Column by Devdutt Pattanaik | Kailasa in Cambodia

A fewer decades earlier the Chola king Rajaraja I built the Brihadeeswara Temple successful Tamil Nadu, astir 1000 AD, a Khmer king called Jayavarman IV had begun gathering a temple to replicate the Kailasa upland successful Cambodia, astatine Koh Ker, implicit with a vessel that would replicate the stream Ganga. It followed Tantrik principles of architecture, and a adjacent stream furniture was covered with hundreds of Shiva lingas to alteration the h2o into Ganga.

This was 200 years earlier the gathering of the present celebrated tourist destination Angkor Wat. The Shiva of Koh Ker is not immoderate gentle yogi. He is simply a large deity of kings, a deity of power, a deity of dominance, a Tantrik god.

Built successful the 10th period CE, Koh Ker was for a little infinitesimal the superior of the Khmer Empire earlier Angkor took over. Jayavarman IV was not funny successful modesty; helium wanted a superior that proclaimed power. So, helium placed Shiva astatine the centre of everything. At Koh Ker, helium built a monolithic seven-tiered pyramid called Prasat Thom. Prasat means ‘prasada’ oregon enclosure successful Sanskrit, a communal word for temples. It looks thing similar the curving shikhara of Indian temples. It looks similar a step-pyramid, earthy and imposing, much Mayan than Indian. But connected apical of it stood the linga of Shiva, rising similar a cosmic pillar, disposable from miles around.

The connection was clear: the king was Shiva’s chosen, the axis of the beingness had been placed successful his capital, and his earthly representative. This is classical Deva-raja (God-king) cult, wherever the deity and the king merge into 1 cosmic being. You tin spot wherefore Jayavarman IV wanted Koh Ker arsenic his capital. It was propaganda successful stone.

Shiva arsenic an empire

Around this pyramid, the tract was filled with dozens of Shiva temples. Archaeologists person counted much than 180 sanctuaries scattered crossed 80 quadrate kilometres. Many shrines were built to location lingas, each named with cosmic attributes: Prasat Krahom, Prasat Pram, and truthful on.  

The sculptures from Koh Ker are stunning. Some of the finest images of Shiva’s sons, Skanda and Ganesha, travel from here. The astir awesome is 1 of Skanda seated connected a peacock, a uncommon Cambodian image. Another celebrated representation is of Shiva playing with babe Skanda, and it is ne'er wide if this is simply a practice of a deity oregon the king. Then determination are fragments of a monolithic five-headed, ten-armed dancing Shiva. Many sculptures were stolen and present housed successful museums astir the world.

What makes Koh Ker antithetic from Angkor Wat is that present Shiva is intelligibly supreme. At Angkor, you spot Vishnu cults rise, and aboriginal Buddhist domination. But Koh Ker is axenic Shaiva power. The inscriptions are wide that Jayavarman IV’s devotion was to Tribhuvaneshvara, Lord of the Three Worlds, different sanction for Shiva. The architecture backs this up. Every stone, wall, and sanctuary announces Shaiva supremacy.

It is besides worthy noting however the Khmer kings reimagined Indian ideas. In India, the Shiva linga is often housed successful acheronian sanctums. In Koh Ker, it is raised up successful the open, precocious supra connected a pyramid. This is the deity of kingship, not the deity of hermits. Ellora’s Kailasa temple is carved retired of surviving rock, but it hides the linga successful the depths of a mountain. Chidambaram successful Tamil Nadu is adjacent much distinct. Its sanctum has nary linga astatine each but an bare abstraction with a hanging garland, symbolising Shiva arsenic the cosmic dancer, subtle and unseen.

Koh Ker is the other of some — a 36-metre-high pyramid, unsmooth blocks stacked successful the jungle, carrying a Shiva linga astatine the apical similar a flagpole of the empire.

The audacity of a king

Today, Koh Ker is mostly successful ruins. Tourists inactive similar Angkor Wat, but anyone who visits the erstwhile feels the earthy difference. Angkor is polished grandeur, with Vishnu, Shiva, and aboriginal Buddha each jostling. Koh Ker is blunt power: Shiva arsenic an empire.

After Jayavarman IV’s death, the superior shifted backmost to Angkor. Koh Ker was abandoned, its expansive pyramid near isolated successful the jungle. The colossal linga that erstwhile crowned the pyramid is gone, astir apt destroyed oregon stolen. What remains is simply a shade of Shaiva power.

But sometimes ghosts are much telling than monuments. Koh Ker shows america the audacity of a king who dared to centre the cosmos connected Shiva, lone for past to determination on.

Devdutt Pattanaik is the writer of 50 books connected mythology, creation and culture.