Hindu temples and maths · Champa under Suryavarmadeva · as at first light, 1 January 1200

My Son

A valley of brick towers under a single mountain, in use since the fourth century and still the place where kings record what they have done; almost everything known about the politics of the Cham kings is known because it was written on stone here (board).

The god is Bhadresvara. A king who cannot make an offering at Mỹ Sơn is not obviously a king (board). We found nothing dated to the 1190s here; whether Suryavarmadeva has made an offering is not known.

Who holds it

Name
not known by name for 1200
Title
Brahman priests and temple stewards of the house
Confidence
low

Steles as reported in English Wikipedia (Po Nagar, My Son); board

What it holds

  • The sanctuary valley and its endowed lands and servants
  • The right to crown and to record the king's acts on stone

Allies and rivals

Patrons: the Cham kings. The valley lies on the Amaravati plain, a day behind Simhapura.

How things stand that morning

Standing; they serve whoever holds the coast; not pinned further.

Wealth

Royal endowments.

Threats

  • Khmer plunder of the images (done once at Vijaya in 1190)
  • Neglect in wartime

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. 1243A pillar inscription of Jaya Indravarman V, the latest dated record at My Son (English Wikipedia).Depends on: Cham kings still make offerings here. Stopped by: A Cham collapse before then.

Places of note

  • My Son: Sanctuary

Where the sources disagree

Evidence: The site is archaeologically thick; 1200 itself is silent.

Primary sources for Champa

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
  • 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
  • Draft Compilation of the Collected Statutes of the Song, Various; the Song huiyao were compiled by the Song state, the surviving draft reassembled by Xu Song from the Yongle dadian in the nineteenth century (the original Song compilations date from the eleventh to the thirteenth century; the surviving extracts were recovered in 1809 to 1820 and printed in 1936). Dated extracts from the Song government's own statute collections, arranged by office. 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

4 more in the sources library for Mainland Southeast Asia.

Sources and studies

  1. Mỹ Sơn, English Wikipedia (read)
  2. OMNIA board notes for the Vietnam and Champa area (a lead, not a source)

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