De-coding Hari-Hara laya

Dr. Uday Dokras

INTRODUCTION
Hari Haralaya- If the word were broken down into Sanskrit components, possible
interpretations could be:
o Hara + ālaya: "Hara" is an epithet of the god Shiva, and "ālaya" means "abode" or "house".
This would potentially translate to "abode of Shiva."
o Hāra + ālaya: "Hāra" can mean a string of pearls or a necklace, making this combination
translate to "abode of necklaces," which is less common or specific in general usage.

The term "Haralaya" as a single, general Sanskrit word is not found in standard dictionaries.
Its meaning is highly dependent on the specific context in which it is used.

1. Hariharalaya," which means "the city of Harihara."

2. Preah Ko ("The Sacred Bull")
3. Bakong
4. Lolei
5. Mahendraparvat

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 After the
Khmer king Jayavarman II founded the Khmer empire in 802 CE, he finally established his
capital at Hariharalaya, where he died. Indravarman I was the nephew of Jayavarman II.
When he ascended to the throne, he ordered the construction first of Preah Ko, which was
dedicated in 879, and later of the temple-mountain known as the Bakong. It is likely that this
building program was made possible by the king's peaceful reign and his ability to draw
income from the expanding empire. A restoration of the towers took place in the early 1990s,
financed by the German government. Why he named his first Capital city as hariharalaya is an
enigma.

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 Jayavarman II named his first capital city Hariharalaya (located in modern-day Roluos) to
honor the prominent Hindu syncretic deity Harihara, a combined representation of the gods
Vishnu (Hari) and Shiva (Hara). The name "Hariharalaya" translates to "abode" or "home" of
Harihara.

The naming had significant religious and political symbolism:

 Religious Syncretism: The deity Harihara embodies the unity of the two major branches of
Hinduism, Shaivism and Vaishnavism. Jayavarman II, by naming his capital after this
composite god, promoted religious harmony and synthesized the different belief systems
prevalent in the pre-Angkorian kingdoms he sought to unite.

 Political Legitimacy: The use of Sanskrit nomenclature and the invocation of powerful Hindu
deities linked the city and the king to assertions of divine kingship and royal authority. This
established a strong ideological foundation for the nascent Khmer Empire, helping to
consolidate power from fragmented regional rulers and assert the king's supreme sovereignty.

 Continuity with Tradition: The cult of Harihara was already prominent in pre-Angkorian
Cambodia (Chenla period). By choosing a name and a deity that were part of existing local
traditions, Jayavarman II connected his new empire to the established cultural and spiritual
history of the region.

This name served not merely as a geographical identifier but as a powerful ritual and political
statement about the unified and divinely sanctioned nature of his new kingdom.

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Preah Ko ("The Sacred Bull") was the first temple to be built in the ancient and now defunct
city of Hariharalaya (in the area that today is called Roluos), some 15 kilometers south-east
of the main group of temples at Angkor, Cambodia. The temple was built under
the Khmer King Indravarman I in 879 to honor members of the king's family, whom it places
in relation with the Hindu deity Shiva.
Preah Ko (Sacred Bull) derives its name from the three statues of sandstone located in the
front of and facing the temple's central towers. These statues represent Nandi, the white bull
who serves as the mount of Shiva.

Preah Ko is known for the beauty and intricacy of its carvings. The design on
this lintel includes warriors mounted on three-headed nāgas, horsemen, and a deity mounted
on a kala.

Bakong is the earliest sandstone temple mountain constructed under the Khmer
Empire located at Angkor, near present-day Siem Reap in Cambodia. Built in the late ninth
century CE, it served as the official state temple of king Indravarman I within the capital city

4
of Hariharalaya, today known as Roluos.The structure of Bakong took the shape of a stepped
pyramid, popularly identified as temple mountain in early Khmer temple architecture. The
striking similarity of the Bakong and Borobudur temple in Java, including architectural
details such as the gateways and stairs to the upper terraces, strongly suggests that Borobudur
served as the prototype of Bakong. This hypothesis is corroborated by the contact between
the earlier Khmer polities and the Shailendra dynasty of the Srivijaya empire, who
transmitted not only religious and political models, but also technical and architectural
notions that inspired Borobudur, including the arched gateways in corbelling method.

See
chrome-extension://efaidnbmnnnibpcajpcglclefindmkaj/https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Damian-Evans-3/
publication/328719043_The_Angkorian_City_From_Hariharalaya_to_Yashodharapura/links/
5caf60e792851c8d22e3f14b/The-Angkorian-City-From-Hariharalaya-to-Yashodharapura.pdf

Lolei is the northernmost temple of the Roluos group of three late 9th century Hindu temples
at Angkor, Cambodia, the others members of which are Preah Ko and the Bakong. Lolei was the last
of the three temples to be built as part of the city of Hariharalaya that once flourished at Roluos, and
in 893 the Khmer king Yasovarman I dedicated it to Shiva and members of the royal family. The
name "Lolei" is thought to be a modern corruption of the ancient name "Hariharalaya," which means
"the city of Harihara." Once an island temple, Lolei was located on an island slightly north of the
centre in the now dry Indratataka baray, construction of which had nearly been completed under
Yasovarman's father and predecessor Indravarman I. Scholars believe that placing the temple on an
island in the middle of a body of water served to identify it symbolically with Mount Meru, home of
the gods, which in Hindu mythology is surrounded by the world oceans.

Lolei as Mount Meru

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Scholars believe that placing the temple of Lolei on an island in the middle of a body of water
served to identify it symbolically with Mount Meru, home of the gods, which
in Hindu mythology is surrounded by the world oceans. Lolei is the northernmost temple of
the Roluos group of three late 9th century Hindu temples at Angkor, Cambodia, the others
members of which are Preah Ko and the Bakong. Lolei was the last of the three temples to be
built as part of the city of Hariharalaya that once flourished at Roluos, and in 893
the Khmer king Yasovarman I dedicated it to Shiva and to members of the royal family. The
name "Lolei" is thought to be a modern corruption of the ancient name "Hariharalaya,"
which means "the city of Harihara." Once an island temple, Lolei was located on an island
slightly north of centre in the now dry Indratataka baray, construction of which had nearly
been completed under Yasovarman's father and predecessor Indravarman I.

This sandstone carving at Lolei shows a fanged dvarapala armed with a trident standing in an
arched doorway. At the level of his elbows, two makara heads face outward.
Lolei consists of four brick temple towers grouped together on a terrace. The king build Lolei
for his ancestors. One for his grandfather, one for his grandmother, one for his father, and one
for his mother. The front two towers are for the males while the two towers at the back are for
the females. The two taller towers are for his grandparents while the two shorter towers are
for his parents. Originally, the towers were enclosed by an outer wall access through which
was through a gopura, but neither wall nor gopura have survived to the present. Today, the
temple is next to a monastery, just as in the 9th century it was next to an ashrama.
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The temple towers are known for their decorative elements, including their false doors, their
carved lintels, and their carved devatas and dvarapalas who flank both real and false doors.
Some of the motifs represented in the lintels and other sandstone carvings are the sky-
god Indra mounted on the elephant Airavata, serpent-like monsters called makaras, and multi-
headed nagas.

Hindus believe Mount Meru to be a stairway to Svarga, a heaven where the devas reside.
Meru is considered as the center of the universe and is described as 84,000 yojanas high,
about 1,082,000 km (672,000 mi), which would be 85 times the Earth's diameter.
One yojana can be taken to mean about 11.5 km (9 miles), though its magnitude seems to
differ over periods — for example, the Earth's circumference is 3,200 yojanas according
to Varahamihira and slightly less so in the Aryabhatiya, but is said to be 5,026.5 yojanas in
the Suryasiddhānta. The Matsya Purana and the Bhagavata Purana, along with some other
Hindu texts, consistently give the height of 84,000 yojanas to Mount Meru, which translates
into 672,000 miles or 1,082,000 kilometers. The Sun and Moon along with all the planets
revolve around Mount Meru which connects the earth with the under world and heaven with
Shiva residing on top of the mountain at Kailasha. Gods and devas are described as
frequenting Mount Meru.
According to the Mahabharata, Meru is located amidst the Himavat range between
Malayavat and Gandhamadhana mountains. Some scriptures indicate that Shiva resides in a
horn of the mountains called as Saivatra. Mahabharata further states that the mountain
gleans of gold when the rays of the sun fall on it and is said to contain lovely woods, lakes,
rivers adorned with fruit trees, precious stones and life saving herbs. It also describes Meru as
the means to reach heaven and only a being without any sins would be able to scale it.

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[24]
Meru is also said to be the residence of Kubera who lives near a golden gate with a lake
called Alaka adorned with golden lotuses and sweet tasting water from which Mandakini
river arises. As per the Mahabharata, the Pandavas along with their wife Draupadi, traveled
towards the summit of the mountain as a means to reach the heaven but
only Yudhishthira who was accompanied by a dog, was able to make it.
The Hindu epic Ramayana describes Kailash and Lake Manasarovar located in the Mount
Meru as places unlike anywhere in the world.
Vishnu Purana states that Meru is a pillar of the world, located at the heart of six mountain
ranges symbolizing a lotus. It also states that the four faces of Mount Kailash are made
of crystal, ruby, gold, and lapis lazuli. It further talks about Shiva sitting in a lotus position,
engaged in deep meditation within the confines of the mountain. The mountain is home to
four lakes, whose water is shared by the gods and four rivers that originate from
the Ganges and flow to the earth. The Vayu Purana describes similarly with the mountain
located close to a lake consisting of clear water with lotuses and lilies decked with water
birds.[24] Bhagavata Purana places Kailash as located south of Mount Meru. Skanda
Purana mentions that the mountain is located amongst the highest peaks, perpetually covered
with snow. Mount Meru was said to be the residence of King Padmaja Brahma in antiquity.
This mythical mountain of gods was mentioned in the Tantu Pagelaran, an Old
Javanese manuscript written in the 15th-century Majapahit period. The manuscript describes
the mythical origin of the island of Java, as well as the legendary movement of portions of
Mount Meru to Java. The manuscript explains that Batara Guru (Shiva) ordered the
gods Brahma and Vishnu to fill Java with human beings. However, at that time, Java island
was floating freely on the ocean, always tumbling and shaking. To stop the island's
movement, the gods decided to nail it to the Earth by moving the part of Mahameru
in Jambudvipa (India) and attaching it to Java. The resulting mountain is Mount Semeru, the
tallest mountain in Java.

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Mount Meru (Sanskrit: मेरु) or Sineru or Mahameru is a sacred cosmological mountain
with five peaks in Hindu cosmology and is considered to be the center of all the
physical, metaphysical and spiritual universes.Many famous Hindu temples have been built
as symbolic representations of this mountain.
The dimensions attributed to Mount Meru, all references to it being as a part of the Cosmic
Ocean, with several statements that say, "The Sun along with all the planets circle the
mountain," make determining its location most difficult, according to most scholars.
The Surya Siddhanta mentions that Mount Meru lies in 'the middle of the Earth' ("bhurva-
madhya") in the land of the Jambu Dvip). Narpatijayacharyā, a ninth-century text, based on
mostly unpublished texts of Yāmal Tantr, mentions "Sumeruḥ Prithvī-madhye shrūyate
drishyate na tu" (Su-meru is heard to be in the middle of the Earth, but is not seen
there'). Vārāhamihira, in his Pancha-siddhāntikā, claims Mount Meru to be at the North Pole
(though no mountain exists there). Surya Siddhānta, however, mentions a Mount Meru in the
middle of Earth, besides a Sumeru and a Kumeru at both the Poles.
There exist several versions of Cosmology in existing Hindu texts. In one of them,
cosmologically, the Meru mountain was also described as being surrounded by
Mount Mandara to the east, Supasarva Mountain to the west, Kumuda Mountain to the north
and Kailasa to the south.
Mount Meru is described to have mythical aspects, being described as 84,000 Yojana high
(about 1,082,000 km or 672,000 miles), which would be 85 times the Earth's diameter), and
notes that the Sun along with all the planets in the Solar System revolve around it.

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One Yojana can be taken to mean about 11.5 km (9 miles) though its magnitude seems to
differ over time periods, e.g. the Earth's circumference is 3,200 yojanas according to
Vārāhamihira and slightly less so in the Āryabhatiya, but is said to be 5,026.5 yojanas in the
Suryasiddhānta. The Matsya Purana and the Bhāgvata Purāna along with some other Hindu
texts consistently give the height of 84,000 yojanas to Mount Meru which translates into
672,000 miles or 1,082,000 kilometers. Mount Meru was said to be the residence of King
Padamja Brahma in antiquity.

Lolei see blue arrow

Ruins of an island-temple built in the middle of a now dry baray, Indratataka, the
first large-scale baray constructed by a Khmer king. Lolei consists of four brick
towers on a double laterite platform. It was the last major temple built at Roluos
before Yasovarman I moved the capital to the Angkor area. Though the towers are
in poor condition, there are some lintel carvings in very good condition displaying
the distinctively detailed Preah Ko style. An active pagoda has been built amongst
the ruins. Of the Roluos Group ruins, allocate the least time Lolei. See ‘Roluos
Group’ and ‘Barays’. The Indratataka is the name given to Indravarman I's
baray, constructed towards the end of the 9th-century north of his
capital, Hariharalaya, modern-day Roluos. Although dwarfed by later

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reservoirs - the Thnal Baray (East Baray) and Baray Toek Thla (West Baray) -
at 3.8kms x 800m it was the largest man-made reservoir of its time.
The picturesque island temple, Prasat Lolei, situated in the centre of the
baray, was completed by the king's son and successor, Yasovarman I.

(1) Vishnu and Shiva combined in the deity Harihara (2) The statue of Harihara in
Prambhanan..EXTREME RIGHT Palace of King Vira Harihara, Hampi Karnataka
In

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 I
The Many Capitals of Jayavarman II

MAHENDRAPARVATA-Birthplace of Cambodia: Where does the Angkorian Empire,

which at one time ruled all of Southeast Asia, trace its roots? The answer is
Mahendraparvata (now called Phnom Kulen) which rose to prominence during the reign
Jayavarman II, the first great King of Cambodia. He made the mountain the capital city of his
early empire. The site was expanded upon by Udayadityavarman II, who famously
constructed the 1000 Lingas in Kulen’s river. It became a metropolis of temples and
residences and was of the largest cities in the 11th-century world.
While it was later eclipsed by Angkor Wat, the largest religious site ever built, it will forever
be known as modern-day Cambodia’s place of origin.

Phnom Kulen is home to eight critically endangered species./Waterfall at Phnom Kulen

National Park
Waterfalls are the highlight of a visit to Phnom Kulen, especially in the hot and humid
Cambodian summers. Phnom Kulen National Park has two major waterfalls as well as
many smaller ones. A staircase at the top of the largest waterfall wraps around and leads
guests to a pool that forms at the base of the waterfall. There you will find changing rooms,

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bathing suits and towels for rent, and even some inner tubes if you want to float around the
pool.

Srah Damrei, an ancient elephant statue in Phnom Kulen.

Following the collapse of the Khmer Empire in the 15th century, Phnom Kulen was
largely forgotten. It was not until the 20th century that French explorers became aware of
Udayadityavarman II’s massive metropolis. Forest expeditions found some of its ruins, but
research stopped as Cambodia plunged into a civil war in the early 1970’s. Phnom Kulen
would become a Khmer Rouge stronghold, preventing any archeological work for more than
20 years.
Efforts resumed when peace arrived in Cambodia, but the significance of Kulen was not
entirely revealed until 2012. State of the art LIDAR technology allowed cartographers to map
the entirety of the region. This revolutionary technique uncovered the extent of the
empire. Today, while touring the mountain, it is very common to pass by active
excavation sites.One of the best parts of Phnom Kulen National Park is the commute.
Located about 50 kilometers from Siem Reap city, getting to Kulen means traveling through
the heart of the Cambodian countryside.

Jayavarman II (c. 770 – 850) (reigned c. 802–850) was a Khmer prince who became the
King of Kamboja (ancient Cambodia) after unifying the Khmer civilization. He is credited with
founding the empire of Kamboja, which is often referred to as the Khmer Empire. The Khmer
empire was the dominant civilization in mainland Southeast Asia from the 9th century until the
mid-15th century. He was a powerful Khmer king who declare independence from a
place inscriptions call "Java". Historians formerly dated his reign as running from 802 AD to
835 AD. Jayavarman II founded many capitals such as –
1. Mahendraparvata,

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 2. Indrapura or Amarendrapura, and
3. Hariharalaya.
4. Mahendraparvat

Before Jayavarman II came to power, there was much fighting among local overlords who
ruled different parts of Cambodia. The country was not unified under one ruler. No
inscriptions by Jayavarman II have been found. Future kings of the Khmer Empire described
him as a warrior and the most powerful king from that time frame that they could recall.
From a study of the names used by Jyavarman II ‘s Capital titles one can see a spectrum of
Top-notch Hindu Gods, in fact all 3- Indra, Mahendra, Amarendra, and Harihara.
Amarendra or King Immortal(the immortal King) is a name that has a Sanskrit origin, And is
a combination of Amar -immortal and Lord Indra- King of the Gods. combined, It
means, King of the immortals, King of Devas, Lord of Gods, One name form of Lord Indra
who is considered King of Deva's.Could it also be the title of VISHNU?

Vishnu Sahasranama (Sanskrit: विष्णुसहस्रनाम, IAST: Viṣṇusahasranāma). is

a Sanskrit hymn which contains a list of 1,000 names of Vishnu, one of the main deities
in Hinduism and the supreme God in Vaishnavism. It is one of the most sacred and
popular stotras in Hinduism. The Vishnu Sahasranama as found in the Anushasana Parva of the
epic Mahabharata. It is the most popular version of the 1,000 names of Vishnu. Other versions
exist in the Padma Purana, Skanda Purana and Garuda Purana. Indrapura (Khmer). All names of
Jayavarman II’s Capitals are from these 1000 names if Vishnu pointing out to a definite bias
towards that God as Opposed to earlier Shaivite domination of the region.

Indrapura or Amarendrapura

According to inscription on the stele of Sdok Kok Thom, Indrapura or Amarendrapura was the
first capital of Jayavarman II reign about 781, before the foundation of Khmer Empire in 802. In
Hindu texts, Indra is some times known as an aspect (avatar) of Shiva. In the Puranas,
Ramayana and Mahabharata, the divine sage Kashyapa is described as the father of Indra, and
Aditi as his mother. George Coedes and Claude Jacques identified it with Banteay Prei
Nokor,m near Kompong Cham, Cambodia, while Michael Vickery assumes it was closer
to Kompong Thom. Some scholars have proposed Ak Yum as the center of Amarendrapura.

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Ak Yum is an ancient temple in the Angkor region of Cambodia. Helen Jessup dates the
temple to the 8th century, and states it is the oldest known example of "temple mountain" in
Southeast Asia. The origins and repair history of the temple are unclear. Stone carrying
inscriptions, including one with a date corresponding to Saturday 10 June 674 AD during the
reign of king Jayavarman I. The first structure on the site was a single-chamber brick
sanctuary, probably constructed in the latter part of the 8th century. Later it was remade into a
larger stepped pyramid structure, with a base approximately 100 meters square. The
expansion probably took place in the

early 9th Century during the reign of King Jayavarman II, who is widely recognized as the
founder of the Khmer Empire. When the West Baray reservoir was built in the 11th Century,
Ak Yum was partially buried by the southern dike. The site was excavated in the 1932 under
the direction of archaeologist George Trouvé.

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Kampong Tho, also Krong Kampong Thom, is the capital city of Kampong Thom
Province, Cambodia lying on the bank of the Steung Saen River. It is a mid-way stopover on
the National Highway No 6 halfway between Phnom Penh and Siem Reap.
Banteay Prei Nokor is an ancient temple complex in the northwest of Kompong
Cham, Cambodia.
The complex is especially known by the temple of Wat Nokor in Khum of Kompong Siem,
1200 meters from the town of Kompong Cham. The local people sometimes call it 'Wat
Angkor' though a sign at the entrance now officially designates the name of the temple as
Wat Nokor Bachey.

The interior of the Nokor Bachey Pagoda

The monument was built out of sandstone and laterite, and dates from the last years of the
reign of Jayavarman VII. It is composed of a central tower surrounded by four laterite wall
enclosures. The central tower of the temple of Vat Nokor is decorated with motifs
characteristic of Bayon with Buddhist scenes on the pediments.

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The temple complex is believed to have been the headquarters of Jayavarman VII for a time,
from where he extended his influence over nearby principalities.
It has a number of distinguishing characteristics other than the fact that it is the largest
ancient temple complex in Kampong Cham Province. One of these characteristics alludes to
the fact that it is built of black sandstone, which causes it to stand out from other temples of
the period which are often built of brick or reddish sandstone. The temple has an inscription
which is open to visitors to see (and even touch) in the central pavilion. Wat Nokor Bache
boasts a 'Chartres' effect in which a more modern temple of a very different style has been
built over and around the original Angkorian structure creating a blend of architectural styles.
There are many legends surrounding the origin of the temple but the most popular one has
Oedipal overtones. According to this legend, the temple was built by a king who accidentally
killed his father and married his mother. As recounted in the Greek legend, this king was put
out by his father after a seer told him that his son would kill him. The son, however, did not
die and returned to his kingdom not knowing that his father was the king. After quarreling on
the road, the son killed the king and married his queen who was his mother. Upon
discovering his crime, the young man built Wat Nokor in penance for his crime.

Hariharalaya /Hariharalay

Hariharalaya /Hariharalay was an ancient city and capital of the Khmer empire located
near Siem Reap, Cambodia in an area now called Roluos. Today, all that remains of the city
are the ruins of several royal temples: Preah Ko, the Bakong, Lolei.
The name "Hariharalaya" is derived from the name of Harihara, a Hindu deity prominent in
pre-Angkorian Cambodia. The name "Harihara" in turn is a composite of "Hari" (one
of Vishnu's names listed in Vishnu sahasranama) and "Hara" (meaning the Hindu god Shiva).
Cambodian representations of Harihara were of a male deity whose one side bore the
attributes of Vishnu and whose other side bore the attributes of Shiva. For example, the
deity’s head-covering consisted of a mitre-type hat (the attribute of Vishnu) on one side and
as twisted locks of hair (the attribute of Shiva) on the other. Alaya is a sanskrit word meaning
"basis," or "home," so Hariharalaya is home of Harihara or home of the deity representing
both Hari (Vishnu) and Hara (Shiva). Harihara (Sanskrit: हरिहर) is the
fused sattvika characterisation of Vishnu (Hari) and Shiva (Hara) from Hindu theology and
religion. Hari is the form of Vishnu, and Hara is the form of Shiva. Harihara is also known
as Shankaranarayana ("Shankara" is Shiva, and "Narayana" is Vishnu)

17
like Brahmanarayana (Half represents Brahma and half represents Vishnu). Harihara is thus
revered by both Vaishnavites and Shaivites as a form of the Supreme God.The fact that
Jayavarman II named his capital after Hari-har points to the fact thet he was equally biased
between Shiva and Vishnu at least in the early days of his reign. Similarly the interpretation
of Devaraja is also prone to questioning because who is the absolute God of Gods? Shiva or
Vishnu?
Harihara is also sometimes used as a philosophical term to denote the unity of Vishnu and
Shiva as different aspects of the same Ultimate Reality called Brahman. This concept of
equivalence of various gods as one principle and "oneness of all existence" is discussed as
Harihara in the texts of Advaita Vedanta school of Hindu philosophy.
Some of the earliest sculptures of Harihara, with one half of the image as Vishnu and other
half as Shiva, are found in the surviving cave temples of India, such as in the cave 1 and cave
3 of the 6th-century Badami cave temples.

Standing statue of Harihara, Phnom Da Style, from Angkor Borei/ The Bakong is the

royal temple mountain founded by King Indravarman I at Hariharalaya. (3 rd Pic) This 7th century
sculpture of Harihara is from Phnom Da in Cambodia.

Toward the end of the 8th century A.D., the Cambodian king Jayavarman II conquered vast
territories near the great lake Tonle Sap. For at least part of this time, he established his
capital at Hariharalaya. However, when he declared himself the universal monarch of the

18
country in 802 A.D., he did so not at Hariharalaya, but at Mahendraparvata on the Phnom
Kulen Plateau. Later, he returned the capital to Hariharalaya, where he died in 835. For more
on Mahendaparvata see below.
Jayavarman II was succeeded by Jayavarman III and then by Indravarman I, who were
responsible for the completion of the royal temple mountain known as the Bakong and the
construction of Indratataka baray. Indravarman I consecrated the temple’s dominant religious
symbol, a lingam called Sri Indresvara (the name is a combination of the king’s name with
that of Shiva), in 881. Indravarman I also constructed the much smaller temple today
called Preah Ko ("Sacred Bull"), dedicated in 880. In 889, Indravarman I was succeeded by
his son Yasovarman I, who constructed the temple of Lolei (the name may be a modern
corruption of "Hariharalaya") on an artificial island in the middle of Indratataka.
Yasovarman also founded a new city at the site of Angkor Thom north of modern Siem
Reap and called it Yasodharapura. Yasovarman made the new city his capital and constructed
a new royal temple mountain, known as the Bakheng. Yasodharapura was to survive until the
1170s when it was sacked by invaders from Champa.
Ancient City of 'Mahendraparvata'

Ancient City of 'Mahendraparvata' named after in Sanskrit महेन्द्र (mahendra, “the

great Indra.”); ultimately from महा (mahā) + इन्द्र (indra) Hidden Beneath Cambodian
Jungle Mahendraparvata dates back to around the late eighth to early ninth century, which is
centuries before archeologists thought such organized cities emerged in the Angkor area. At
that time, urban development was typically "organic," without much state-level control or
central planning, he said.
Mahendraparvata—was located at Phnom Kulen plateau to the north-east of and was the
location of an early Angkorian capital city and one of the first capitals of the Khmer
Empire (ninth to fifteenth centuries AD). Ancient stone inscriptions tell tales of a city
called Mahendraparvata. The once-mighty metropolis was one of the first capitals of the
Khmer empire, which ruled in Southeast Asia between the ninth and 15th centuries. It was
long believed that the ancient city was hidden beneath thick vegetation on a Cambodian
mountain, not far from the temple of Angkor Wat.
Now, thanks to an incredibly detailed map, researchers can "definitively" say that the ruins,
overgrown by thick vegetation on the mountain of Phnom Kulen, are in fact from that 1,000-
year-old city. The ancient city was never really lost, as Cambodians have been making
religious pilgrimages to the site for hundreds of years.
19
_______________________________________________________________________
1. Jean-Baptiste Chevance, et al, Published online by Cambridge University Press: 15 October 2019
https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/antiquity/article/mahendraparvata-an-early-angkorperiod-
capital-defined-through-airborne-laser-scanning-at-phnom-kulen/

CAC3E93D6046CC27D862C1E333FD0713

Grid: One of the most remarkable revelations was that this city was nicely aligned in a
massive grid that stretches across tens of square kilometers, Evans told Live Science. The city
is a place "that someone sat down and planned and elaborated on a massive scale on top of
this mountain," he said. It "is not something that we necessarily would expect from this
period."
Yasemin Saplakoglu , Ancient ‘lost city’ of Khmer Empire uncovered in Cambodia- CNN

Copyright 2019 CNN

Shrouded in mystery for decades, Mahendraparvata has been dubbed the "lost city” translated
meand the Mountain of Indra, King of the Gods.It lasted as a Capital from the 9th to 15th centuries
AD, but much of what we know come from inscriptions recovered from other sites. Scientists
theorized that the city was located on the Phnom Kulen plateau, about 48 kilometers (about 30 miles)
north of Siem Reap. Angkor was the better-known capital of the Khmer Empire, which once governed
much of modern-day Thailand, Vietnam, and Laos as well as parts of southern China and Myanmar,
and, of course, Cambodia itself.

20
 Phnom Kulen is home to the largest reclining Buddha in Cambodia.
A 16th-Century, Active Pagoda
Phnom Kulen has been an active religious site for over a
millennium. As the original kings believe in Hinduism, the area was
dedicated to the god Shiva. Images of Shiva can be seen in well-preserved
sculptures and sandstone carvings throughout Phnom Kulen. Some of the
best are found at Kbal Spean, home to the River of Lingas, where over a
1000 lingas were painstakingly carved into the riverbed.
The religion of the Empire would later become Buddhism which is seen at
Wat Preah Ang Thom, a Buddhist pagoda built in the 16th-century. It is
located on a hill at Phnom Kulen and overlooks most of the park. Monks
still call this pagoda home, and pilgrims come from throughout Cambodia
to make offerings. At the very top, accessible by a narrow staircase, is the
pagoda’s namesake, Preah Ang Thom, the largest reclining Buddha
in Cambodia.

21
 II
The cult of Harihara

HARIHARA and HARIHARLAYA

The Connect Between God and the City

In my earlier paper The Many Capitals of Jayavarman II, I have listed 4 cities that he moved
to and fro yet the earliest of his capitals was Ananditapura so named because it gave him
“Happiness’ as the name itself means City of Joy.

Jayavarman II (c. 770 – 850) (reigned c. 802–850) was a Khmer prince who became the
King of Kamboja (ancient Cambodia) after unifying the Khmer civilization. He is credited
with founding the empire of Kamboja, which is often referred to as the Khmer Empire. The
Khmer empire was the dominant civilization in mainland Southeast Asia from the 9th century
until the mid-15th century. He was a powerful Khmer king who declare independence from a
place inscriptions call "Java". Historians formerly dated his reign as running from 802 AD to
835 AD. Jayavarman II founded many capitals such as –
5. Mahendraparvata,
6. Indrapura or Amarendrapura, and
7. Hariharalaya.
Before Jayavarman II came to power, there was much fighting among local overlords who
ruled different parts of Cambodia. The country was not unified under one ruler. No
inscriptions by Jayavarman II have been found. Future kings of the Khmer Empire described
him as a warrior and the most powerful king from that time frame that they could recall.
From a study of the names used by Jyavarman II ‘s Capital titles one can see a spectrum of
Top-notch Hindu Gods, in fact all 3- Indra, Mahendra, Amarendra, and Harihara.
Amarendra or King Immortal(the immortal King) is a name that has a Sanskrit origin, And is

22
a combination of Amar -immortal and Lord Indra- King of the Gods. combined, It
means, King of the immortals, King of Devas, Lord of Gods, One name form of Lord Indra
who is considered King of Deva's.Could it also be the title of VISHNU?Before he came to
power, there was much fighting among local overlords who ruled different parts of
Cambodia. No inscriptions by Jayavarman II have been found. Future kings of the Khmer
Empire described him as a warrior and the most powerful king from that time frame that they
could recall. Historians formerly dated his reign as running from 802 AD to 835 AD.

This action of moving from 1 place to another underlines his nomadic character and reflect
the vicissitude of his martial life and perhaps his own character as a phlegmatic
person.Anandita is another name for Vishnu, a diety reveared by Jayavarman II. Therefore
Jayavarman II founded many capitals such
as Mahendraparvata, Indrapura, Amarendrapura, and Hariharalaya.

Hariharalaya / Hariharalay was an ancient city and capital of the Khmer empire located
near Siem Reap, Cambodia in an area now called Roluos . Today, all that remains of the city
are the ruins of several royal temples: Preah Ko, the Bakong, Lolei, yet toward the end of the
8th century A.D., the Cambodian king Jayavarman II conquered vast territories near the great
lake Tonle Sap. For at least part of this time, he established his capital at Hariharalaya.
However, when he declared himself the universal monarch of the country in 802 A.D., he did
so not at Hariharalaya, but at Mahendraparvata on the Phnom Kulen Plateau. Later, he
returned the capital to Hariharalaya, where he died in 835.
Jayavarman II was succeeded by Jayavarman III and then by Indravarman I, who were
responsible for the completion of the royal temple mountain known as the Bakong and the
construction of Indratataka baray. Indravarman I consecrated the temple’s dominant religious
symbol, a lingam called Sri Indresvara (the name is a combination of the king’s name with
that of Shiva), in 881. Indravarman I also constructed the much smaller temple today
called Preah Ko ("Sacred Bull"), dedicated in 880. In 889, Indravarman I was succeeded by
his son Yasovarman I, who constructed the temple of Lolei (the name may be a modern
corruption of "Hariharalaya") on an artificial island in the middle of
Indratataka.Yasovarman also founded a new city at the site of Angkor Thom north of
modern Siem Reap and called it Yasodharapura. Yasovarman made the new city his capital
and constructed a new royal temple mountain, known as the Bakheng. Yasodharapura was to
survive until the 1170s when it was sacked by invaders from Champa.
23
This 7th century sculpture of Harihara is from Phnom Da in Cambodia// The Bakong is the royal temple
mountain founded by King Indravarman I at Hariharalaya.
The name "Hariharalaya" is derived from the name of Harihara, a Hindu deity prominent in
pre-Angkorian Cambodia. The name "Harihara" in turn is a composite of "Hari" (one
of Vishnu's names listed in Vishnu sahasranama) and "Hara" (meaning the Hindu god Shiva).
Cambodian representations of Harihara were of a male deity whose one side bore the
attributes of Vishnu and whose other side bore the attributes of Shiva. For example, the
deity’s head-covering consisted of a mitre-type hat (the attribute of Vishnu) on one side and
as twisted locks of hair (the attribute of Shiva) on the other. Alaya is a sanskrit word meaning
"temple," or "home," so Hariharalaya can mean the home of the deity Harihara or the home
of a temple dedicated to the deity Harihara.

Angkoreans believed in the simplicity of Hinduism and adopted itto serve their purpose as is
evident of the fact that Harihara found in Khemer sculptures and presumably worshipped at
that time (Sanskrit: हरिहर) is the fused sattvika characterisation of Vishnu (Hari)
and Shiva (Hara) from Hindu theology and religion. Hari is the form of Vishnu, and Hara is
the form of Shiva. is the Also known as Shankaranarayana ("Shankara" is Shiva, and
"Narayana" is Vishnu) like Brahmanarayana (Half represents Brahma and half
represents Vishnu), Harihara is thus revered by both Vaishnavites and Shaivites as a form of
the Supreme God.

24
Harihara is also sometimes used as a philosophical term to denote the unity of Vishnu and
Shiva as different aspects of the same Ultimate Reality called Brahman. This concept of
equivalence of various gods as one principle and "oneness of all existence" is discussed as
Harihara in the texts of Advaita Vedanta school of Hindu philosophy. The cult of Harihara
was of great importance in early Cambodia, combining the potency of two of the most
powerful Hindu gods, Shiva and Vishnu. Harihara embodies the equilibrium between these
two irreconcilable forces that is necessary for cosmic balance
The diversity within Hinduism encourages a wide variety of beliefs and traditions, of which
two important and large traditions are associated with Vishnu and Shiva. Some schools focus
on Vishnu (including his associated avatars such as Rama and Krishna) as the Supreme God,
and others on Shiva (including his different avatars such as Mahadeva and Pashupata).
The Puranas and various Hindu traditions treat both Shiva and Vishnu as being different
aspects of the one Brahman. Harihara is a symbolic representation of this idea. A similar idea,
called Ardhanarishvara or Naranari, fuses masculine and feminine deities as one and
equivalent representation in Hinduism.
Depending on which scriptures (and translations) are quoted, evidence is available to support
each of the different arguments. In most cases, even if one personality is taken as being
superior over the other, much respect is still offered to both Vishnu and Shiva by the other's
worshippers (i.e. Shiva is still regarded as being above the level of an ordinary jiva and 'the
greatest of the Vaishnavas' by Vaishnavas who worship only Vishnu).
Swaminarayan holds that Vishnu and Shiva are different aspects of the same God.
Simliar ideas of Hindu Ying and Yang or the convergence of Male and Female was given rise
to with the integration of Shiv and Parvati. The conception of Ardhanarishvara may have
been inspired by Vedic literature's composite figure of Yama-Yami, the Vedic descriptions of
the primordial Creator Vishvarupa or Prajapati and the fire-god Agni as "bull who is also a
cow," the Brihadaranyaka Upanishad's Atman ("Self") in the form of the androgynous cosmic
man Purusha and the androgynous myths of
the Greek Hermaphroditus and Phrygian Agdistis.

In his book -INFLUENCE OF SAIVISM IN THE SOUTHEAST ASIAN COUNTRIES

25
Pranabananda Jash (Proceedings of the Indian History Congress Vol. 38 (1977), pp. 620-631 (12
pages) Published By: Indian History Congress) states that Shaivism was the leading Dogma of
South East Adsian Countries early on. He had wide popularity as comes out by the many names by
which he was fondly called Shiva, Parameshvara, Shambhu, Trymbaka,Girish,
Jagatpati,Shambhu,Mahadev,Shankar, Pashupati, Ish, Ishana,Hara,Rura, Harashri, Bhava,
Chandeshvara, Nikameshvara,Shrikant etc () Read my paper on List of 1000 Names of Lord Siva.
Though hewas first mentioned in the earliest scripture known as the Rig Veda, written
somewhere between 1300 and 1000 BCE, but was only referenced to and seen as a minor
deity compared to now minor deities such as Agni (god of fire) and Indra (god of lightning
and thunder).arihara images here indicate the conquest of the Vishnu regions by kings who saw
themselves as forms of Shiva. It also indicates — in typical Hindu style — a desire to
amalgamate two rival ideas rather than supersede the rival idea.

In the 5th century AD, i.e. 1,500 years ago, the Gupta kings rose in India. They were amongst
the earliest royal families to establish themselves through a Hindu framework. Following the
Gupta period, trade with Rome was disrupted, as the Roman Empire collapsed. But trade from
the eastern coasts to Southeast Asia thrived. In regions now known
as Vietnam and Cambodia we find the Hindu kingdoms of Champa and Khmer.

The Champa Kingdom lasted from the 3rd to 13th centuries. In the coastal part of Vietnam, we
find temples dedicated to Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva. While the Hindu trinity is found in
Vietnam, in Cambodia a different pattern is seen. In the northern inland part of Cambodia, there
are a lot of Shiva lingas. While on the southern coastal part, we find a lot of Vishnu statues.
There are also carvings that show ascetics as well as apsaras. They reveal an exposure to Hindu
thought, where there's constant tension between the material and spiritual world, the world of
pleasure and the world of renunciation. In other words, 1,500 years ago, Hindu ideas had spread
out beyond India to Southeast Asia. They had planted themselves, in the farthest regions of
Southeast Asia, that is Vietnam and Cambodia.In his article namely>

26
Devdatt.Patnaik states that both Godfs were pawns in the power play of Kings of SE Asia.
Both being embraced successively by rivals.

Fight about Shaivism vs Vaishnavism? Isn't Vishnu and Shiva considered to be one?

1. Two words. Ego issue. Show-off Shaiva: Shiva is greatest because he is the one I pray
to, and I’m the best!
2. Show-off Vaishnav: Vishnu is greatest because he is the one I pray to, and I’m the
best!
3.
“Shivaaya Vishnu Roopaaya, Shiva Roopaaya Vishanave |
Shivasya Hrudayam Vishnur, Vishnuscha Hrudayam Shivaha ||
Yatha Shivamayo Vishnuhu, Yevam Vishnu Mayaha Shivaha |
Yathaantharam Na Paschyaami, Thatha Me Swasthi Ra Yushi ||”
(Shiva is one form of Vishnu, Vishnu is one form of Shiva. Shiva’s heart is the abode of
Vishnu, and in Vishnu’s heart lives Shiva. Wherever Shiva is, Vishnu is also there, and
wherever Vishnu is, Shiva follows him. A person who doesn’t differentiate between them, will
be healthy (in body and mind) and live a long life.)
In fact, I heard about this adorably wonderful story about Sri Rama (an avatar of Vishnu) and
Mahadeva Shiva: about the Rameshwara jyothirlingam. When asked about the jyothirlingam,
Sri Rama replies that it is the jyothirlingam of the one who is Rama’s Lord (Ramasya
Ishwaram). And when Mahadeva Shiva was asked the same question, he replied it is the

27
jyothirlingam of the one whose Lord is Sri Rama (Ramah yasya ishwaram)!So when Shiva
and Rama each love and respect each other so much that they argue that the other is their
lord, then a true devotee - Shaiva or Vaishnava - should have no problem praying to both
Shiva and Rama.

Raja Raja Cholan, a Shaivite or a Hindu? 'Ponniyin Selvan' film release stokes debate
againThe debate on whether erstwhile emperors who ruled modern day Tamil Nadu can be
called Hindu kings isn’t new in the state.

28
29
Fights between Kings who chose Shaivism which is a major tradition within Hinduism with a
theology that is predominantly related to the Hindu god Shivaas State Religion verses other
Kings who chose Vishnu has been infrequent but true. When two kingdoms fought they
created the impression of a Godly Conflict to unite its people.
Why ancient times, a bloody conflict in 1790 between sadhus of the Vaishnava and Shaivite
sects over who would have the right of taking the first holy dip claimed the lives of 12,000
ascetics.

The Binding Force of HARIHARAS- Neither Shiva nor Vishnu but BOTH

30
Harihara (Sanskrit: हरिहर) is the fused sattvika characterisation of Vishnu (Hari)
and Shiva (Hara) from Hindu theology. Hari is the form of Vishnu, and Hara is the form of
Shiva. Harihara is also known as Shankaranarayana ("Shankara" is Shiva, and "Narayana"
is Vishnu).
Harihara is also sometimes used as a philosophical term to denote the unity of Vishnu and
Shiva as different aspects of the same Ultimate Reality called Brahman. This concept of
equivalence of various gods as one principle and "oneness of all existence" is discussed as
Harihara in the texts of Advaita Vedanta school of Hindu philosophy.
Some of the earliest sculptures of Harihara, with one half of the image as Vishnu and other
half as Shiva, are found in the surviving cave temples of India, such as in the cave 1 and cave
3 of the 6th-century Badami cave temples.
The cult of Harihara was of great importance in early Cambodia, combining the potency of
two of the most powerful Hindu gods, Shiva and Vishnu. Shiva (Hara), embodiment of the
forces of destruction and fertility, is indicated on the sculpture’s proper right by the matted
and twisted locks forming his characteristic headdress (jatamukata) and by half of his potent
third eye. Vishnu (Hari), preserver of the world who will give rise to Brahma, the creator,
after a cosmic sleep following the end of the current cycle of existence, is implied in the tall
miter on the left. Harihara embodies the equilibrium between these two irreconcilable forces
that is necessary for cosmic balance. The almond-shaped eyes, delicately traced brows, and
subtly molded lips and nose have the particularity of portraiture, an individualized treatment
that may represent the royal patron who commissioned the sculpture.

The Vishnu Temple at Angkor Wat was built during which dynasty?

Buddha is not vishnu at all

31
He is Gautam Buddha, vaishnavas call him as Vishnu .

32
 There are not many Prabhu Vishnu's temples because he is worshipped in his dashavatharas
(his 10 forms) like Shree Rama, Shree Krishna and Naras

hima swamy.

To whom is the Angkor Wat complex Temple(s) in 🇰🇭 Cambodia dedicated to? The
Buddha? Or several Hindu gods?

Originally dedicated to the Hindu God Vishnu, Angkor Wat became a Buddhist temple by the
end of the 13th century.
Angkor wat is one of the biggest and ancient religious temple complex in the world. It is
located in Cambodia.Originally it was built as a Hindu temple dedicated to Lord Vishnu.
Gradually by the end of 12th century it was converted into a Buddhist temple.Also, keep in
mind, there is more to that area than Angkor Wat. There are several temple complexes, built
during different time with its own unique architecture.Hire a Tut tut driver to take you to visit
the sites. I recommend two days to see two different routes. It's really all you need as you will
be templed out.

33
What is the difference between Angkor Wat and Angkor Thom?

It was built during periods by different rulers. I believer Angkor Thom is older. It is notable
for huge face carvings on the structure.

34
Angkor Wat is much taller in scale. You have to climb really steep stair case to get to another
set of courtyard and there are still structures towering over you
Why do Phimai Temple (Phimai Historical Park) and Angkor Wat Temple look the
same?

35
Phimai and Angkor look the same because they were designed and constructed by the Khmer
people. Phimai in Thailand is a Khmer temple built during the reign of the Khmer King
Suryarvarman I (1001-1049). The temple lies at one end of the Ancient Khmer Highway
from Angkor, and with an area of 655 metres by 1,033 metres it must have been an important
religious centre.
Built in the classical Khmer style, using the traditional building materials favoured by Khmer
architects of the time, namely bricks and laterite for structural support and sandstone for the
outer carved layers, it is a depiction of the universe. The Inner or Central Sanctuary, built
using white sandstone, represents Mount Meru at the centre of this universe, and the
surrounding walls and open spaces the water and encircling mountains.

Compelling?

The Temples of Angkor, of which Angkor Wat is only one (albeit spectacular) part of,
occupies its place amongst the world's most enchanting places deservedly. Beyond the
immediately obvious things of note, e.g. the size, grandeur, history etc, two things about
Angkor stood out for me:
Sheer detail: No visitor to the Angkor temples can fail to be taken aback by the sheer level of
detail sported by the sculptures on its walls. I have tried to offer a taste with the photos
below. The first one shows a bas-relief on Angkor Wat, and the second one ubiquitous

36
Apsara dancers, of which allegedly no two are the same. From a sheer craftsmanship
perspective, the detail to be found on the temple walls is staggering. In addition, do not be
fooled into assuming that these displays of artistry are unique to the illustrious walls of
Angkor Wat. You will find remarkable images sculpted onto even the most innocuous of
rocks and ruins throughout the temple complex. Surprises await around every nook and
cranny, if you're willing to look for them...

Why did Angkor Wat fail?

Angkor Wat did not fail. Angkor Wat was the principal and largest temple of the Khmer
empire, and about a kilometre and a half outside the walls of the Khmer capital, Angkor
Thom. After a number of wars with the encroaching Thais the Khmer king Ponhea Yat
abandoned Angkor Thom as his capital in 1431 and moved it to the Phnom Penh area, to the
south east.
Angkor Wat was abandoned to fall into neglect and disrepair with the move of the Khmer
capital but remained a place of religious worship albeit of not great significance as the
Khmers moved from Mahayana to Theravada Buddhism from the 14th century onwards.
Significant restoration of the temple took place during the last century but the basic structure
of it remained intact throughout the centuries.
Many causes have been ascribed as the causes of the fall of the Khmer empire; changes in
climate, the failure to maintain its elaborate irrigation and drainage system around Angkor
Thom, internecine battles in the ruling elite and Thai depredations from the west being
among them.

37
 III

HARIHARA -Interpretational Issues of this

strange Indic God in the Khmer Imperial
Frame

38
HARIHARA -Interpretational Issues of this strange Indic God figure in the
Khemer Imperial Frame

(2) Vishnu and Shiva combined in the deity Harihara (2) The statue of Harihara in
Prambhanan..EXTREME RIGHT Palace of King Vira Harihara, Hampi Karnataka
India

Angkoreans believed in the simplicity of Hinduism and adopted itto serve

their purpose as is evident of the fact that Harihara found in Khemer
sculptures and presumably worshipped at that time (Sanskrit: हरिहर) is
the fused sattvika characterisation of Vishnu (Hari) and Shiva (Hara)
from Hindu theology and religion. Hari is the form of Vishnu, and Hara is
the form of Shiva. is the Also known as Shankaranarayana ("Shankara" is
Shiva, and "Narayana" is Vishnu) like Brahmanarayana (Half
represents Brahma and half represents Vishnu), Harihara is thus revered
by both Vaishnavites and Shaivites as a form of the Supreme God.
Harihara is also sometimes used as a philosophical term to denote the
unity of Vishnu and Shiva as different aspects of the same Ultimate
Reality called Brahman. This concept of equivalence of various gods as
one principle and "oneness of all existence" is discussed as Harihara in the
texts of Advaita Vedanta school of Hindu philosophy. The cult of Harihara
was of great importance in early Cambodia, combining the potency of two
of the most powerful Hindu gods, Shiva and Vishnu. Harihara embodies

39
the equilibrium between these two irreconcilable forces that is necessary
for cosmic balance
The Khmer kingdom controlled Cambodia as well as large areas of Vietnam,
Thailand, and Laos from the sixth to the fifteenth centuries. Khmer sculpture of
the pre-Angkor period is unsurpassed in its grace and spirituality, its remarkable
naturalism of anatomy and stance, and its restraint in decoration. This image of
the Hindu deity Harihara, with its delicately modeled musculature, supple
articulation of limbs, and slender torso draped in a simple sampot, is
characteristic of the finest pre-Angkor style.

The cult of Harihara

The cult of Harihara was of great importance in early Cambodia, combining the
potency of two of the most powerful Hindu gods, Shiva and Vishnu. Shiva (Hara),
embodiment of the forces of destruction and fertility, is indicated on the
sculpture’s proper right by the matted and twisted locks forming his
characteristic headdress (jatamukata) and by half of his potent third eye. Vishnu
(Hari), preserver of the world who will give rise to Brahma, the creator, after a
cosmic sleep following the end of the current cycle of existence, is implied in the
tall miter on the left. Harihara embodies the equilibrium between these two
irreconcilable forces that is necessary for cosmic balance. The almond-shaped
eyes, delicately traced brows, and subtly molded lips and nose have the
particularity of portraiture, an individualized treatment that may represent the
royal patron who commissioned the sculpture.

In Harihara imagery, Shiva is represented as the right half of the deity, his
vertical third eye, lightly incised into the forehead, truncated at the Vishnu
divide. The facial features are undifferentiated, unlike in their Indian
counterparts, where a masculine and feminine cast is given to each half. This
Harihara makes clear the extent to which the Khmer conception differentiated
the two deities only in the partition of the headdress into a combined
jatamukuta-miter and in the provision of half of a third eye on Shiva’s side. The
popularity of this hybrid deity was largely confined to the seventh century in
Cambodia.Khmer sculpture of the pre-Angkor period is unsurpassed in its grace
and spirituality, its remarkable naturalism of anatomy and stance, and its

40
restraint in decoration. Harihara embodies the equilibrium between these two
irreconcilable forces that is necessary for cosmic balance.

Harihara, c. A.D. 675–700.Cambodian (pre-Khmer).

Khmer sculpture of the pre-Angkor period is unsurpassed in its grace and

spirituality, its remarkable naturalism of anatomy and stance, and its restraint in
decoration. ... Harihara embodies the equilibrium between these two
irreconcilable forces that is necessary for cosmic balance.
This stimulating synthesis on syncretism in pre-Angkorean Khmer space, mostly
during the 7th and 8th centuries, show how the mainstream representations
of deities slowly shifted from the centrality of Vishnu and Shiva to
Harihara's preeminent images and references.'The sudden interest in
Harihara during this time corresponds to the political interests or, perhaps
more accurately, the territorial aspirations of Isanavarman,
Bhavavarman II and Jayavarman I, all of whom seem to have maintained
similar realms with control strongly held in Kompong Thorn (and Prey Veng) but
decreasingly exerted toward the south and southwest where local elites merely
evoked [their] suzerainty while maintaining their own local authority'.
Furthermore, 'Harihara, served as a visual expression of the integration of
varying regional styles of rule rooted in the symbolism and power of Siva and
Visnu. This would also explain the relatively large numbers of Harihara images
that appeared throughout Cambodia during the second half of the seventh
century and the first half of the eighth (...) All of this was built on foundations
initially laid by Is?navarman and revealed by his extensive building programme
and large corpus of inscriptions, both all the more remarkable for being the
earliest securely dated Khmer material.'1
Some of the earliest sculptures of Harihara, with one half of the image as
Vishnu and other half as Shiva, are found in the surviving cave temples of India,

41
such as in the cave 1 and cave 3 of the 6th-century Badami cave .
Swami Sivananda maharaj states: "Shiva and Vishnu are one and the same
entity. They are essentially one and the same. They are the names given to the
different aspects of the all-pervading Supreme Parabrahman the Supreme
Being or the Absolute. ‘Sivasya hridayam vishnur-vishnoscha hridayam sivah—
Vishnu is the heart of Shiva and likewise Shiva is the heart of Vishnu’."

Swami Swaminarayan holds that Vishnu and Shiva are different aspects of the
same God. But the Swaminarayan view is a minority view among Vaishnavites,
the dominant view being the Smarta view in general.
Bhagwat Vādirāja Tīrtha writes in his Śrī Tīrtha Prabandha (Paścimā Prabandha)
while describing one of the (Śrī) Hari-Hara kṣētra, as thus —

murapurahara lakṣmīpārvatīkelilola sphuradasitasitāṅgāsahyacakratriśūla ।

parataragurumūrte pāvanāpārakīrte harihara tava pādāmbhojayugmaṃ

natossmi ॥
“O Śrī Hari-Hara! Ones who are the destroyers of Mura and (Tri) pura
respectively, ones who take interest in the company of Mā Lakṣmī and Mā
Pārvatī respectively, ones who are radiating with black and white hues, ones who
are holding the unbearable Chakra and Triśūla, ones who are the supreme and
great teachers, ones who are pristine and have great fame – I pray to your lotus-
like feet-s.”

hare bhavahare te'ṅaghrau bhaktirmuktipradā'stu me । vairāgyabhāgyaṃ vitara

hara gaurīmanohara ॥

42
“O Lord Hari! please grant me Bhakti towards those feet of yours that relieve one
from the cycle of Saṃsāra and grant Mukti. O Lord Hara! the one who is very
dear to Mā Gaurī, please grant me the fortune of having Vairāgya.”
But it doesn’t show (Śrī) Hari-Hara Abhedha is what Āchārya stated, as per
simple logic and Śāstra Pramāṇa!
Therefore after praising both the lords, he places his argument of Bhedha:

yadekena na vadhyo'riḥ tato hariharāvubhau । sahāgatāvardhadṛśyāvaikyaṃ

cet śatruṇā jitam ॥

“Since that enemy (the demon Guha) was invincible by Śrī Hari or Hara alone
(this was the boon by Lord Brahmā that was honored), both of them appeared
together — If both of them were the same (i.e. if they had Aikya) then the enemy
(Guha) should have won!”
Here Bhagwat Vādirāja Tīrtha makes an argument - The demon Guha had a boon
that he could never be defeated or killed if either Śrī Hari or Hara came alone.
According to many, the form of Śrī Hari-Hara symbolizes the oneness of
both. Bhagwat Vādirāja Tīrtha, therefore, points out that if it would be true, then
Lord Brahmā boon would have ensured that the demon won, instead of what
really happened! Lord Hari and Lord Hara took the form as together, as per the
conditions of the boon, and NOT as one, thus stating the Bhedha. He continues —

nirviṣaṃ vatsanābhiśca yathaikāmāśritau latām । tathā hariharau

bhinnatarāvapyekamūrtigau ॥
“Just as the medicine known as Nirviṣa and the poison known as Vatsā reside in
the same creeper, similarly Śrī Hari and Hara, although different from each other,
still reside in same form (mūrti).”
Here Āchārya gives the excellent example of a creeper in which the top portion
is a medicine and the bottom portion is a poison named Vatsanābha. Similarly,
Śrī Hari who is Jagatpālaka and Lord Hara who is Jagatsaṃhāraka,
though different from each other are present together.
The Śrī Vaiṣṇava Siddhānta - too have similar concept. Here is one Ācārya
Pramāṇa: Śrīpad Nammālvār writes in his Śrī Tiruvāymozhi 1.3.9 -
“Śrī Hari who is forever independent, gives shelter to Lord Hara who
burned the three forts in his (body’s) left side. Lord Brahmā, the creator of
the world who has heads in all directions stays on a lotus on the navel of the god.
If you search for him, he is in this world (omnipresent) and inside your mind. If

43
you would describe him, the entire world is in his stomach— this is how he loves
to confuse you.”
Even Śrīpad Poigaiālvār in his Śrī Mudhal thiruvandhādhi (verse 98) writes thus.
Śruti with many passages like ‘eko ha vai nārāyaṇa āsīn na brahmā na ca
śaṅkaraḥ‘ (Paingi Rahasya Brahman of Ṛgveda), ‘vai nārāyaṇa āsīnna brahmā
neśāno’ (Mahā Upaniṣad of Atharv Veda), ‘asya devasya mīlhuṣo vayā
viṣṇoreṣasya parabhrthe havirbhiḥ vide hi rudro rudriyaṃ mahitvaṃ yāsiṣṭaṃ
vartiraśvināvirāvata’ (Ṛgveda Saṃhitā 7.40.5) clearly shows Bhedha between
them; the same is been written by Āchārya-s and same is followed by Vaiṣṇavas!

Śrī Hari-Hara mūrti at (Śrī) Hari-Hara kṣētra, Karnataka. Glories to both of them!

Concept: The diversity within Hinduism encourages a wide variety of beliefs and
traditions, of which two important and large traditions are associated with Vishnu
and Shiva. Some schools focus on Vishnu (including his associated avatars such
as Rama and Krishna) as the Supreme God, and others on Shiva (including his
different avatars such as Mahadeva and Pashupata). The Puranas and various
Hindu traditions treat both Shiva and Vishnu as being different aspects of the
one Brahman. Harihara is a symbolic representation of this idea. A similar idea,
called Ardhanarishvara or Naranari, fuses masculine and feminine deities as one
and equivalent representation in Hinduism
Depending on which scriptures (and translations) are quoted, evidence is
available to support each of the different arguments. In most cases, even if one
personality is taken as being superior over the other, much respect is still offered

44
to both Vishnu and Shiva by the other's worshippers (i.e. Shiva is still regarded
as being above the level of an ordinary jiva and 'the greatest of the Vaishnavas'
by Vaishnavas who worship only Vishnu)

Sculpture of Harihara-Sculpture of Harihara in Virupaksha Temple, built by the Queen of Vikaramaditya II in about A.D.740 to
commemorate her husband?s victory over the Pallavas of Kanchipuram, Pattadakal, Karnataka, India. (Photo by: V.
Muthuraman/IndiaPictures/Universal Images Group via Getty Images) TO RIGHT ---Cambodian museum employees carry the head of the
Harihara statue during a ceremony connecting the head to the body of the Harihara statue at the National Museum in Phnom Penh on
January 21, 2016. A French museum has returned the statue's head of a Hindu god that was ransacked from a Cambodian temple 130 years
ago, a Cambodian official said on January 19, 2016. AFP PHOTO / TANG CHHIN SOTHY / AFP / TANG CHHIN SOTHY (Photo credit
should read TANG CHHIN SOTHY/AFP via Getty Images)

45
A Cambodian museum employee attaches a wooden block to the head of the Harihara statue at the national museum in Phnom Penh on
January 19, 2016. A French museum has returned the statue head of a Hindu god that was ransacked from a Cambodian temple 130 years
ago, a Cambodian official said on January 19, 2016. AFP PHOTO / TANG CHHIN SOTHY / AFP / TANG CHHIN SOTHY (Photo credit
should read TANG CHHIN SOTHY/AFP via Getty Images)/ to RIGHT The Ruins of the Vijayanagara Empire at Hampi- Kings were
named as HARIHARA/HAMPI, KARNATAKA, INDIA - 2013/12/06: Nameless temples, a part of the ruins of the former Vijayanagara
Empire, which was established in 1336 byKing Harihara I and his brother Bukka Raya I of Sangama Dynasty and lasted until 1646. (Photo
by Frank Bienewald/LightRocket via Getty Images)

Ones upon a time Indra want to worship the supreme god because if he do this
then he will became the King of swarga forever . So he went to every lokas and
ask everyone who is supreme god. Some said that it is Vishnu and some said
that it is Shiva. By getting different answer finally he went to Satya lok with other
devas to meet his great grand father and the creator of universe Lord Bramha.
All the devas ask him ‘Who is great Vishnu or Shiva?’ By knowing the wish of the
devas Bramha said Indra to create misunderstanding between Hari and Hara. So
Indra create misunderstanding between Hari and Hara . Lord Vishnu know all the
things which are happen but he want to teach lesson to Indra and everyone who
thought that Hari and Hara are different. Then this misunderstanding begin the
war of Vishnu and Shiva . The misunderstanding was that Lord Vishnu said
Garuda to kill the snake devotee of Shiva. The fight or war was very dengerous.

46
Lastly When Lord Vishnu call Sudershan chakra and when Shiva want to open his
third eye Lord Bramha stop him and said them all the things . By listening this
Lord Shiva became very angry and curse Indra that everytime when anyone
attack to swarga the Indra diffinetly defete by him no matter that he has vajra
and he drank Amrit. Then Indra realise his mistake apologize to Hari and Hara .
Lord Shiva is short tempered but his one name is Ashutosh means who could be
pleased easily. So Lord Shiva modify the curse that you defeat but you can take
help from other deities and defeat your opponent and become the King. That
time Devi Adi Parashakti is appeared and say that-
Shivaaya Vishnu Roopaaya Shiva Roopaaya Vishanave |
Shivasya Hrudayam Vishnur Vishnuscha Hrudayam Shivaha ||
Yatha Shivamayo Vishnuhu Yevam Vishnu Mayaha Shivaha |
Yathaantharam Na Paschyaami Thatha Me Swasthi Ra Yushi"
Means
1. Vishnu’s roopa/beauty and his avatar is none other than shiva. In other
words: shiva is vishnu.
the one in shiva roopa is none other than vishnu. In other words: vishnu
is shiva.
2. Vishnu resides in shiva’s heart, and shiva resides in vishnu’s heart.
3. Vishnu will be found in the same place you find shiva, and shiva can be
found in the same place vishnu is. As is if you find one, you have found
the other.

47
We are one and the same.
Then Hari and Hara show his Harihar form

Vishnu (called Thiruvappana or Valiya Muttapan) and Shiva (called Vellatom or Cheriya Muttapan) LEFT Pancha-
Tattva deities at ISKCON temple:Advaita Acharya on the extreme left
Lord Muthappan, worshipped in Kerala is considered as the personification
of Vishnu (called Thiruvappana or Valiya Muttapan) and Shiva (called Vellatom
or Cheriya Muttapan).The Muthappan temple at Parassinikadavu, Kannur is one
of the main temple dedicated to him. In Gaudiya Vaishnavism, the Sri Advaita
Acharya one of the Pancha Tattva is considered as the combined incarnation or
expansion of Sri Maha Vishnu and Sri Sadashiva (Lord Shiva in Goloka).

It is believe that every morning and evening Lord Vishnu worship Lord Shiva and
Lord Shiva worship Lord Vishnu and then they both take the Hari Hara form and
all gods including Lord Bramha worship him and get energy to do their work.

City (Capitol) named after HARIHARA

Hariharalaya, an ancient city and capital of the Khmer empire located
near Siem Reap, Cambodia in an area now called Roluos s a prime example of
the importance placed on not making any God inferior to another. Today, all that
remains of the city are the ruins of several royal temples: Preah Ko,

the Bakong, Lolei.

48
The Bakong is the royal temple mountain founded by King Indravarman I at
Hariharalaya. TO RIGHT This 7th century sculpture of Harihara is from Phnom
Da in Cambodia.
Toward the end of the 8th century A.D., the Cambodian king Jayavarman
II conquered vast territories near the great lake Tonle Sap. For at least part of
this time, he established his capital at Hariharalaya. However, when he declared
himself the universal monarch of the country in 802 A.D., he did so not at
Hariharalaya, but at Mahendraparvata on the Phnom Kulen Plateau. Later, he
returned the capital to Hariharalaya, where he died in 835. This name is the
same "Harihara" - a composite of "Hari" (one of Vishnu's names listed in Vishnu
sahasranama) and "Hara" (meaning the Hindu god Shiva). Cambodian
representations of Harihara were of a male deity whose one side bore the
attributes of Vishnu and whose other side bore the attributes of Shiva. For
example, the deity’s head-covering consisted of a mitre-type hat (the attribute of
Vishnu) on one side and as twisted locks of hair (the attribute of Shiva) on the
other. Alaya is a sanskrit word meaning "basis," or "home," so Hariharalaya is
home of Harihara or home of the deity representing both Hari (Vishnu) and Hara
(Shiva).
Jayavarman II was succeeded by Jayavarman III and then by Indravarman I, who
were responsible for the completion of the royal temple mountain known as
the Bakong and the construction of Indratataka baray. Indravarman
I consecrated the temple’s dominant religious symbol, a lingam called Sri
Indresvara (the name is a combination of the king’s name with that of Shiva), in
881. Indravarman I also constructed the much smaller temple today called Preah
Ko ("Sacred Bull"), dedicated in 880.

49
 TEMPLES NAMED AFTER HARIHARA IN CAMBODIA
Lolei: In 889, Indravarman I was succeeded by his son Yasovarman I, who
constructed the temple of Lolei (the name may be a modern corruption of
"Hariharalaya") on an artificial island in the middle of Indratataka.
Yasovarman also founded a new city at the site of Angkor Thom north of
modern Siem Reap and called it Yasodharapura. Yasovarman made the new city
his capital and constructed a new royal temple mountain, known as the Bakheng.
Yasodharapura was to survive until the 1170s when it was sacked by invaders
from Champa. It is the northernmost temple of the Roluos group of three late
9th century Hindu temples at Angkor, Cambodia, the others members of which
are Preah Ko and the Bakong. Lolei was the last of the three temples to be built
as part of the city of Hariharalaya that once flourished at Roluos, and in 893
the Khmer king Yasovarman I dedicated it to Shiva and to members of the royal
family. The name "Lolei" is thought to be a modern corruption of the ancient
name "Hariharalaya, which means "the city of Harihara." Once an island temple,
Lolei was located on an island slightly north of centre in the now dry
Indratataka baray, construction of which had nearly been completed under
Yasovarman's father and predecessor Indravarman I.
Scholars believe that placing the temple on an island in the middle of a body of
water served to identify it symbolically with Mount Meru, home of the gods,
which in Hindu mythology is surrounded by the world oceans.

Prasat Andet Statute of Harihara returned. See Above also

Another Harihara temple in the Angkor group is Prasat Andet , located

about 27 kilometers northwest of Provincial Town of Kampong Thom, in Prasat

50
Village, Sankor Commune, Kampong Svay District, Kampong Thom Province. The
temple was built in second half of 7th century (627-707) during the reign of king
Jayavarman I to dedicate to God Harihara, in Kampong Preah style and made of
brick with masonry, laterite and sandstone. Prasat Andet had isolated plan, built
on a 5.30-meter height artificial hill, and was form in rectangular shape with
7.50-meter length, 5.50-meter width and 1-meter thick (interior to exterior). It
was facing to the East. The lintel of Prasat Andet was carved in the garlands and
carefully done in the traditional khmer style. Prasat Andet means ‘floating
temple’, and it rises up from a small hillock on the flood plains, which explains
the name.
Consisting of a brick tower situated in a modern Buddhist temple in a village just
off the highway, Prasat Andet is notable for the fact it’s some 1,400 years old.
This early seventh century, Jayavarman I tower doesn’t have the well preserved
carvings of Prasat Phum Prasat and Tnoat Chum but is famous for a spectacular
Harihara statue originally found here but now housed in Phnom Penh’s National
Museum.

HARIHARA TEMPLES AROUND THE WORLD

Temple name Location Harihara Statute (murti) date

Badami cave temples Karnataka 6th century

Dharmaraja Ratha Tamil Nadu 7th century

51
HARIHARA TEMPLES AROUND THE WORLD

Temple name Location Harihara Statute (murti) date

Birasini temple Madhya Pradesh

Harihareshwara Temple Karnataka 13th century

two from 8th century,

Ossian temples Rajasthan
one 9th century

Deopani temple Assam two from 9th, 10th century

Mukteshvara Temple Odisha 9th-10th Century CE

statue: 6th century

Saugal-tol temple Nepal
temple: 12th to 16th century

Purandi temple Nepal 11th century

late 7th to early

Prasat Andet Cambodia
8th century

Candi Simping Indonesia 13th or 14th century

Himachal
Baijnath Temple 13th century
Pradesh

Hariharnath Temple Bihar Exact dates not known.

REFERENCES
1. As in Heaven, so on Earth: The Politics of Viṣṇu, Śiva and Harihara Images in
Preangkorian Khmer Civilisation,Paul A. Lavy,Journal of Southeast Asian Studies,Vol.
34, No. 1 (Feb., 2003), pp. 21-39 (19 pages)Published By: Cambridge University
Presshttps://angkordatabase.asia/publications/as-in-heaven-so-on-earth
https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/journal-of-southeast-asian-
studies/article/abs/what-to-do-about-the-khmers/
89BA0E000B0A9D70CC802B803CD77525
See also-Using Inscription Data to Investigate Power in Angkor’s
Empire,Eileen Lustig,Aséanie, Sciences humaines en Asie du Sud-
Est Année 2011 27 pp. 35-66

000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000

52
 IV
Significance of Hariharalaya /Hariharalay in Understanding the design concept of Angkor

Hariharalaya /Hariharalay was an ancient city and capital of the Khmer empire located
near Siem Reap, Cambodia in an area now called Roluos . Today, all that remains of the city
are the ruins of several royal temples: Preah Ko, the Bakong, Lolei.

53
This 7th century sculpture of Harihara is from Phnom Da in Cambodia.
The name "Hariharalaya" is derived from the name of Harihara, a Hindu deity prominent in
pre-Angkorian Cambodia. The name "Harihara" in turn is a composite of "Hari" (one
of Vishnu's names listed in Vishnu sahasranama) and "Hara" (meaning the Hindu god Shiva).
Cambodian representations of Harihara were of a male deity whose one side bore the
attributes of Vishnu and whose other side bore the attributes of Shiva. For example, the
deity’s head-covering consisted of a mitre-type hat (the attribute of Vishnu) on one side and
as twisted locks of hair (the attribute of Shiva) on the other. Alaya is a sanskrit word meaning
"basis," or "home," so Hariharalaya is home of Harihara or home of the deity representing
both Hari (Vishnu) and Hara (Shiva).

Toward the end of the 8th century A.D., the Cambodian king Jayavarman II conquered vast
territories near the great lake Tonle Sap. For at least part of this time, he established his
capital at Hariharalaya. However, when he declared himself the universal monarch of the
country in 802 A.D., he did so not at Hariharalaya, but at Mahendraparvata on the Phnom
Kulen Plateau. Later, he returned the capital to Hariharalaya, where he died in 835.
Jayavarman II was succeeded by Jayavarman III and then by Indravarman I, who were
responsible for the completion of the royal temple mountain known as the Bakong and the
construction of Indratataka baray. Indravarman I consecrated the temple’s dominant religious
symbol, a lingam called Sri Indresvara (the name is a combination of the king’s name with
that of Shiva), in 881. Indravarman I also constructed the much smaller temple today
called Preah Ko ("Sacred Bull"), dedicated in 880. In 889, Indravarman I was succeeded by
his son Yasovarman I, who constructed the temple of Lolei (the name may be a modern

54
corruption of "Hariharalaya") on an artificial island in the middle of Indratataka.
Yasovarman also founded a new city at the site of Angkor Thom north of modern Siem
Reap and called it Yasodharapura. Yasovarman made the new city his capital and constructed
a new royal temple mountain, known as the Bakheng. Yasodharapura was to survive until the
1170s when it was sacked by invaders from Champa.
The Shivalaya of Preah Ko and Temple Mountain of bakong
"The Sacred Bull" or Preah Ko and Bakong were the first temples to be built in the ancient
and now defunct city of Hariharalaya (in the area that today is called Roluos), some 15
kilometers south-east of the main group of temples at Angkor, Cambodia. The temple was
built under the Khmer King Indravarman I in 879 to honor members of the king's family,
whom it places in relation with the Hindu deity Shiva.
Preah Ko (Sacred Bull) derives its name from the three statues of sandstone located in the
front of and facing the temple's central towers. These statues represent Nandi, the white bull
who serves as the mount of Shiva

Preah Ko is known for the beauty and intricacy of its carvings. The design on
this lintel includes warriors mounted on three-headed nāgas, horsemen, and a deity mounted
on a kala.
After the Khmer king Jayavarman II founded the Khmer empire in 802 A.D., he finally
established his capital at Hariharalaya, where he died. Indravarman I was the nephew
of Jayavarman II. When he ascended to the throne, he ordered the construction first of Preah
Ko, which was dedicated in 879, and later of the temple-mountain known as the Bakong. It is
likely that this building program was made possible by the king's peaceful reign and his
ability to draw income from the expanding empire. A restoration of the towers took place in
early 1990s, financed by German government.
Preah Ko consists of six brick towers arranged in two rows of three towers each perched on a
sandstone platform. The towers face east, and the front central tower is the tallest. The

55
sanctuaries are dedicated to three divinized forefathers of Indravarman and their respective
wives. The front central tower is dedicated to Jayavarman II, the founder of the Khmer
empire. The tower to the left is dedicated to Prithivindreshvara, King Indravarman's father;
the tower to the right to Rudreshvara, his grandfather. The three rear towers are dedicated to
the wives of these three men.The central towers all bear images of the Hindu god Shiva.

Whether Bakong is the first Khmer temple mountain of sandstone constructed by rulers of
the Khmer Empire near modern Siem Reap in Cambodia or Preah Ko is still unclear. In the
final decades of the 9th century AD, it served as the official state temple of
King Indravarman I in the ancient city of Hariharalaya, located in an area that today is
called Roluos. The Bakong is the royal temple mountain founded by King Indravarman I at
Hariharalaya.
The structure of Bakong took shape of stepped pyramid, popularly identified as temple
mountain of early Khmer temple architecture. The striking similarity of the Bakong
and Borobudur temple in Java, going into architectural details such as the gateways and stairs
to the upper terraces, suggests strongly that Borobudur was served as the prototype of
Bakong. There must have been exchanges of travelers, if not mission, between Khmer
kingdom and the Sailendras in Java. Transmitting to Cambodia not only ideas, but also
technical and architectural details of Borobudur, including arched gateways in corbelling
method.[1]
In 802 AD, the first king of Angkor Jayavarman II declared the sovereignty of Cambodia.
After ups and downs, he established his capital at Hariharalaya. A few decades later, his
56
successors constructed Bakong in stage as the first temple mountain of sandstone at Angkor.
[3]
The inscription on its stele (classified K.826) says that in 881 King Indravarman
I dedicated the temple to the god Shiva and consecrated its central religious image,
a lingam whose name Sri Indresvara was a combination of the king's own and the suffix "-
esvara" which stood for Shiva ("Iśvara"). [4]: 62–63 [5] According to George Coedès,
the devarāja cult consisted in the idea of divine kingship as a legitimacy of royal power, but
later authors stated that it doesn't necessarily involve the cult of physical persona of the ruler
himself.
Bakong enjoyed its status as the state temple of Angkor for only a few years, but later
additions from the 12th or 13th centuries testify that it was not abandoned. Toward the end of
the 9th century, Indravarman's son and successor Yasovarman I moved the capital from
Hariharalaya to the area north of Siem Reap now known as Angkor, where he founded the
new city of Yaśodharapura around a new temple mountain called Bakheng.

The site of Bakong measures 900 metres by 700 metres, and consists of three
concentric enclosures separated by two moats, the main axis going from east to west. The
outer enclosure has neither a wall nor gopuram and its boundary is the outer moat, today only
partially visible. The current access road from NH6 leads at the edge of the second enclosure.

57
The inner moat delimits a 400 by 300 metres area, with remains of a laterite wall and four
cruciform gopuram, and it is crossed by a wide earthen causeway, flanked by seven-
headed nāgas, such as a draft of nāga bridge . Between the two moats there are the remains of
22 satellite temples of brick. The innermost enclosure, bounded by a laterite wall, measures
160 metres by 120 metres and contains the central temple pyramid and eight brick temple
towers, two on each side. A number of other smaller buildings are also located within the
enclosure. Just outside the eastern gopura there is a modern buddhist temple.
The pyramid itself has five levels and its base is 65 by 67 metres. It was reconstructed by
Maurice Glaize at the end of the 1930s according to methods of anastylosis. On the top there
is a single tower that is much later in provenance, and the architectural style of which is not
that of the 9th century foundations of Hariharalaya, but that of the 12th-century temple
city Angkor Wat.
Though the pyramid at one time must have been covered with bas relief carvings in stucco,
today only fragments remain. A dramatic scene-fragment involving what appear to
be asuras in battle gives a sense of the likely high quality of the carvings. Large stone statues
of elephants are positioned as guardians at the corners of the three lower levels of the
pyramid. Statues of lions guard the stairways.

The Temple Mountain of Baphuon:

In many ancient religions, mountain tops—from the Greeks’ Mt. Olympus to the highest
Himalayas of Hindu mythologywere believed to be the privileged home of the gods.
Southeast Asia, largely dependent on India for its principal religions of Hinduism and
Buddhism, is no exception. On the island of Java in Indonesia, for example, the ancient holy
site of Dieng was established in the crater of an extinct volcano. Its name in old Javanese, Di
Hyang (in Sanskrit, Devalaya), means, in effect, “home of the Gods.” According to Thierry
Zephir, Khmer architecture, of which the temple-mountain is at once the best-known and
most important expression, remains one of Asia’s major contributions to the world’scultural
patrimony. Despite the considerable number of studies, both general and specific, devoted to
it, it is far from having been completely explained. It still constitutes a field of exploration
and research as rich as the religious traditions that gave rise to it.1
In Cambodia, in the classic Khmer architecture of the Angkorean period, we find a temple
type in which the sanctuary is built atop a stepped pyramid. Nineteenth century
archaeologists called these “temple- mountains.” Each important sovereign was apparently

58
obliged to build one in order to establish his power. Baphuon is one such temple
at Angkor, Cambodia. It is located in Angkor Thom, northwest of the Bayon.

Built in the mid-11th century, it is a three-tiered temple mountain built as the state temple
of Udayadityavarman II dedicated to the Hindu God Shiva. It is the archetype of the Baphuon
style with intricate carvings covering every available surface. The temple adjoins the
southern enclosure of the royal palace and measures 120 metres east-west by 100 metres
north-south at its base and stands 34 meters tall without its tower, which would have made it
roughly 50 meters tall. Its appearance apparently impressed Temür Khan's late 13th century
envoy Zhou Daguan during his visit from 1296 to 1297, who said it was 'the Tower of
Bronze...a truly astonishing spectacle, with more than ten chambers at its base.
___________________________________________________________________________
_________

1. Zephir, .Thierry"The Angkorean Temple-Mountain" Expedition Magazine 37.3 (1995): n.

pag. Expedition Magazine. Penn Museum, 1995 Web. 18 Sep 2021
<http://www.penn.museum/sites/expedition/?p=4853>

This symbolism of temple-mountains is unique to Khemer Architecture inspired perhaps to

the presence of Mount Kulen the holiest mountain to the Khemer People blended with the
Hindu Concept of Mount Meru the celestial center of the Universe and the home of Lord
Vishnu, the Hindu diety they reveared. The oldest temple-mountain available for study is the
Bakong (founded A.D. 881). Within its first enclosure is a series of five rectangular buildings
of which four are symmetrically distributed north and south of the monument’s principal
east-west axis. These buildings are normally called long rooms. Although not found at
Phnom periphery of the first levels of the pyramids of the Eastern Mebon (A.D. 952) and Pre
Rup (A.D. 961). At the unfinished temple of Ta Keo (end of the 10th, beginning of the 11th
century and our Baphuon.
The Temple Mountain of ANGKOR WAT

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The temple mountain form was meant to represent Mount Meru. The five towers are arrayed
in quincunx form; four at the corners and one in the center.
Angkor Wat is a Hindu temple complex at Angkor, Cambodia, built for the king
Suryavarman II in the early 12th century as his state temple and part of his capital city. (The
Angkorian period dates 802-1432). As the best-preserved temple at the site, it is the only one
to have remained a significant religious centre since its foundation–first Hindu, dedicated to
the god Vishnu, then Buddhist. Angkor Wat combines two basic plans of Khmer temple
architecture: the temple mountain and the later galleried temple, based on early South Indian
Hindu architecture. It is designed to represent Mount Meru, home of the devas in Hindu
mythology: within a moat and an outer wall 3.6 kilometres (2.2 mi) long are three rectangular
galleries, each raised above the next. At the centre of the temple stands a quincunx of towers.
Unlike most Angkorian temples, Angkor Wat is oriented to the west. A UNESCO World
Heritage Site.

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Angkor Wat is said to be the largest religious monument in the world. Its name,
which translates to “temple city” in the Khmer language of the region, references
the fact it was built by Emperor Suryavarman II, who ruled the region from 1113
to 1150, as the state temple and political center of his empire. In 1840s “ re-
discovered” by the French explorer Henri Mouhot, It impressed him so much that he wrote
that the site was “grander than anything left to us by Greece or Rome.”

The compliment can likely be attributed to the temple’s design, which is supposed to
represent Mount Meru, the home of the gods, according to tenets of both the Hindu and
Buddhist faiths. Its five towers are intended to recreate the five peaks of Mount Meru, while
the walls and moat below honor the surrounding mountain ranges and the sea.

In his article- Mountains and Cities in Cambodia: Temple Architecture and Divine Vision,
Michael Meister exclaims the similarity of modern American cities with that of ancient Khemer
ones such as the Angkor Wat, towering towers.1

1. Meister, M. W. (2000). Mountains and Cities in Cambodia: Temple Architecture and

Divine Vision. International Journal of Hindu Studies, 4(3), 261–268.
http://www.jstor.org/stable/20106740

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Udayadityavarman II ruled the Angkor Kingdom from 1050 to 1066 A.D. He was the
successor of Suryavarman I but not his son; he descended from Yasovarman I's spouse.He
built the Baphuon Temple to honor the god Shiva, but some of the sculptures are dedicated
to Buddha. He also completed the construction of the West Baray reservoir and built the West
Mebon, a raised-earth island in the center.
During his reign, several attempted rebellions, in 1051 and 1065, were crushed by his
general Sangrama.

The Angkorian architects and sculptors created temples that mapped the cosmic world in
stone. Khmer decorations drew inspiration from religion, and mythical creatures
from Hinduism and Buddhism were carved on walls. Temples were built in accordance to the
rule of ancient Khmer architecture that dictated that a basic temple layout include a central
shrine, a courtyard, an enclosing wall, and a moat. Khmer motifs use many creatures from
Buddhist and Hindu mythology, like the Royal Palace in Phnom Penh, use motifs such as
the garuda, a mythical bird in Hinduism.

The architecture of Cambodia developed in stages under the Khmer empire from the 9th to
the 15th century, preserved in many buildings of the Angkor temple. The remains of secular
architecture from this time are rare, as only religious buildings were made of stonpe. The
architecture of the Angkor period used specific structural features and styles, which are one
of the main methods used to date the temples, along with inscriptions.

62
The Sdok Kak Thom temple, located near the present day Thai town of Aranyaprathet, was
also constructed during his reign. The temple is perhaps most famous as the discovery site of
a detailed inscription recounting the sequence of previous Khmer kings. The inscription stele
is now part of the collection of the national museum in Bangkok. He was succeeded by his
younger brother Harshavarman III.

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‘The Construction of the Baphuon was part of a major dynastic change and florescence of the
Hindu-Mahayana Buddhist state and the modification is the key evidence of Theravada
Buddhist power after Angkor's decline in the 15 th century. Using a newly-developed approach
based on AMS radiocarbon dating to directly date four iron crampons integrated into the
structure, the first direct evidence was oroduced for the history of the Baphuon. Both
construction and modification were a major temple associated with the imperial reformations
and territorial consolidation of Suryavarman I (1010–1050 AD) for whom no previous
building to legitimize his reign could be identified.The Theravada Buddhist modification are
a hundred years earlier associated with the Ayutthayan occupation of Angkor in the 1430s
and 40s .1

___________________________________________________________________________
_________ Leroy S, Hendrickson M, Delqué-Kolic E, Vega E, Dillmann P (2015) First
Direct Dating for the Construction and Modification of the Baphuon Temple Mountain
in Angkor, Cambodia. PLoS ONE 10(11): e0141052.
https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0141052

65
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67
In the late 15th century, the Baphuon was converted to a Buddhist temple which explains the
presence of the Buddha images- probably added later on.

The foundation of the Angkor monuments is artificial soil embankment, so-called

“rammed earth”, and its compaction quality affects significantly on the stability of the
buildings. 1
________________________________________________________
1.Ryota Hashimoto, Tomofumi Koyama, Mamoru Kikumoto, Toru Saito, Mamoru
Mimura, Stability Analysis of Masonry Structure in Angkor Ruin Considering the
Construction Quality of the Foundation, Journal of Civil Engineering Research, Vol. 4
No. 3A, 2014, pp. 78-82. doi: 10.5923/c.jce.201402.13.

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The walls of the Baphuon are double walls

TODAY a double wall (also called component wall) is made of two concrete slabs with a
thickness of 5–7 cm each that are held together with truss-type reinforcement. In these
concrete panels, the structural reinforcement for the entire concrete wall is built into the
precast concrete component.

After the installation of the double walls, the remaining void is filled with mix-in-situ
concrete; therefore, this double wall is a semi-precast part. This produces a monolithic, dense
and extremely solid concrete wall. The double walls thus combine the major advantages of
prefabrication with the advantages of a wall that has been produced on site with concrete
poured into casing. Double walls are used for the walls in basements and each storey.

69
Often, double walls are produced with core insulation (with insulation inside them) so as to
be able to guarantee compliance with regulations concerning thermal insulation. For
structural calculations, a double wall is treated on the basis of its full thickness in exactly the
same way as a wall that has been produced by concrete poured into casing.

The temple itself was surrounded by a wall 125 by 425 m the central tower was probably
gilded wood, which has not survived.

However by the 20th century, much of the temple had largely collapsed, and restoration
efforts took on an epic quality. A large-scale project to dismantle the temple so that its core
could be re-enforced before the whole is re-constructed again—a process known
as anastylosis—was abandoned after civil war broke out in 1970. The workers and
archaeologists were forced to leave 300,000 carefully labelled and numbered blocks
organized across 10 hectares surrounding the temple. However, the plans identifying the
pieces were lost during the decade of conflict and the Khmer Rouge that followed.

A second project to restore the temple was launched in 1996 under the guidance of architect
Pascal Royère from the EFEO. It took the team another 16 years to complete what had
become known as the "largest 3D jigsaw puzzle in the world". In April 2011, after 51 years
of work, the restoration was completed and the temple formally re-opened. King Norodom
Sihamoni of Cambodia and Prime Minister Francois Fillon of France were among those who
first toured the renovated temple during the inauguration ceremony on July 3, 2011.

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71
 THE ARCHITECTURE OF THE BAPHUON

Architecture. The Baphuon temple is the prototype for the Baphuon style of design which
covers every available surface with intricate carvings. These carvings include both realistic
and fanciful depictions of lotus flowers, wild animals and hunters, devata figures, and men in
battle. There are also carvings with indirect references to Hindu mythology and scenes
illustrating epic poems such as the Ramayana. The sandstone temple-mountain symbolically
represents the sacred five-peaked Mount Meru important in both Hindu and Buddhist
cosmology. There are three enclosures in the Baphuon temple complex, and the main
structure is situated on a high base. With the bronze tower that was part of the original
structure it would have been roughly 50 meters high, but without this tower it stands 34
meters tall.

Zhou Daguan, a Chinese 'ambassador' in the 13th century, speaks glowingly of the temple,
describing it as a 'copper tower'. This suggests that the entire temple may have once been
sheathed in bronze plates.

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As with Angkor Wat, the Baphuon was converted to a Buddhist temple in the 16th century.
This involved the demolition of the outer galleries, causeway stones, and other structures to
reuse the material for construction of an enormous reclining Buddha statue on the west side
of the temple. The work was never completed, however, and the half-finished Buddha is only
barely distinguishable.

As the Baphuon was built on unstable soil it has not proven as durable as other nearby
temples. As early as the 1960s the EFEO (École française d'Extrême-Orient) decided to begin
restoration of the temple using the anastylosis technique, which involved disassembly of
large portions of the temple and reconstruction using the original stones and replacements as
needed. However, this work had to be abandoned in the 1970s when the Khmer Rouge came
to power. By that time, the EFEO had completed the disassembly phase of the reconstruction.
Over 300,000 stones were laid out in a 10 hectare area surrounding the temple. The EFEO
maintained careful records of the original position of each of the stones, but the records were
lost or destroyed during the Khmer Rouge period. In spite of this, archaeologists working
from 1995-2002 were able to reassign the locations of most of the stones, and reconstruction
was carried out from 2002-2011. The reopening of the temple took place on July 3, 2011.

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Plan of Baphuon
Drawn by Timothy M Ciccone following Claude Jacques, Michael Freeman, and Jean
Laur.

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The period between 12th and 19th century was largely of religious wars and geo-political
instability across the Indian subcontinent, and the literature of this era do not mention Masrur
temples or present any scholarly studies on any Hindu, Jain or Buddhist temples for that
matter, rather they mention iconoclasm and temple destruction.

After the 12th century, first northwestern Indian subcontinent, then India, in general,
witnessed a series of plunder raids and attacks of Turko-Afghan sultans led Muslim armies
seeking wealth, geopolitical power and the spread of Islam. Successive Muslim dynasties
controlled the Delhi Sultanate as waves of wars, rebellions, secessions, and brutal counter-
conquests gripped Indian regions including those in and around Kashmir. The Mughal
Empire replaced the Delhi Sultanate in early 16th-century. The Mughal dynasty ruled much
of the Indian subcontinent through early 18th-century, and parts of it nominally through the
19th century.

The Kangra valley region with Masrur in the Himalayas was ruled by smaller jagirdars and
feudatory Hill Rajas who paid tribute to the Mughal administration for many centuries. The
arrival of the colonial era marked another seismic shift in the region's politics. By the late
19th century, British India officials had begun archeological surveys and heritage
preservation efforts. The first known visits to study the Masrur temples occurred in 1887.

COMPARISON of the DESIGN of PRASAT AUK UM and the 11 th Century

BAPHUON with MASRUR temple India

Masrur temple: symmetry of design

At first, it seems an extravagant and confused mass of spires,
doorways and ornament. The perfect symmetry of the design,
all centering in the one supreme spire, immediately over the
small main cell, which together form the vimana,
can only be realized after a careful examination of each part
in relation to the other.
—Henry Shuttleworth, 1913

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The Masrur temple and the 8th-century Prasat Ak Yum and the 11 th Century Baphuon
temple found in Siam Reap, Cambodia have parallels, in that both are temple mountains with
a symmetric design . The main monument at the Masrur temples site appears, at first sight, to
be a complex of shrines, but it is an integrated monument Its center has a principal shrine
which unlike most Hindu temples does not face east, but faces Northeast towards the snowy
Himalayan peaks of Dhauladhar range. The main spire is flanked by subsidiary spires of
smaller size, all eight symmetrically placed to form an octagon (or two rotated squares).
These spires of the temple seem to grow out of the natural rock that makes the mountain.
Above the main sanctum, the rock was cut to form the flat roof and the second level of the
temple naturally fused with the rising main spire (shikhara) as well as the eight subsidiary
shrines.
Some structures and the plan at Masrur temple (1913 sketch, incomplete)

The main sanctum has four entrances, of which one on the east side is complete, two on the
north and south side are partially complete and the fourth can be seen but is largely
incomplete. The eastern entrance had a large mandapa and a portico, but this was destroyed
in the 1905 earthquake, its existence known from site visit notes prior to the earthquake.
Attached to this mandapa were two stairs to take the pilgrims to the upper-level views. The
stairs were set inside smaller two rotating stair spires, but much of the structure of this too is
gone. Thus, at one time the main temple had 13 spires according to Hargreaves count, and 15
according to Shuttleworth's count, all designed to appear growing naturally out of the rock.

According to Meister, the early descriptions though well-intentioned were based on

information then available and clouded by the presumptions of those authors. These
presumptions and generally damaged condition of the complex, for example, led
Shuttleworth and Hargreaves to describe the temple in terms such as "subsidiary" and
"shrines" instead of witnessing the integrated plan and architecture in early Hindu texts on
temple design.

Construction Materials
The temple complex was carved out of the natural sandstone rock. In some places, the rock is
naturally very hard, which would have been difficult to carve, but is also the reason why the
intricate carvings on it have preserved for over 1,000 years. In other places the stone was soft
or of medium quality. In some cases, the artists carved with a bit softer stone and this has

76
eroded over time from natural causes. In other cases, the stone's hardness was so low that the
artists cut out the stone and substituted it with better stone blocks. Then they added their
friezes or sculptures. The substituted blocks have better resisted the effect of nature and time.
Pool and mandapa

The temple complex has a sacred pool in front on the east side. The construction of the sacred
pool is dated to the early 8th century. Its rectangular dimensions are about 25 by 50 metres
(82 ft × 164 ft), or two stacked squares. The temple had an outside square mandapa with
about 27 feet (8.2 m) side and 20 feet (6.1 m) height. It had a solid 1.5 feet (0.46 m) thick
roof supported by four carved massive pillars. The platform had a covered drainage system to
allow water anywhere on the mandapa to naturally drain off. This was visible before the 1905
quake, now only remnants of the floor and a pillar remain.

Two views of the temple pool.

The entrances lead the pilgrim and visitor towards the main sanctum, through a series of
mandapas with wall carvings and then an antarala (vestibule). They also connect the created
space to a pair of covered stairs, on the north and south side, to the upper floor from where he
or she can complete a pradakshina (circumambulation) to view more sculptures and the
mountain scenery, all of this space and structure created from the pre-existing monolithic
rock.
Sanctum and ceiling.

1. The garbhagriha, in a square plan with each side of 13 feet (4.0 m). The main sanctum
has a four faced Shiva.
2. The ceiling of various mandapa and the sanctum inside the temple are fully carved,
predominantly with open lotus.
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However, the inside walls remained incomplete. This may be because the artists carving into
the rock worked on cutting and finishing the ceiling first, then moved on to cutting, finishing
and decorating the inside walls and creating pillars below those ceilings. The wall height is
16 feet (4.9 m), and only the eastern entrance and passage into the sanctum is fully complete,
while the side entrances are not and the fourth western entrance being the least complete. The
site suggests that the work was completed in parallel by teams of workers. This is a common
style of construction found in numerous Hindu temples that have survived, at least in the
ruins form, from the 1st millennium. The 8th-century three-entry, four-faced Shiva found at
the Masrur temple is not unique as the same plan is found in the Jogesvari Cave temple
near Mumbai. The Jogesvari is dated to have been completed between 400-450 CE, or several
centuries before the Masrur temple's construction, suggesting a common thematic foundation
that inspired these temples pre-existed in the Hindu texts.
The art historian Stella Kramrisch identified one of these Hindu architecture texts to be
the Visnudharmottara, dated to have existed by the 8th-century (floruit), and whose
manuscripts have been found with Hindus of the Kashmir valley. This is one of such texts
that describe "hundred-and-one [Hindu] temple" designs. According to Meister, the sanctum
and spire plan for the Masrur temple fits one of these, where it is called the Kailasa design.

The Kailasa style of Hindu temple is one with a central Shikhara (spire) symmetrically
surrounded by four smaller spires set between the four entrances into the temple from the
four cardinal directions, a format that matches the Masrur temple plan. Further,
the Visnudharmottara text also describes the principles and procedures for image making and
painting, the former is also found preserved in the Masrur temple mandapa and
sanctum. Further, the Jogesvari and Masrur are not the only surviving temples that
correspond to this style, others have been discovered that do, such as the Bajaura Hindu
temple in Kulu valley of Himachal Pradesh which is another stone temple.

The multi-spire style, states Meister, is possibly inspired by the Indian Meru mythology
shared by Buddhists, Hindus and Jains. Lush mountainous Meru is heaven and the abode of
gods, but mountains are not singular but exist in ranges. The highest Mount Kailasha is the
abode of Shiva, and the secondary spires symbolize the mountain range. Eight heavenly
continents surround the Mount Kailasha in this mythology, where all the Deva (gods)

78
and Devi (goddesses) live together. The Masrur temple symbolically projects this mythical
landscape, narrating the Indian cosmology from stone, into stone.
Spire design
All spires in the Masrur temple are of Nagara style, an architecture that was developed and
refined in central India in the centuries before the 8th-century. More specifically, these are
what Indian texts called the latina sub-style, from lata. These are curvilinear spires composed
of a rhythmic series of superimposed shrinking horizontal square slabs with offsets, each
offset called lata or grape vine-like, in principle reflecting natural growth on a mountain in
stone.

One of the spires with lintel carvings. BAPHUON on the RIGHT 2 pics

The superstructure towers embed styles that are found in Indian temples from the 7th and 8th-
century such as in the Mahua Hindu temple and the Alampur Navabrahma Temples, but these
are no longer found in temples that can be firmly dated after the 8th-century. This supports
dating the Masrur temple to about mid 8th-century. The spires show differences, but all spires
that are symmetrically position in the temple mandala show the same design. The stairway
spire is based on four turned squares, and features eight rotating lata spines that alternate with
eight right-angled projections.
The temple complex also has two free-standing sub-shrines near the sacred pool. These have
spires with sixteen lata spines, a style that is uncommon in India and found associated with
Shiva temples associated with Hindu monks of the Matamayura matha between the 7th and
12th century CE such as the Bajaura temple in nearby Kulu valley and the Chandrehi temple
in central India.
Sculpture and reliefs
The main sanctum has nine seated deities. The center one is Shiva, and with him are others
including Vishnu, Indra, Ganesa, Kartikiya and Durga. The shrines around the central shrine
feature five Devis in one case, while other shrines reverentially enshrine Vishnu, Lakshmi,
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Ganesha, Kartikeya, Surya, Indra and Saraswati. The avatars of Vishnu such as the Varaha
and the Narasimha are presented in the niches. In the ruins have been found large sculptures
of Varuna, Agni and others Vedic deities. The temple also includes fusion or syncretic ideas
revered in Hinduism, such as Ardhanarishvara (half Parvati, half Shiva), Harihara (half
Vishnu, half Shiva) and a three faced trinity that shows Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva in one
sculpture. The temple also has secular images from the common life of people, of couples in
courtship and various levels of intimacy (mithuna), people making music and dancing,
apsaras and ornamental scrollwork.
The surviving structures in the Masrur temple lacks any image of Lakulisa, the founder of
Pashupata Shaivism, which makes it unlikely that this temple was associated with that
tradition. According to Meister, the wide range of Shaiva, Vaishnava, Shakti and Saura
(Surya, sun god) themes displayed within the Masrur temple suggest that it was built by those
who cherish ecumenism or henotheism, of the style commonly found in Pancharatra literature
of Hinduism.

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The Masrur rock-cut temple presents a diversity of iconography, likely reflecting ecumenism
or henotheism in 8th-century Hinduism. Above: Incomplete iconography locations.[
Pilgrim resthouse
According to Hargreaves, when he visited the temple for the first time in 1913, the temple
complex had a dharmashala (pilgrim's resthouse), a kitchen and there was a priest for whom
there was a small integrated living quarters. The temple work was priest's part-time work,
while his main source of livelihood was from maintaining cattle and working in farms.
.
First Direct Dating for the Construction and Modification of the Baphuon Temple Mountain
in Angkor, Cambodia

Sampled parts within each crampon are shown in white. Schematic drawings of the
microscopic metallographic observation on the cross-section after Nital etching enlighten the
distribution of the carbon content within the metal. The black marks within the metal of the
most carburized samples, selected for the radiocarbon measurements, indicate the fingerprint
of the drill samples. 2 dates were obtained for each crampon BPN-30001 and BPN-30002.
Both samples BPN-30009(1) and BPN-30009(2) from BPN-30009 could be dated therefore
providing 2 dates for the crampon.

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