Indian Architecture (Buddhist and Hindu Periods) c43.56

c43.56

appear in the art of the Khmers of sufficient significance to alter or at least to modify its nature. These impositions are of such a character as to entitle the development at this stage to be referred to as the Flamboyant Phase, and were brought about mainly through the personality and ardent zeal of a ruler who has been described as the "Grand Monarch" of the Khmer dynasties, Jayavarman VII (1181-1201), in certain respects the Louis the Fourteenth of his line. Standing forth as the last great king of the Cambodian empire and possessed with overpowering ambitions together with unlimited resources, these conditions found expression in architectural undertakings of a grandiose order. Not only were his building schemes on an unprecedented scale but they imply a definite change in artistic values, so that the building art under this ruler's patronage assumed a different orientation, its manner being not far removed from what may be termed the mood of the Baroque And in the fantastic exuberance of its architecture this phase presages the final stage of the Cambodian epoch. Much of the building activity of this period was concerned with elaborate additions to the capital city of Angkor Thom, among which may be mentioned an imposing causeway including a Gate of Victory, and above all, the monumental temple of Bayon rising in the centre of the city itself Other buildings, chiefly temples belonging to this phase are Prah Khan, Ta Prohm, Banteay Kedaı and Banteay Chhumar, none of which however attempts to attain the magnitude or phenomenal character of those in the Khmer capital This character is chiefly notable for the introduction in the architecture of a form of imagery of titanic proportions and cryptic intention, so that superhuman figures and giant statuary dominate the style Although displaying certain spectacular qualities, the effect on the architectural propriety of the building art may be imagined. For instance the massive parapet on each side of the causeway leading to the Gate of Victory instead of being supported by a conventional balustrade, takes the shape of a monstrous serpent, its coils wreathed in the muscular arms of a team of Paladins, represented by fifty-four figures of heroic proportions, on both sides amounting to the mystic number of one hundred and eight, while the enlarged expanded hydra head of the reptile is raised menacingly at the entrance. But the keynote of the style may be seen in the treatment of the gate to which this extravagant conception leads, for the towers or sikharas of this building have imposed on each of their four sides a gigantic human mask, smiling, inscrutable, enigmatical, expressing some thought beyond all understanding The Gateway of Victory is however only an introductory to the temple of Bayon, within the city, which has fifty such towers grouped above its ranges of terraces, halls, and corridors, aggregating some two hundred of these faces, each gazing with sphinx-like smile on the slow irresistible sapping by the forces of nature of its own stability (Plate CLVIII.)