The temple of Banteay Srei is consecrated
On 22 April 967, in the last year of King Rajendravarman II, the Brahmin Yajnavaraha, a grandson of Harshavarman I, and his brother Vishnukumara consecrated a temple of Shiva, Tribhuvanamaheshvara, at Ishvarapura, about 25 km north-east of the main temples of Angkor — the present Banteay Srei. The only major Angkorian temple not built by a king, it is a small sanctuary of red sandstone, celebrated for its carving as ‘the jewel of Khmer art’.
- Date
- 22 April 967exact dateDate in the Julian calendar
- Place
- Banteay Srei (Ishvarapura)today: Banteay Srei District, Siem Reap province, Cambodia · Southeast Asia and Oceania
- Participants
- Yajnavaraha, Rajendravarman II, Khmer Empire
- Threads
- Southeast Asia and Oceania (1st–10th c.)
- Also known as
- Banteay Srei; Banteay Srey; Tribhuvanamaheshvara; Ishvarapura; Isvarapura; Vishnukumara; André Malraux; Бантеайсрей; Бантеай-Срей; Трибхуванамахешвара; Ишварапура; Вишнукумара
The date of the consecration, 22 April 967, comes from the temple’s foundation stele, found in 1936. The stele calls the founder Yajnavaraha a grandson of Harshavarman I and, in its Khmer text, ‘holy teacher’; George Coedès thought he might be the Brahmin who in the next reign became the vrah guru, the royal preceptor, of the young Jayavarman V. The temple, named Tribhuvanamaheshvara, ‘Great Lord of the Threefold World’, was dedicated mainly to Shiva, with its northern half devoted to Vishnu, and stood at the centre of a town called Ishvarapura.
Banteay Srei is unusually small by Angkorian standards, and its red sandstone allowed carving of exceptional delicacy: its pediments, lintels and walls are covered with scenes from Hindu myth and with figures of guardian deities and devatas. The temple was enlarged in the 11th century. Rediscovered in 1914, it became famous in 1923, when the young André Malraux tried to carry off four devata figures; between 1931 and 1936 Henri Marchal restored it by anastylosis — dismantling and rebuilding with the original stones — the first major use of the method at Angkor.
Connections
Related events
- Koh Ker, the capital of Jayavarman IVbetween 921 and 928 – 944 · Southeast Asia and OceaniaBanteay Srei was founded under Rajendravarman II, who had brought the court back from Koh Ker to Angkor
Same participants
- Construction of Angkor Thom and the Bayon1181 – c. 1218 · Southeast Asia and Oceaniavia Khmer Empire
Same place
- Jayavarman II is proclaimed universal monarch on Mount Mahendra802 (?) · Southeast Asia and Oceania
- Indravarman I builds the Indratataka, Preah Ko and the Bakong877–881 · Southeast Asia and Oceania
Adjacent events in the thread
- Battle of Bạch Đằng: Ngô Quyền defeats the Southern Hanbetween October 938 and January 939 · Southeast Asia and Oceania
- Đinh Bộ Lĩnh proclaims himself emperor of Đại Cồ Việt968 · Southeast Asia and Oceania
Meanwhile in the world
Other regions, within a year of this event
Eastern Europe
- Sviatoslav’s campaign against the Khazars964 – between 968 and 969
- Pecheneg siege of Kyiv968
Balkans and Anatolia
- Sviatoslav’s invasion of Bulgariabetween 967 and 968 – July 971
Middle East and Egypt
- Sayf al-Dawla's Aleppo: al-Mutanabbi and the Hamdanid emirate29 October 944 – 8 February 967
Africa
- Awdaghust and the gold of Ghana in the accounts of Ibn Hawqalbetween 951 and 977
- Igbo-Ukwu: bronze casting in the West African forest800–899 – 1100–1199
Central and Northern Asia
South Asia
- Queen Didda rules Kashmir958–1003
North America
- Pueblo II: stone pueblos and the Chaco worldc. 900 – c. 1150
- Plum Bayou Mounds: a planned ceremonial centre in the Arkansas valleyc. 650 – c. 1050
- The Late Woodland period in eastern North Americac. 500 – c. 1000
Latin America
- Middle Sicán: the Lambayeque culture at its height at Batán Grandec. 900 – c. 1100
- Tula and the Toltecs: the leading city of central Mexicoc. 900 – c. 1150
- Rise of Chichén Itzá in northern Yucatánc. 800 – between 900 and 1000
- Wari culture and the Middle Horizon state in the Central Andesc. 600 – c. 1000
- Tiwanaku culture at its height by Lake Titicacac. 600 – c. 1000
The same period
Sources
- Wikipedia (English): Banteay Srei
- Wikipedia (English): Yajnavaraha
- Wikipedia (English): Rajendravarman II
- Wikipedia (Russian): Бантеайсрей
- Wikipedia (Russian): Яджнавараха
- Coedès G. The Indianized States of Southeast Asia / Ed. W. F. Vella; transl. S. B. Cowing. — Honolulu: East-West Center Press, 1968. — P. 117.