Wat Sopheas

Also recorded as Wat Sopheas Raingsey, it’s a contemporary monastery and pagoda that houses numerous remnants of a 7th-century pre-Angkorian temple site/s. The remnants include lintels, an inscribed stele, and several sandstone plinths, all concreted onto a platform, perhaps for their own security. A pedestal and a lion’s head can also be seen nearby.

Inscription

• K. 115

STELE OF SÓPHAS

(K. 115)

The pagoda of Våt Sóphās or Sóphās Ransei, built on the site of a group of pre-Angkorian buildings, preserves an inscribed stone which AYMONIER and H. PARMENTIER consider to be a pier, but which L. DE LAJONQUIÈRE describes more correctly as a stele, measuring 1 meter x 0 m. 33 x 0 m. 11. The top of this slab is in fact cut in the shape of a brace.

The inscription, poorly engraved on a bad coarse-grained stone, is made up of 4 Sanskrit lines forming a cardulavikridita stanza, and 14 Khmer lines.

The Sanskrit stanza gives the date of erection of a linga in 587 çaka (665 A.D.), indicating the position of the planets (except that of Rahu). The Khmer text lists the slaves offered by Poñ Nirjitasimha’s mother to V. K. A. Çrimad Amrāta, who is given, that is to say undoubtedly entrusted, to the custody of Poñ Candravindu. The II. 7 to 10 give a list of or 18 male slaves (va), and lI. 11 to 16 a list of around fifteen women (ku) with their children (kon). The last two lines name rice fields (sre).

The name of the linga, Crimad Amrata, was carried, in the form Amratakeçvara, by several other lingas in the pre-Angkorian era.

Inscriptions Du Cambodge, George Coedes

Rodney Charles LHuillier

Living in Asia for over a decade and now residing in beautiful Siem Reap - Contact via rod@helloangkor.com - more..