Kok Sla Ket Temple

Located west of Siem Reap city and south of National Road 6, Prasat Sla Ket, as it is also known, features the remnants of an early 10th-century temple. It was originally a group of three shrines that opened to the east and were surrounded by an outer wall with an entrance to the east. All of this was surrounded by an outer moat.

At the site today, the remnants of one shrine can be seen along with several sandstone pedestals and plinths. A decayed and unrecognizable decorative lintel can also be seen.

Curiously, 70m to the northwest stands a lone sandstone bollard. Perhaps a boundary marker for the site.

Inscription

• K. 522 – 34 + 32 lines of Sanskrit – IC V, p. 119

An introduction to the inscription was provided by George Coedes in 1937

The three brick towers known as Slå Kèt, or Kük Slà Kèt, are located south of Bàrày Occidental, approximately 10 kilometers west-northwest of the urban center of Siem Rap. L. DE LAJONQUIIÈRE, who was the first to describe them, had not noted any inscription there. In June 1920, H. MARCHAL stamped two inscriptions in poor condition on the jambs of the east door of the south sanctuary, and thirteen years later, G. TROUVÉ took new stampings there, better than the previous ones, but revealing a more ruinous advance of the stone certain letters legible on the 1920 stamping have disappeared due to the flaking of the stone. These inscriptions which date from Räjendravarman have a beautiful calligraphy, very similar to that of the walls of Baksei Čamkron. The southern jamb must have originally had 34 lines in the Sanskrit language of the first 12; all that remains are the marginal signs marking the end of each stanza and thus making it possible to count the missing lines. The northern wall, less damaged, carries 32 lines, the first 6 and the last 2 of which have suffered greatly. All this text is in çloka, except the last stanza of the northern abutment which is an upajali. What remains of the inscription on the southern wall begins in the middle of the genealogy of Rajendravarman, and lists the kings who have succeeded one another since Indravarman. The rest of the inscription on this pedestal is devoted to the praise of Rajendravarman. The first stanzas of the northern jamb must have gone back and spoken of Jayavarman II, for it is almost certainly this king who is referred to by the expression kamvujendra in stanza XXI. The latter indeed had two people in his service, whose younger brothers served Jayavarman III and Indravarman.

The following stanzas reveal the descent of these people back to the author of the inscription, a certain Kşetrajña, who was Rajendravarman’s barber and received from the king the title of Mahendropakalpa. They were a family of zealots from Vişņu, belonging to the Pāñcarātra sect which seems to have been the main, if not the only, Vaisnava sect in ancient Cambodia. The relationship between the first two of them, named Pradyumna and Vişņusoma, is not specified. I assume that Pradyumna was father of Vişņusoma. If they had been brothers, the next two Vyāsa and Jivasoma being their younger brothers (avaraja), these four individuals would all have been brothers, which is impossible, because in this case Kşetrajña, son of Vedişat (nephew of Jivasoma) could not not be called a naptr grandson (or great-nephew) of Vaiçvānara (nephew of Vyāsa). There must of necessity be a difference of one generation between Vyāsa and Jivasoma, and, consequently, the same difference between their elders Pradyumna and Vişņusoma. The purpose of the inscription is to relate the construction of the north and south towers in which images of Vişņu were placed. The central sanctuary was founded by Vedişat, father of Kşetrajña-Mahendropakalpa, also to install a statue of Visnu. The text ends with exhortations to protect the foundation.

Coedes, Inscriptions Du Cambodge V

Historical Notes

Kuk Sla Két (The mound of the wild areca tree). A little more than 1 kilometer towards the east from the previous one, stood a small temple comprising a group of three brick sanctuaries, regularly arranged on a N.-S line. and oriented to the east. All that remains is debris and a type III decorative lintel having as its central motif the group of Indra on the three-headed elephant. A surrounding wall probably made of bricks was interrupted by a small gopura to the east. Its ditch basin extends to the east by a sort of sras that the access road crosses in its length.

Lajonquiere, 1911

Surroundings of Ankor. Let us mention here, although the point does not depend exactly on Ańkor, a discovery of inscriptions made in June by M. H. Marchal at Kuk Slaket, nº 514, about ten kilometres west of Siemräp. They were engraved on the jambs of the east door of the South sanctuary. Taken under the roots of a tree whose fall revealed them, they suffered greatly from the disintegration of the sandstone 221 above. They commemorate the erection of three shrines in honor of Vişņu by Kşetrajña, an official of Rajendravarman (866-890 çaka).

BEFEO, Chronique, 1920

Prasat Slakek (Kuk Sla Kek, IK. 514) and Pràsàt Labæuk Donab. – Of these two monuments which had been pointed out to me, one, known under the name of Kuk Sla Kek, has inscriptions already stamped (BEFEO., XX, IV, 220 and COEDÈS, 522). Among the scree of the North sanctuary, I noted a fragment of a column, made of stonework, and the decorative lintel, made of red sandstone. The lintel is a beautiful piece of type III with central garlands in the shape of an inverted W, which I brought back to the Angkor Thom depot. The other remains reported must be unpublished. They are 1.5 km away, approximately, from the colonial road and 500 meters west of Pràsàt Slakek. It is a group of five sanctuaries, raised on a mound surrounded by a moat-basin. The latter is cut off, to the east, by a bund leading, as usual, to a srah. The five sanctuaries, made of bricks, collapsed, are open to the East and arranged in two rows, three to the West, two to the East. We recognize these small buildings by the decorative elements of their door, found buried, in place, or collapsed. The lintels are of the ordinary type III; the columns are of the common type.

BEFEO, Chronique, 1933

Layout

Produced by the EFEO in the early to mid-1900s

Hello Angkor

- more..