Raiders from overseas attack Champa: Po Nagar (774) and a temple near Virapura (787)
In 774 raiders who came in ships — ‘men born in other countries … frightful, completely black and gaunt’, as a Cham inscription calls them — plundered the sanctuary of the goddess at Po Nagar near Nha Trang and burned the temple; King Satyavarman pursued them and beat them at sea, and by 784 a new brick sanctuary stood in its place. In 787 ‘the armies of Java’ burned a temple west of the royal city of Virapura, which his brother Indravarman rebuilt in 799.
- Date
- 774–787year known · duration: ≈ 13 years
- Place
- Po Nagar sanctuary, Nha Trangtoday: Nha Trang, Khánh Hòa province, Vietnam · Southeast Asia and Oceania
- Participants
- Champa
- Threads
- Southeast Asia and Oceania (1st–10th c.)
- Also known as
- Javanese raids on Champa; Po Nagar; Satyavarman; Indravarman I; Virapura; Kunlun; Huanwang; Набеги яванцев на Тямпу; Понагар; Сатьяварман; Индраварман I; Хуаньван
In the mid-8th century the centre of gravity of Champa shifted south, to Kauthara (Nha Trang) and Panduranga (Phan Rang), and from 758 the Chinese stopped speaking of Linyi and called the country Huanwang. The raids of the following decades struck this southern kingdom. According to the Po Nagar inscription of Satyavarman, the raiders of 774, ‘men living on food more horrible than corpses’, came in ships, stole the linga and burned the temple, which had held a mukhalinga decorated with jewels; the king followed them with good ships and defeated them at sea, but the treasure was lost, and a new brick sanctuary was completed in 784. The inscription of Indravarman I tells that in 787 ‘the armies of Java, having come in vessels,’ burned the temple of Bhadradhipatishvara west of the capital Virapura, near modern Phan Rang; he rebuilt it in 799.
George Coedès connected these raids with the rise of the Shailendras in Java, whose advent, he wrote, was marked abroad by incursions on the Indochinese peninsula; already in 767 invaders who, the Vietnamese annals say, came from Java and Kunlun had broken into Tang Annam (Tonkin), where the governor Zhang Boyi defeated them near present-day Sơn Tây and drove them back to the sea. Who exactly the raiders were remains uncertain: the sources speak of Java and of the Kunlun, a Chinese name for the peoples of the southern seas.
Connections
Related events
- The Kalasan inscription: a temple of Tara under the Shailendras778 · Southeast Asia and OceaniaGeorge Coedès linked the raids with the advent of the Shailendras in Java
Same participants
- Mai Thúc Loan’s rising against the Tang722 · Southeast Asia and Oceaniavia Champa
- Đại Việt crushes Champa: the fall of VijayaNovember 1470 – March 1471 · Southeast Asia and Oceaniavia Champa
Adjacent events in the thread
- Building of Borobudurc. 780 – c. 833 · Southeast Asia and Oceania
Meanwhile in the world
Other regions, within a year of this event
Western and Central Europe
- Battle of Roncevaux Pass15 August 778
- Siege of Pavia and fall of the Lombard kingdomSeptember 773 – June 774
- Saxon Wars772–804
Eastern Europe
- Volyntsevo culture: the Slavs of the Dnieper Left Bank in the Khazar agebetween 700 and 750 – between 813 and 833
- The Khazar rulers adopt Judaismbetween 740 and 861
- Saltovo-Mayaki culturec. 750 – between 900 and 950
Balkans and Anatolia
- Byzantine Iconoclasmbetween 726 and 730 – 11 March 843
- Second Council of Nicaea24 September – 23 October 787
Middle East and Egypt
- Indian astronomy in Arabic: the Zij al-Sindhindbetween 771 and 773
- Abu Hanifa and Malik: the oldest surviving Sunni schools of lawbetween 737 and 738 – 795
- Reign of Harun al-Rashidbetween 14 September and 17 September 786 – 24 March 809
Africa
- Rustamid imamate at Tahertbetween 776 and 778
- Idris I founds the Idrisid statebetween 788 and 789
Central and Northern Asia
- Trisong Detsen: the Tibetan Empire at its height and the founding of Samyebetween 755 and 756 – 797
South Asia
- Krishna I carves the Kailasa temple at Ellorabetween 756 and 774
East Asia
North America
- The Late Woodland period in eastern North Americac. 500 – c. 1000
- Pueblo I: villages of surface rooms on the Colorado Plateauc. 750 – c. 900
- Plum Bayou Mounds: a planned ceremonial centre in the Arkansas valleyc. 650 – c. 1050
Latin America
- 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
- Nazca culture and the Nazca Linesbetween 200 and 100 BC – between 500 and 800
The same period
Sources
- Wikipedia (English): Po Nagar
- Wikipedia (English): Champa
- Wikipedia (Russian): Понагар
- Wikipedia (Russian): Тямпа
- Coedès G. The Indianized States of Southeast Asia / Ed. W. F. Vella; transl. S. B. Cowing. — Honolulu: East-West Center Press, 1968. — P. 91, 94–95.