Pesani of the Ancient Khmer Empire

The pesani, or grinding stone/millstone, is an infrequently discussed object of the ancient Khmer Empire but regardless, prominent throughout, from the earliest times of the 6th-century pre-Angkorian times and through the Angkorian era. They were likely used for grinding spices to make Auyrevedic medicine, pastes for ceremonial purposes, and even curry has been proposed, which we’ll dive into a little deeper towards the end of this article.

They are somewhat rare, a glance in archival records only shows only between 100-160 documented, which include fragments of rollers, complete rollers, along with fragmented and complete grinding tables. Some have provenance, as in which temple they were found or excavated from, most however do not. Today they can be found in the Angkor Conservation Depot, the Phnom Penh National Museum, provincial museums, and a handful we have seen in our travels around pagodas and ancient sites.

Most of the pesani, excluding a few I’ll showcase first, are somewhat utilitarian featuring no or little decoration. Some show extraordinary wear from extensive use while others appear to have very little wear. Size-wise, they vary from 11 cm tall and just over 30 cm long to the largest I have seen which is over 30 cm tall and over 50 cm long. Most, by eye, seem to fall somewhere around the middle of that size range or smaller.

Most appear to have been used with a roller, also made of sandstone, that was bell-ended, perhaps making them easy to use with the palms of the hands. Some were not used with a roller, noting the decorated grinding stone of Prateal Hang pictured below, and others, whose wear pattern shows signs of something being directly ground along the central axis of the stone tablet face. Round grinding stones are another case we’ll get to shortly.

Of the pesani that I have seen, the most stunning is the one from Prateal Hang Temple (to the right in the first picture below) on display in the Phnom Penh National Museum, and, those discovered at Angkor Borei, on display at the regional museum there. Those of the Angkor Borei Museum are exceptional, not only for their use of the elephant and rhinoceros but also for their size and state of preservation. The rhino, for example, is over 30 cm tall and over 50 cm long.

Out of the 1500 sites we have visited between 2017 and 2024, along with those highlighted above, these are the pesani spotted in our travels around ancient temples, pagodas, and regional museums. There’s not a lot. Noting there are many, many sites we haven’t been along with several provincial museums that are yet to be visited. There are also some hiding in the Angkor Conservation depot rooms where photos cannot be taken and many I imagine are in storage at the Phnom Penh National Museum.

Pictured below are round grinding stones, substantially rarer, noting the absence of any wear pattern. They may have been used for grinding sandalwood into a powder, or with the addition of water during the grinding, into a paste. The sandalwood paste could have then been used in rituals and/or as a topical medicine.

What were Pesani used for?

Early French documentation designated grinding stones like these as rasuň batau, using the terminology of the Cham, the ancient neighbouring state to the east, where these had been found previously.

As described in Lois Finot’s 1904 report Le Rasung Batau of Ben Metruot, in the early 1900s the first object of this type to be recorded by French surveying was discovered in Ben Thuot of Darlak Province (Laotian and later Vietnamese) which was sent to Adhemard Leclere in Kratie. It remained a mystery object of unknown purpose until Henri Parmentier discovered a stone and roller together and it became clear. The records of Cham customs by Father Durand would shed even further light on their function. The Cham called the item Rasun Batau and used it for milling rice into a powder which was then used to coat statues during ceremonies in their honor. It should also be noted that the pesani in question by Finot also carried an inscription of two characters that he translated to a Cham expression meaning “Her Majesty the Queen”.

In 1920, George Coedes published A Propos des Meules de Pierreappelait Rasun Batau, suggesting using the Sanskrit name for Khmer grinding stones, Pesani, instead of Rasun Batau. He also shared some thoughts on its possible usage based on neighbouring regions noting the use of Hin Bot in Siam for grinding spices for medicinal use; its use in South India for making curry powder; and its use in South Indian Brahmanic ceremonies where the pesanī is integral to rituals such as weddings, pregnancy-related rites (e.g., pumsavana and sīmantonnayana), and daily sacrifices as referenced in ancient texts like the Manu-smriti.

He also noted that the pesani appears in archaeological records in India (e.g., Tinnevelly findings) and shows potential religious transitions in its use, suggesting it was initially domestic before becoming ceremonial, especially in Champa and Cambodia. Also noting that the design and markings on some of these tools imply broader symbolic or ritual purposes. In the end, he’d propose a broader categorization as “stone rollers for grinding spices or medicines” along with advocating using the Sanskrit term pesanī over the Cham designation.

2000-year-old curry, anyone?

In 2018, during excavations and research at the Go Sau Thuan site of the Oc Eo complex in Vietnam, a grinding stone was discovered in situ (published in 2023, Earliest curry in Southeast Asia and the global spice trade 2000 years ago).

Oc Eo is the famous ancient port of the Funan era that is linked to the supposed capital, Angkor Borei. According to research, the Oc Eo site was majorly occupied during the 1st to 8th centuries AD and the dating of the grinding stone discovered falls in that time between 207 to 326 AD.

Analysis revealed a staggering 717 starch grains discovered on utensils, 616 of which were identifiable confirming the presence of eight different spices, and rice. All of which showed signs consistent with being processed by a grinding stone. Tumeric, ginger, galangal, sand ginger, fingerroot, clove seeds, cinnamon, nutmeg, coconut, and palm are the suggested discoveries.

In the study, they only touch briefly on medicinal use and err towards culinary practices. As they suggest, the spices found align with ingredients in curries, indicating the early introduction of South Asian culinary practices into Southeast Asia, later adapted with regional variations like the use of coconut milk. Moreover, the study highlights the fascinating international trade network of which Oc Eo and Funan were a central feature for a long time.

What about Jayavarman VII’s Hospital Chapels?

The Khmer Empire under King Jayavarman VII is credited with creating one of the earliest national healthcare systems, predating similar European systems by centuries. This network of 102 hospitals (referred to as arogyasalas) provided free healthcare to the population, symbolizing the king’s Buddhist humanitarian philosophy.

Each hospital had a sanctuary dedicated to the Medicine Buddha and included staff such as doctors, nurses, and herbalists. The Say Fong inscription lists the following items: rice, grain, honey, molasses, sesame, jujube-juice, butter, sugar, nutmeg, garlic, cinnamon, cardamom, dry ginger, mustard, cumin-seed, pepper and other spices, and so on (see Say Fong Inscription, Meguma Honda, 1965).

Regardless of the similarities in spices with those found present at Oc Eo, there are no records of pesani or grinding tablets being discovered at any of the hospital chapels (to my knowledge). It’s also worth noting that only those circling the Angkor Thom have had any excavation works. So, maybe they are yet to be discovered, and, I would also suggest there is likely a lot more research to come on the topic of Jayavarman VII’s hospitals.

What to conclude about the use of Pesani?

The pesani may have served multiple purposes:

• Preparing medicinal compounds
• Creating ritual pastes for religious ceremonies
• Grinding spices for culinary preparation

It seems like an item worthy of a lot more attention. Lots of questions remain in my mind as to whether they had a determined position within the schema of the temple, or whether they were more connected to the practitioner/priest. Did their prominence fade in the later centuries of the Angkorian empire? As for culinary use, there are not a lot of them, if they were used for preparing curries, then, was curry the cuisine of a select elite? Was it eaten only as a medicine, or, at ceremonial occasions?

As usual, and as it should be, there are always more questions than answers 🙂

Historical Documentation

Durand left further notes in 1907 in Notes Sur Le Chams

The Bulletin of the French School of the Far East gave, under the signature of Mr. Finot, the description of singular stones, taking the form of small elongated and very smooth tables, fairly regularly accompanied by a cylindrical roller also in polished stone. The first was found near Ban Me-thuot, province of Darlac, by Mr. Adhémard Leclère, then resident of Kratié. The second was brought back by Mr. Parmentier of Chanh-lo (Annam). I myself had already described this type of cult object, the destination of which is still common among the modern Chams and of which I have since discovered numerous specimens. The two instruments are used to knead and roll the flour with which the statues of the genies are coated with a floured mask in the ceremonies held in their honor.

Father Cadière has just sent us a final, extremely remarkable model (see fig. 32 and 33), photographed by Mr. Gaïetta, a resident of Quảng trị. The entablature, on a slightly inclined plane with a polished surface, measures 35cm in length by 17cm in width at the back and 19cm at the front, ending in a beak. The base gives 0.26 0.13 0.15. The total height is 19cm at the front and 17cm at the back. Between the four legs carved into square columns, we see, from the front, a praying man seated in the Indian style in a niche with cut sides, supporting the capitals of the columns with both hands and, from the side, a standing elephant, its trunk curved. The back face bears as a sculpted motif a lotus flower in full bloom on a stem and two lotus leaves. This rasun batuv was discovered on the island of Còn hến, the island of shells, a little downstream from the Upper Residence, opposite the landing stage of the Chinese longboats. Another stone, of a similar model but without any sculpture, exists in the north of the province of Thira- thiên (Quảng-dire), sub-prefecture of Phong-điền, village of U-diêm, at the place called Cồn-chen, the eminence of amaranths, on the debris of a collapsed Cham tower. I was curious to follow the rasun batuv outside the Cham country and here is what I found: Montano speaks of the “luçons” rice-husking mortars among the Bicols. This is obviously our rasun, the exchange of the two semi-vowels being very common here; ex.: laçei = raçei, steamed rice.

In India, the report of the Archaeological Survey for 1902-1903, shows us among the antiquities discovered at Tinnevelly, in the extreme South of India, the same small table with 4 legs also accompanied by its roller. The catalogue calls one a slab for grinding sandalwood “and the other a stone for grinding kary”. The double explanation is also plausible, but I would readily believe, since it is basically the same cult transplanted to Champa, that it does not exclude that given by the Chams. On the other hand, it is an obvious error to separate the table from its roller.

Malay etymology would further confirm the Cham version. Lasun or lusuń, according to Favre, means: a sort of white expulsion in which the skin peels off. Tugault adds: “the Malays believe that it makes one invulnerable.” All this could well give us the explanation for the floured mask with which, in the homeland of the Leper Kings (?), statues are coated at each solemn anniversary.

Henri Parmentier’s notes in 1939 on Prasat Komphus (Prateal Hang Temple) provide another clue to the proximity of their use. In this case, discovered in the central tower.

The excavation of the north colonette of the east door of the central tower, in 1930, yielded a splendid peşani, the largest of its kind in Indochina; it is finely decorated, adorned, at the base with lotuses and its inclined top is finished at each end by a row of pearls; an accolade design finalises the main end (fig. 36).

L’art khmèr classique : monuments du quadrant Nord-Est, Henri Parmentier, 1939

In a later report on a site in Kampong Thom, the obvious portability of the item is illuminated

8 kilometers into the forest, further west and near the village of Bâlần, is a pedestal without interest, isolated in the forest, and which, according to legend, moves by itself. Not far away are the traces of an abandoned pagoda. There is also a small rusun bataŭ

Complément à l’inventaire descriptif des monuments du Cambodge, Henri Parmentier, 1913