Kok Krong Temple

Located south of the main group of Koh Ker’s temples, Prasat Kok Krong is a rectangular brick temple that featured a corbelled roof and opened to the east. It is notable for featuring an inscription that, according to the onsite placard, notes the Jayavarman IV’a success in constructing Prasat Prang, mentions the Ganga river (a sacred river in India, and mentions Kambu, the name of a legendary ancestor of the Khmer people.

Inscription

• K. 675 – 42 lines of Sanskrit on each of the door jambs – IC I, p. 61

Prasat Andon. K. 675. This monument, discovered by M. PARMENTIER and others – 1929, is located 2 km. to the south, a little east of the southeast corner of the Rahål. It is a rectangular monument elongated along the east-west axis and oriented to the east. Each of the two abutments of the east door received an inscription of 42 lines, but the stone cracked in the direction of the height, causing some gaps, especially in the lower part of the north doorframe.

The text is entirely composed in çloka, except for the last stanza (XLII) whose few decipherable words seem to have been part of an upajati. The first nine stanzas successively invoke Çiva (I, II), the Gangå (III), Vişņu (IV), Brahma (V), Uma (VI). Bharati (VII), Kambu (VIII) and the kings of Cambodia (IX). Then comes the praise of kings Yaçovarman (X-XIII), Harşavarman I (XIV-XVI), Içanavarman II (XVII-XIX), and Jayavarman IV (XX-XXVIII). These kings had a matire (çästar, XXIX), named …çarman (XLI), who erected, obviously at Pràsàt Andón, a linga of Içvara (XLI). The last stanza was to give the date of the foundation.

As I indicated in connection with the preceding text (Pràsat Damrei). The Prasat Andón inscription attributes to Jayavarman IV an extraordinary foundation (st. XXVIII) to which I will return later.

Inscriptions du Cambodge I, George Coedes

Rodney Charles LHuillier

Living in Asia for over a decade and now residing in beautiful Siem Reap - Contact via [email protected] - more..