6. Buddhist monuments in Funan

Its first great kingdom developed along the gulf of asia at the start of the Christian era. The Chinese chronicles call it funan, a name that derives from the Khmer word bnam (mountain), and a strong Indian influence is evident from the surviving relics. Funan seems to have been founded by one Kaundinya who, after a dream, traveled there from India and married soma, a local princess who belonged to the Naga people, mythical beings who were part cobra.

The son of Soma and Kaundinya was to be the founder of the first Funanese Kaundinya dynasty:

“Legend has it that an Indian Brahman named Kaundinya arrived in the country and married Soma, the daughter of the king of the Naga–that is, of the local native chief.”^[1]

From the time of king Kaundinya Jayavarman (A.D. 478-514) the rulers of Funan acquired greater historical importance.

Their capital was vyadhapura, and Oc-eo, north of the present-day Rach Gia in Vietnam, was the kingdom’s main port.

“The Chinese say that the capital lay at a distance of 120 miles from the sea. This is approximately the distance between Ba Phnom and the site of Oc Eo, which lies on the gulf of Siam west of the delta.”^[2]

These are evidence that all the various Indian cults existed in Funan, either simultaneously or in succession. In the reign of Jayavarman, ‘it was the custom to worship the god Maheshvara (shiva), who ceaselessly descends upon Mount’.^[3] This apparently refers to the sacred mountain from which the country and its kings took their name. It was the place where heaven and earth were in communicationhence the Chinese expression about the god ‘ceaselessly’ descending. No doubt he materialized in the form of a Linga, the phallic emblem of Shiva Girisha^[4], Shiva ‘residing upon the mountain’, mentioned in the inscriptions. That the vaishnavite cult existed is shown by the inscription of prince Gunavarman and of his mother. Lastly, Hinayana Buddhism, with its Sanskrit canon, is attested for the fifth and the sixth centuries in the inscriptions of Jayavarman and his successor Rudravarman.^[5]

The architecture of Funan, nothing seems to have survived except for a few foundations of buildings found at Oc Eo, which are belonging to the art of pre-Angkor period, with roofs containing many minute storeys with decorated niches, reproduce the characteristic features of the architectural monuments of Funan.

The most distinctive Funan religious belief was the cult of the god-king^[6], inherited from south India, the concept of the divine/human king as the focus of the universe influenced the layout of temple complexes, with the primary shrine being the temple mountain, the centre of the universe.

“And when architects began to use stone, they built temples inspired by the symbolism of the cosmic mountain, the axis and hub of the world, just as the king was the focal point of the organized social system.”^[7]

A coherent, structured vision of the universe is fundamental to most religions, but seldom has the concept been translated into such a consummate artistic form. This cosmological vision began with a belief in the proper relationship among all creatures, the natural order of nature and humankind. In a near mirror image of the contemporary literature of medieval Europe, Buddhist cosmology supported a belief in the essential harmony of the universe and a feeling that humankind’s creations must conform with that greater plan. In Funanese this cosmology was closely linked to belief in the god-king, placing the living Funan king in the central position, with the temple as the physical presence that symbolized his imperial role. This temple mountain was not a place of group worship but rather functioned as the habitation of the god-king, an earthly palace also suitable for the celestial gods.

Footnotes and references:

[1]:

G. Coedès, The Making of South East Asia, str by H. M Wright, California press: 1983, p. 57.

[2]:

Ibid, p. 61.

[3]:

K.A.N. Sastri, South India and South-East Asia, India: 1978, p. 154.

[4]:

Ibid, p. 129.

[5]:

M. K. Sharan, Studies in Sanskrit Inscriptions of Ancient Cambodia, Delhi: 1974, p. 23.

[6]:

K.A.N. Sastri, South India and South-East Asia, India: 1978, pp. 152-153.

[7]:

Marilia Albanese, Angkor splendors of the Khmer Civilization, Marilia Albanese, str by A.B.A, Milan, Asia Book–Thailand: 2006, p. 25.