Jayavarman II (Tutu)

802 – 850

Himself and Jyeṣṭhāryā

c. AD 780–802[1]

Himself as King of the Khmer Empire

c. 780s

ca. 770

850 (aged 79–80)
Angkor, Khmer Empire (now in Siem Reap, Cambodia)

Hyang Amrita, Jayendrabhā

Sdok Kak Thom[edit]

The most valuable inscription concerning Jayavarman II is the one dated to 1052 AD, two centuries after his death, found at the Sdok Kak Thom temple in present-day Thailand.[13]: 97 [16]: 353–354  The inscription states “When His Majesty Paramesvara came from Java to reign in the royal city of Indrapura,…Sivakaivalya, the family’s purohit, was serving as his guru and held the post of royal chaplain to His Majesty,” using the king’s posthumous name.[17] In a later passage, the text says that a Brahman named Hiranyadama, “proficient in the lore of magic power, came from Janapada in response to His Majesty’s having invited him to perform a sublime rite which would release Kambujadesa [the kingdom] from being any longer subject to Java.” The text also recounts the creation of the cult of the devaraja, the key religious ceremony in the court of Jayavarman and subsequent Khmer people.

Interpretations on "Java"[edit]

The word in the inscription that has often been translated as "Java" has caused lingering debate. Some early scholars, such as George Coedès and Lawrence Palmer Briggs, have established the notion that it refers to the island of Java in present-day Indonesia. The mythical stories of battles between the Khmers and Javanese correspond in their view to the Sailendra dynasty that ruled both Java and Sumatran Srivijaya.


Later scholars such as Charles Higham doubt that the word refers to the island. Michael Vickery has re-interpreted the word to mean "the Chams", the Khmers' neighbors to the east, described a chvea.[11]: 56 


In 2013 Arlo Griffiths refuted these theories and convincingly demonstrated that in almost all cases the inscriptions mention Java they refer to the island of Java in the Indonesian archipelago.[3]

Historical assessment[edit]

More broadly, debate continues as to whether Jayavarman II’s rule truly represented a seminal turning point in Khmer history, the creation of an independent unified state from small feuding principalities, or was instead part of a long process toward that end. Inscriptions indicate that later Khmer kings treated him as the august first in their line and font of their own legitimacy, but Hindu civilization had existed already for centuries in the region; the fact that Jayavarman was the second monarch to carry that name is a sign that there was already long line of kings of significant states in the region.[18]

Posthumous name[edit]

Jayavarman II died in 850 AD[11]: 59  and received the posthumous name of Parameshwara,[13]: 103  "the supreme ruler," an epithet of Sri Shiva. After him, the throne was held by his son Jayavarman III and two other kings of the family into which he had married. He was formally honored along with these two kings and their wives in the Preah Ko temple in Roulous, built by King Indravarman I and inaugurated in 880 AD.

Sak-Humphry, Chhany. The Sdok Kak Thom Inscription. The Edition of the Buddhist Institute 2005.

Higham, Charles. The Civilization of Angkor. University of California Press 2001.

Briggs, Lawrence Palmer. The Ancient Khmer Empire. Transactions of the American Philosophical Society 1951.

Mabbett, Ian and Chandler, David. The Khmers. Blackwell Publishers Ltd. 1996.

Coedès, Georges. Les capitales de Jayavarman II.. Bulletin de l'EFEO (Paris), 28 (1928).

Wolters, O. W. (1973). "Jayavarman II's Military Power: The Territorial Foundation of the Angkor Empire". The Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland. 105 (1). Cambridge University Press: 21–30. :10.1017/S0035869X00130400. JSTOR 25203407.

doi

Jacques, Claude and Lafond, Philippe. The Khmer Empire: Cities and Sanctuaries from 5th to 13th Century. River Books [2007].

Jacques, Claude. La carrière de Jayavarman II., Bulletin de l'EFEO (Paris), 59 (1972): 205-220.

Jacques, Claude. On Jayavarman II., the Founder of the Khmer Empire. Southeast Asian Archaeology 3 (1992): 1-5.

Jackson, Rees and Dau Du Gau. The Khmer Empire: Jayavarman the II/History (2001) (New-Zealand)

at History Today

Jayavarman II