Indian Epigraphy c14.s5: 5. Cambodia
Indian Epigraphy c14.s5
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5. Cambodia
c14.s5.1
Unlike Java, Cambodia does not possess a literature influenced by Indian literary tradition. But the Sanskrit inscriptions, dating from the 5th to the 14th century, found all over Cambodia, exhibit a very flourishing state of Sanskrit learning. The number of such inscriptions written in ornate kāvya style is the largest in Cambodia than in any other land of South-East Asia and many of them are quite voluminous. The use of the Śaka era and of the decimal system in numbers is first noticed in Cambodia respectively in the 6th and the 7th century. The first of them appears to have been introduced in this region by the merchants of the western areas of the Deccan, and the second probably by those of the southern areas of the Gujarātī-speaking region. In India, the decimal system is noticed for the first time in the date of the Sankheda (in the old Baroda State in Gujarat) copper-plate inscription of 594 A.D.³
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³ Bhandarkar’s List, No. 1205.
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The study of Indo-Cambodian epigraphy began in 1879 with the decipherment of some Sanskrit records by H. Kern from the estampages prepared by J. Harmand. A collection of estampages of such epigraphs made by E. Aymonier was published under the name *Inscriptions Sanscrites du Cambodge* by A. Barth and A. Bergaigne, in two Parts with a volume of Plates, the first Part edited by Barth appearing in 1885 and the second edited by Bergaigne with notes by Barth in 1893. The inscriptions in the native Khmer language in Aymonier’s collection were translated and summarised by himself in his *Le Cambodge*, Vols. I-III (1901-04). A large number of inscriptions in Sanskrit and Khmer, discovered at later dates were published by L. Finot, G. Coedès and others in the *Bulletin de l'Ecole Francaise d'Extreme-Orient* appearing originally from Hanoi. Coedès has also published a large number of Sanskrit and Khmer inscriptions in several volumes (1937 onwards) of his *Collection de textes et documents sur l'Indochine* with several volumes of Plates.
c14.s5.4
Late Brāhmī of West and South India, which was introduced in Cambodia, gradually underwent modification in the same way as in different parts of India. The orthography of the Sanskrit epigraphs of Cambodia exhibit the substitution of *ḍ* for *d* and *ṇ* for *n* and vice versa and sometimes even of *ṇḍ* for *nd*. The use of *ṅ* for *anusvāra*, the change of visarga before a sibilant to the same sibilant, the occasional reduplication of a consonant before and after *r* as well as before *v*, the use of *tv* for *ttv* and of *jihvāmūlīya* and *upadhmānīya* for visarga before the guttural and labial surds, the occasional use of *candrabindu* for *anusvāra* and the rarity of cases in which *v* is distinguished from *b*, etc., are some of the orthographical features of the Sanskrit inscriptions of Cambodia.¹
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¹ R. C. Majumdar, *Inscriptions of Kambuja*, pp. xiv ff.
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The language of the records is mostly correct Sanskrit, irregularities and mistakes which are few being probably due to the scribe or engraver rather than the composer. The records, which are generally incised on stone are mostly engraved with great care. The majority of the inscriptions are written in beautiful language in the *kāvya* style exhibiting the authors' thorough acquaintance with the metres and the rules and conventions of Sanskrit rhetorics and prosody. The Vat Thipedi inscription² (Śaka 832=910 A. D.) of king Iśvaravarman II is composed in the flawless Gauḍī style of composition, and it has been suggested that the author was an inhabitant of Gauḍa in East India or lived there for a long time. A large number of the inscriptions contain 50 stanzas or more, while some contain more than 100 stanzas. The Mebon (Śaka 874) and Pre Rup (Śaka 883) inscriptions³ of Rājendravarman contain no less than 218 and 298 stanzas respectively.
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² Ibid., pp. 161 ff.
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³ Ibid., pp. 193 ff., 232 ff.
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The epigraphs are usually *praśastis* extolling the king and recording details of endowments created in favour of religious institutions. Unlike Indian inscriptions of the *praśasti* type, the Cambodian eulogies of the kings often give, besides other details of historical importance, the date of accession of the reigning monarch as well as his ancestors. But, as in the case of Indian epigraphs, the eulogies usually contain a great deal of what is conventional.
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The details of religious endowments, which are the subject of most of these records, supply the names of deities (fairly large in number) worshipped in the country together with long lists of articles of daily or seasonal worship; the utensils and other necessaries of the temples including their personnel; the accounts of temple properties both movable and immovable and the method of their management and various other matters connected with temples and throwing light on the religious, social and economic life of the people. There are remains of a large number of temples all over Cambodia, the inscriptions relating only to some of them.
c14.s5.11
The Cambodian inscriptions are mostly of Śaivite character, although there are some Vaiṣṇavite and a few Buddhistic records. The inscriptions show how Indian culture was adopted in Cambodia by some of the local people who were semi-savages roaming about naked about the beginning of the Christian era when the Indians first came into contact with them. Some interesting facts about life in Cambodia, as revealed by the inscriptions, are the worship of Śiva, Viṣṇu and the Buddha side by side; the existence of different religious sects like the Bhāgavatas, Pāñcarātras and Pāśupatas; the adoption of the caste system dominated by Brāhmaṇas versed in the Vedas, Vedāṅgas and Upavedas as well as of Sanskritic names by the kings, noblemen and common people; the popularity of the Tantric religion and of well-known Tantric texts; the existence of Devadāsīs in the temples and of priests of the same family sometimes conducting religious rites of the royal families for centuries in succession; the creation of new castes by the king and admission of new members to a caste such as that of the goldsmiths; the popularity of the study of the works of Indian authors like Pāṇini, Patañjali, Manu, Vātsyāyana, Viśālākṣa, Pravarasena, Mayūra, Guṇāḍhya and Suśruta. King Yaśovarman is stated to have composed a commentary on Patañjali’s *Mahābhāṣya*, while one of his ministers was an expert in the *Horā-śāstra*.¹ The same king is known to have founded 100 *āśramas* which were a sort of convents or monasteries. The Śaivas, Vaiṣṇavas and Buddhists had their own *āśramas* which were religious centres radiating Indian culture throughout Cambodia.
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¹ Ibid. p. xvii.
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Some of the inscriptions of Yaśovarman, who flourished about the end of the 9th and the beginning of the 10th century A.D., are written in the Siddhamātṛkā alphabet while some of his other records giving regulations about *āśramas* are both in the said alphabet and in the Cambodian derivative of Brāhmī. This fact suggests that there were fresh arrivals apparently from North or East India, who were not familiar with the latter alphabet. Contact with South India during the early medieval period seems to be indicated by the Prasat Kandol Dom inscription² of king Indravarman who flourished about the end of the 9th century, according to which the king’s *guru* Śivasoma studied the scriptures at the feet of Bhagavat Śaṅkara, apparently the great Indian philosopher of the same name who was born in the western coast of South India.
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² Ibid., pp. 57 ff.
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The Śaka era appears in Cambodia in inscriptions like one of Śaka 531 from Prasat Ak Yom while the decimal system of writing numbers is first noticed in a pillar inscription of Śaka 605 (683 A. D.) from Sambaur.³ The Sambaur pillar inscription contains 21 lines written in the Khmer language which was used in Cambodian epigraphy from about this time side by side with Sanskrit.
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³ See ibid., pp. 7, 564. For the Roban Romas inscription of Saka 520, see *BEJEO*, Vol. XLIII, pp. 1 ff.