Kdei built with ramparts forming a very long snake.

(source: Khmer: The Lost Empire of Cambodia - By Thierry Zephir   p. 21). 

Without doubt, the largest existing bridge from the Angkorean period, its a fantastic piece of engineering, with 21 laterite arches, its 85 metres long and is topped by an original naga balustrade and four massive naga heads. How these are still in their original location is a miracle but they are well worth investigating, as is the bridge itself.

By founding his capital at Rouluos, just southeast of Angkor, in the middle of an arid plain annually plagued by drought and flash floods, Jayavarman II bequeathed to archaeologists and other scholars a geo-climatic conundrum. What possessed him to site the nerve-center of Khmer civilization at such an environmentally unfriendly spot and how did the great city sustain itself through the centuries?  Archaeologists have postulated that the Khmers engineered a complex irrigation system to grow enough rice to feed the city's population. In this view, Angkor was a classic hydraulic society.  

In the Art of Southeast Asia, Philip Rawson writes:  

"Angkor was a capital, filled with temples and supporting many inhabitants. But its nucleus was a splendid irrigation project, based on a number of huge artificial reservoirs fed by the local rivers and linked to each other by means of rectangular grid system of canals. "The barays, or man-made lakes, were used to feed an intricate network of irrigation channels. The first baray was Lolei, built by Indravarman at the city of Rolous. "The engineering involved at Angkor," Rawson says, "was vaster and far more sophisticated than anything seen before in that part of the world." Lolei was more than 3 ½ km long and 800 m wide. The East baray was twice the size of Lolei and the West Baray, built during Udayadityavarman II's reign is thought to have held about four million cubic meters of water when full.

(source: Art of Southeast Asia - By Philip Rawson  p. 44 - 45).

A Sanskrit inscription compares the reservoirs of Angkor with the Ganges and its tributary in India, where they meet at the site of Prayag, the ancient city where Allahabad now stands:

"Prayag should be approached with the respect worthy of its proximity to the two holy waters. What can we then say of the city of Jayasri, made illustrious by the holy waters consecrated to Shiva and Vishnu and the Buddha?"

(source: Angkor: The Hidden Glories - By Michael Freeman and Roger Warner  p. 122).

 

Shiva Linga: the symbol of the creative potency of God.

"On the crest of this mountain of gold, in a temple of gold, shining with celestial brilliance, he erected a linga of Shiva, honored with ablutions at the prescribed times."

Kneeling in reverence, a Khmer Monarch pays homage to Lord Shiva while his personal Brahmin pours an offering of ghee over a stone lingam. The Shiva lingam symbolized Shiva as the source and creator of all life. 

(image source: Splendors of the Past: Lost Cities of the Ancient World  - National Geographic Society  p. 197). 

For more on Lord Shiva refer to chapter on Symbolism in Hinduism.

***


The Royal Roads in the Khmer Empire
 

The Khmer rulers placed great priority on communications within the empire, and one of the great accomplishments was the network of roads fanning out from the capital. These are mentioned in several inscriptions, and although over much of their length the actual highway has disappeared, the routes can be traced by means of various constructions – bridges, rest-house chapels and hospital chapels, particularly from the reign of King Jayavarman VII. 

In addition, maps and aerial photography reveal some stretches. One of the most important of the royal roads was that connecting Angkor to Phimai, about 225 km in length. Others ran from the capital to Beng Mealea and Preah Khan of Kompong Svai to the east, to Koh Ker and probably on to Champa (to the north-east), to Kompong Thom and Sambor Prei Kuk (to the south-east), and towards present day Sisiphon (to the west). Although the bridges and chapels, and much of the highway construction, belong to the reign of Jayavarman VII, some of these roads must have been in use long before, simply because of the dates of the cities and temples they connected. 

The royal road to Phimai almost certainly existed at the time that King Suryavarman II came to power at the beginning of the 12th century, and probably considerably earlier. Phimai was then a major center, and the road had both military and trade importance. Today, the only part of the original road that is drive able is Route 2163 that enters the town of Phimai in Thailand.

(source: A Guide to Khmer Empire in Thailand and Laos - By Michael Freeman   p. 154).

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Breath Taking Carved Bas-Reliefs

Graphic Eloquence

John Audric ( ?  ) has observed: "The bas-reliefs are one of Angkor Wat’s greatest treasures and outstanding attractions. In the lower terrace they continue for over half a mile, which gives some idea of the vastness of the temple. Every stone is decorated. The bas-reliefs are about 8 feet high. The whole effect is that of an almost endless tapestry in stone. The subjects are principally religious, of legends and of war. 

"The scenes from Ramayana and Mahabharat take up nearly half a mile, and the total number of figures of men, animals and birds has been calculated to be nearly 20,000. There are combats between opposing forces who are mounted on elephants. Hundreds of elephants have been sculptured on the walls, and illustrate some incidents from these two epics; warriors fighting from chariots, scenes from the lives of the God Rama and his wife Sita, who was kidnapped by the demon Ravana, armies of men and monkeys. Vast stretches depict Khmer victories on land and sea, naval pageants, victory marches with bands and banners. The God Vishnu is mounted on a garuda; there are invocations to the Hindu trinity, goddesses, and guardian deities."

The sculptors were fortunate in being provided with a most sensitive, ideal and endless canvas upon which to exercise their talents. This was polished sandstone. They used about 4,000 feet of it. The bas-reliefs decorate eight panels, four of which are over 100 yards long. Everything about Angkor Wat is on a massive and lavish scale, as if time, expense and labor were of little importance. The bas reliefs in the majority of cases are executed with exquisite beauty, and the most minute attention to detail, symmetry and proportion."

(source: Angkor and the Khmer empire - By John Audric p. 139 - 140).

Reliefs carved in stone are among the greatest artistic achievements of the Khmers. Narrative scenes inspired by the great Hindu epics, the Ramayana and the Mahabharata, sacred books and military history of the period unfold on the walls of temples conveying sublime beauty, majesty and humour. The reliefs surpass the function of portraying events; they transform the temples into celestial dwellings.

Angkor Wat, the greatest of Khmer temples, is a text in itself. The hundreds of reliefs sculpted on its stones narrate the events from the Hindu Epics - Ramayana and Mahabharata and the Puranas, and symbolically communicate the fundamental religious, philosophical, ethical and political principles of the Khmer at the time of King Suryavarman II. 

The artistic quality of the etched narrative – much of it from the Hindu Ramayana, with its titanic wars fought by men and gods in the guise of animals – is breathtaking.

Although there is no evidence identifying the architects of the temple, it is likely that Divakarpandita, the Brahmin in Suryavarman's service, contributed to its conception and planning. Divakarpandita was from a long line of illustrious Brahmins, and he must have been quite old by Suryavarman's accession, having served the previous two kings Jayavarrman VI and Dharanindravarman I.  

The entire temple is richly decorated with splendid reliefs, mainly of the narrative type which are visual retellings of episodes from the two Sanskrit Epics the Mahabharata and the Ramayana and the Puranas, and as such, they can be considered a narrative genre in their own right. The proliferation of narrative reliefs in Cambodia since Agkorean times suggests that they had become a popular device for communicating religious beliefs and historic events through the medium of 'stone writings.' 

The large relief panels of the galleries of the 3rd enclosure are the first narrative reliefs, that one encounters when entering the temple. They surprised the first explorers and still astonish the modern visitor. Due to their great beauty and rich narrative content, they made Angkor Wat famous. The Large Panels, are sculpted in the long galleries forming the rectangular perimeter of the temple proper, and on entering the enclosure they immediately engage the eye, drawing the visitor along the galleries. The panels’ dimensions are enormous, ranging from 48.35 to 93.60 meters in length and of over 2.40 meters in length.  

Unquestionably, the Large Panels are, together with the reliefs from the western corner pavilions,  an outstanding contribution to the sacredness of Angkor Wat.

Description of the Reliefs

The Epics of Ramayana and Mahabharata have both contributed in a big way to enrich the folklore of not just India but most of South east Asia. 

According to Sir C Rajagopalchari, the first Indian Governor General of Independent India, Mahabharata and Ramayana are noble poems transcending national and religious frontiers, and belong to the whole world and human family. They possess in supreme degree the characteristics of a true epic, great and fateful movement, heroic characters and stately diction. 

 

According to Sir C Rajagopalchari, the first Indian Governor General of Independent India, Mahabharata and Ramayana are noble poems transcending national and religious frontiers, and belong to the whole world and human family. 

Both Ramayana and Mahabharata are not mere epics but romances too, telling the tales of heroic men and women, and of some who were divine. 

(image source: webmaster's own collection of photos taken during a recent visit).

***

Both Ramayana and Mahabharata are not mere epics but romances too, telling the tales of heroic men and women, and of some who were divine. The contain a code of life, a philosophy of social and ethical relations, speculative thought on human problems that are hard to rival. Above all, they carry divine wisdom through the lives of human folks, like us and not super humans. Both epics are symbolic of the duality of nature: earh-water, day-night, love-hate, comfort-pain, sweet-sour, truth-falsehood, violence-non-violence, good-evil, peace-war, and so forth.

A variety of Indian sacred stories and legends from Hindu epics are skillfully illustrated at Angkor Wat in the reliefs of the third enclosure.

***

The Mahabharata Gallery:

Battle of Kurukshetra

The Hindu epic, the Mahabharata, describes the struggle between the Pandavas and the Kauravas, two rivals, who in the climax, fight the Battle of Kurukshetra in northern India. 

 

The Kauravas advancing from the left and the Pandavas from the right. 

The Epics of Ramayana and Mahabharata have both contributed in a big way to enrich the folklore of not just India but most of South east Asia. 

(image source: Splendors of the Past: Lost Cities of the Ancient World - National Geographic Society. p. 197).

 

The Epic Battle of Kurukshetra.

The Hindu epic, the Mahabharata, describes the struggle between the Pandavas and the Kauravas, two rivals, who in the climax, fight the Battle of Kurukshetra in northern India. 

(image source: webmaster's own collection of photos taken during a recent visit).

***

Sculpted in a single panel 48.35 meters in length along the southern wing of the western gallery, this relief has been divided into two symmetric halves on the side nearest the western entracne of the 3rd enclosure is grouped the Kaurava army, while on the other, southern side, are the Pandavas. On the side of the Kauravas there appear to be 44 large figures, while on the Pandavas 27 leaders on chariots, in addition to two mounted on elephants and three or five on horses. 

Grandsire Bhishma is seen having renounced fighting at the end of the tenth day, as he is lying on Sharashayya, ‘bed of arrows, with five Pandavas to the right sitting in prayer.

 

Dronacharaya, teacher of the military arts.

(image source: Sacred Angkor: the Carved Reliefs of Angkor wat - By Vittorio Roveda).

 

Bhima on his mount - the elephant.

(image source: webmaster's own collection of photos taken during a recent visit).

***

Grand Patriarch Pitamah Bhishma on sarasayya bed of arrows.

Most striking is the image of Pitamah Bhishma, the general-in-chief of the Kaurava army, wounded by hundreds of arrows shot by Arujuna heading a group of the Pandava army. He is so skewered with arrows that his body does not touch the ground, and to provide him with a head support, a 'warrior's cushion', as he calls it, Arjuna shoots three arrows into the ground.

(image source: Sacred Angkor: the Carved Reliefs of Angkor wat - By Vittorio Roveda).

***

Most striking is the image of Bhishma, the general-in-chief of the Kaurava army, wounded by hundreds of arrows shot by Arujuna heading a group of the Pandava army. He is so skewered with arrows that his body does not touch the ground, and to provide him with a head support, a 'warrior's cushion', as he calls it, Arjuna shoots three arrows into the ground. Bhishma survives until after the battle, choosing the auspicious time for his death. You see Dronocharaya, with his hair tied back in a topknot and wielding a bow, leads the Kauravas after Bishma's fall. 

Two meters further on, near the bottom, Karna turns round in his chariot and tries to free the stuck wheel; as he does so he is killed by Arjuna, whom you can see 4 m beyond and near the top, at the head of the Pandava army, firing an arrow from his chariot. His charioteer has four arms, identifying him as Krishna (an avatar of Lord Vishnu). 

The battle ends after 18 days, with all combatants killed signifying the end of that yuga, or world cycle. The entire army and all Kaurava brothers themselves have been killed, signifying victory of Dharma (goodness, righteousness and truth) over Adharma (evil, injustice and lie).

 

Troops celebrating their victory after the battle of Kuruksetra in the Epic of the Mahabharata.

(image source: Splendors of the Past: Lost Cities of the Ancient World - National Geographic Society).

***


Churning of the Milk Ocean

This relief, perhaps the most famous is sculpted in the southern wing of the eastern gallery, extending 48.45 meters along its wall. 

Taken from the Bhagvata Purana, this great Hindu creation legend is here spectacularly realized in one continous 49 meter panel. By pulling alternately on the body of the giant naga Vasuki, which is coiled around Mount Mandara, the gods and asuras rotate the mountain for 1,000 years to churn the cosmic sea - the Sea of Milk - and so produce amrita, the elixir of immortality. 

In the event, this cooperation between gods and asuras is shattered as soon as the amrita begins to be produced. The gods go back on their promise to give half to the asuras, who then try to steal it. The scene shown here, is the actual churning. 

 

Deva Churning the ocean.

© Michael Freeman (image source: Ancient Angkor - By Michael Freeman and Claude Jacques p. 63).

 

Asuras pulling on the serpent.

© Michael Freeman (image source: Ancient Angkor - By Michael Freeman and Claude Jacques p. 62).

***

For the first five meters, the army of asuras is lined up with horses and elephatns; the churning begins directly after this, the you see is a giant multi-headed asura - Ravana holding the five heads of the giant naga Vasuki. Beyond him stretches the team of 92 asuras pulling in unison on the serpent body. The cosmic sea is represented by a swirling mass of marine life, caught up in the turbulence. The marine life also includes many kinds of fish, crocodiles, dragons, nagas, and turtles.

Close to the center of the panel, in the middle, on the pillar like Mount Mandara, four armed Vishnu directs operations. He also appears below, as his turtle avatar - Kurma, supporting the rotating mountain as it threatens to sink below the sea. Also tiny images of the elephant Airavata, and the horse Ucchaissravas, both created by the churning. The presence of Ravana and Hanuman on either side is quite unique and not part of the original legend. It represents the Khmer combining the ancient Vedic legend with characters from the Ramayana.

 

Surya on his chariot.

(image source: webmaster's own collection of photos taken during a recent visit).

***

The Ramayana

This story of Rama is the most widely diffused tale in South and Southeast Asia. It is the best loved and most widely told of all Hindu legends, and is an epic of the triumph of good over evil, which remains very popular in Southeast Asia. Ramayana, which predates the Mahabharata, was written by sage Valmiki in Sanskrit and was later on, during medieval times, rendered into Hindi poetry by Tulsidas. In the Cambodian of the Angkorean period, it seems that the Ramayana in use pertained to Valmiki’s tradition. The stele of Veal Kantel of the VII century mentions that the Ramayana had to be recited daily, without interruptions, as were the Harimvamsa and the Puranas. Ramayana is the story of a Royal house-hold, of King Dasaratha of the Solar dynasty ruling over Kosala. 

 

Lord Ram shooting the golden deer.

(image source: webmaster's own collection of photos taken during a recent visit).

***

According to Sir C Rajagopalchari, the first Indian Governor General of Independent India, Mahabharata and Ramayana are noble poems transcending national and religious frontiers, and belong to the whole world and human family. They possess in supreme degree the characteristics of a true epic, great and fateful movement, heroic characters and stately diction. Both Ramayana and Mahabharata are not mere epics but romances too, telling the tales of heroic men and women, and of some who were divine. The contain a code of life, a philosophy of social and ethical relations, speculative thought on human problems that are hard to rival. Above all, they carry divine wisdom through the lives of human folks, like us and not super humans. Both epics are symbolic of the duality of nature: earth-water, day-night, love-hate, comfort-pain, sweet-sour, truth-falsehood, violence-non-violence, good-evil, peace-war, and so forth.

The Svayamvara of Sita

Located on the east wall of the southern arm, this relief depicts the test that would be suitor must undergo in order to win Sita's hand (svayamvara). To the left of Rama is a princess decpticted wearing the 3 pointed mukuta, typical of a lady of royal status. Sita is seated on a richly decorated throne; to her side there is a large casket in the shape of a lotus. She is adorned with jewelry and her sarong ends in a pointed flap. In her left hand she gracefully holds a lotus bud. She does not seem to be watching Rama, but instead gazes at the viewer. Many court ladies surround her, some holding fans, others with one arm over their chests. On the other side of Rama is a brahmin/sage identified by his chignon and beard. He is Vishwamitra, Rama's guru. Sita's father King Janaka, is seated on a high base of his court. Behind him are royal servants with fans. In the relief, the competition target is a bird perched on a wheel on a tall pole. Such a target is not described in Valmiki's Ramayana. Rama performs the archery test. Sita waits to be given in marriage to him and royal personages witness the event. 

King Janaka, Sita’s fathr, had an antique bow of Shiva at his palace which was so heavy that it could not be lifted by ordinary warriors. He decided to marry Sita to only that prince who could cast an arrow from his bow. Accordingly, a swayamvara was organized and princes from far and near, including Ravana, came in the hope of wedding Sita but no one could even shake the bow. Many princes together tried to lift the bow but failed. Ultimately, Vishwamitra permitted Rama to end the gloom which had spread in the palace thinking Sita could not be wed. In the bas relief Rama is seen pulling the arrow on the target from Shiva’s bow. Sita is sitting on the left. Other kings are looking in admiration.

 

Sita Svyamvara: Lord Ram breaking the bow in the Ramayana. Richly decorated with reliefs from Hindu Epics.

(image source: Sacred Angkor: the Carved Reliefs of Angkor wat - By Vittorio Roveda).

***

Battle of Lanka

The reliefs of the northern portion of this western gallery illustrate a renowned episode of the Ramayana, the Indian epic tale which recounts the exploits of Prince Rama (an avatar of Vishnu). We see here the Battle of Lanka, in which Rama's monkey army led by the monkey General Hanuman fights the Demon King Ravana's army. Rama's army seeks to rescue his wife Sita, who has been captured and held hostage in Lanka, Ravana's island kingdom.

 

Ravana in battle with Lord Ram.

(image source: webmaster's own collection of photos taken during a recent visit).

***

The sequence of this bas-relief depicts battle between Rama and Ravana. This is one of the best executed panels, as the figures are exquisitely carved, especially the depiction of monkeys fighting with the soldiers of Ravana. The ferocious fight between monkeys and the enemy is seen all over, and then suddenly at the ninth bay the graceful figures of Rama and Lakshmana stand.  

The Battle between the Devas and the Asuras

The Western wing of the northern gallery is given over to a great battle between the devas and asuras extending for 93.60 meters. Hinduism greatest deities shown in heroic posture and size, riding their mounts. Vishnu/Krishna on Garuda, Indra on Airavata, Yama on his buffalo, Skanda on his peacock, Agni on his rhinoceros.

 

Yama: Lord of Death on his buffalo.

(image source: Sacred Angkor: the Carved Reliefs of Angkor wat - By Vittorio Roveda  p. 47)..

***

The rest of the chapter continues at the link listed below:

Sacred Angkor part 2
Sacred Angkor part 3
Sacred Angkor part 4

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Did You Know? 

India's presence in Cambodia
ASI
(The Archaeological Survey of India) set to renovate temple in Cambodia

The ancient Ta Prohm (Grandfather Brahma) temple in Cambodia will be restored to its pristine glory, thanks to a new proposal envisaged by the Cambodian government involving Indian agencies.   

 

The Ta Prohm temple which was constructed in 1139 is situated in the Siemreap city of Cambodia. 
The temple is dedicated to Lord Brahma among other Gods.

(source: webmaster's own collection of photos taken during a recent visit).

***

The ancient Ta Prohm temple in Cambodia will be restored to its pristine glory, thanks to a new proposal envisaged by the Cambodian government involving Indian agencies.

For the restoration work at the Ta Prohm, which is dedicated to Hindu gods and goddesses, the Cambodian government has roped in the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) and the Forest Research Institute (FRI), Dehra Dun.

While the restoration work on various idols would be undertaken by the ASI, the preservation of scores of ancient trees in the vicinity of the temple complex would be done by the FRI.
The FRI, which is one of the world’s largest institutes of its kind, will undertake a foreign assignment for the first time. “We have been asked to conserve the trees inside the temple complex,” Dr S S Negi, Director of the FRI said. 
There are an estimated 250 ancient trees in the temple complex here, Dr Negi added.

The Ta Prohm temple — which was constructed in 1139 — is situated in the Siemreap city of Cambodia. The temple is dedicated to Lord Brahma among other gods.

The FRI has developed its expertise in silviculture and documented nearly 550 tree species in Asia. A team of experts from the Forest Research Institute would be travelling to Cambodia next week, Dr Negi said.

(source: ASI set to renovate temple in Cambodia - deccanherald.com).

***

Vajpayee tree amid Cambodian temple ruins

Angkor Wat (Cambodia), Dec 7 2002:  Shaped like a dancer's body, a 200 -year-old tree standing tall amidst the Ta Prohm ruins near the historic Angkor Wat temple site has a special connection with India.

It is called the Vajpayee Tree, after former Indian prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee. 

"Everyone here calls it the Vajpayee Tree," said Pradeep Kumar Kapur, India's ambassador to Cambodia. "Earlier it was called the Dancing Tree because it is shaped like the body of a dancer." But then Vajpayee came to the site in 2002, on a visit to Cambodia, and the name changed. "He had become very poetic under this tree, very touched, very moved by its beauty and since then the tree has been called Vajpayee Tree. "Everyone calls it by that name."   

The Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) is helping Cambodia conserve the 13th century Ta Prohm, a bit of which crumbles every monsoon, for around a decade after it helped clean up and conserve the ancient Angkor Wat monuments. 

An ASI team is working in the ruins of the temple built by King Jayavarman VII which was essentially a sprawling monastic complex.

 

      

It is called the Vajpayee Tree, after former Indian prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee. 

***


"India is providing around $4.2 million to help conserve this complex," said Kapur, as he showed participants of the first India-ASEAN rally, as it passed through Cambodia on its 20-day, eight-nation journey, around the ruins filled with images of Lord Vishnu and dancing celestial beauties.

"We are working to maintain this unique and wonderful heritage."

India had spent $4 million on the restoration work of the Angkor Wat during 1986-93. "Last time, we cleaned the moss that was growing on the stones," said Chandra Mohan Bhandari, former Indian ambassador to Cambodia and author of "Saving Angkor".

"It is because of our work that a lot of the Angkor monuments could be saved."


Ta Prohm is only partially cleared of jungle overgrowth. Massive fig and silk-cotton trees grow from its towers and into its corridors giving a unique trees- merging-into-temples look. Flocks of noisy parrots flit from tree to tree, sometimes sitting on the gaping holes on the walls, where precious stones once sat. Enormously wealthy in its time, Ta Prohm controlled 3,000 villages and a population of almost 80,000 people. "We are doing our best so that the splendour of this monument is kept intact," said Kapur.

(source:  Vajpayee tree amid Cambodian temple ruins - msn.co.in).

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The rest of the chapter continues link listed below:

Sacred Angkor part 2
Sacred Angkor part 3
Sacred Angkor part 4

 

     

                                                   

 

 

 

 

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