Origins : Khmer Empire and the Kingdom of Funan
The Khmer Empire of Cambodia, was a powerful Hindu-Buddhist empire in Southeast Asia from 8th century CE to 15th century CE. The empire originally grew out of the former Kingdom of Funan (68–550 CE). There is much debate about the origins of these people. The name of the kingdom is Chinese as given to them by the Chinese diplomats of 3rd century. However, the kingdom was Hindu-Buddhist by faith. It appears to be an ethno-linguistic melting pot of Indian and Chinese cultures.
Indian influence on the Kingdom of Funan
In the late 4th and 5th centuries, Indianization of south east Asia advanced more rapidly, in part through renewed impulses from the south Indian Pallava dynasty and the north Indian Gupta Empire. The only extant local writings from the period of Funan are paleographic Pallava Grantha inscriptions in Sanskrit of the Pallava dynasty, a scholarly language used by learned and ruling elites throughout South and Southeast Asia.
India was in its Golden Age during this time with the Gupta empire at it’s peak and the Southern Kingdoms embarking on naval expeditions into South-east Asia.
Funan may have been the Suvarnabhumi referred to in ancient Indian texts.
The Brahmin Kaudinya in Funan
The Chinese Book of Liang records the story of the foundation of Funan by the foreigner Hùntián: He came from the southern country Jiào (an unidentified location) and married the Queen Liǔyè. Some scholars have identified the conqueror Hùntián of the Book of Liang with the Brahmin, Kauṇḍinya.
According to reports by two Chinese envoys, Kang Tai and Chu Ying, the state of Funan was established by an Indian Brahmin named Kaundinya. In the 1st century CE, Kaundinya was given instruction in a dream to take a magic bow (some Astra?) from a temple and defeat a Naga princess named Soma(Chinese: Liu Ye, “Willow Leaf”), the daughter of the king of the Naga. She later married Kaundinya (chin. Hun Tien) and their lineage became the royal dynasty of Funan.
Kaundinya later built a capital, and changed the name of the country to ‘Kambuja’ (Relation to Khambojs of North India?). In reality, the myth has Indian origins: the Pallavas of South India had adopted this genealogy to explain their dynastic origins, for the first Pallava ruler of Kanchipuram was supposed to be the son of a Chola king and a naga princess. The legend somehow reached Cambodia, where it was adopted by the Funan kings to explain their dynastic origins, and a legendary first King Kaundinya came into being.
(The name “Cambodia” is derived from its ancient name Kambuja or Kambujadesa)
Kaudinya’s relation to Mahabharata
The story of Kaundinya is also set forth briefly in the Sanskrit inscription C. 96 of the Cham king Prakasadharma found at Mỹ Sơn. It is dated Sunday, 18 February, 658 AD (and thus belongs to the post-Funanese period) and states in relevant part (stanzas XVI-XVIII):
“It was there [at the city of Bhavapura] that Kauṇḍinya, the foremost among brahmins, planted the spear which he had obtained from Droṇa’s Son Aśvatthāman, the best of brahmins. There was a daughter of a king of serpents, called “Somā,” who founded a family in this world. Having attained, through love, to a radically different element, she lived in the abode of man. She was taken as wife by the excellent Brahmin Kauṇḍinya for the sake of (accomplishing) a certain task …”
Fall of Funan and Rise of Khmer and Angkor
Funan’s dependence on maritime trade is seen as a cause for the beginning of Funan’s downfall. Funan was superseded and absorbed in the 6th century by the Khmer polity of Chenla (Zhenla). Soon the region was a dominion under the Hindu Kingdoms of Java. So the Hindu culture further permeated inside Cambodia via Java.
Jayavarman II (r. 790-850) is widely regarded as a king who set the foundations of the Angkor period in Cambodian history, beginning with a grandiose consecration ritual that he conducted in 802 on the sacred Mount Mahendraparvata, now known as Phnom Kulen, to celebrate the independence of Kambuja from Javanese dominion. He declared himself Chakravartin, in a ritual taken from the Indian-Hindu tradition.
Artist rendition of the Angkor Wat temple
Later, Suryavarman I (reigned 1010 – 1050) gained the throne and established diplomatic relations with the Chola dynasty of south India. Suryavarman I sent a chariot as a present to the Chola Emperor Rajaraja Chola I. After surviving several invasions from his enemies, Suryavarman requested aid from the powerful Chola Emperor Rajendra Chola I against the Tambralinga kingdom (from Malaysia). After learning of Suryavarman’s alliance with Rajendra Chola, the Tambralinga kingdom requested aid from the Srivijaya king Sangrama Vijayatungavarman.This eventually led to the Chola Empire coming into conflict with the Srivijiya Empire. The war ended with a victory for the Chola dynasty and of the Khmer Empire, and major losses for the Sri Vijaya Empire and the Tambralinga kingdom. This alliance somewhat also has religious nuance, since both Chola and Khmer empire are Hindu Shivaist, while Tambralinga and Srivijaya are Mahayana Buddhist.
Mysterious Common Links
- Cambodia was once called KAMBHOJA, which might be named after the Indian city in ancient Gandhara in today’s Kabul region. Are they the same Khamboj people who migrated from North West into India?
It is also conceivable that two Kambojas existed. There was also a Kamboja-Pala dynasty ruled parts of Bengal in the 10th to 11th centuries CE. Now which Kamboja were they? - Kaudinya used a magic spear. Was it a kind of an Astra (like Brahamastra) similar to the ones used in the India epics of Ramayan and Mahabharata.
- The connection of Kaudinya with Mahabharata (see above)
- Many future Funan and Khmer kings have Sanskrit names.
- The Angkor Watt temple is the largest Hindu temple in the world and is dedicated to God Vishnu.
- The Nagas have generally been described in Indian history as dark and “less cultured” people (without knowledge of the vedas) who worshiped snakes. They were usually “the others”. When Arjun in Mahabharata traveled east, he married the Naga princess Ulupi. The Khmer culture appears to have originated from the same Naga clan. Below is a picture of a Naga (serpent) guard at the entrance of Angkor Watt temple.
-
- It appears that their was some link between Drona’s son Ashwatthama and the founder of Khmer culture Kaudinya. History is written by the victors, it might be a case that the Naga’s are demonised in India becuase they were allied to the losing side. But the same might not be true in Cambodia. For it says above “…Aśvatthāman
, the best of brahmins” . Far-fetched. I am just speculating. - Indrapura was the capital of an early Kingdom of Ankor ruled by Jayavarman II. Inspired by Indraprastha? Again speculating.
Bodhikshetra 