Brahmanical Shies Over Angkor Temples

Indo Nordic Author’s Collective, Stockholm, Tampere, Nagpur
Brahmanical Skies over the Angkor ARCHITECTURE

Part III
This is a classic view, with three symmetrical towers rising from the building. There are really five, but
two are obscured, behind the towers on the left and right.
Dr. Uday Dokras

B.Sc., B.A. (managerial economics) LL.B. Nagpur University, INDIA
Graduate Studies, Queen’s University, Kingston, CANADA
MBA CALSATATE USA
Graduate Diploma in Law, Stockholm University, SWEDEN
Ph.D. Stockholm University, SWEDEN
Introduction: In this Dulogy of which this is the first pat we describe how
the kings of Khemer took upon themselves the role of Brahmins inspite of
having on connect with the Indus- Valley Civilization but on the basis of
staunch Hinduism they embraced which is far remote from the concept of
a king in Hindu areas of Bharat where Kings were Ksatriyas and Brahmins
handled religious matters with no superiority.
The major ancient Angkor temples were built in locations according to the
location of stars in the constellation Draco, the dragon. In Cambodia this is
seen as a Naga, a divine cobra. The Cambodians trace their origins back to the
Naga, so it seems fitting that they think these temples were built according to
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the stars of Draco. In Cambodian mythology, the Princess of the Nagas married
an Indian Brahmana and from that union was born the Cambodian people.
Therefore still Cambodians say that they are “Born from the Naga.” Here is the
layout of Angkor Wat. It stands within a wide moat and has an outer wall 3.6
km (2.2 mi) long. The entrance is from the west, the left on the diagram below.
The western gate tower seems broken at the top. The crowd of people at the
entrance is typical of Angkor Wat. This is THE place where almost every person
who visits Cambodia will tour during their visit. Religious buildings often have
designs based on military defensive strategy. Even a modern Christian church
built in the shape of a cross is a defensible structure.
This is because, at some stage in its history, every religious following fears
persecution. This is obvious with Angkor Wat; it'’s a walled city with it’s own
water supply and protected farmlands.
In the field of architecture an architectural plan is a design and planning for

a building, and can contain architectural drawings, specifications of the design,
calculations, time planning of the building process, and other documentation.
The term "architectural plan" can have multiple related meanings:
 plan for an architectural project

 documentation of written and graphic descriptions of the architectural
elements of a building project including sketches, drawings and details. This
effort could also include both the design of new buildings and other structures,
as well as the planning for reconstruction of early historic structures.
 architectural design
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 floor plan
 scale drawing of a structure
This article will focus on the general meaning of architectural plan as a plan and
documentation for a building project.
Aspects of an Architectural Plan : A building is a man-made structure with a roof
and walls standing more or less permanently in one place. Buildings come in a
variety of shapes, sizes and functions, and have been adapted throughout history
for a wide number of factors, from building materials available, to weather
conditions, to land prices, ground conditions, specific uses and aesthetic reasons.
To better understand the term building compare the list of nonbuilding structures.
The gallery below gives an overview of different types of building.
Temples: Angkor Wat, Ta Prohm, Angkor Thom, Phnom Bakheng & Our Hotel: Angkor
D'Tresor Resort
Angkor Wat means Capital Temple, it was built by a Khmer King in the early
12th century as a Hindu temple but gradually transformed into a Buddhist
temple towards the end of the 12th century.
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Angkor Wat Temple Layout
Talking of the temple, it is a very majestic structure. The structure is very

intricate and very complex. It must have taken a lot of craftmen many years to
build the temple. The entire complex is rectanglar in shape. Outside the outer
wall is a moat. Within the wall are three rectangular structures stacked one on
top of the other, each progressively smaller than the other. On the third level
stands five towers.
Site planning
A site plan is an architectural plan, and a detailed engineering drawing of
proposed improvements to a given lot. A site plan usually shows a building
footprint, travelways, parking, drainage facilities, sanitary sewer lines, water
lines, trails, lighting, and landscaping.
Such a plan of a site is a graphic representation of the arrangement of
buildings, parking, drives, landscaping and any other structure that is part of
a development project.
A site plan is a set of construction drawings that a builder or contractor uses
to make improvements to a property. Counties can use the site plan to verify
that development codes are being met and as a historical resource. Site plans
are often prepared by a design consultant who must be either a licensed
engineer, architect, landscape architect or land survey. The architect Map is
part of a plan in Chandler, AZ.
The practice of designing, constructing, and operating buildings is most
usually a collective effort of different groups of professionals and trades.
Depending on the size, complexity, and purpose of a particular building
project.
Floor plan
One of the major tools in architectural design is the floor plan. This diagram
shows the relationships between rooms, spaces and other physical features at
one level of a structure. Dimensions are usually drawn between the walls to
specify room sizes and wall lengths. Floor plans will also include details of
fixtures like sinks, water heaters, furnaces, etc. Floor plans will include notes
to specify finishes, construction methods, or symbols for electrical items.
Similar to a map in a floor plan the orientation of the view is downward from
above, but unlike a conventional map, a plan is understood to be drawn at a
particular vertical position (commonly at about 4 feet above the floor). Objects
below this level are seen, objects at this level are shown 'cut' in plan-section,
and objects above this vertical position within the structure are omitted or
shown dashed. Plan view or "planform" is defined as a vertical orthographic
projection of an object on a horizontal plane, like a map.
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Below is a floor plan of the Angkor Wat temple. This shows the three levels, and
the galleries that line the outer corridor .
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Design process
A design process includes a series of steps followed by designers. Depending on
the product or service, some of these stages may be irrelevant, ignored in real-
world situations in order to save time, reduce cost, or because they may be
redundant in the situation. Typical stages of the design process include:
 Pre-production design
o Design brief - a statement of design goals
o Analysis - analysis of current design goals
o Research - investigating similar design solutions in the field or
related topics
o Specification - specifying requirements of a design solution
o Problem solving - conceptualizing and documenting design
solutions
o Presentation - presenting design solutions
 Design during production
o Development - continuation and improvement of a designed
solution
o Testing - in-situ testing a designed solution
 Post-production design feedback for future designs
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o Implementation - introducing the designed solution into the

environment
o Evaluation and conclusion - summary of process and results,
including constructive criticism and suggestions for future
improvements
 Redesign - any or all stages in the design process repeated (with
corrections made) at any time before, during, or after production.
Architectural drawings
Architectural drawings are used by architects and others for a number of
purposes: to develop a design idea into a coherent proposal, to communicate
ideas and concepts, to convince clients of the merits of a design, to enable
a building contractor to construct it, as a record of the completed work, and to
make a record of a building that already exists.
Architectural drawings are made according to a set of conventions, which
include particular views (floor plan, section etc.), sheet sizes, units of
measurement and scales, annotation and cross referencing. Conventionally,
drawings were made in ink on paper or a similar material, and any copies
required had to be laboriously made by hand. The twentieth century saw a
shift to drawing on tracing paper, so that mechanical copies could be run off
efficiently.
Green is water
Architectural design values Building a complete replica of Angkor Wat in

Minetest isn't practical without building on such a large scale that you'd never be
able to see all of it at once
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Architectural design values make up an important part of what

influences architects and designers when they make their design decisions.
However, architects and designers are not always influenced by the same
values and intentions. Value and intentions differ between
different architectural movements. It also differs between different schools of
architecture and schools of design as well as among
individual architects and designers.
Planning
A plan is typically any procedure used to achieve an objective. It is a set of
intended actions, through which one expects to achieve a goal. Plans can be
formal or informal:
 Structured and formal plans, used by multiple people, are more likely to
occur in projects, diplomacy, careers, economic
development, military campaigns, combat, or in the conduct of
other business.
 Informal or ad hoc plans are created by individuals in all of their
pursuits.
A lack of planning in any discipline may lead to a misallocation of resources,
misunderstandings, or irrelevant sections added to Wikipedia articles such as
this one.
Building construction
Building construction is the process of preparing for and
forming buildings[2] and building systems.[3] Construction starts with planning,
design, and financing and continues until the structure is ready for occupancy.
Far from being a single activity, large scale construction is a feat of human
multitasking. Normally, the job is managed by a project manager, and
supervised by a construction manager, design engineer, construction
engineer or project architect. For the successful execution of a project,
effective planning is essential.
Garden design-Landscape design
Landscape planning is a branch of landscape architecture. Urban park
systems and greenways of the type planned by Frederick Law Olmsted are key
examples of urban landscape planning. Landscape designers tend to work for
clients who wish to commission construction work. Landscape planners can
look beyond the 'closely drawn technical limits' and 'narrowly drawn territorial
boundaries' which constrain design projects.
Landscape planners tend to work on projects which:
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 are of broad geographical scope

 concern many land uses or many clients
 are implemented over a long period of time
In rural areas, the damage caused by unplanned mineral extraction was one of
the early reasons for a public demand for landscape planning..
Garden design is the art and process of designing and creating plans for layout
and planting of gardens and landscapes. One can imagine there being gardens
at Angkor- the design may have been done by the architects/designers
themselves-or by professionals of varying levels of experience and expertise of
those days which one can imagine was much Today m Most professional
garden designers are trained in principles of design and in horticulture, and
have an expert knowledge and experience of using plants. Some professional
garden designers are also landscape architects,
Lotus at the Angkor still water moats

God's own favourite
In the form and personality of gods and goddesses of the world, the lotus
symbol has a special and important place. Invariably the beauty and greatness
of the deities are described with reference to the lotus. Their various limbs
especially hands, feet, face and eyes are likened to it. Many of these gods also
hold in their hands, besides other things, the lotus too. Still others are depicted
as being seated on a lotus. eg. Lakshmi, Sarasvati, Brahma, Vishnu. Jainism
too has a special place for the lotus and the Jain Tirthankaras are depicted as
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seated on the flower.
Amongst the Hindu Trinity, it is the innumerable forms of Lord Vishnu that are
frequently connected with the lotus. Many are the lotus related names of
Vishnu that can be selected out of the thousand names of the Lord eg.
Pundarikaksha, Padmanabha and a host of others. Brahma's birth place was
the lotus and hence he is referred to as Kamalaja, Kamalasana, Kamali,
Kamalodhbava and so on. The lotus has a special affinity with the Sun God or
Surya. Sanskritists fondly describe the sun as a friend of the lotus
(Kamalabandhu), controller of lotus (Kamalanatha), darling of lotus
(Kamalavallabha) and with many other epithets. The flower blooms at sunrise
and sets at sunset alluding to the fact that, all living beings in the world
become active with sunrise and retire for the day at sunset. The sun god is the
only male deity holding lotuses in both hands. He is also seated on a lotus. The
connection between the sun god and the lotus is also extensively dwelt upon in
the literatures of various countries like Egypt, Tibet, China, Japan and so on.
Amongst the goddesses, Lakshmi has the closest connection with the lotus.
She has lotus in her hands, wears a garland of lotuses and all her limbs are
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comparable to a lotus. Dr Ananda Coomaraswamy has divided Lakshmi idols

into three categories - lotus-seated (Padmasthita), lotus-holding (Padmagraha)
and lotus-residing (Padmavasa). According to Vishnu Purana, at the time of her
emergence, Lakshmi was seated on a lotus and also held the flower in her
hand. There are numerous iconographical, sculptural and numismatic
evidences and references that depict Lakshmi and Sarasvati in relationship
with the lotus. In the Sunga period sculptures, she is shown as seated or
standing on a lotus. A miniature image of the Kushana period shows her
holding a lotus and a Sunga coin shows her standing on a lotus with a flower
in her hand. There is carved image of Sarasvati seated on a lotus on the
Bharhut column.
Lotus.in.Buddhist.tradition
Buddhism abounds with interesting references to the lotus. According to
Buddhist beliefs, Buddha had the sign of a lotus on his feet and at birth,
wherever he placed his foot, lotuses bloomed. Most Buddha images show him
seated on a lotus in bloom. The lotus symbolizes his other worldliness, his
great compassion for creatures of the world, his immortality and enlightenment
besides his impeccable purity of mind and body.
Buddhas seated on a lotus in bloom or on a lotus-seat have been found in

chaityas, viharas, stupas and caves in many countries. Not only Buddhas but
Bodhisattvas too are lotus seated and holding a lotus. A Bodhisattva is one
who has the capacity and potential and the qualities needed to become a
Buddha. One such example is the Bodhisattva Avalokitesvara. He is the most
worshipful and revered Bodhisattva and very popular in China, Japan, Korea
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and other Eastern countries. He holds a lotus with a long stem in his left hand
and is generally seated on a lotus in full bloom. The lotus is also associated
with various other Buddhist gods and goddesses like Tara, Paramita and Kwan
Yin. Besides religion, the lotus plays a significant role in Buddhist philosophy
too.
Buddhist mandalas (yantras) depict different Buddhas and Bodhisattvas inside

a lotus or on its petals. The most revered Buddhist mantra is 'Om Mani Padme
Hum' - "Oh jewel within the lotus, we bow to you." The Buddhist Mahayana
treatise is titled Sadharma Pundarika Sutra meaning, "the lotus, a key to the
religion of truth. It is otherwise called Lotus Sutra. According to another sutra,
the image of Universal knowledge rests on a white lotus which, is also the heart
symbolizing self-bliss and ultimate bliss. A chant goes that when the white
lotus descends on earth it changes everyone's life for the better. Buddhist ages,
with reference to the cosmos, are also initiated by the appearance of a lotus.
Again, it is this flower that augurs the birth of a Buddha. If there are no
blossoms, no Buddha will appear. At the beginning of the current era, the
Bhadrakalpa, there were 1000 blossoms signifying the birth of 1000 Buddhas.
Four virtues are attributed to this flower - scent, purity, softness and
loveliness. While these qualities can be seen in other flowers too, Chinese
botanists at one time believed that the lotus flowered and bore fruit at the
same time, thus symbolizing the ability to transcend the limitations of time. It
was this belief that elevated it to a privileged status amongst flowers. Not only
in this life but also in the after life, the lotus has a special place in Buddhist
tradition.
Lotus.and.after-life
The Lotus sect of Chinese Buddhism believes that people are freed from the
cycle of birth and death by going to a celestial sphere called the Western
heaven. This paradise contains seven treasure ponds. The bed of these is
covered with gold dust and the lotuses there are as big as carriage wheels.So
whether the lotuses floated during the Hindu period or the Buddhist –probably
both!
Buddhist temple courtyards often depict the Sacred Lake of Lotuses. The
significance of this can be gauged from the following related story: "Each soul
has a lotus on this lake, which will open to receive them after death and where
they will wait until the time of its opening. The flowers thrive or droop
according to the piety of the individual on earth. For the devout, they open
immediately when he dies, admitting the soul at once to the divine presence."
In China, the envelopes given to the family at a funeral are impressed with the
outline.of.a.lotus.
Transportation planning
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Transportation planning is the field involved with the siting

of transportation facilities (generally streets, highways, sidewalks, bike lanes
and public transport lines).
Transportation planning historically has followed the rational planning
model of defining goals and objectives, identifying problems, generating
alternatives, evaluating alternatives, and developing the plan. Other models for
planning include rational actor, satisficing, incremental planning,
organizational process, and political bargaining. However, planners are
increasingly expected to adopt a multi-disciplinary approach, especially due to
the rising importance of environmentalism. For example, the use of behavioral
psychology to persuade drivers to abandon their automobiles and use public
transport instead. The role of the transport planner is shifting from technical
analysis to promoting sustainability through integrated transport policies.
Urban planning
Urban, city, and town planning is the integration of the disciplines of land use
planning and transport planning, to explore a very wide range of aspects of the
built and social environments of urbanized municipalities and
communities. Regional planning deals with a still larger environment, at a less
detailed level.
Another key role of urban planning is urban renewal, and re-generation
of inner cities by adapting urban planning methods to existing cities suffering
from long-term infrastructural decay. The picture below is an architecture map
of a part of south Chandler, AZ.
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Immediately one can see the quality of the workmanship, with the finely carved
capital of this column, with its decoration extending to the wall above that
which it supports. In the entrance is one of the many Apsaras in Angkor Wat.
Note the crown with three peaks. This is typical in these Khmer Apsara
carvings.
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More Apsaras, with even fancier hats/ Carvings on a column.
Above picture(RIGHT) a yellow-garbed Buddha in the entrance hall. Angkor

Wat was dedicated to Vishnu when built. But in the late 13th century, Angkor
Wat gradually moved from Hindu to Theravada Buddhist use, which continues
to the present day. Angkor Wat is unusual among the Angkor temples in that
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although it was somewhat neglected after the 16th century it was never
completely abandoned.
Passing through the gate tower, we see the interior Angkor Wat temple ahead
of us.
Here is one of the two “libraries,” one on each side of the entrance walk.
Though today they are called libraries, no one really knows what these
buildings were used for.
Looking towards the main temple. There is a green covering over an area
undergoing restoration.
Angkor Wat required considerable restoration in the 20th century, mainly the
removal of accumulated earth and vegetation. Work was interrupted by the civil
war and Khmer Rouge control of the country during the 1970s and 1980s, but
relatively little damage was done during this period other than the theft and
destruction of mostly post-Angkorian statues. Restoration work was done
between 1986 and 1992 by the Archaeological Survey of India. Since the
1990s, Angkor Wat has seen continued conservation efforts and a massive
increase in tourism, which now exceeds 1,000,000 visitors per year, and is
growing at about 25% annually.
The temple is part of the Angkor World Heritage Site, established in 1992,

which has provided some funding and has encouraged the Cambodian
government. The German Apsara Conservation Project (GACP) is working to
protect the Apsaras and other bas-reliefs which decorate the temple from
damage; around 20% were in very poor condition, mainly because of natural
erosion and deterioration of the stone, but in part also due to earlier
restoration efforts. Other work involves the repair of collapsed sections of the
structure, and prevention of further collapse: the west facade of the upper
level, for example, has been buttressed by scaffolding since 2002, while a
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Japanese team completed restoration of the north library of the outer enclosure
in 2005. World Monuments Fund began work on the Churning of the Sea of
Milk Gallery in 2008.

This is followed by martial scenes of warfare between the Kauravas and the
Pandavas.
The Outer Gallery

There is a right tujrn to enter into the Outer Gallery.
Following is a list of the sets of bas-reliefs on the walls of the outer gallery. The
bas-reliefs are divided into sections, usually two on each wall of the square
gallery. Each section depicts a specific theme. These are in sequence, counter-
clock wise, after entering through the main entrance.
West Gallery
 The Battle of Kurukshetra between Pandavas and Kauravas
South Gallery
 Army of King Suryavaman II, the builder of Angkor Wat
 Judgment by Yama and the tortures of Hell
East Gallery
 Churning of the Ocean of Milk
 A battle between Vishnu and a force of Asuras
 North Gallery (said to be the best preserved)
 The Victory of Krishna over the Asura demon King Bana
 Battle between the Devas (Gods) and the Asuras (Demons)
 West Gallery
 Battle of Lanka between the Rakshasas and the Vanaras or monkeys
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Battle of Kurukshetra
This battle scene is the main subject of the Hindu epic Mahabharata. It recalls
the historic wars in Kurukshetra, a province in India, and depicts the last
battle between rival enemies who are cousins. The armies of the Kauravas and
the Pandavas march from opposite ends towards the center of the panel where
they meet in combat. Headpieces differentiate the warriors of the two armies.
The scene begins with infantry marching into battle and musicians playing a
rhythmic cadence. The battlefield is the scene of hand-to-hand combat and
many dead soldiers.
Chief officers and generals (represented on a larger scale) oversee the battle in
chariots and on elephants and horses.
This first bas relief depicts the Battle of Kuru against armies of Champa led by
Angkor Wat founder Suryavarman II. This honors the kind who built this
temple, though it has nothing to do with the Mahabharata.
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The Southwest Pavilion

The Southwest Corner Pavilion has a variety of scenes from the epic
Ramayana. The upper panel shows a central figure that is the focus of all
others. The bottom seems to show women and a child. They seem from another
tribal group as the ones above, due to different clothes and head dressings.
Rama has shot Vali, the monkey king, with an arrow. Vali lies in the arms of
his wife (three pointed headdress), and monkeys mourn his death.
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Army of King Suryavarman II

This gallery depicts a triumphal procession from a battle between the Khmer
and their enemies.
Here is King Suryavarman II, the builder of Angkor Wat, sitting in his throne,
holding audience. Servants around him hold fans and ceremonial umbrellas.
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This looks like a group of monks, attending the king.
This is someone, I think a queen, being carried in a covered chair.
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The South Gallery, with its corbelled arch.
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More marching troops, wearing helmets and carrying spears.
Officers riding horses. The important figures are larger sized.
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Here is King Suryavarman II again, sword across his shoulder, riding an

elephant.
The Judgment of Yama and the Tortures of Hell

The Judgment by Yama depicts the Khmer’s ideas of heaven and hell. The
spirits of the dead are brought to the god Yama to await their judgment. The
good ones are allowed to proceed to one of the 37 heavens of Hindu mythology,
where they enjoy idyllic surroundings in the celestial palace and are rewarded
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by a pleasant life of leisure. The sinners, yoked in groups of four, are dragged
by Yama’s assistants into one of the 32 hells and receive terrible punishments.
Departed spirits line up to enter the place of judgment, and heaven and hell.
From the left lead the two paths, one to the heavens (above), and the other to
hell (below). We see the souls of the good being carried on thrones and
palanquins on their way to heaven, while the damned are dragged to hell,
towards their punishment, like cattle, with a rope through their nostrils.
Here are women being taken into hell. The executioner is keeping order, and
keeping them moving.
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On the way to hell, I guess a couple of spirits were getting unruly. The
executioner is holding them by their ankles, upside down. Notice the trees in
the background.
On the way to heaven, things are much more peaceful.
On the path to hell, the executioner keeps all the damned spirits in line.
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On the path to heaven, this looks like an Apsara queen, being approached by
some men. More Apsaras are in the background.
Here, in the line of the good, an Apsara is being greeted and worshiped by a
group of kneeling men.
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Damned spirits are chained together in groups of four. This makes it easier for
the executioner to keep them moving and in order. I don’t think I want to be in
this line.
A group on the left is being pulled by their chain, while on the right, an
elephant grabs several rowdy souls.
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Here is one of the good being carried on a palanquin.
Yama, the Supreme Judge, with multiple arms holding sticks (or something
like that), wielding a staff and riding a buffalo. Departed spirits await
judgment. Yama points out to his scribes the upper road representing heaven
and the lower one of hell.
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Assistants to Yama shove the wicked through a trap door to the lower regions
of hell where torturers deliver punishments such as sawing a body in half for
those who overeat, or forcing them to swallow red-hot coals.
The tortures are varied and are but transitory – the Hindu religions knowing
nothing of eternal damnation. It is worth noting that the guards and
executioners, generally large in stature and aided by ferocious beasts, are
themselves also damned.
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A view walking down the corridor beside the South Gallery.
Here is one person being punished in hell. Lawbreakers have their bones
broken. I think this is what is happening here. The glutton is cleaved in two,
rice thieves are afflicted with enormous bellies of hot iron. Some of the
punished wear iron shackles. Those who picked the flowers in the garden of
Shiva have their heads pierced with nails,
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The Churning of the Ocean of Milk

The Churning of the Ocean of Milk is an ancient Vedic tale, found in the
Bhagavad Purana (Canto 8 Chapter 7), Agni Purana and the Ramayana
(Balakanda chapter). Here is the story, known as “The Story of Kurma Avatar,”
or “Samudra Manthan.” Kurma, the turtle, is Vishnu’s second avatar. Samudra
is Sanskrit for “ocean,” literally, “gathering of waters.” The story below is copied
from mahasivaratri.org. Some say that this gallery is the most important of all
of them at Angkor Wat.
Legend Behind Samudra Manthan

Once Indra, the King of Gods, while riding on an elephant, came across
Durvasa Muni who offered him a special garland. Indra accepted the garland
but put it on the trunk of the elephant. The elephant was irritated by the smell
and it threw the garland on the floor. This enraged the sage, as the garland was
a dwelling of Sri (fortune) and was to be treated as prasada. Durvasa Muni
cursed Indra and all devas to be bereft of all strength, energy, and fortune.
In battles that followed this incident, the devas were defeated and asuras
(demons), led by Bali, gained control of the universe. Devas sought help from
Lord Vishnu who advised them to treat the asuras in a diplomatic manner.
The devas formed an alliance with the asuras to jointly churn the ocean for the
nectar of immortality and to share it among them. Lord Vishnu told the devas
that he would arrange that they alone obtain the nectar.
The Churning of the Ocean

The churning of the milk-ocean was an elaborate process. Mount Mandara was
used as the churning rod and Vasuki, the King of Serpents, became the
churning rope. Lord Vishnu himself had to intercede in so many ways to aid
the devas. All kinds of herbs were cast into the ocean and many great beings
and objects were produced from the ocean and were divided between the
asuras and the gods. It is said that the following things emerged from the
Samudra Manthan:
 Sura or Varuni – Goddess and creator of wine

 Apsaras – various divine nymphs
 Kaustubha – a rare diamond said to be the most valuable jewel in the
world
 Uchhaishravas – the divine white horse
 Kalpavriksha – the wish-granting tree
 Kamadhenu – the wish-fulfilling cow
 Airavata – the white elephant
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 Lakshmi – the Goddess of Fortune and Wealth. Vishnu and Lakshmi

were reunited after having been separated for many ages.
Haalaa-Hala – the Poison

During the Sagar Manthan by the gods and demons, haalaa-hala, a pot of
poison, also came out of the ocean. This terrified the gods and demons as the
poison was so toxic that its effects would have wiped out the entire creation.
On the advice of Lord Vishnu, the gods approached Lord Shiva for help and
protection as only he could swallow it without being affected. On the request of
the gods and out of compassion for living beings, Lord Shiva drank the poison.
However, Parvati, Lord Shiva’s consort, pressed his neck so that the poison did
not reach his stomach. Thus, it stayed in his throat neither going up nor going
down and Shiva remained unharmed. The poison was so potent that it changed
the color of Lord Mahadeva’s neck to blue. For this reason, Lord Shiva is also
called Neelakantha (the blue-necked one) where ‘Neela’ means blue and
‘Kantha’ means neck or throat.
As part of the therapy, doctors advised the gods to keep Lord Shiva awake
during the night. Thus, the gods kept a vigil in contemplation of Lord Shiva. To
amuse Shiva and to keep him awake, the gods took turn performing various
dances and playing music. As the day broke out, Lord Shiva, pleased with their
devotion, blessed them all. Shivaratri is the celebration of this event by which
Shiva saved the world. Since then, on this day and night – devotees fast, keep
vigil, sing glories of the Lord, and meditate.
Churning Out Divine Nectar

At last, Dhanvantari, the Divine Physician, appeared with a pot of Amrita
(nectar of immortality) in his skillful hands. Fierce fighting ensued between
devas and asuras for the nectar. To protect the nectar from asuras, devas hid
the pot of nectar at four places on the earth – Prayag (Allahabad), Haridwar,
Ujjain and Nasik. At each of these places, a drop of the nectar spilled from the
pot and since then, it is believed that these places acquired mystical power.
Grand Kumbh Mela is celebrated at the four places after every 12 years for this
reason.
Eventually, Lord Vishnu took the form of a beautiful woman, Mohini. While her
beauty bewildered the asuras, Mohini seized the nectar and returned it to the
devas, who drank it immediately.
Below, a row of 92 asuras (demons with round bulging eyes and crested
helmets) pull the king of the Nagas, Vasuki, to churn the Ocean of Milk.
34
In the center is Vishnu, aided by his avatar, the turtle, Kurma. Indra is above
Vishnu, watching the action. (This image is from the Wikimedia Commons. I
was not able to get a good photo of this. Taking pictures of these bas-reliefs
was not easy; you only can have natural light or a flash, and the flash washes
out the image entirely.)
35
Below are the 88 devas (gods with almond-shaped eyes and conical
headdresses).
To begin the motion, the gods and demons twist the serpent’s body; the
demons hold the head and the gods hold the tail of the serpent. Then by
pulling it rhythmically back and forth they cause the pivot to rotate and churn
the water.
36
At this point, our guide led us into the temple. We did not see any of the other
galleries. I regret this now.
We took these stairs up to the second level. Again, wooden steps have been
built over the original stone steps.
37
At the top of the stairs we were met by this group of Apsaras, I guess
decorating the entrance.
38
People mill around in a second level courtyard. These stone structures, built
without mortar, with just the stones fitted together by the stone masons, have
withstood time amazingly well.
This is one of the four corner towers on the third level.
39
The Baken at Angkor Wat – The Main Sanctuary, Third Level
Bakan is the Khmer name of what used to be the principal sanctuary of Angkor
Wat. It is the summit of Angkor Wat’s central temple, the highest of the
temple’s three levels and the uppermost point of world’s largest religious
complex. To get there we climbed up a steep wooden stairway to the third level.
It was steep enough that I was grateful for the handrail.
Looking back at the two lower levels.
40
Here is a reclining Buddha, covered in saffron. This reclining pose, with his
head resting on his hand, is a “Sleeping Buddha.”
There are four special Buddhas at this level, one under each of the four corner
towers. It is considered auspicious to see each of these Buddhas.
41
This is a view of the courtyard at the third level.
Two Buddhist monks walk into the courtyard.
More Apsaras.
42
Notice how the stone is black in some places? This is where visitors have
rubbed their hands, it is human body oil. People seem to like rubbing the
breasts and tummy of the Apsara on the left. The other girls don’t get so much
attention.
43
The base of the central tower.
44
This is the central tower of Angkor Wat.
45
More Apsaras, on a tower. The stone carving is so fine, with a delicate leafy
background for both figures. Does not look 800 years old to me!
46
The monks in the courtyard get their cameras out to snap some photos. Many
young men in Cambodia become monks for just a year or two. They get
education and are considered afterward better candidates as husbands when
their families try to find wives for them. So you see many young monks.
47
The central tower. This is the main tower in the largest Hindu temple on the
planet. When you are there, stop and take a look, and take it all in. At the base
of this tower there originally was a shrine to Vishnu. We do not know the name
of the image of Vishnu that was once in the central tower, since it was
removed, I think, in the late 1300’s when Angkor Wat was converted into a
Buddhist temple. There are now four Buddhas under this tower.
48
Looking from the third level towards the main entrance.
49
People below. They have just climbed the stairs up to the second level.
50
One of the walkways that surround the inner courtyard.
51
A headless statue. I think, because of the position of the hands, Dhyana Mudra
– the gesture of meditation with both hands resting on the lap, palms upwards
– that this was Buddha in meditation.
52
Here is another such Buddha. It is interesting to me that Lord Buddha is

protected by Nagas, cobras, above him. This is a usual Hindu image, not so
common as a Buddhist one. I think it shows the fusion of images from Hindu
to Buddhist.
53
Another of the four Buddhas at each corner of the third level. Here he stands
with his palms together. This is Namaskara Mudra – the gesture of prayer. This
is the hand gesture that evokes greeting another being with the utmost respect
and adoration for the Divine in all.
54
Looking down at the second level again.
55
Here are the stairs down. Now we are especially happy there is a hand rail.
Carol, in the black blouse, is about half way down.
56
More exquisite carving at the top of a door.
57
We then entered what is called “The Hall of One Thousand Buddhas,” on the
second level. It is called this because many people, over hundreds of years,
have left Buddha images and statues here. Most have been removed, but many
still remain.
58
Another larger-than-life Buddha, this one with two hands facing outward. This
is Fearlessness (Abhāya Mudrā), displaying fearlessness in the face of adversity
and enjoining others to do so. When done with two hands it is also called
“forbidding the relatives.” When it is just the right hand it is also called
“calming animals.” I am not sure what Buddha was forbidding the relatives
from doing. It is kind of amusing that fearlessness and dealing with relatives
are the same gesture.
This is the main Buddha in the Hall of One Thousand Buddhas.
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Looking back towards the main temple.
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We are now on the first level, in a cross-shaped hall near the entrance.
To support this idea, here is something that I found from sacredsites.com:
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Using computer simulations it has been shown that the ground plan of the
Angkor complex – the terrestrial placement of its principal temples – mirrors
the stars in the constellation of Draco at the time of spring equinox in 10,500
BC. While the date of this astronomical alignment is far earlier than any known
construction at Angkor, it appears that its purpose was to architecturally
mirror the heavens in order to assist in the harmonization of the earth and the
stars.
If this is correct then the origins of Angkor Wat is indeed ancient. 10,500 BC
would have been in the early days of agriculture in Southeast Asia. It makes
sense to me that people performing this kind of careful astronomical
observation would be settled in one place from which to observe, not roaming
hunter gathers. Being settled in one place requires agriculture.One can even
today see boats which resemble what was thwe way of life earlier on. Pic shows
a crew in two boats, tied together
Here is another classic photo of Angkor Wat, illuminated at night. (Picture

from Ta Som Guest House.)
62
This was the third Angkor Wat temple we visited this day. By the time we got
here, we were pretty tired and saturated.
DEVARAJA TRILOGY by the Author 1200 pages in 3 parts explaining
the Devraja Cconcept in India and SE Asia on academia.edu
See also Puri, B. (1958). BRAHMANISM IN ANCIENT

KAMBUJADEŚA. Proceedings of the Indian History Congress, 21, 95-101.
Retrieved July 17, 2021, from http://www.jstor.org/stable/44145174
63
An interior view of the west gate building. Note the corbel arch used in order to
construct the passageway. A corbel arch is constructed by adding layers of
stones to the walls on either side of an opening, with each successive layer
projecting further towards the center than the one supporting it from below,
until the two sides meet in the middle. This is weaker than a true arch, of
which the Khmer architects must not have known.
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When Yasovarman I (889-915) succeeded Indravarman I, he erected a temple in

honor of his parents, as his father had for his at Preah Ko (879,) usually
regarded as the first temple of the Angkorian era. This second ancestral temple,
Lolei, was built in the middle of his father’s baray at Hariharayala (Roluos)
setting a precedent for other later island temples such as East Mebon (953)
built in Yasovarman’s own Yasoharatataka or East Baray by Rajendravarman,
West Mebon (c.1055) in the West Baray by Udayadityavarman II and
Neak Pean (c.1200) by Jayavarman VII in his own Jayatataka Baray. Then
Yasovarman I built a new capital at Yasodharapura a few miles from the future
sites of Angkor Wat and Angkor Thom, centered around his own state temple
mountain located on the crest of an actual mountain, or at least a hill, rising
78m above the Angkorian plain named Phnom Bakheng (phnom is Khmer for
hill.) Thus, he built not only a temple mountain but a mountain temple
including the actual topography in the temple’s symbolic meaning, setting a
precedent for more ambitious syntheses of nature and architecture such as
Preah Vihear (11th Century) and Phnom Rung (1113 -1150)
Thus the temple itself, the towers of its panchayatana and those around its
terraces and base could all be read as smaller replicas, “aedicules” and
antefixes of the combined hill and pyramid, itself a symbol of the cosmic,
“Platonic Form” of mountains, Mt. Meru, at whose base Phnom Bakheng sat,
though at an incalculable distance from it. This creates an infinite regress of
original and simulacrum, signified and signifier, as characteristic of Indic as
postmodern thought.
Of all the temple mountains the Khmer built, Phnom Bakheng seems most
cognizant of its possible Javanese precedent, Borobudur, (see figure 10,) in the
multiple small, identical shrines lining its five terraces which are, however, too
narrow to allow circumambulation, thus precluding the need for mural bas
reliefs and the didactic purpose of its putative original. The forty-four large
shrines surrounding the pyramid’s base also recall the phalanx of
224 pevara or guardian candi or small shrines standing watch at Candi Siwa
at Roro Jonggrang (Prambanan,) Java. Nonetheless, the Bakheng’s 108 shrines
would be an impressive number of aedicules on the shikhara of all but the
most ambitious Indonesian and Indian temples.
Mathematics: Phnom Bakheng, like every other Khmer monument, is

constructed using precise mathematical calculations, leading some to the
conclusion it must have functioned as some sort of astronomical or astrological
instrument, at a time when there was no distinction between the two. In the
absence of historical evidence, an exegete is free to choose among a plethora of
possible sidereal phenomena and methods of measuring Khmer temples which
are necessarily somewhat arbitrary. These have included: number of footsteps,
(but whose foot?) distance from the outer edges of a structure (generally used
65
in this introduction,) distance from a structure’s center, ratios of a temple’s

length, width or diagonal, its intercolumniation, its inter-fenestration, arc-
seconds of the azimuth or path of the sun or moon, etc. Under these
circumstances, most such theories must be regarded as ingenious or merely
ingenuous, creative or simply credulous, suggestive or just obsessive. Jean
Fillozat of the EFEO, École Française d’Extrême Orient, for example, noticed
that from any point around the Bakheng only thirty-three shrines are visible –
which coincides with the number of years it takes a lunar calendar of 354 days
and solar calendar of 365 to come into sync, (as well, one might add, as the
number of Vedic deities, the levels of consciousness in Buddhist cosmology,
Christ’s age at his death, a third of one hundred and any number of other
related and unrelated phenomena.) He also noted that each quadrant
contained twenty-eight towers, equal to the days of a four-week lunar month,
while six times the sixty terrace shrines plus the five towers on their summit
equals 365, the days in a solar year. With a little more arithmetic, one could
soon discover that a four year lunar cycle has 1416 days and a solar or
Gregorian cycle, 1461 days, the same four digits and hence the same sum,
twelve, equal to the number of months in a year (or hours of sunlight at the
equinox, half a 24-hour day or eggs in a dozen, for that matter.) These two
four-year cycles are also forty-five days out of sync, the number of the 44
shrines around the base plus the central one. Phnom Bakheng, the temple
itself, could even be pressed into service to provide the “intercalation” or
“embolism” of 366 shrines each leap year. Since any of these congruities may
have resulted from serendipity or even wishful-thinking, the only conclusion to
be drawn from them is that the temple could have functioned as an
observatory, - not that it did.
Numerology figured as prominently in the Vastu Shastra and Khmer life as

astrology with which it is intertwined; it determined the date to begin a
temple’s construction or to start a war; it was used to calculate the size of
a pada for a mandala; the “sum” of the letters of a donor’s name could decide
which god a temple honored and almost every number had numerous
interpretations. Special attention was paid to the ratio between the dimensions
of a temple’s parts, like Pythagoras’ or Palladio’s harmonic fractions or
Corbusier’s “golden mean ratio” or “modulor.” For example, 108, the number of
shrines at Phnom Bakheng (less the center one) was regarded as especially
auspicious since 108 has so many “auspicious” factors – 2, 3, 4, 6, 9, 12, 18,
27, 54, (although, as noted, most numbers could be auspicious, ominous or
both.) The sum of the digits in 108 equals nine; a “magic square” can be
constructed around that number because as the initial digits of its multiples
increase, their final digits decrease by an equal amount, so all equal nine – 18,
27, 36, 45, 63, 72, 81, 90, 108, 117, 126, 135, 144, 153, 162, 171, 180, 207,
216, 225, 234, 243, 252, 261, 270, 432. (99 might appear to present an
exception but adding 1 to 9 =10 while subtracting 1 from 0 = equals -1, the
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sum of which is also 9; although the Indians invented zero they overlooked
negative numbers, so this anomaly may have caused needless perplexity.)
The fact that the total number of shrines is 109 not 108 might also seem to
present a problem but, in fact, it would only have made that number more
auspicious from the point of view of temple’s shthapakas or architects, since
109 is an irrational number and therefore cannot be factored, endowing it with
both mystery, unity and “adamantine” invulnerability. The Vastu Shastra,
attached special significance to a number’s “remainder” after factoring; this
might be related to the consistent asymmetry of Khmer temples, their
unfinished state or simply an irrational fascination with the irrational, closely
allied to the numerological, the magical and hence the sacral. 109’s remainder
is one, the uniquely indivisible singularity and origin of all other numbers, thus
associated with the primal bindu, the seed of all, the absolute, Brahman,
atman, the uncreated creator and primum mobile. Buddhism is more rigorous
numerologically than Hinduism: since zero precedes even one, sunyata or
nothing is regarded as the ultimate uncreated or not “dependently originated”
reality.
The temple is situated on a raised terrace, higher than the

city.The height of Angkor Wat from the ground to the top of the central tower
is greater than it might appear: 213 meters (699 feet), achieved with three
rectangular or square levels (1-3) Each one is progressively smaller and
higher than the one below starting from the outer limits of the temple. The
main materials used to construct Angkor Wat were sandstone and laterite (a
clayey soil and rock material rich in iron and aluminum). Sandstone was
used as the main material for visible parts of the temple.
The story behind the story, however, is the revolution in Angkor history. Most
sources available today are more or less based on the arguments laid out by
early 20th century epigraphy and archaeology- George Coedès, who published
in French in the 1940s, and whose works were translated into English in the
1960s. Coedès defined the paradigm. He argued that Southeast Asia
represented a ‘Farther India’, a land of gold that was conquered and colonized
by waves of Indians from around 200 BC through 400 AD. His work also gave
us the basic timeline of the kings and therefore the monuments. He helped lay
out a narrative of a pre-Angkor Cambodia trapped in a dark ages. He and other
scholars documented wars between the Khmers and the Chams that defined
the rise of Angkor’s first Buddhist king. The shadow of Coedès stretches so
long because the Khmer Rouge, Vietnamese invasion and destructive poverty
have kept international scholarship at bay. Only in the 1990s did meaningful
work on Angkor resume.
Although we remain deeply in Coedès’ debt for his tireless work on translating
inscriptions and defining lines of kings, his interpretations are being picked off,
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one by one. Today there is no clear answer to Indianization. Most scholars

today argue against the idea of Indian colonizers, although one oddball
Brahmin sect, the Pasupatas, which were willing to mix with lower castes, may
have settled in the region. But others suggest that Indian ideas came from
Malays and other travellers visiting India and Sri Lanka, rather than from
Indians actually settling in Southeast Asia.
Coedès’ idea of the origins of Angkor have also suffered. He believed an early
Khmer-speaking civilization grew up around southern Vietnam, based on a
port called Oc Eo and a nearby city called Angkor Borei. The epicentre of
Funan may have not even been where Coedès believed, in fact being placed
further west in the Menam Basin. There is growing evidence that pre-Angkor
sites were prosperous and dynamic, with hundreds or even thousands of
temples and other archaeological remains now identified. The accepted
foundation of classical Angkor, in the year 802, now looks less radical and
more in keeping with an existing culture.
The first version of classical Angkor building, at a site called Roluos, was not
even the main event but a city, Mahendraparvata, on Mount Kulen, some 50
kilometers distant from Angkor is the area which was the source of river
waters and of quarries for the beautiful sandstone used for Angkor’s
monuments. The mountain was surrounded with a thick urban population of
a city that was linked to Angkor and other surrounding areas, creating a vast
urban.
68

ASURAS OR DEMONS -(ONLY REMAINING BAS RELIEF,) BAKONG (881)

The enclosure’s asymmetry or elongation on the east would be of merely
geometric interest if it did not have the potential to modulate the experience of
worshippers as they proceeded along the Bakong’s “liturgical axis” towards the
shrine and Shiva linga (traced in red at the center of figure 14 above.)
Entering at the 1st east gopura (1 in figure 13, at right) they would find
themselves outside the mandala’s “sacred square” with the pyramid and
sanctuary or cella at its center. Their progress across the enclosure and up
the pyramid would therefore symbolize their quest for satori or enlightenment
and its levels, thresholds and stages of that progress. Along this route, their
vision would initially be focused by the two long rectangular buildings (5,) the
“sacristies” or “libraries,” in a narrow vector (maroon) limited to the eastern
steps, the twelve shrines (7) of the 4th terrace and the tower of the 5th (8,) their
path and goal. As they progressed past the crematoria (2,) memento mori of
the samsaric selves they were abandoning, through the purifying flames of the
border vajra strip (10) and across the “threshold line” (6, broken turquoise
line) into the mandala’s sacred space, their view would widen to include the
3rd terrace (orange vector) and the two eastern peripheral shrines (4.) Once,
they were past the “libraries” (5) and stood before the Nandi shrine (at center,)
they could see the full breadth of the enclosure (yellow vector) and all four of its
northern and southern shrines. Upon reaching the foot of the eastern steps,
however, the mass of the pyramid would block the view (purple vector) of
anything but the five flights of stairs ahead of them to the central tower, now
lost from view. Only upon attaining the 4th terrace, (7) would they again be
able to see the entire tower and have a 360 o view of the enclosure, its
asymmetrical eastern and symmetrical western halves, its full complement of
eight peripheral shrines, standing around it like guardians, its three enclosures
and beyond that the pedestrian, mundane world, which from this new, elevated
perspective, might well seem defamiliarized, very distant, even unreal
or maya. The slight setback of the central tower on the 5th terrace (8), the
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resultant asymmetrical advance of the front four shrines on the fourth terrace
(7) and the elongated diagonals of the inner corners of the four eastern towers
and their plinths (olive lines) might induce a kind of “forced perspective,”
exaggerating the 12% setback of the shrine and terrace and hence the viewers’
distance from the 1st east gopura where they first left the quotidian world.
This view would reverse what they had just experienced climbing the Bakong:
the contraction of distance as they were drawn from the rectangular enclosure
into the “still center” of the square, 9x9-pada mandala.
The Asymmetry of Khmer Temple Mountains
Almost all Khmer temples are, like the Bakong, offset to the west, (or,
exceptionally, to the east, in the case of the west-facing Angkor Wat,) so their
two sides are asymmetrical. Their western two quadrants are often two squares
and hence are entirely contained within the sacred grid of the governing
mandala; (at the Bakong, Phnom Bakheng and Baphuon the mandalas have
symmetrical strips on either side.) Their eastern sides, in contrast, are two
rectangles which extend beyond the mandala’s eastern border or “threshold
line” to the 1st enclosure’s outer walls and include whatever structures
(shrines, crematoria, galleries) are inside it. Great ingenuity is applied to bring
these two opposing geometric systems – and cosmic orders – into alignment,
representing the asymmetrical, “out-of-joint,” chaos and continual flux of the
profane world of illusion on the east and the symmetrical, precisely ordered,
solidity of the square, - the “perfect form” in Hinduism - on the west. This
produces a momentum in both the vertical and horizontal dimensions, a
contraction and concentration along the “liturgical axis,” climaxing at the
central shrine at the center of the mandala where all motion is frozen.
Architectural and experiential space is further compressed as the worshipper
approaches the smallest and highest terrace and then enters the still smaller
shrine and finally the dark sanctuary or garbagriha, the primordial cave or
“womb chamber,” in whose deepest recesses lurks the god, himself a
manifestation of the seed, bindu, and dimensionless dot from which existence
and extension and the universe emanate from the non-manifest, only to be
sucked back at its destruction at the end of every mahayuga.
The darkness of the garbagriha at the end of the liturgical path is one way to
express architecturally sunyata, emptiness, the “ground-of-non-
being,” moksha and nirvana. Hindu temples could therefore be seen as
paradoxically expressing their own ephemerality and lack of substance, their
future dematerialization and disappearance, the “extinguishing” of all form and
dimension. Does this account for the constant oscillation between emergence and
contraction, between architectural prolixity articulating inner emptiness which
sometimes makes Indian temples appear to jitter and pulsate? Could this be the
ultimate architectural feat or sleight-of-hand, all the more impressive for
70
reducing unprecedented masses of masonry to shimmering illusion? It provides a

striking contrast with the expansiveness of Gothic vaults, Renaissance domes
and Baroque quadratura (architectural trompe l’oeil,) as well as the measured,
human-scaled spaces of a Greek temple or Palladian villa. The centripetal
tropism and compression combined with mural decomposition into scintillating
surfaces of Hindu sacred buildings is not uncommon in Islamic architecture
where the liturgical axis or qibla draws the faithful from the external world
through the sahn or avlu, the enclosed courtyard with its shadrivan or
ablution fountain, before it enters the masjid or cami, the prayer hall, where it
finally disappears in the infinite recess of the mihrab niche, stretching back to
Mecca, the Kaaba in its shroud and finally Al Aswad, the Black Stone. Islam
shares with Hinduism and Buddhism, an absolute, Allah, which
like Brahman or sunyata can only be expressed apophatically and aniconically
because it cannot be represented, imitated, named or conceived, “No vision can
grasp him but his grasp is over all vision;” “He is the beginning and the end, the
manifest and the hidden.” (Quran, 6:103; 57:3.) Allah, derives from the general
Semitic term for a god, ilah, cf. Heb. Elohim, which means “the hidden.”
Similarly, in Judaism God’s name cannot be written except with the elliptical
tetragrammaton, Y*H*W*H. While in Islam this has taken the form of
iconoclasm, a prohibition on representation of the created, parallel to the early
aniconic linga of Saivism, in Hinduism and Buddhism it has had the opposite
effect – an endless proliferation or avatars, bodhisattvas, yoginis, apsaras and
erotic mithunas.
The asymmetry of the Khmer temple mountain could be attributed more

pragmatically to an attempt to accommodate liturgical functions into an
antipathetic symmetrical form – the pyramid, which, as already discussed led
to the wide-spread adoption of asymmetrical, “linear expansion” in both
Cambodian and Indian temple design, (see section III. “Linear Expansion:
Phimai & Kandariya Mahadeva .”) At the same time that Suryavarman II (1113-
1150) was building the pyramid of Angkor Wat, most of the other temples he
constructed added mandapas and porches to the east of their shikharas, for
example, Phimai, Banteay Samre and Thommanon, so the sanctuary or central
shrine is also offset to the west of their enclosures. The extreme in asymmetry,
however, is not found at Angkor’s temple mountains but at the mountain
temple, Preah Vihear, on the border of Thailand, whose “processional path”
stretches a kilometer before reaching its unassuming shikhara, beyond which
is a sheer 2100 foot precipice; this might be seen as the most explicit and
dramatic possible architectural expression of sunyata, the goal of Hindu and
Buddhist, self-extinction, tumbling literally into the void of emptiness. (For a
photographic survey of Preah Vihear's north-south axis, click here.) The overtly
Mahayana Bayon raises the quest for symmetry to a higher level: not only does
it draw its two rectangles of face towers into a square but then a circle, the
perfect form in Buddhism, because emanating infinite, equal rays from an
invisible bindu at is center. The last “temple mountain,” it rejects the square
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Khmer prasat for a unique, circular shikhara, radiating eight sub-shrines,

but goes beyond this, by blurring the distinction between center and periphery,
by dispersing point of view everywhere to evoke the spaciousness without
direction or location of “Buddha consciousness.”
BOROBUDUR:Mountain, Mandala, Monument

BOROBUDUR, JAVA (770 - 830)

SUDHANA LISTENING TO ONE OF THIS "52 FRIENDS," BOROBUDUR (770 -
830)

The liturgical advantages of linear addition for temple design does not fully
explain why, despite the paramount importance Indian architects attached to
the concept of the “temple mountain” and their genius for finding ever more
ingenious forms with which to express it, they do not appear to have attempted
to build a pyramid in stone. Mountains, specifically the Himalayas, had long
been seen as the haunt of the Hindu deities and the furthest reach from
pedestrian, dust-bound humanity. The Khmer built temples on every
mountain, or what passed for one, in their water-logged homeland and, where
there were no hillocks, they erected mountains of masonry. Nor were they
alone; one need not hypothesize improbable trans-continental “cultural
transmission” to account for the appearance of pyramids as thresholds to the
divine around the globe – but not in India. In the absence of the arch and steel
girder, heaping mounds of earth and rubble or laying diminishing courses of
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stones were the only practical means for making a man-made, imitation
mountain of sufficient breadth and height to be convincing. The earliest
“temple mountain” was probably the Step Pyramid of Djoser at Saqqara (2667 -
2648 B.C.E.,) followed by the “ziggurats” of Mesopotamia, a name meaning “to
build a raised place” in Akkadian. The 14th Century B.C.E Babylonian Dur
Kurigaizu may possibly have been the original “Tower of Babel,” to the
conquered Hebrews a symbol of pagan hubris competing with their
monotheistic, unnamable god. In Mesoamerica, isolated from the Eastern
Hemisphere for millennia, the largest, if no longer most impressive temple
mountain, was built at Cholula near Puebla, in the 9th Century, the aptly
named Tlachihualtepetl, “the mountain built by hand” in Nahuatl, all 4.45
million cubic meters of it, now a grassy hill crowned by a Christian church.
Did Indian sthapakas disdain a mass of masonry as too literal an interpretation

of what was at best a metaphor with many possible metaphysical tenors? Or was
their anti-materialistic theology offended by the notion of making an imitation
mountain – an illusion of an illusion – preferring an obvious “aedicule” or icon of a
mountain, thus emphasizing that a temple, a mountain and Mt. Meru were merely
“dependently-originated” emanations and mirages which would be destroyed, like
their creator, Brahma, every 311 trillion 40 billion years ––just a “flash in eternity”
in the words of the Bhagavad Gita. Still, it comes as a surprise that the first, great
“temple mountain” in the Indic cultural ambit was built at a remote inland site
surrounded by volcanoes on the Kedu Plain of South Java, 40km from present-day
Yogyakarta. The temple mountain of Borobudur is estimated to have taken sixty
years, from 770 to 830, to complete during the peak of the Mahayana Buddhist
Sailendra Kingdom. Jayavarman II (790 - 835) may have been a feudatory of the
Sailendras and even have spent time in Java before he declared the independence
of the Khmer Empire in 802, while the temple was still under construction.
Perhaps as surprising as Borobudur’s location is that this first “temple

mountain” achieved a level of architectural and theological sophistication never
again equaled or attempted. The temple appears not only to have been laid-out
according to a mandala, like those of India, but to have functioned as one as
well, a yantra, a diagram or device for “consciousness raising,” here a literal
pathway for attaining “enlightenment in this life-time” – or at least simulating its
path over a weekend. Mandalas are intended to aid their makers’ meditations
and visualizations and then destroyed once their outward, illusory form had
been internalized; hence, they have always been regarded as ephemeral, painted
on perishable fabric or even drawn in sand. At Borobudur, however, groups of
pilgrims were presumably intended in the coming centuries to make their way
around the padas of each of mandala’s concentric squares, upward and inward
along a 3km long “liturgical path,” towards its central stupa and tip, the
primal bindu or dot, literally climbing towards satori stone by stone and
footstep by footstep. (Figure 10 on the following page is a detailed diagram of
73
Borobudur showing the positioning of the 504 Buddhas on its four square side
and circular top, as well as, the location of the Buddhist texts illustrated on the
bas relief panels carved on the balustrades and walls of its terraces.]
Upwards of 3500 mandalas are recorded from the 9th Century and although
scholars have been unable to find one which corresponds exactly with
Borobudur’s site plan, its similarities with several widely-used types are striking.
For example, the 504 Buddha statues which line its terraces are aligned in
accord with the Diamond World Mandala, one of the most widely used Tantric
models. The 368 statues in the niches above the first four terraces sign with
the mudra of the four Mahayana dhyani, tathagata or “wisdom” Buddhas,
associated with the direction they face; the 72 Buddhas in the dagobas or
stupas of the three round terraces (gold circles) have been associated with
Vairocana, the central Buddha of that mandala of whom the other four are
aspects or manifestations.
The identity of the 64 Buddhas on the 5th terrace (dark green) has occasioned
considerable scholarly debate because 1) the Diamond World mandala has only
five Buddhas and 2) the 64 statues are depicted in vitarka or teaching mudra, not
used in that mandala. Some have speculated that the Buddhas of the 5th terrace
and in the stupas are both Vairocana, while others have suggested the “extra,”
“sixth” Buddha is the historical Buddha, born Siddhartha Gautama. A third group
has put forward Vajradhara, a Buddha found especially in Vajrayana or
Tantric sutras, the Adi-Buddha or source of the other five, representing
the dharmakhana, the non-manifest or “subtle” “Buddha body,” “nature” or
“essence,” equivalent to ultimate reality, sunyata or emptiness of thought and
substance. Thus, Borobudur still withholds some of its secrets despite the great
advances of modern research. All the Buddhas, significantly, face outward towards
the world in keeping with the temple’s primarily didactic mission.
74

The texts illustrated on Borobudur’s 2670 bas relief panels (1460 of them
narrative, the rest decorative) in two registers on the walls and balustrades of its
four concentric, redented terraces seem deliberately selected and sequenced to
illustrate the three dhatus, lokas or “realms” of Buddhist cosmology, subdivided
into thirty-three (or thereabout,) ranked levels of consciousness, (see
appendix I, “Buddhist Cosmology.”) The original base, (now hidden by a “false
foot,” added when the temple began to subside under its own massive weight,)
the 1st terrace and the balustrade of the 2nd, depict events from
the kamadhatu, the ten “desire worlds” inhabited by humans as well as the
Vedic gods and demons. The panels on the three upper terraces are taken from
the Gandavyuha, (The Structure of the World Compared to a Bubble or The
Entrance into the Dharma) which constitutes the 39th chapter of the Flower
Ornament Sutra and its sequel, the Bhadraari Sutra. These are important, if
obscure, Mahayana texts describing the quest for enlightenment of a youth,
Sudhana, in the course of which he is instructed by no fewer than fifty-two
“good friends,” gurus, bodhisattvas and Buddhas, populating
the rupadhatu, the eighteen “form worlds” of those who are no longer subject to
cataleptic desires, experiencing only self-delight, but still occupy discrete
territory in space and a unified consciousness capable of instructing others. On
the fifth terrace bas reliefs are replaced by Buddhas in lattice-work stupas
or dagobas, some with square, some with hexagonal matrices, which
presumably represent the arupadhatu, the four “formless worlds” of beings who
have transcended individual form and spatial dimension; since they therefore
cannot be represented, they are bracketed in a kind of “architectural
parenthesis” or "under erasure," partially visible within the dagobas as
Buddhas withdrawn in meditating on the emptiness of their own meditations.

75
EKAMUKHALINGA (SINGLE-FACED SHIVA LINGA,) LOP BURI, NATIONAL MUSEUM, BANGKOK (11TH CENTURY) To RIGHT
-SHIVA, PHNOM BOK, ANGKOR (889-915,) MUSEE GUIMET
The Devaraja Cult
This quandary has led historians to speculate that these temples may have
existed primarily as ceremonial centers without a congregational or monastic
function, similar to the Achaemenids’ Persepolis or the Zapotecs’ Monte Albán.
The most obvious candidate for such a purpose is the abhisheka or
“empowerment initiation” into the much-debated devaraja cult, instituted,
according to the Sdok Kak Tham inscription (1053 C.E.,) by Jayavarman II in
802 on Mt Kulen. From a closer reading of the epigraphic evidence, it now
seems likely that the devaraja did not refer to the king but a portable, perhaps
wooden, linga or totem through which the king communed with the god
during an occult ritual. This was performed on the upper terrace of his state
temple mountain, perhaps a substitute for Mt. Kulen, by a brahmin from a
specific lineage, (in the sense of gotra or clan rather than parampara or “guru
lineage.”) These intentionally obscure inscriptions suggest the devaraja could
have functioned like a Vajrayana yidam or personal deity, through whom the
king "presenced" or envisioned his meta-physical or “subtle body,” an
Ayurvedic and later Tantric concept mediating between his corporeal
emanation and his non-manifest “divine essence,”“Buddha nature”
or dharmakhana, vaguely equivalent to the “soul” or “holy ghost” in
Christianity. This periodic entheogenesis allowed the king to transmit
the darshan or blessing of an awakened god to his subjects and kingdom.
This tends to support the thesis that a primary attraction of Hinduism to the
feudal regimes during the initial contact period was its concept of
the chakravartin or “Lord of the Universe,” a Saivite epithet, which seems to
have been syncretized with indigenous South Asian traditions of the king as an
intermediary between his subjects and the gods, notably his own deified
ancestors. This belief was reinforced by the ten avatars of Vishnu,
the Dashavatara, (see appendix VI) the eighth of which, Rama, the eponymous
hero of the Ramayana, was both a model of the ideal sovereign and a god in
mortal guise. This interpretation is lent credence by the posthumous names
adopted by all Khmer kings on the supposition that after death they would
rejoin the deity of whom they had been an avatar, “channel” or protégé. Thus, a
Khmer king did not just rule through divine right but through divine role as
the human embodiment of his titular deity.
It seems logical that in many cultures, kings would tend to confuse themselves
with deities and find mortality so out of character and unnatural that it surely
could be circumvented. Some scholars have therefore hypothesized a funerary
function for these temples, despite the lack of evidence anyone was ever buried
there, to say nothing of the fact, that both Hinduism and Buddhism incinerate
76
rather than inter their dead. Nonetheless, there is no shortage of precedents;

the pyramids of Giza certainly demanded as much labor from the pharaoh’s
subjects as the temple mountains of Angkor to assure their mummified
remains a safe passage through the perilous underworld until they could reign
again. Shah Jahan prepared the marble Taj Mahal for his wife (and its unbuilt
onyx counterpart for himself) to be sure a proper Paradise awaited them on the
Day of Judgment. Could Angkor’s temples have been, built in preparation for
their sponsors’ posthumous apotheosis, “temples-in-waiting,” as it were? If
they were primarily expressions of the reigning monarch’s pretensions to
immortality, it might explain why these literally monumental efforts were so
readily abandoned and forgotten. For example, the masons at Ta Keo seem to
have dropped their chisels the moment its future occupant could no longer
sign their paychecks; his successor tried to give this second-hand mausoleum
to a brahmin who declined it, after which it went unvisited until a French
naturalist stumbled across it 850 years later. If it was a cenotaph, the
anomalous westward orientation of Angkor Wat might not just be a
consequence of its dedication to Vishnu but because west is also the direction
of death. In Pure Land Buddhism, the devout are borne at death directly to the
“blessed Western Lands” by the Mahayana Buddha, Amida or Amithabha,
whose avatar, the bodhisattva, Avalokitesvara or Lokesvara in Khmer, just
thirty year later, became the titulary deity of Preah Khan and one candidate for
the Bayon’s face towers.
Temple Mountains in “Mandala” or “Molecular” Polities
The lack of any obvious purpose for these temples has suggested to some that
they were their own point: a demonstration of a ruler’s power to command the
immense resources needed for their construction. In other words, their point was
to make or mark a point, a center from which the king’s spiritual and temporal
authority radiated, as the empire’s influence flowed along the roads from the
capital to its peripheral outposts, remote temples like Phimai, Preah Vihear and
Phnom Chisor, all oriented back towards Angkor. Obvious analogies would
include Rome, to which all roads led as caput mundi and where all distances
were measured from the millarium aureum in its Forum. Similarly,
the mihrab in every mosque and every Muslim in his five daily salats or
prostrations point along the qibla axis to Mecca. The need for such symbolic
markers and their magnitude might, ironically, increase the more the actual lines
of authority became frayed, attenuated and ambiguous. At least that is the
contention of archaeologists John M. Miksic and Geok Yan Goh in Ancient
Southeast Asia (Routledge, New York, 2017,) who argue that the “Eurocentric,”
early modern model of a highly centralized state, directly administered by a
bureaucratic apparatus with unquestioned loyalty to an absolute monarch,
anointed by god and primogeniture, exemplified by the ancien regime in France,
is inappropriate for the feudal context of Southeast Asia in the 1st millennium.
(The problem would then not seem to lie in its "Eurocentrism" but its
77
"modernity;" feudal France approximates their model; even the “Sun King” had
his Fronde.) They propose, instead, a “mandala model” where sovereignty derives
from recognition of a ruler’s authority as chakravartin, the current incarnation
of dharma or divine law which rippled out in widening circles to more distant,
paler manifestations of his authority - the regional nobility, the heads of local
clans and magnates. A ruler’s power was therefore contingent on his recognition
by similarly entitled, semi-autonomous elites, often from rival ruling families, and
demonstrated through the unreliable payment of tribute and military service,
rather than direct taxation collected by royal agents. The monarch, in turn, was
obliged to manifest his legitimacy through munificence in the form of the
construction of the region’s pre-eminent religious monuments and civic
improvements. This pattern could be seen as paralleling Deleuze and Guattari’s
theory of “molecular sovereignty” in which overlapping, semi-independent,
administrative power centers, (“bureaucratic fiefdoms,” for example,) are locked
in a more or less continual competition with each other and the central authority
to maintain their autonomy.
In this perspective, Khmer state temples, barays, roads, bridges, rest houses,

hospitals and regional shrines would be the explicit signifiers of implicit lines of a
centripetal force binding far-flung dependencies to the capital, when in fact the
suzerainty they signified so conspicuously was always drifting, fluid and
provisional because exercised through quasi-autonomous feudatories. At the
blurred perimeters of these mandalas, rival power centers vied to attract the
allegiance of the most distant and hence least tightly bound local lords, while
ambitious epicycles circling the center of a mandala always threatened to expand
their orbits to become new suns. The Khmer Empire was, in fact, fraught with
what appear to have been periodic contested successions and dynastic
challenges from provincial centers in 928, 944, 1001-1010, 1080, 1113, 1165-
1177, 1181, 1243 and 1295. This tendency was exacerbated by an ill-defined,
avuncular line of royal succession which could always bypass a ruler’s sons in
favor of his mother’s male relatives. These periods of instability would eventually
end with the emergence of a dominant central authority - determined monarchs
such as Rajendravarman, Suryavarman I, Suryavarman II and Jayavarman VII -
who could tame obstreperous, regional warlords, impose a standard code of law
and levy fixed taxes collected by royal functionaries before they could be
siphoned off by local oligarchs. With the passage of time, however, royal revenues
would become depleted precisely as a consequence of the grandiose monuments
and pious, tax-exempt religious endowments expected of a
legitimate chakravartin, providing restive, rival dynasts an opportunity to start
the cycle again, plunging the empire into protracted, internecine conflicts, such
as those responsible for the sack of Angkor by the Cham in 1177 and by the Thai
of Ayatthuya in 1352 and 1393, which led to the abandonment of Angkor and the
removal of the capital to the comparative safety of Phnom Penh.
Evolution of the Temple Mountain at Angkor

78

Borobudur proved a heteroclite, a prototype without copies; perhaps it so fully
realized the potential for a monument to be both a mandala and a mountain
no Indian or Khmer ruler was devout or ambitious enough to be tempted to
surpass it. The Ananda Temple (1050-1100 C.E.) at Bagan, for example, has
1500 Buddhas lining the 15m tall walls of its two interior corridors – the
equivalent of internal terraces – while its upper terraces are lined with 547
plaques illustrating each of the jataka or “birth stories” of Buddha’s previous
incarnations. Most, however, are too high for anyone to see, since the temple
was built for “merit,” credit against the monarch’s karmic debt, not for the
edification of his subjects. This may reflect the difference between Ananda’s
Theravada Buddhism, where release is earned over many reincarnations and
the Mahayana possibility for enlightenment in a lifetime illustrated at
Borobudur. The immense Khmer temple mountains documented in this
album also don’t emulate Borobudur’s well-defined didactic purpose; their
terraces may be larger but we still don’t know what their use was; their bas-
reliefs depict a gallimaufry of monarchical glorification, recent history and
episodes from the two Hindu epics but lack Borobudur’s step-by-step
curriculum for novice bodhicittas.
There is no sign the builders of the Baphuon or Angkor Wat were even aware of
their illustrious predecessor. In many ways, Angkor Wat seems almost the
antithesis of Borobudur whose solid mass might have struck Khmer builders
and kings as merely squat or squashed and inappropriate for the ordered
spaciousness of an expanding empire. At Borobudur the architects seem
deliberately to have constructed a confined, linear and ultimately private
experience of space between its walls and balustrades, unspooling like a film
around each redented corner, twisting but climbing steadily upward along an
unfolding path towards a conclusion that could only be experienced by reaching
it. In this labyrinth, one can imagine, initiates could gradually shed
their samsaric illusions of occupying a personal position in architectural and
terrestrial space, erasing the dualism of here and there, self and other. The
uneventful, often repetitious, story of Sudhana and his fifty-two “friends” numbs
79
the scopophilic gaze grasping for exciting drama, pomp and opulence, so amply
rewarded in Angkor Wat’s 1st gallery; it is often difficult to link the carvings on
Borobudur’s upper tiers to the Gandavyuha’s text because the scenes differ so
little. When adepts finally emerged on the upper terrace, their attention would
not have been directed at an expansive vista around them framed by open
colonnades, the imperial domain stretching to the Cambodian plain’s horizon,
instead they would have seen the volcanos hemming in the Javanese temple. In
any event, had they followed Sudhana’s lessons closely, they would be facing
away from them, squinting into the cramped dagobas with their Buddha
statues in teaching mudra, pointing out the emptiness of the external world to a
spaciousness not of the eye. As the pilgrims circled the three narrowing rings
of dagobas, the landscape always at their back, their view would be directed
upward by the stupa with its vacant chambers, tapering until it disappeared at
its dimensionless apex.
This contrasts markedly with the spatiality created at Angkor Wat and the
Baphuon with their scenographic evocation of an ideal mountain range, each
peak hierarchically aligned around the central shikhara, the summit of Mt.
Meru, a comprehensible monumentality in which they were clearly situated.
This order extended outward, not just inward, beyond the temple’s enclosures
to the surrounding plain, aligning in its orthogonal grid the
great barays, canals and roads stretching to the furthest limits of the Khmer
realm, reminded at each point along the way by a replica of the gigantic
Khmer prasat at its center. The temple’s designers created a crisply defined,
classically balanced alternation of negative and positive spaces, where the
location of any part within the whole could be inferred from its relationship to
the hierarchy of galleries arrayed around the central tower, where
the devaraja cult was enacted and, for that moment, the god made his home.
The time would come – in only thirty years – when this seemingly immutably
structured universe would rupture and collapse, perhaps replaced by
something more alien than Borobudur’s Mahayana Methodism – the
Vajrayana trance and out-of-body experience which is the Bayon.
Beyond aesthetic preferences and dynastic vanity, there were no doubt

more prosaic factors which contributed to Angkorian indifference to such a
conspicuous Javanese prototype. Khmer kings prior to Jayavarman VII
(1181-1220 C.E.) were officially Hindu, as were their temples, so Borobudur
might not have seemed an appropriate model. There is evidence that the
Sanjavas’ Hindu shrines at Prambanan did influence earlier Khmer
temples, including their basic shrine or prasat module (or aedicule) and
the tendency to project free-standing replicas around it. Moreover, Khmer
temples may have served a symbolic rather than didactic function and
symbols lose their aura the more the implicit is made mundanely explicit.
While the theological program of Borobudur has gradually divulged itself to
scholarly inquiry, the purpose of Angkor’s “temple mountains” still largely
eludes us.
80

VIEW TO THE NORTHWEST, 3RD TERRACE,
ANGKOR WAT (1113-1150)

81

Books have been written to explain the many enigmas of Angkor Wat. Some
have argued that it faces west rather than the more orthodox east because it
was dedicated to Vishnu who was associated with that direction, and its
commissioner, Suryavarman II’s, posthumous name was Paramavisnuloka, an
avatar of that deity. Others have contended it was a funeral monument like the
pyramids of Giza because the west was traditionally associated with sunset,
death and a return to the dark womb – or “womb chamber,”
the garbagriha. Archaeologists have more recently suggested the temple may
have functioned as an observatory, since the king was named after the Vedic
sun god, Surya, and have painstakingly counted the number of windows,
columns and steps between every part of the temple to demonstrate they were
82
calibrated with the path of the sun or moon. Angkor Wat assuredly symbolized
Mt. Meru, center of the Hindu universe, like every other :temple mountain,” but
it has also been suggested it might have represented Mt. Mandara, the
legendary pivot Vishnu used in the “Churning of the Ocean of Milk” to
coagulate the elixir (butter?) of immortality in one of the most often illustrated
Khmer myths. The city and empire swirling around this temple mountain at its
center would then re-enact each day the same mythopoeic urbanism as the
bridge and moat around Jayavarman VII’s Angkor Thom, a symbol of the
prosperity resulting from industrious cooperation by the empire’s diverse
people. This myth, in fact, is illustrated in the celebrated bas relief murals of
the southern half of its 1st eastern gallery, while nearby, in the western half of
its southern gallery, is a procession of Suryavarman II’s court and army,
perhaps to suggest a parallel. Between the two, however, is a carving of the
heavens and narakas, the gruesome hells; did these demonstrate the rewards
and punishments meted out to those who embraced or rebelled against the
murals’ symbolic messages? The following few paragraphs of analysis do not
attempt to resolve such conundrums rather they use Angkor Wat to synthesize
or knit together two threads in the evolution of Khmer temple mountain
architecture which have emerged in this introduction – asymmetry and
cruciform expansion.
There is no dispute that the temple is the largest stone building and religious
structure ever built or that Angkor Wat was not its name, however apt it is may
seem – a macaronic Sanskrit-Khmer phrase, hybrid like its architecture,
meaning “the city in the shape of a temple.” It is difficult today, when the
temple sits in isolated splendor within a landscaped archaeological park, to
imagine it the hub of an intensively cultivated conurbation, divided into
orthogonal plots linked by an extensive network of canals and roads indicative
of a high degree of central planning. The Aztec capital of Tenochtitlán, set in
the middle of Lake Texcoco, surrounded by its so-called “floating gardens”
or chinampas which so amazed Cortez in 1519 and still are visible at
Xochimilco, may offer a more accurate picture of ancient Angkor than its
scrupulously restored, but decontextualized, present monuments. The area
immediately adjacent to the temple has been estimated to have had a
population approaching half a million, making it one of the largest cities of its
day. The temple’s rigorous plan reached beyond the three terraces analyzed in
the following diagrams, across the 82-hectar 4th enclosure, over the 190m
moat to the other temples in the Angkor area and, beyond them, the major
religious and commercial centers of the Khmer Empire – the temples at Beng
Mealea, Banteay Chhmar, Phnom Chisor, Preah Vihear, Phnom Rung and
Phimai. In 2015 over a billion LIDAR photographs of the Angkorian heartland
confirmed that the temple’s grid extended into the densely populated rural
zones around it.
83

3RD OR UPPER TERRACE, ANGKOR WAT (1113 – 1150)

THE NARAKAS OR HELLS, 1ST GALLERY SOUTHEAST, ANGKOR WAT (1113 - 1150)

Muchhas been written to explain the many enigmas of Angkor Wat. Some have
argued that it faces west rather than the more orthodox east because it was
dedicated to Vishnu who was associated with that direction, and its
commissioner, Suryavarman II’s, posthumous name was Paramavisnuloka, an
avatar of that deity. Others have contended it was a funeral monument like the
pyramids of Giza because the west was traditionally associated with sunset,
death and a return to the dark womb – or “womb chamber,”
the garbagriha. Archaeologists have more recently suggested the temple may
have functioned as an observatory, since the king was named after the Vedic
sun god, Surya, and have painstakingly counted the number of windows,
columns and steps between every part of the temple to demonstrate they were
calibrated with the path of the sun or moon. Angkor Wat assuredly symbolized
Mt. Meru, center of the Hindu universe, like every other :temple mountain,” but
it has also been suggested it might have represented Mt. Mandara, the
legendary pivot Vishnu used in the “Churning of the Ocean of Milk” to
coagulate the elixir (butter?) of immortality in one of the most often illustrated
Khmer myths. The city and empire swirling around this temple mountain at its
center would then re-enact each day the same mythopoeic urbanism as the
bridge and moat around Jayavarman VII’s Angkor Thom, a symbol of the
prosperity resulting from industrious cooperation by the empire’s diverse
people. This myth, in fact, is illustrated in the celebrated bas relief murals of
the southern half of its 1st eastern gallery, while nearby, in the western half of
its southern gallery, is a procession of Suryavarman II’s court and army,
perhaps to suggest a parallel. Between the two, however, is a carving of the
heavens and narakas, the gruesome hells; did these demonstrate the rewards
and punishments meted out to those who embraced or rebelled against the
murals’ symbolic messages? The following few paragraphs of analysis do not
attempt to resolve such conundrums rather they use Angkor Wat to synthesize
or knit together two threads in the evolution of Khmer temple mountain
84
architecture which have emerged in this introduction – asymmetry and

cruciform expansion.
There is no dispute that the temple is the largest stone building and religious
structure ever built or that Angkor Wat was not its name, however apt it is may
seem – a macaronic Sanskrit-Khmer phrase, hybrid like its architecture,
meaning “the city in the shape of a temple.” It is difficult today, when the
temple sits in isolated splendor within a landscaped archaeological park, to
imagine it the hub of an intensively cultivated conurbation, divided into
orthogonal plots linked by an extensive network of canals and roads indicative
of a high degree of central planning. The Aztec capital of Tenochtitlán, set in
the middle of Lake Texcoco, surrounded by its so-called “floating gardens”
or chinampas which so amazed Cortez in 1519 and still are visible at
Xochimilco, may offer a more accurate picture of ancient Angkor than its
scrupulously restored, but decontextualized, present monuments. The area
immediately adjacent to the temple has been estimated to have had a
population approaching half a million, making it one of the largest cities of its
day. The temple’s rigorous plan reached beyond the three terraces analyzed in
the following diagrams, across the 82-hectar 4th enclosure, over the 190m
moat to the other temples in the Angkor area and, beyond them, the major
religious and commercial centers of the Khmer Empire – the temples at Beng
Mealea, Banteay Chhmar, Phnom Chisor, Preah Vihear, Phnom Rung and
Phimai. In 2015 over a billion LIDAR photographs of the Angkorian heartland
confirmed that the temple’s grid extended into the densely populated rural
zones around it.

THE NARAKAS OR HELLS, 1ST GALLERY SOUTHEAST, ANGKOR WAT (1113 - 1150)

1. Vishnu shrine and central tower
2. 3rd (upper) terrace
3. Cruciform pavilions (4)
4. 3rd gallery (open colonnade)
85
5. 2nd (middle) terrace

6. 2nd gallery (apsaras)
7 1st (lower) terrace
8 1st gallery (bas relief murals)
9. 4th (outer) enclosure
10. 2nd terrace “threshold line” (broken red line)
11. 1st terrace “threshold line” (broken black line)
12. 2nd terrace “cruciform walkway”
13. 1st terrace “cruciform cloister”
14. Towers (9, shaded orange)
15. 3rd west triple gopura (liturgical entrance)
16. “Libraries” (4)
17. Causeway over 4th (outer) enclosure and gallery from the moat
18. Eastward offset
9 x 9 = 81-pada paramasayika mandala

Angkor Wat has been described succinctly as a pyramid with three galleries (4,
6,10) around three terraces or levels (2, 5, 7) with a panchayatana or double
quincunx of towers (circles) at its center and the four corners of its 3rd and
2nd terraces (2, 5) for a total of nine (a double quincunx.) The 1st terrace (7) is
surrounded by a vaulted gallery (8) with an open, outward-facing colonnade
containing the renowned eight narrative bas reliefs, over 600m long and more
than 2m high. These murals, unlike Borobudur’s, do not follow any readily
discernible sequence or didactic program; they may refer to scenes across the
terrace or even points beyond the temple, terrestrial and sidereal, or to nothing
but themselves. Behind this gallery, the wide lawn of the 1st terrace (7) is
linked by a “cruciform cloister” (13) to the 2nd gallery (6) and terrace (5) which
presents an austere contrast with the 1st, paved entirely in stone with
towering, canyon-like walls, its somber atmosphere lightened only slightly by
1024 (210) apsaras, similar to aurai or wind nymphs in Greek mythology,
carved on its galleries, each slightly individualized, denizens of a more ethereal
world than the bellicose scenes depicted in the 1st gallery below. The 2nd
terrace is in turn connected by a second, raised “cruciform walkway” (12) to the
central staircase up to the west range of the 3rd terrace (2,) which climbs at a
70% incline from the shadowed depths of the 2nd terrace (5) to the open
colonnade of the western gallery (4) of the 3rd terrace (2) with its spacious
views of the surrounding city and countryside. The 3rd terrace (2) repeats the
pattern and dimensions of the cruciform cloister, except its is an open
“cruciform colonnade” whose arms lead via four cruciform pavilions (3) to the
central tower (1) of the double panchayatana. This contains the temple’s
sanctuary or cella, a redented Greek cross with four porches, dedicated to
Vishnu rising above from the 3rd terrace (2) in three stages, repeating the three
levels of the temple pyramid itself and therefore, in a sense, an aedicule of it.
The shrine is saptaratha, with seven redents or facets per quadrant, topped by
a shikhara with five tiers or talas which repeat in ever-decreasing layers the
86
outline of the shrine beneath them. It soars 213m above the 1st terrace,
higher than the flêche of Notre Dame de Paris (prior to its incineration in April,
2019.)
The three terraces can as usual be associated with the three

worlds, lokas or dhatus, of Hindu and Buddhist cosmology which also divide
the terraces at Borobudur and the Baphuon; in Hinduism, the underworld,
earth and heaven; in Buddhism, the kamadhatu or “desire realm,” the world of
myth, history and the Vedic gods, portrayed on the 1st gallery (8) bas reliefs;
the rupadhatu or “form realm” of radiant, self-delighting creatures, symbolized
by the apsaras of the 2nd gallery (6;) and the arupadhatu or “formless realm,”
states of pure awareness or energy, without form or location, perhaps suggested
by the open colonnades (4) of the 3rd terrace. In a further analogy, the bas
reliefs of the 1st gallery (8) could be correlated with the profane
or samsaric world of outward actions of Hinayana (Theravada) dharma, the
laws of right conduct; the apsaras of the 2nd, with the world of inward, self-
reliant consciousness of the Mahayana sadhanas, yogas and meditative
practices; leading to the 3rd, the Vajrayana or Tantric realm of “effective means,”
resulting in an experience of one’s own transparency, sunyata or emptiness,
and providing a glimpse of the “world beyond thought.”
If a 9x9-pada paramasayika mandala is drawn over the 1st or lower terrace,

its 1st and 2nd squares of 32 and 24 padas respectively will fill, on its west,
the space between the “threshold lines” of the 1st and 2nd terraces (11,12)
and, on its east, the space between the 1st and 2nd galleries (8,6.) Similarly, its
16 devika padas will fill the area around the square 3rd terrace (2,) on the
west, between the “threshold line” of the 2nd terrace and the gallery of the 3rd
(10,4) and, on the east, between the galleries of those two terraces (6,4.) The
3rd terrace (2,) with the redented, cruciform shrine and shikhara (1,) occupy
the nine middle or Brahma padas. The proportions of Angkor Wat’s 1st terrace
are roughly 53 x 46 or 86.78%, that is, 13.22% longer than it is wide. (For
those who share the Khmer fascination with astronomy, it may seem more
than coincidental that Angkor Wat’s latitude is 13.24 N.) The temple displays
the asymmetry of most other Khmer shrines, although because it faces west its
north-south axis is set-back to the east. If “threshold lines” are drawn for the
1st and 2nd terraces, that is, at the point where that terrace’s length equals its
width (broken lines 10, 11,) the “threshold line” of the 1st terrace (11) falls
midway between the western (outer) edges of the 1st and 2nd galleries (6,8) and
equals the length of one of the arms of the square “cruciform cloister” (13)
linking them. The “threshold line” of the 2nd terrace (10,) like that of the 1st,
also falls at the edge of a second, smaller cruciform structure, an elevated
“cruciform crosswalk” (12) linking the 2nd terrace with the lip or projection of
the 3rd gallery (4.) This “cruciform crosswalk’s” (12) northern and southern
arms connect the two small “libraries” (16) of the 2nd terrace; its western arm
extends to the western (outer) edge of the 2nd gallery (6) and its eastern arm to
87
the outer edge of the 3rd terrace’s protuberance at the top of the stairs from
the 2nd. The same, seemingly contrived, architectural assemblage had already
been noted on both the eastern and western sides of the 1st terrace of the
Baphuon (4 on figure 16.) It may even have existed in embryo in the enclosure
of the first Khmer temple mountain, Ak Yom (700-725) where a raised, T-
shaped crosswalk leads from the primary or eastern entrance to the steps of
the pyramid’s 2nd level and connects two, small, facing guardian shrines (7 on
figure 12.) The equal arms of the “cruciform walkway” (12) at Angkor Wat are,
not coincidentally, half the length of those of its “cruciform cloister (13,) and,
therefore, also half those dividing the quadripartite 3rd terrace (2) whose length
and width are therefore twice those of the “cruciform walkway.” Thus the 3rd
terrace (2) is itself a square, “cruciform colonnade” isomorphic with the
“cruciform cloister” of the 1st (13) and the only terrace to display four-way
symmetry around the two axes. The three terraces’ eastern quadrants form
nested squares around the axial crossing; adding the asymmetrical sections on
the west, however, the 1st and 2nd terraces (7, 5) form rectangles with
proportions of roughly 5/9 and 2/3 respectively.
Angkor Wat can be divided by a modular unit with a remainder, a central

feature of both Khmer and Indian architecture. The temple’s structures are
assembled from this unit and the remainder which then form a symmetrical
sequence from west to east.(excluding the asymmetrical eastward off-set equal
to two modular units.) Readers who thought elementary algebra was safely in
their past may wish to skipthe remainder of this paragraph. The modular
unit is derived from the critical difference in most Khmer temples between its
length (here 215m) and width (187m) - the distance between its western edge
and its “threshold line” or 28m; the modular unit is half that length, which
equals the distance between the temple’s north-south axis and its midpoint,
or 14m, labeled “a” on the diagram at right. The difference between the
temple’s length and width, 28m, divides its length, 215m, into seven equal
parts or 14a, for a total of 196m. This leaves a remainder of 19m which, if also
divided into two parts, yields a unit of 9.5m, labeled “b” on the diagram.
Thus, the length of the temple can be expressed as 14a + 2b. Analyzing the
temple from the west, since the threshold line of the 1st terrace is 2a long and
falls on the crossbar of the cruciform cloister, the distance between the
1st and 2nd terraces' western edges, the width of the cruciform cloister, equals
4a. Since the difference between the 2nd terrace's length and width is half that
of the 1st or 14m, the distance between its western edge and threshold line
equals a and falls on the north-south arms of the "cruciform walkway;" so the
total distance from the western edge of the 2nd terrace to the top of the central
stairs to the 3rd is 2a. This formula could then have been repeated for the 3rd
terrace, producing a rectangle whose length was 1/2a longer than its width.
The architects of Angkor Wat, however, decided that the 3rd terrace should be
88
square and isomorphic with the cruciform cloister, therefore 4a wide and 4a
long, centered on the axial crossing.
The half of the cruciform cloister east of the threshold line is 2a long; the
"cruciform walkway" also 2a and the western half of the 3rd terrace, also 2a,
leaving a gap between the eastern edge of the "cruciform walkway” at the top of
the stairs to the 3rd terrace and the western edge of that terrace's colonnade of
b. (12a +2 b = a side of the mandala square, the distance from the "threshold
line" of the 1st terrace to that terrace's eastern wall; therefore 6a + b or half
that, equals the distance from the "threshold line" to the north-south axis.)
This gap is filled by the platform or lip projecting between the 1st
west gopura, the central gopura of the 3rd terrace's western colonnade, and
the top of the steps from the 2nd, (the eastern arm of the "cruciform walkway.”)
Continuing east along the west-east axis from the 3rd terrace, the distance
between its eastern edge and that of the 2nd terrace must equal the difference
between the "threshold line" of the 2nd terrace and the western edge of the 3rd,
in other words, half the length of the "cruciform walkway" or a, plus the
westward protuberance or b, thus a + b. The remaining distance between the
eastern edges of the 2nd and 1st terraces would then equal the difference
between the overall length of the 1st terrace or “3rd enclosure” and e temple,
14a + 2b, and the distance from its western edge to the eastern edge of the 2nd
terrace, 4a (the cruciform cloister) plus 2a (the "cruciform walkway") plus b (the
protuberance) plus 4a (the 3rd terrace) plus a + b (the distance between the
eastern edges of the 3rd and 2nd terraces) or 11a + 2b, leaving 3a as the width
of the 1st terrace on the east . Thus the length of Angkor Wat could be
expressed as (aa/aa)(aa)(b)(aaaa)(ba)(aaa) with the parentheses representing
the different structural units and the forward slash its asymmetrical eastward
offset or threshold line, (11 on figure 17,) leaving the symmetrical sequence
aaaabaaaabaaaa.
89

Brahmanical Shies Over Angkor Temples

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Indo Nordic Author’s Collective, Stockholm, Tampere, Nagpur

Brahmanical Skies over the Angkor ARCHITECTURE

Dr. Uday Dokras

In the field of architecture an architectural plan is a design and planning for

The term "architectural plan" can have multiple related meanings:

 plan for an architectural project

Angkor Wat Temple Layout

Talking of the temple, it is a very majestic structure. The structure is very

o Implementation - introducing the designed solution into the

Architectural design values Building a complete replica of Angkor Wat in

Architectural design values make up an important part of what

 are of broad geographical scope

Lotus at the Angkor still water moats

seated on the flower.

comparable to a lotus. Dr Ananda Coomaraswamy has divided Lakshmi idols

Buddhas seated on a lotus in bloom or on a lotus-seat have been found in

Buddhist mandalas (yantras) depict different Buddhas and Bodhisattvas inside

Transportation planning is the field involved with the siting

More Apsaras, with even fancier hats/ Carvings on a column.

Above picture(RIGHT) a yellow-garbed Buddha in the entrance hall. Angkor

The temple is part of the Angkor World Heritage Site, established in 1992,

The Outer Gallery

The Southwest Pavilion

Army of King Suryavarman II

This looks like a group of monks, attending the king.

This is someone, I think a queen, being carried in a covered chair.

The South Gallery, with its corbelled arch.

More marching troops, wearing helmets and carrying spears.

Officers riding horses. The important figures are larger sized.

Here is King Suryavarman II again, sword across his shoulder, riding an

The Judgment of Yama and the Tortures of Hell

On the way to heaven, things are much more peaceful.

Here is one of the good being carried on a palanquin.

A view walking down the corridor beside the South Gallery.

The Churning of the Ocean of Milk

Legend Behind Samudra Manthan

The Churning of the Ocean

 Sura or Varuni – Goddess and creator of wine

 Lakshmi – the Goddess of Fortune and Wealth. Vishnu and Lakshmi

Haalaa-Hala – the Poison

Churning Out Divine Nectar

This is one of the four corner towers on the third level.

The Baken at Angkor Wat – The Main Sanctuary, Third Level

Looking back at the two lower levels.

This is a view of the courtyard at the third level.

Two Buddhist monks walk into the courtyard.

The base of the central tower.

This is the central tower of Angkor Wat.

Looking from the third level towards the main entrance.

One of the walkways that surround the inner courtyard.

Here is another such Buddha. It is interesting to me that Lord Buddha is

Looking down at the second level again.

More exquisite carving at the top of a door.

This is the main Buddha in the Hall of One Thousand Buddhas.

Looking back towards the main temple.

To support this idea, here is something that I found from sacredsites.com:

Here is another classic photo of Angkor Wat, illuminated at night. (Picture

See also Puri, B. (1958). BRAHMANISM IN ANCIENT