Jayavarman VII

Who he is

Name

Jayavarman VII

Title

King of Kambuja, a Mahayana Buddhist (posthumous name Mahaparamasaugata)

Since

crowned 1181 (some say 1182); eighteen years on the throne on 1 January 1200

Born

about 1122 to 1125, inferred; no inscription gives his age. About 75 to 78 in January 1200.

Family

Son of Dharanindravarman II and Sri Jayarajacudamani; husband of Jayarajadevi, Rajendradevi and Indradevi; fathers Suryakumara, Virakumara, Srindrakumara and (said to be) Indravarman II.

Confidence

high for the reign, medium for his age

Coedes (via English and French Wikipedia on Jayavarman VII); Higham; the stelae of Ta Prohm (1186) and Preah Khan (1191). Death c. 1218 (range 1218-1220), from the successor's reign; no dated inscription.

What it holds

• Angkor Thom with the royal palace enclosure (Phimeanakas) and the Bayon (under way, undated)
• Ta Prohm (Rajavihara) and its endowed villages, claimed in the stele of 1186 as 3,140 villages and 79,365 people (the king's claim, not a count)
• Preah Khan (Nagarajayasri) with the Jayatataka and Neak Pean; stele of 1191 claims servants of its own (the total is not re-read this session)
• Banteay Kdei, Srah Srang, Ta Som, the Kulen sandstone quarries and their canals
• Roads, bridges, 121 'houses with fire' (rest houses) and 102 hospital chapels as the stelae claim them
• Jayabuddhamahanatha images sent to 23 towns in 1191, among them Lavodayapura, Suvarnapura, Jayarajapuri, Jayavajrapuri, Jayasimhapuri and Sambukapattana

How it was acquired

Coronation 1181 after the expulsion of the Cham who had held Yasodharapura since June 1177 (Coedes pp. 166-170; Higham pp. 120-121). The French Wikipedia says the tradition of a lone reconquest is no longer held: the Bayon reliefs may show Cham allies.

Allies and rivals

Rivals: Suryavarmadeva (Vidyanandana) at Vijaya, the Cham prince he raised; the Brahmin houses that remember the Hindu kings of the old line; the Mon and Tai chiefs of the north and west who owe only titles. Allies: his priests (Hrishikesha), the Buddhist teachers of the court, the endowed temple communities.

How things stand that morning

Alive. Where he is on 1 January is not known; the Bayon and Angkor Thom are the royal work of the year, and the dry-season campaign weather has begun on the eastern road. No source gives an event for 1200.

Wealth

The royal domain of the Angkor plain, the endowed foundations' villages and servants, the Tonle Sap fish, the Kulen quarries, gold and imported goods through the delta ports.

Military

The royal household and the provincial levies; elephants, foot, boats. The Bayon reliefs show the Cham war of 1177-1181 and the naval battle on the Tonle Sap. No numbers.

Threats

• Vidyanandana at Vijaya
• His own age and the unsettled succession
• The strain of the building programme on rice and labour

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. about 1218 (range 1218-1220)He dies; Indravarman II succeeds and the building stops.Depends on: Natural death at about 95 by inference. Stopped by: An earlier death would move the date.
2. 1243After Indravarman II, Jayavarman VIII defaces the Buddhas of his foundations.Depends on: A Hindu court party after 1243. Stopped by: A Buddhist succession.

Places of note

• Angkor Thom: The royal city.
• Phimeanakas: Palace enclosure; the stele of Indradevi (K. 485) stood here.
• Preah Khan: Foundation of 1191.
• Ta Prohm: Foundation of 1186.

Where the sources disagree

• The campaign board entry region intro says the Bayon is 'rising now inside the walls': agreed, but it has no dated stele.
• English Wikipedia lists Sukhara Mahadevi, consort of Pha Mueang, among his children (Thai tradition after Damrong). Wyatt dates Pha Mueang's Khmer princess to about 1243 under Indravarman II, so she cannot be the king's daughter on this evidence; not used.

Evidence: Dated stelae of 1186 and 1191 and a long secondary literature; his age is an inference.

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

On the map: A rough block for the Angkor plain; the real holdings are endowed villages scattered across the empire.

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.