Hindu temples and maths · The Khmer empire of Jayavarman VII · as at first light, 1 January 1200

Brahmin houses

A power without a castle.

The Brahmin houses tend the royal gods, record the grants, swear the officers and know the calendar and the rites of consecration; the stelae show them holding offices as chaplain, recorder and builder, and marrying into the royal women's families (the Sdok Kok Thom line took a wife from the chief queen's family). Under Jayavarman VII they are out of favour at the centre: the king is a Buddhist, his guru is Buddhist, and the new foundations are Buddhist. They are not driven out: the Shaivite and Vaishnava temples of the previous reigns, Angkor Wat, Phanom Rung, Preah Vihear, Wat Phu, are kept up and, in the king's own gifts at Phanom Rung, added to.

The last dated texts that name a priestly family are of the 11th and early 12th centuries; no Brahmin of 1200 is known by name, and the Sdok Kok Thom line does not appear after the 11th century. Whether they are a party that waits for the old king's death is not in any source we read; the reaction against his images is Jayavarman VIII's, in 1243 (later).

Who holds it

Title
Heads of the priestly houses (none named for 1200)
Since
not known
Born
not known
Family
not known
Confidence
low

English Wikipedia (Sdok Kok Thom; Preah Vihear Temple; Ta Prohm) as read this session. The line of Sivakaivalya, chaplain of Jayavarman II in 802, runs nine generations in K. 235 (8 February 1053) and is not mentioned again. At Preah Vihear: Tapasvindra-pandita (K. 381, 1024), Sukarman the recorder and archivist (K. 380, probably 1038 to 1049), Divakarapandita, who served five kings (K. 383, probably 1119 to 1121). The king's own guru is the Buddhist Jayamangalartha, honoured in a shrine at Ta Prohm.

Overlord

The king, who is a Buddhist and has his own guru.

What it holds

  • Chaplaincies and offices at court (not located)
  • The temples of the previous reigns and their estates (see the temple records)

How things stand that morning

Out of favour but present; no named head, no event.

What the year holds

What happened next, if nothing in play changes it. Each event carries what it depends on and what would stop it.

  1. 1243Jayavarman VIII's reaction against the Buddhist images of the old king's reign begins (the date is the one in the Angkor Wat record of this file).Depends on: The old king's death about 1218 (range 1218 to 1220) and a succession that favours the Shaivite party. Stopped by: A Buddhist succession, or a quarrel inside the royal house that keeps the priests out.

Places of note

  • Sdok Kok Thom: Seat of the Sivakaivalya line's stele (K. 235).
  • Preah Vihear: Seat of the hermitage, archive and oath of K. 380, 381, 383.

Where the sources disagree

  • The 'stele of 1052' in the brief and the campaign board is K. 235 of Saka 974, 8 February 1053 on English Wikipedia.

Evidence: Dated stelae of the 11th and 12th centuries; nothing names a house in 1200.

"The campaign board" is OMNIA's working map. These notes record where its earlier claims were checked against the sources.

On the map: Points only; the houses hold offices and temples, not ground.

Primary sources for Khmer empire

Chronicles, registers, sagas and inscriptions written in or near 1200 that cover this entry. Each has its own page with editions, translations and where to read it.

  • The Abridged History of Viet, Anonymous (attributed by some to Su Hy Nhan) (about 1377, probably as an abridgement of Le Van Huu's lost history of 1272). The oldest surviving Vietnamese history, a century older than the Complete Annals and in places fuller for the Ly dynasty, which fills its second and third books.
  • The Complete Annals of Dai Viet, Ngo Si Lien, drawing on Le Van Huu's Dai Viet su ky (1272) and Phan Phu Tien; continued by Pham Cong Tru and Le Hi (1479; printed 1697 in the standard Chinh Hoa edition). The main narrative source for Dai Viet in 1200, compiled in 1479 from Le Van Huu's lost history of 1272. Read online
  • The later Tai, Lao and Mon chronicles of the north, Ratanapanna (Jinakalamali); Bodhiramsi (Chamadevivamsa); anonymous monks and court scribes (the Chamadevivamsa about 1410; the Jinakalamali 1516 to 1528; the Chiang Mai Chronicle in its surviving form 1827; the Nithan Khun Borom 16th to 17th century). There is no text of 1200 for the Mon kingdom of Haripunjaya, the Tai muang of Ngoenyang (Chiang Saen), Chiang Rung, the Yom and Nan valleys, or the Lao middle Mekong.
  • History of Song, chapters 488 and 489: Jiaozhi, Dali, Champa, Zhenla, Pagan, Srivijaya, Java, Brunei, Chola and Tambralinga, Toqto'a (Tuotuo) and the Yuan history office, from the Song court records (1343 to 1345, from Song veritable records and court diaries). The Chinese court's record of its southern neighbours, compiled from Song archives. Read online
  • History of the Song, the chapters on Xia and on foreign states, Toqto'a (脫脫) and the Yuan history office (1343 to 1345). The Song court's accounts of its neighbours, each arranged as an annal of embassies and wars. Read online
  • Corpus of the Inscriptions of Campa (EFEO and ISAW), Various (the Cham kings and their officers), edited by Arlo Griffiths, Amandine Lepoutre, William Southworth and Thanh Phan (inscriptions of the 4th to 15th centuries; the online corpus from 2012). The online edition of the Cham inscriptions, with photographs, texts and translations, keyed to the C. numbers. Read online
  • The Inscriptions of Cambodia, Various (the Khmer kings and their officers), edited by George Coedes (inscriptions of the 6th to 14th centuries; edited 1937 to 1966). The Khmer empire of 1200 is known almost entirely from the great foundation stelae of Jayavarman VII (reigning from 1181), which Coedes edited: the Ta Prohm stele of 1186 (K. Read online
  • The Sanskrit inscriptions of Cambodia and Champa (ISCC), Various (Khmer and Cham kings), edited by Auguste Barth and Abel Bergaigne (inscriptions of the 7th to 12th centuries; edited 1885 to 1893). The founding edition of Khmer and Cham Sanskrit epigraphy, public domain and online, which Coedes's later corpus supersedes but does not replace. Read online

5 more in the sources library for Mainland Southeast Asia.

Sources and studies

  1. English Wikipedia, Sdok Kok Thom
  2. English Wikipedia, Preah Vihear Temple
  3. English Wikipedia, Ta Prohm
  4. Coedes, The Indianized States of Southeast Asia (East-West Center Press, 1968)
  5. OMNIA board notes for the Khmer and Lao area (a lead, not a source)

Last revised 4 November 2026. Published 4 November 2026. Suggest a correction on the OMNIA Discord.