Mahendravarman (Chenla)

For other people named Mahendravarman, see Mahendravarman.

Mahendravarman (Khmer: មហេន្ទ្រវរ្ម័ន, vraḥ kamrateṅ añ Śrī Mahendravarmma in Pre-Angkorian Khmer: វ្រះកម្រតេង៑អញ៑ឝ្រីមហេន្ទ្រវម៌្ម; also titled Citrasena, Khmer: ចិត្រសេន Chinese: 摩訶陀羅跋摩; pinyin: Móhètuóluóbamó) was also called Protégé of the Great Indra.

Mahendravarman I មហេន្ទ្រវរ្ម័នទី១
King of Chenla
Reign	600–615
Predecessor	Bhavavarman I
Successor	Isanavarman I
Born	Bhavapura
Died	Not recognized as a date. Years must have 4 digits (use leading zeros for years < 1000).
Issue	Isanavarman I
Names Mahendravarman
House	Chenla
Dynasty	Varman
Father	Viravarman Sarvabhauma (grandfather)

Biography

Mahendravarman was a king of the kingdom of Chenla, modern day Cambodia, during the 6th century. Chenla was the direct predecessor of the Khmer empire. Citrasena was a full brother of Bhavavarman I (Khmer: ភវវរ្ម័នទី១), both of them sons of Vīravarman according to the Wat Ban Khwao inscription whom he joined to conquer the Kingdom of Funan, and whom he succeeded as king and adopting the name Mahendravarman. Inscriptions from the Isan region of Thailand, including the Don Mueang Toei inscription of Yasothon province, name a sequence of local rulers at Śaṅkhapura, namely Pravarasena, Kroñjapāhu and Dharmasena, in a manner Depimai compares, as a naming pattern rather than a claim of shared lineage, to how Citrasena's own name appears in inscriptions predating his accession. After Bhavavarman's death, Mahendravarman took residence in the capital at Sambor Prei Kuk while the same time Hiraṇyavarman (Khmer: ហិរណ្យវរ្ម័ន) was ruling Cambodia.

Mahendravarman sent an ambassador to Champa to "ensure friendship between the two countries."

Campaigns beyond the Dângrêk

Under the name Citrasena, and again after his accession, Mahendravarman conducted a series of expeditions outside the Tonlé Sap basin which are known almost entirely from the victory inscriptions they left behind. These reached north up the middle Mekong as far as Champasak in southern Laos, west along the Mun valley in what is now northeastern Thailand, and south across the Dângrêk range to Ta Phraya in Sa Kaeo province, where an inscription at Prasat Khao Chong Sa Chaeng (K. 969 / P.Ch. 5) records his excavation of a water tank named the Śaṅkara Taṭāka. Because these texts proclaim victories without recording any permanent apparatus of government, Michael Vickery has characterised them as exploratory probes whose lasting political effect was probably slight, and has argued that they do not demonstrate Chenla authority beyond the Dângrêk; on this view sustained intervention in the region began only under Mahendravarman's son Isanavarman I and continued under his grandson Bhavavarman II and under Jayavarman I.

Nicolas Revire, who calls him the first king of Zhenla, records that the inscriptions have him erecting Śiva-liṅgas and the bull as the symbol of his conquest over the whole territory. Four further inscriptions of his were found in Thailand, Laos and Cambodia and numbered K. 1338 to K. 1341, which by 2016 brought the known total to twenty.

After the death of Mahendravarman, his son Īśānavarman (Khmer: ឦសានវរ្ម័ន, Pre-Angkorian Khmer: ឦឝានវម៌្ម) took control of the kingdom, reigning until his death in 637; the last inscription attributed to him is dated 627, and the earliest dated inscription of his successor Bhavavarman II is from 639. Two of his grandsons, Śivadatta (Khmer: ឝិវទត្ត) and Īsvarakumāra (Khmer: ឦឝ្វរកុមារ), each held the office of svāmi at Jyeṣṭhapura, a polity in what is now Aranyaprathet district, Sa Kaeo province. A third son of Īśānavarman, the Yuvarāja or crown prince, is not named in any surviving record.

References

• Coedes, G. (1962). "The Making of South-east Asia." London: Cox & Wyman Ltd.

External links

• Google Books