CAMBODIAN Temple designs- and Hindu Cosmology-

Ms.SRISHTI DOKRAS
B.Arch. (Institute for Design Education and Architectural Studies) Nagpur India
Visiting Architect, Dubai Australia & USA
Consultant - Design and Architecture, Esselworld Gorewada International Zoo- Largest in Asia

Dr Uday Dokras
B.Sc., B.A.(Managerial Economics), LLB. Nagpur University,India
Graduate Studies,Queen’s University, Canada
MBA (CALSTATE,USA)
Graduate Diploma in Law, Stockholm University,Sweden
Ph.D (Management) Stockholm University, Sweden
Currently- CONSULTANT- Gorewada International Zoo, Nagpur,India- Largest Zoo and Safari in Asia
Visiting /, Faculty at the Central Institute of Business Management and Research,Nagpur

Angkor Wat is the supreme masterpiece of Khmer art. Its architecture is majestic and its
representation of form and movement from Indian mythology has astonishing grace and power.

Time, Space, and Astronomy in Angkor Wat -Subhash Kak Department of Electrical & Computer
Engineering Louisiana State University

Introduction: The Khmer, officially the Angkor Empire, the predecessor state to
modern Cambodia ("Kampuchea"), was a Hindu-Buddhist empire in Southeast Asia. The empire, which
grew out of the former kingdoms of Funan and Chenla, at times ruled over and/or vassalised most
of mainland Southeast Asia and parts of Southern China, stretching from the tip of the Indochinese

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Peninsula northward to modern Yunnan province, China, and from Vietnam westward to Myanmar. The
beginning of the era of the Khmer Empire is conventionally dated to 802 CE when King Jayavarman
II declared himself chakravartin ("king of the world", or "king of kings") on Phnom Kulen. The empire
ended with the fall of Angkor in the 15th century.

Its greatest legacy is Angkor, in present-day Cambodia, which was the site of the capital city during the
empire's zenith. The majestic monuments of Angkor, such as Angkor Wat and Bayon, bear testimony to the
Khmer Empire's immense power and wealth, impressive art and culture, architectural technique, aesthetics
achievements, and the variety of belief systems that it patronised over time. Satellite imaging has revealed
that Angkor, during its peak in the 11th to 13th centuries, was the largest pre-industrial urban centre in the
world.

After the construction of many Hindu temples over several centuries and now perfecting the art of
temple building-art, design, architecture and construction methods, the flight of fancy of the Angkor
kings took off in successive generations. Khmer art and architecture can be said to have reached their
aesthetic and technical peak with the construction of the majestic temple Angkor Wat. Other temples
are also constructed in the Angkor region, such as Ta Phrom and Bayon. The construction of the temple
demonstrates the artistic and technical achievements of the Khmer Empire through its architectural
mastery of stone masonry. The temple has drawn praise above all for the harmony of its design.
According to Maurice Glaize, 1a mid-20th-century conservator of Angkor, the temple "attains a classic
perfection by the restrained monumentality of its finely balanced elements and the precise arrangement
of its proportions. It is a work of power, unity and style."

Architecturally, the elements characteristic of the style include: the ogival, redented towers shaped
like lotus buds; half-galleries to broaden passageways; axial galleries connecting enclosures; and the
cruciform terraces which appear along the main axis of the temple. Typical decorative elements
are devatas (or apsaras), bas-reliefs, and on pediments extensive garlands and narrative scenes. The
statuary of Angkor Wat is considered conservative, being more static and less graceful than earlier
work. Other elements of the design have been destroyed by looting and the passage of time,
including gilded stucco on the towers, gilding on some figures on the bas-reliefs, and wooden ceiling
panels and doors.
Hindu Religious Architecture: In any study of Angkorian architecture, the emphasis is necessarily on
religious architecture, since all the remaining Angkorian buildings are religious in nature. During the
period of Angkor, only temples and other religious buildings were constructed of stone. Non-religious
buildings such as dwellings were constructed of perishable materials such as wood, and so have not
survived. The religious architecture of Angkor has characteristic structures, elements, and motifs, which
are identified in the glossary below. Since a number of different architectural styles succeeded one

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another during the Angkorean period, not all of these features were equally in evidence throughout the
period. Indeed, scholars have referred to the presence or absence of such features as one source

Temple complexes
Although early temples in south India may have been made of disposable materials as early as the first
few centuries of the Common Era, permanent temple structures appear about the 3rd and 4th centuries,
as attested in early Tamil literature. From the Gupta period onward, Hindu temples became larger and
more prominent, and their architecture developed in distinctive regional styles.

The 12th-century temple of Angkor Wat is based on Dravidian architecture, it was designed as a
pyramid representing the structure of the universe: the highest level at the center of the temple
represented Mount Meru, the home of the Hindu gods, with the five towers on the highest level
representing the five peaks of the mountain. The broad moat around the complex represented the oceans
that surround the world.

It is also recognized as Sumeru, Sineru or Mahāmeru, is the sacred five-peaked mountain of Buddhist,
Jain, and Hindu cosmology and is considered to be the center of all the physical, metaphysical and
spiritual universes. Many famous Buddhist and similar Jain as well as Hindu temples have been built
as symbolic representations of this mountain. The "Sumeru Throne" xūmízuò style base is a common
feature of Chinese pagodas. The highest point (the finial bud) on the pyatthat, a Burmese-style multi-
tiered roof, represents Mount Meru.

The architecture of the Indian rock-cut temples, particularly the sculptures, were widely adopted
in South Indian, and Indianised architecture of Cambodian, Annamese (Khmer) and Javanese temples
(of the Greater India. of evidence for dating the remains. Khmer architecture known also as Angkorian
architecture is the architecture produced by the Khmers during the Angkor period of the Khmer
Empire from approximately the latter half of the 8th century CE to the first half of the 15th century CE.
But is basically the same architecture as visualized by the designers of temples in the Chola and Gupta
dynasties. The temple is at the top of the high classical style of Khmer architecture. It was built by the
Khmer King Suryavarman II as a temple complex dedicated to Vishnu in the early 12th century
in Yaśodharapura present-day Angkor, the capital of the Khmer Empire, as his state temple and
eventual mausoleum. Its architecture takes a break from the earlier Shaiva tradition of previous kings.
As the best-preserved temple at the site, it is the only one to have remained a significant religious centre
since its foundation. It has become a symbol of Cambodia, appearing on its national flag, and it is the
country's prime attraction for visitors.

Angkor Wat combines two basic plans of Khmer temple architecture: the temple-mountain and the
later galleried temple. It is designed to represent Mount Meru, home of the devas in Hindu mythology:

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within a moat more than 5 kilometres (3 mi) long 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; scholars are divided as to
the significance of this. The temple is admired for the grandeur and harmony of the architecture, its
extensive bas-reliefs, and for the numerous devatas adorning its walls. Angkor Wat is said to be a
‘miniature replica of the universe in stone’ and represents an earthly model of the cosmic world.

Astronomical designs: Astronomical significance:

Astronomy and Hindu cosmology are inseparably entwined at Angkor Wat. Nowhere is this more
evident than in the interior colonnade, which is dedicated to a vast and glorious carved mural, a bas-
relief illustrating the gods as well as scenes from the Hindu epic the Mahabharata. Along the east wall
is a 45-meter (150-foot) scene illustrating the "churning of the sea of milk," a creation myth in which
the gods attempt to churn the elixir of immortality out of the milk of time. The north wall depicts the
"day of the gods," along the west wall is a great battle scene from the Mahabharata, and the south wall
portrays the kingdom of Yama, the god of death. It has been suggested that the choice and arrangement
of these scenes was intended to tie in with the seasons—the creation scene of the east wall is symbolic
of the renewal of spring, the "day of the gods" is summer, the great battle on the west wall may represent
the decline of autumn, and the portrayal of Yama might signify the dormancy, the lifeless time of winter.
The architecture of Angkor Wat also has numerous astronomical aspects beyond the basic mandala plan
that is common to other Hindu temples. As many as eighteen astronomical alignments have been
identified within its walls. To mention but three of them: when standing just inside the western entrance,
the Sun rises over the central tower on the spring (vernal) equinox; it rises over a distant temple at Prasat
Kuk Bangro, 5.5 kilometers (3.4 miles) away, on the winter solstice; and on the summer solstice it rises
over a prominent hill 17.5 kilometers (10.9 miles) away.

According to Graham Hancock, Angkor Wat and all the temples were conceived by its builders as a
symbolic diagram of the universe. The notion of a land that is the image of heaven on which are built
cosmic temples with halls that resemble the sky was an idea that took root in Angkor Wat. Angkor Wat
consists of a series of five inter nested rectangular enclosures. The short dimensions are aligned with
high precision to true north-south, showing no deviation whatever according to modern surveys. The
long dimensions are oriented, equally precisely, to an axis that has been deliberately diverted 0.75
degrees south of east and north of west.
The first and outermost of the five rectangles that we find ourselves looking down on from the air is the
moat. Measured along its outer edge it runs 1300 meters north to south and 1500 meters from east to
west.Its ditch, (moat) 190 meters wide, has walls made from closely fitted blocks of red sandstone set

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out with such precision that the accumulated surveying error around the entire 5.6 kilometers of the
perimeter amounts to barely a centimeter.
Angkor Wats principal entrance is on the west side where a megalithic causeway 347 meters long and
9.4 meters wide bears due east across the moat and then passes under a massive gate let into the walls
of the second of the five rectangles. This second enclosure measures 1025 x 800 meters. The causeway
continues eastward through it, past lawns and subsidiary structure and a large reflecting pool, until it
rises on to a cruciform terrace leading into the lowest gallery of the temple itself. This is the third of the
five inter nested rectangles visible from the air and precision engineering and surveying are again in
evidence with the northern and southern walls, for example, being of identical lengths, exactly 202.14
meters.
Ascending to the fourth rectangle, the fourth level of Angkor Wats gigantic central pyramid, the same
precision can be observed. The northern and southern walls measure respectively 114.24 and 114.22
meters. At the fifth and last enclosure, the top level of the pyramid which reaches a height of 65 mts
above the entrance causeway the northern wall is 47.75 mts in length and the southern wall 47.79 mts.
According to a study published in the journal Science, these minute differences, less than 0.01 percent,
demonstrates an astounding degree of accuracy on the part of the ancient builders.

Drawing on the temple's alignment and dimensions, and on the content and arrangement of the bas-
reliefs, researcher Eleanor Mannikka 2 argues that the structure represents a claimed new era of peace
under King Suryavarman II: "as the measurements of solar and lunar time cycles were built into the
sacred space of Angkor Wat, this divine mandate to rule was anchored to consecrated chambers and
corridors meant to perpetuate the king's power and to honour and placate the deities manifest in the
heavens above. Mannikka's suggestions have been received with a mixture of interest and scepticism in
academic circles. She distances herself from the speculations of others, such as Graham Hancock, that

Angkor Wat is part of a representation of the constellation Draco.3 Draco is a constellation in the far

northern sky. Its name is Latin for dragon. It was one of the 48 constellations listed by the 2nd century
astronomer Ptolemy, and remains one of the 88 modern constellations today. The north pole of
the ecliptic is in Draco. Draco is circumpolar (that is, never setting), and can be seen all year from
northern latitudes.The Angkor Wat temple's main tower aligns to the morning sun of the Spring
Equinox. Angkor Wat as a Mandala.

Mandala: According to ancient Sanskrit and Khmer texts, religious monuments and specifically
temples must be organized in such a way that they are in harmony with the universe, meaning that the
temple should be planned according to the rising sun and moon, in addition to symbolizing the recurrent
time sequences of the days, months and years. The central axis of these temples should also be aligned
with the planets, thus connecting the structure to the cosmos so that temples become spiritual, political,

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cosmological, astronomical and geo-physical centers. They are, in other words, intended to represent
microcosms of the universe and are organized as mandalas—diagrams of the universe.7

Concentric galleries: Angkor Wat, located at 13°24′45″N 103°52′0″E, is a unique combination of

the temple mountain (the standard design for the empire's state temples) and the later plan of
concentric galleries. The construction of Angkor Wat also suggests that there was a celestial
significance with certain features of the temple. This is observed in the temple's east-west orientation,
and lines of sight from terraces within the temple that show specific towers to be at the precise location
of the sunrise on a solstice. The temple is a representation of Mount Meru, the home of the gods: the
central quincunx of towers symbolises the five peaks of the mountain, and the walls and moat symbolize
the surrounding mountain ranges and ocean. Access to the upper areas of the temple was progressively
more exclusive, with the laity being admitted only to the lowest level. Freeman and Jacques, however,
note that several other temples of Angkor depart from the typical eastern orientation, and suggest that
Angkor Wat's alignment was due to its dedication to Vishnu, who was associated with the west.

Mount Meru: Mount Meru (Sanskrit: मेरु), also recognized as Sumeru, Sineru or Mahāmeru, is
the sacred five-peaked mountain Hindu cosmology and is considered to be the center of
all physical, metaphysical and spiritual universes. Many famous Buddhist and similar Jain as well
as Hindu temples have been built as symbolic representations of this mountain. The "Sumeru Throne"
style base is a common feature of Chinese pagodas. The highest point (the finial bud) on the pyatthat, a
Burmese-style multi-tiered roof, represents Mount Meru.

Etymologically, the proper name of the mountain is Meru to which is added the approbatory prefix su,
resulting in the meaning "excellent Meru" or "wonderful Meru". Meru is also the name of the central
bead in a mālā. 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. Some researchers
identify Mount Meru or Sumeru with the Pamirs, northwest of Kashmir.

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 Mandrachala Mountain to the east,
Suparshva Mountain to the west, Kumuda Mountain to the north and Kailasa to the south. The concept
of a holy mountain surrounded by various circles around it was incorporated into ancient Hindu
temple architecture with a Shikhara , a Sanskrit word translating literally to "mountain peak". Early
examples of this style can be found at the Harshat Mata Temple and Harshnath Temple of the 8th
century CE in Rajasthan, western India. This concept also continued outside India such as in Bali, where
temples feature Meru towers of Hindu temples.4

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Indigenous to the Cambodian architecture and not at all the Gupta or Chola forms the Angkor, and other
temples in Cambodia were built as a symbolic representation of Mount Meru. Mount Meru
of Hindu traditions is described as 84,000 yojanas high (about 1,082,000 km (672,000 mi), which
would be 85 times the Earth's diameter. The Sun along with all the planets in the Solar System revolve
around Mt. Meru as one unit.

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.

According to Charles Allen, Mount Kailash5is identified with Mount Meru. One description in

the Vishnu Purana of the mountain states that its four faces are made of crystal, ruby, gold, and lapis
lazuli. It is a pillar of the world and is located at the heart of six mountain ranges symbolizing a lotus.

The concept of a holy mountain surrounded by various circles around it was incorporated into
ancient Hindu temple architecture with a Shikhara (Śikhara), a Sanskrit word translating literally to
"mountain peak". Early examples of this style can be found in Rajasthan, western India. This concept
also continued outside India such as in Bali, where temples feature Meru towers.In Buddhist temples
the Mahabodhi Temple in Bodh Gaya is an earliest example of the 5th-6th century. Many other
Buddhist temples took on its form such as in Thailand the Wat Arun and in Myanmar the Hsinbyume
Pagoda.4

The temple proper is comprised of three galleries (a passageway running along the length of the
temple) with a central sanctuary, marked by five stone towers.The five central towers of Angkor
Wat symbolize the peaks of Mount Meru, which according to Hindu mythology is the dwelling
place of the gods. The mountain is said to be surrounded by an ocean, and the complex's

enormous moat suggests the oceans at the edge of the world. 6.

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The Khmer temples were a microcosmic expression of the Hindu cosmological universe. The daily
worship of Hindus and Buddhists requires pilgrimage to a temple culminating with praying and/or
meditating at the centre of the temple where the human soul experienced transcendence from the endless
suffering and repetition of birth and rebirth.

For example, if we study Angkor Wat’s foundational geometry- expresses Vedic ideas relating to not
only the microcosm and macrocosm but also to calendric time and cosmological concepts. Adhering to
ancient principles of sacred architecture temple designers took numbers from natural cycles and
cosmological ideas and converted them into lengths and building units, which were regarded as sacred
measurements and divine building modules, respectively. Angkor Wat’s sacred measurements were
based on multiplications and divisions of the Cambodian cubit or hat (0.43545 m).

Angkor Wat was built by the Khmer King Suryavarman II in the early 12th century
in Yaśodharapura, the capital of the Khmer Empire, as his state temple and eventual mausoleum.
Breaking from the Shaiva tradition of previous kings, Angkor Wat was instead dedicated to
Vishnu.Originally built as a Hindu temple dedicated to the god Vishnu, it was converted into a Buddhist
temple in the 14th century, and statues of Buddha were added to its already rich artwork. Sometime
later it was turned into a military fortification. Today it is a UNESCO World Heritage Site that scientists
are struggling to preserve.

Its 213-foot-tall (65 meters) central tower is surrounded by four smaller towers and a series of
enclosure walls, a layout that recreates the image of Mount Meru, a legendary place in Hindu
mythology that is said to lie beyond the Himalayas and be the home of the gods

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The city where the temple was built, Angkor, is located in modern-day Cambodia and was once the
capital of the Khmer Empire. This city contains hundreds of temples. The population may have been
over 1 million people. It was easily the largest city in the world until the Industrial Revolution.

Angkor had an urban core that could easily have held 500,000 people and a vast hinterland that had
many more inhabitants airborne laser scanning (lidar) research has shown. Researchers have also
identified a “lost” city called Mahendraparvata, which is located about 25 miles (40 kilometers) north
of Angkor Wat.

Cosmological Architecture

Angkor Wat itself is surrounded by a 650-foot-wide (200 m) moat that encompasses a perimeter of
more than 3 miles (5 km). This moat is 13 feet deep (4 m) and would have helped stabilize the temple’s
foundation, preventing groundwater from rising too high or falling too low. Angkor Wat’s main
entrance was to the west (a direction associated with Vishnu) across a stone causeway, with guardian
lions marking the way. Recently, archaeologists found the remains of eight towers made of sandstone
and laterite by the western gateway. These towers may be the remains of shrines that were in use before
Angkor Wat was fully constructed. To the east of the temple was a second, more modest, entrance.

The heart of the temple was the central tower, entered by way of a steep staircase, a statue of Vishnu at
top. This tower “was at once the symbolic center of the nation and the actual center where secular and
sacred power joined forces,” writes researcher Eleanor Mannikka in the book “Angkor: Celestial
Temples of the Khmer Empire”.2

Hidden paintings have been discovered in the central tower. One chamber in the tower has a scene
showing a traditional Khmer ensemble of musical instruments known as the pinpeat, which is made up
of different gongs, xylophones, wind instruments and other percussion instruments. In the same
chamber, there’s also an intricate scene featuring people riding horses between two structures, which
might be temples. These two paintings are among 200 that have been discovered in Angkor Wat since
2010.

A mile long sand structure containing a variety of spiral designs was recently discovered beside Angkor
Wat by archaeologists using lidar. It would have existed for a brief period during the mid-to-late 12th
century. Archaeologists are not certain what it was used for, and it’s possible that the structure was
never completed.

The remains of homes and ponds used by workers who lived near Angkor Wat, and serviced the temple,
were also found recently during lidar research.

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Legend Behind the Temple
The builder of Angkor Wat was a king named Suryavarman II. A usurper, he came to power in his
teenage years by killing his great uncle, Dharanindravarman I, while he was riding an elephant. An
inscription says that Suryavarman killed the man “as Garuda [a mythical bird] on a mountain ledge
would kill a serpent.”Suryavarman’s bloodlust would continue into his rule; he launched attacks into
Vietnam in an effort to gain control over the territory. He also made peaceful diplomatic advances, re-
opening relations with China.He venerated the god Vishnu, a deity often depicted as a protector, and
installed a statue of the god in Angkor Wat’s central tower. This devotion can also be seen in one of the
most remarkable reliefs at Angkor Wat, located in the southeast of the temple. The relief shows a chapter
in the Hindu story of creation known as the “churning of the sea of milk.”

As archaeologist Michael Coe writes, the relief “describes how the devas (gods) and the asuras
(demons) churned the ocean under the aegis of Vishnu, to produce the divine elixir of immortality.”
Scholars consider this relief to be one of the finest art pieces at Angkor Wat. Suryavarman’s devotion
to Vishnu is also shown in the posthumous name he was given, “Paramavishnuloka” which, according
to researcher Hélène Legendre-De Koninck, means “he who is in the supreme abode of Vishnu.”

Hinduism & Angkor Wat

Although Angkor Wat is dedicated to Vishnu, the full purpose of the temple is still debated. One
question is whether the ashes of Suryavarman II were interred in the monument, perhaps in the same
chamber where the deposits were found. If that were the case it would give the temple a funerary
meaning. Mannikka has noted that Angkor Wat is located at 13.41 degrees north in latitude and that the
north-south axis of the central tower’s chamber is 13.43 cubits long. This, Mannikka believes, is not an
accident. “In the central sanctuary, Vishnu is not only placed at the latitude of Angkor Wat, he is also
placed along the axis of the earth,” she writes, pointing out that the Khmer knew the Earth was round.
In addition, in her writing, Mannikka notes a dozen lunar alignments with Angkor Wat’s towers,
suggesting that it served an important astronomical role. “During the long and clear Cambodian nights,
when the stars filled every inch of the black sky, the astronomer-priests stood on the long western
causeway … and recorded the movements of the moon against the towers in the top two galleries of the
temple.”– based on the movement of the moon but synchronising with the solar year to avoid seasonal
drift – which was accomplished by adding an additional month or day to a particular year. The days in
a solar year were represented by lengths of 360, 365, or 366 units. Days in lunar months
(naksatras) were lengths of 27, 28, 29 units and a lunar year was 354 days.2

Two good examples of lunar and solar day counts being converted into lengths and integrated into the
architecture of Angkor Wat are:

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LUNAR GEOMETRY
The number of days in a lunar year was 354 and the distance between the Naga balustrade and the first
step at the end of the walkway, to the upper elevation, is 354 meters.
SOLAR GEOMETRY
Solar numbers are present in the external axial dimensions of the topmost elevation of the central tower,
which is 189.00 cubits east to west and 176.37 cubits north to south. Together they have a the sum
of 365.37 almost exactly the length of the solar year.
Between 879 – 1191 AD the Khmer empire extended from what is now southern Vietnam to Yunan,
China and westward to the Bay of Bengal. The great Hindu temple complex of Angkor Wat in
Cambodia was built by Emperor Suryavarman II who reigned between AD 1113-50 on a scale repeated
nowhere else on the planet, making Angkor Wat the largest religious monument in the world, with the
site measuring 162.6 hectares (1,626,000 m2; 402 acres). At that time London, England, housed around
18’000 people while Angkor Wat was a grand social and administrative metropolis, the largest city in
the world, with over a million inhabitants. Angkor Wat can be conceptualised as a heavenly portal
on earth. At the very centre of the temple is the most sacred place in the complex, where humans
and universal polar opposites united as a perceived column of creation energy flowing from
the heavens and emanating from the temple outwards across the kingdom, thus effecting the
fate of fields and humans.

For a lengthy and comprehensive treatment to the Mount Meru concept in Hinduism please visit
http://www.iskcon-truth.com/bhu-mandala/jambudvipa-varshas.html

Origins:

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The origins of the temple lie in what may be the world's oldest religious text, the Rigveda, one of the
four Veda Samhitas of Hindu literature. This text describes the gods of heaven and earth, including the
earthly god Vishnu, The Preserver. It is to Vishnu that Angkor Wat is consecrated, and with more than
mere symbolic intent. Hindu temples were built to be earthly abodes for the gods. The central sanctuary
was the most sacred place, directly in line with the vertical axis of the central spire that provided the
connection between the realms of heaven and Earth. The surrounding architecture of the temple would
then mirror Hindu cosmology, being essentially a mandala in stone a diagram of the cosmos itself.
Furthermore, the Khmer civilization had by the time of Angkor Wat's construction incorporated the idea
that a king would, after his death, be transmuted into one of the gods. Hence, it was at Angkor Wat that
Suryavarman II, after his death, was believed to reside as Vishnu.
The Draco-Angkor Correlation
The principal monuments of Angkor model the sinuous coils of the northern constellation of Draco.
There seems to be no doubt that a correlation exists: the correspondence between the principal stars of
Draco and at least fifteen of the main pyramid-temples of Angkor are too close to be called anything
else. Draco is a constellation in the far northern sky. Its name is Latin for dragon. It was one of the 48
constellations listed by the 2nd century astronomer Ptolemy, and remains one of the 88 modern
constellations today. The north pole of the ecliptic is in Draco. Draco is circumpolar (that is, never setting),
and can be seen all year from northern latitudes.It is inferred that the existence of the constellation was
known by the Khmer people and that their study of astronomy was immaculate.

Cycles of the Ages

A detailed survey of Angkor Wat published in Science magazine in July 1976 revealed that even the
causeway incorporates cosmic symbolism and numbers encoding the cycles of time. After establishing
the basic unit of measure used in Angkor as the Khme hat (equivalent to 0.43434 meters) the authors
of the survey go on to demonstrate that axial lengths along the causeway appear to have been adjusted
to symbolize or represent the great world ages of Hindu cosmology. These periods begin with the
1. Krita Yuga or golden age of man- 1,728,000 years
2. Treta Yuga, 1,296,000 years
3. Dvarpara Yuga 864,000 years and
4. Kali Yuga, the last being the most decadent age of man- 432,000 years.

It therefore cannot be an accident that key sections of the causeway have axial lengths that approximate
extremely closely to 1,728 hat, 1,296 hat, 864 hat, and 432 hat the yuga lengths scaled down by 1000.
We propose, conclude the authors, that the passage of time is numerically expressed by the lengths
corresponding to yugas along the west-east axis. Angkor wats dominant feature is its long and massive
east-west axis which locks it uncompromisingly to sunrise and sunset on the equinoxes. In addition, the
temple is cleverly anchored to ground and sky by markers for other key astronomical moments of the
year. For example, reports Science:

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It is interesting to note that there are two solstitial alignments from the western entrance gate of Angkor
Wat. These two alignments (added to the equinoctial alignment already established) mean that the entire
solar year was divided into four major sections by alignments from just inside the entrance of Angkor
Wat. From this western vantage point the sun rises over Phnom Bok (17.4 kilometers to the north-east)
on the day of the summer solstice. The western entrance gate of the temple also has a winter solstice
alignment with the temple of Prast Kuk Bangro,5.5 kilometres of the south-east.

Finally, some researchers have claimed that the very dimensions of many of the structures at Angkor
Wat have astronomical associations. These associations emerge from consideration of the unit of length
that was in use at that time, a unit known as the hat or "Cambodian cubit." There is some question as to
how long a hat was, and indeed its definition may not have been uniformly applied; but a value of 43.45
centimeters (17.1 inches) for the length of a hat is suggested by the structures themselves. Using this
value, archaeologists discovered numerous dimensions of the temple that seem to have astronomical
and cosmological significance for example, the following:

1. The dimensions of the highest rectangular level of the temple are 189 hat in the east-west
direction and 176 hat in the north-south direction. Added together these give 365, the number
of days in one year.
2. In the central sanctuary, the distances between sets of steps is approximately 12 hat. There are
roughly 12 lunar cycles, or synodic months (from full Moon to full Moon, say the basis for our
modern month) in one year.The length and width of the central tower add up to approximately
91 hat. On average, there are 91 days between any solstice and the next equinox, or any equinox
and the next solstice.
3. Because of its orbit around the Earth, the Moon's apparent position in the sky relative to the
background stars will appear to shift from night to night. Since it takes the Moon just over 27
days to complete one orbit (known as its sidereal period), it will, during this time appear to
move through 27 successive regions of the sky. In Hindu cosmology, these regions were known
as the naksatras, or lunar mansions. In some contexts there were 27 lunar mansions, while in
other contexts an additional naksatra containing the star Vega was included, giving 28 lunar
mansions.

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Quincunx: A quincunx is a geometric pattern consisting of five points arranged in a cross, with four
of them forming a square or rectangle and a fifth at its center. It forms the arrangement of five units in
the pattern corresponding to the five-spot on six-sided dice, playing cards, and dominoes. It is
represented in Unicode as U+2059 ⁙ FIVE DOT PUNCTUATION or (for the die
pattern) U+2684 ⚄ DIE FACE-5. In architecture, a quincuncial plan, also defined as a "cross-in-
square", is the plan of an edifice composed of nine bays. The central and the four angular ones are
covered with domes or groin vaults so that the pattern of these domes forms a quincunx; the other four
bays are surmounted by barrel vaults. In Khmer architecture, the towers of a temple, such as Angkor
Wat, are sometimes arranged in a quincunx to represent the five peaks of Mount Meru. This
arrangement conveys a symbolic identification with the sacred mountain. Mount Meru. A quincunx is
a spatial arrangement of five elements, with four elements placed as the corners of a square and the fifth
placed in the center. The five peaks of Mount Meru were taken to exhibit this arrangement, and the five
brick towers of the 10th-century temple known as East Mebon, for example, are arranged in the shape
of a quincunx. The quincunx also appears elsewhere in designs of the Angkorian period, as in the
riverbed carvings of Kbal Spean. Kbal Spean.8

REFERENCE

1. Angkor by Maurice Glaize – Goodreads, 1944

2. Angkor Wat: Time, Space, and Kingship, Eleanor Mannikka, Allen & Unwin, 1997
3."Angkor Vat, Description Graphique du Temple" by Guy Nafilyan, 1969, Ecole Francaise d'Extreme
Orient.
4. The Hsinbyume Pagoda,Burma, also known as Myatheindan is a large painted white and is modelled
on the physical description of the Buddhist sacred mountain, Mount Meru. The pagoda's design is a
great departure from Burmese pagoda design norms. It is based on descriptions of the mythical
Sulamani pagoda on Mount Meru, and the lower parts of the pagoda represent the mountain. Seven
concentric terraces represent the seven mountain ranges going up to the Mount Meru according to
Buddhist mythology.
5. A Mountain in Tibet: The Search for Mount Kailas and the Sources of the Great Rivers of India,
Charles Allen,kobo books,1982

6. Higham, C., 2014, Early Mainland Southeast Asia, Bangkok: River Books Co., Ltd. 11.

7. Angkor And The Khmer Civilization"

8. Angkor Wat, the Kundalini, and the Quinx: The Human Architecture of Divine
Renewal in the Quincunx." In Twentieth-century Epic Novels, Theodore Louis Steinberg

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