Angkor Wat – A Legendary Elegance

Many inscriptions in Angkor reveal Khmer rulers from hundreds of years ago. It was as early as the AD 100s that Khmer people started forming villages, each with its own ruler, leading to many small kingdoms. But things changed when Jayavarman II took power in 802. He unified all the small kingdoms and formed a single Khmer empire.

The Khmer kings ruled over what is today Southern Vietnam to Yunan, China and from Vietnam to the Bay of Bengal. The beautiful structures seen at Angkor today, which consist of more than 100 temples, are all the religious remains of a grand administrative and social metropolis, whose other palaces, houses and buildings made of wood are long gone.

Each and every king of the Khmer empire built several beautiful temples and palaces. This was mostly done to show their power. However, Angkor’s finest temple, the Angkor Wat was built by King Suryavarman II, who ruled the Khmer empire from 1113 to 1150. This temple staggers the imagination with its unbelievable architecture.

Lord Vishnu is the main deity; however, the sculptures on the temple also pay homage to several Vedic gods and goddesses including Lord Siva. The Angkor Wat temple is said to have served as an observatory where the rising sun was aligned on the equinox and solstice days with the entrance to the West of the temple, and numerous sighting lines were identified to be able to observe the rising of the sun and moon seasonally.

Angkor Wat is a masterpiece of Khmer art. All descriptions of the temple fall far short of communicating the perfect proportions and the astoundingly beautiful sculptures that the viewer is treated with face to face. The majestic architecture and the representation of form are astonishingly powerful and graceful. The inner galleries of the temple depict the battle of Kurukshetra, scenes from heaven and hell, churning of the sea of milk, and several more scenes drawn with great artistic beauty.

At one point, there was a controversy regarding the art in Angkor Wat. Some Europeans brought out the theory that the temple was built much later than the–th century. The reasoning behind this claim is that the temple’s motifs look very similar to motifs from the Italian Renaissance, suggesting that they were copied from the Europeans. However, it was later proved that these allegations are completely wrong and have no basis. In fact, it was said that the Europeans may have taken the oriental art from Angkor Wat to Europe.

Inscriptions on the walls of Angkor Wat reveal that Divakara Pandit, a priest who lived around 1050-1135 was highly respected. These inscriptions and his image talk of his achievements with great love. He was said to be the chief architect for this temple. Through the carved writings found in the region that show royalty as well as the common people, archeologists get a lot of information. Everything about Angkor Wat reveals a story that helps us visualize the temple and the Khmer Empire in all its glory.

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