Officers: prévôtés, bailiwicks, seneschals · The Khmer empire of Jayavarman VII · as at first light, 1 January 1200

Hrishikesha and the gurus

The king is a Buddhist, but the Brahmins keep a place at court.

English Wikipedia, after Coedes, says Hrishikesha was made chief priest with the title Jayamahapradhana; Ta Prohm's stele names the king's guru Jayamangalartha, whom the temple honours in a satellite shrine. The three schools under the queen Indradevi make the court a centre of Sanskrit teaching. The Sdok Kok Thom priestly family (stele of 1052) is the older model of a Brahmin lineage serving the kings; whether its descendants serve now is not known.

No dated source names a chancellor, a general or a treasurer for 1200.

Who he is

Name
Hrishikesha (Hrsikesa); the king's guru Jayamangalartha
Title
Chief priest (Jayamahapradhana) and royal guru
Since
not known; both named in the stelae of 1186 and 1191
Born
not known
Family
Hrishikesha is a Brahmin; family not known.
Confidence
medium

English Wikipedia (Jayavarman VII: Hrishikesha made chief priest with the title Jayamahapradhana, Coedes pp. 173, 176; Ta Prohm: the king's guru Jayamangalartha). Not re-read in the stelae.

What it holds

  • The royal chaplaincy of the Brahmin houses
  • The Buddhist teaching colleges and their royal archive at Preah Khan
  • The 'Hrishikesha' estate is not known

How things stand that morning

Hrishikesha's death or survival is not known. The offices are named in the stelae of 1186 and 1191; none is dated to 1200.

Places of note

  • Preah Khan, university and archive: The foundation of 1191 is a royal archive and school.

Where the sources disagree

Evidence: Two names through English Wikipedia; the stelae themselves unread.

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, Jayavarman VII
  2. English Wikipedia, Ta Prohm
  3. Coedes, The Indianized States of Southeast Asia (East-West Center Press, 1968)

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