Suryavarman II

Khmer king (r. 1113-1150)

• Born: Unknown
• Birthplace: Kingdom of Khmer (now in Cambodia)
• Died: c. 1150
• Place of death: Kingdom of Khmer (now in Cambodia)

Suryavarman II increased the territory of Khmer by capturing areas from neighboring Vietnam, Laos, and Thailand, and he built a temple to Viṣṇu, Angkor Wat, which symbolized his power as a god-king.

Early Life

Little is known about the birth and early life of Suryavarman II (soor-yuh-VAWR-muhn). He came to power through a military coup. A stele recovered by M. Jules Harmand in Bat Than, a small village on the Mekong River in Laos, portrays Suryavarman II’s battle with the royal army and shows him jumping onto the king’s elephant and killing his great-uncle, Dharanīndravarman I (r. 1107-1112).

Suryavarman II was related through a sister to Dharanīndravarman I and his predecessor Jayavarman VI (r. 1080-c. 1107). Succession in the Khmer kingdom was not necessarily hereditary; however, kings usually asserted legitimacy by claiming a blood link back to Jayavarman II (c. 770-850, r. 802-850), who is generally credited with being the king who consolidated and created an identity for the Angkor kingdom. The name Angkor comes from the Khmer word Nokhor and the Sanskrit nagara, or city. When Suryavarman II seized power, the capital of the kingdom was well established at Angkor city, which symbolized the power and the architectural grandeur of the Khmer kingdom. The suffix varman attached to the names of Khmer kings means “protector or armor.”

Suryavarman II was the seventeenth king in a long line of twenty-three identified Khmer rulers whose kingdoms were located along the Mekong River and the Tonle Sap Lake and the Tonle Sap River in the Indochina peninsula. Through wars and agreements, the kingdom of Angkor encompassed at various times areas now known as Cambodia, Laos, and parts of Thailand, Vietnam, China, and Myanmar (Burma.) During the period of the Angkor kingdom (804-1432), boundaries grew or constricted as a result of military campaigns.

Suryavarman II received the endorsement of Divākarapandita, a priest-minister who had served Udayādityavarman II (r. 1050-c.1066) and Harsavarman III (r. 1066/1077-1080) and had consecrated Dharanīndravarman I, who reigned for five years before his overthrow by his great-nephew. Divākrapandita was a learned priest or {I}pandita{/I} (pundit) and under Suryavarman II was rewarded by symbols of power: a gold palanquin and two peacock-feather fans with gold handles. Kings, who were able to gain power through military effort, required the participation of the priestly class to legitimize their rule.

The Khmer had contact with India through trade since 350 b.c.e., and local rulers adopted the Sanskrit language and incorporated the gods from the Hindu pantheon into their worship of ancestral divinities. The king served as an intermediary between the people and the gods. The installation of Suryavarman II in 1113 as a transmogrified form of the linga, the phallic emblem of Śiva, took place in a temple in the capital city of Angkor, which was a city of about a million people. Jayavarman II had instituted the cult of the devaraja , or the god-king. Jayavarman and succeeding kings, including Suryavarman II, installed a stone linga in each royal temple. The linga represented the male procreative power and was identified with the Hindu god Śiva. The Śivalingam became a visual representation of the creative power of the king, who was seen as the reincarnation of Śiva on Earth. Thus, Suryavarman II legitimized his rule.

The cult of the devaraja gave the kingdom a sense of solidarity and unity of purpose for five centuries. The kings did not rule by just being a god; he was the apex of a vertical society. The social order had defined layers of relationships based on class, status, and role relationships. Jayavarman II appointed one of the men of a leading Khmer family as the high priest. This office was hereditary and had the task of installing each king. The temples functioned as repositories of wealth and culture and also were centers of worship, learning, and political power. The priestly class may have been as large as 300,000 during Suryavarman II’s reign. Priests were the only ones able to compose the poetry that extolled the king and to consult the religious manuscripts, written on palm leaves and housed in the temples. Monks and priests served as advisers to the king and often were appointed as officials at all levels of government. The high priest would perform ceremonies to reestablish that the essence of the new king had entered into the linga, thus continuing the cult of the devaraja, the god-king.

Life’s Work

Suryavarman II served as the commander in chief of the military, the court of last appeal, and the god whom citizens were expected to worship. A king could choose which major god of the Hindu pantheon, either Śiva, Viṣṇu, or Brahma, he wished to represent. Suryavarman II chose to patronize Viṣṇu, but he also permitted offerings to be made to Śiva and to the Buddha. Early in his reign, work was begun on a temple, Angkor Wat, which would serve as a temple, an observatory, and a tomb for Suryavarman. The temple was not completed until after his death in 1150. The temple housed a now lost gold statue of Viṣṇu, which was installed in July, 1131, and which may have commemorated Suryavarman II’s thirty-third birthday.

Angkor Wat, a World Heritage site, took some fifty thousand workers and thirty-seven years to complete. The temple has five lotus-bud towers linked by galleries. The temple is 200 feet (65 meters) high and is surrounded by a moat, which is 200 yards (200 meters) wide. The moat was linked to reservoirs and canals and was an important part of the complex irrigation system that sustained the cultivation of rice, the main cereal crop for a growing population. The temple was constructed from sandstone cut from quarries some 25 miles (40 kilometers) away and transported by river barges to the building site.

The bas-relief functions as a tapestry and tells stories from Khmer history and Hindu legends. The sculptures on the walls of the third outermost gallery depict Suryavarman II and his court. The king, larger than life, is seated on a wooden throne and is receiving four of his ministers. Fourteen parasols, five large fans, and four flywisks, the symbols of his power, surround him. The king wears an elaborate crown and pectoral. His wealth is depicted in the ear ornaments, anklets, armlets, and bracelets that he wears. Later scenes depict the king seated on an elephant that wears a jeweled headdress. His royal priest and military generals, also on elephants, accompany him. Rows of troops, some wearing helmets with deer-head images, are at his service. Royal archers wear loincloths and tight short-sleeved jackets. The elevation of the sacred fire and the presence of the orchestra of trumpets, drums, conches, and a drum herald the king’s entrance. Parasols, flywisks, fans, and banners again announce his presence. In front of his elephant is a standard of Viṣṇu riding Garuda. Women of the court are carried on palanquins. Suryavarman II was not monogamous and most likely had several wives and many concubines.

Chandler and Mabbett observe that no checks existed over the exercise of royal power save for a “notion of religious morality” and the ever-possible rebellion by regional rivals. The kingdom did not maintain a standing army but instead relied on the lords in the provinces to enforce conscription and raise a force to either defend or expand the holdings of the kingdom. Suryavarman II had come to power by using a network of families. The king could ingratiate these families by giving them honors and land. In return, they gave their support and often their daughters to the king. Mutual trust and the patronage held the kingdom together.

Written reports by a Chinese traveler, Zhou Daguan (Chou Ta-kuan), show that by the thirteenth century, the holdings of these families had evolved into administrative units and were the equivalents of provinces. Over the years, a sizeable bureaucracy developed in order to collect taxes, usually in the form of grain or commodities such as honey and wax. This bureaucracy extended into the villages in which officials functioned as village elders to carry out the tasks of local government and the king’s wishes. Temple inscriptions indicate that these men collected taxes and witnessed land transactions. Others were inspectors and oversaw temple property, temple dues, and the management of religious foundations. Still others managed the administration of forced labor, which was given as a tax for the construction of roads, irrigation projects, temples, and buildings used by the royal family.

Suryavarman II served as the final court of appeal and presided over a system of lower courts. Khmer kings used case law , which was recorded on palm leaves. The king could not invent the law, but he was the final appeal. Legal terms such as case, plaintiff, proof, and sentence were borrowed from Indian terminology. Legal texts from India were known in the Khmer kingdom, and judicial procedures also used ordeals similar to those used in India to determine guilt or innocence. Fines, amputations, flogging, and torture were meted out to those shown to be guilty. The five major crimes included murdering a priest, theft, drunkenness, adultery with the wife of one’s master, and being an accessory to any of these crimes. Citizens could also bring lawsuits against each other. How corrupt or fair the judicial system was cannot be determined.

Suryavarman II had expansionist plans and sought to extend the Khmer empire through trade and war. He was most successful in commerce and reopened the China market. He was the first king in three hundred years to send embassies to China in 1116 and 1120 and in 1128 to the court of the Chinese emperor Gaozong (Kao-tsung; r. 1127-1162). Such alliances also served to keep the Chinese from forging alliances with the enemies of the Khmer kingdom.

After conquering several Champa states (in the southeast coast of Vietnam), Suryavarman II sent troops in 1128 and 1132 to control the Annamite kingdom of Dai Viet (Vietnam). The king launched a two pronged attack on the kingdom of Dai Viet. Troops went over land through Laos, while Suryavarman’s navy of seven hundred junks attacked the coastal areas of the Gulf of Tonkin. He asked the king of Champa for assistance, but in 1137 after the Champa forces made an alliance in 1136 with the Annam, Suryavarman II invaded Champa. He captured the capital of Vijaya and installed his brother-in-law, Prince Harideva, on the Champa throne. The Champa fought back, and Suryavarman had to make a partial retreat, but the Khmers remained in control of Northern Champa for the next thirty years.

Suryavarman II also went west to occupy the Haripunjaya Kingdom, one of the Mon tribal states in Thailand. In 1150, Suryavarman again invaded Annam after the Champa had killed Prince Harideva in 1149, but his army was decimated by fever while it traveled through jungle mountains to reach Tongking. Suryavarman died in 1150 either during or after the retreat from Annam.

Significance

Suryavarman II presided over the Angkor empire at the height of its military and diplomatic power. His ambitious building program included not only what is generally regarded as the highest achievement of Khmer temple architecture, Angkor Wat, but also Preah Pithu, Chansay Tevoda, and Thommanon, which were other temples in the Angkor region.

Bibliography

Audic, John. Angkor and the Khmer Kingdom. London: Robert Hale, 1972. Audic presents a reader-friendly text. He criticizes the building of Angkor Wat as extravagant and exhaustive of the resources of the Khmer Empire.

Higham, Charles. The Civilization of Angkor. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2001. Useful maps, a glossary of terms, and great pictures add to this overall history of Angkor. Higham makes good use of studies of Angkor published outside the United States.

Mabbett, Ian, and David Chandler. The Khmers. Oxford, England: Blackwell, 1995. Mabbett and Chandler provide a historical context and provide a discussion of the scholarship on devaraja, the god-king cult.

Mannikka, Eleanor. Angkor Wat: Time, Space, and Kingship. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 2000. The black-and-white and color photographs and Mannikka’s text walk the reader through the architectural features of Angkor Wat and Khmer art.

Murray, Stephen O. “A Thirteenth Century Imperial Ethnography.” Antropology Today 10 (October, 1994): 15-18. Murray compares the impressions of Chinese visitors about the Khmer armies with the depictions of the military in the bas-relief on the buildings in Angkor.

Peang-Meth, Abdulgaffar. “Understanding the Khmer: Sociological-Cultural Observations.” Asian Survey 31 (May, 1991): 442-455. Peang-Meth draws on Hinduism and Buddhism to explain how the Khmer people could be cruel warriors and also peaceful and compassionate people.

Pym, Christopher. The Ancient Civilization of Angkor. New York: Mentor Books, 1968. Pym provides a detailed discussion of the construction of Angkor Wat and daily life in the kingdom.