Banteay Srei, 968, built under Rajendravarman by the Brahman priest Yajnavaraha and his brother Vishnukumara, but dedicated under the next king, Rajendravarman's son, Jayavarman V (r. 968-ca. 1000).

Description

Banteay Srei, the "Fortress of the Women," is located about an hour by car and a pot-holed road to the north-northeast of Angkor. It probably did have a large enclosing wall, though no traces remain, and there was once a huge reservoir in association with the temple. Phnom Dei, one of the four mountains at Angkor, is located just in front of Banteay Srei and may have been one of the reasons for its founding at this location. Just as Phnom Dei has a temple built 60 years earlier dedicated to Harihara (Vishnu/Shiva), Banteay Srei is dedicated to Vishnu (northern tower, northern library, and northern structures along the entrance causeway) and Shiva (southern and central tower, southern library, and southern structures along the entrance causeway).

At the center of Banteay Srei is a set of three miniature sandstone towers on a platform - and miniature is stressed here - their doorways are about 4 ft. high, or less. The central tower has a connecting, introductory structure in front called a mandapa. In front of the platform, on the east, are two rectangular libraries with their clerestories and remarkable relief decoration. Far to the east of this central area is the first of 4 (or possibly 5) entrances to the temple's precincts. This first entrance leads to a long, raised walkway that ends at the next entrance. The walkway once had a roofed corridor on each side that ran along its entire length. Each of these corridors was supported by pillars along the side of the walkway and a wall on the opposite side. At the midway point, doorways opened onto a set of structures to the north and south that were dedicated to Vishnu and Shiva, respectively. The general concept of this walkway with its flanking structures would be copied at Angkor Wat in the 12th c. At the end of the walkway is another entrance and a large enclosing wall that extends around a rectangular moat. And at the end of the raised embankment between the two halves of the moat, we find another laterite enclosing wall. Inside this wall were two long buildings on the east and west and one on the north and south that ran parallel to the wall and were placed very close to it. This creates a very restricted courtyard around the final wall and its entrance gateway - that wall, however, is now gone. As a consequence, the interior of Banteay Srei and its platform of three towers is deceptively larger than originally intended.

The 968 stele inscription of Banteay Srei is almost exactly identical with two other inscriptions discovered at little sanctuaries 10 km. apart. All three inscriptions refer to the priest Yajnavaraha as the patron and builder of these temples. At Banteay Srei, his brother Vishnukumara is also mentioned as a co-patron.

Banteay Srei is definitely archaic in its sculpted female and male guardian figures in niches, and in its lintels and the colonettes on each side of the door. The architects were intentionally interpreting art that was more than 100 years old and adorning the temple with their form of "art history." The brilliant creativity of this archaic vision was equally matched by innovation. For the first time in Khmer art, the tympana (triangular pediments above the doorways) were adorned with figural scenes from Brahmanical mythology, ancestral towers on a low platform were constructed entirely in sandstone, and outside walls were covered with a tapestry-like floral pattern. The tapestry-like wall surfaces were repeated 100 years later at the Baphuon, and 150 years later at Angkor Wat.

Iconography

We have seen that King Rajendravarman's main image at Pre Rup was dedicated to Shiva, to the king, and to the god Bhadreshvara - the deity at Wat Phu. The main image in all three of Yajnavaraha's temples was dedicated to Tribhuvana Maheshvara, the form of Shiva worshipped at the main pyramid-temple at Chok Gargyar (Koh Ker, the distant capital between ca. 921- 944). However, the income from donated revenues to the Bhadreshvara image at Wat Phu was shared by these three temples. In other words, Banteay Srei was supported, in part, by monies raised at the distant Wat Phu in Laos. This creates a "Bhadreshvara, Wat Phu" connection between Banteay Srei and Pre Rup.

Excerpts from an inscription

(typical of most inscriptions)

The inscription begins with a homage to Shiva, his shakti or consort, and to the king. It goes on to give the lineage and history of a Brahman priest, perhaps Yajnavaraha himself.

Having attained the One who possesses resplendent beauty, the sciences, luminous by nature, shone sparklingly, like the rays of the sun striking a mirror.

In a saintly manner, he each day practiced, with the same regularity with which he took his meals, the offering of a garland of eight flowers, the oblations over fire, and the disciplines of yoga.

Each month, in the four phases of the moon, he generously donated to the Hindus gold, garments, and cows.

King Jayavarman, who lived with him, constantly honored this sage with parasols of peacock feathers, gold litters, and other marks of esteem.

With the help of those who develop the sciences taught in the home, and others, he destroyed in himself as in other people the errors of the weak in spirit.

He was the first in the knowledge of the doctrines of Patanjali, Kanada, Aksapada, Kapila, Buddha, in those of medicine, music, and astronomy.

In his fatherland he ordered writers to compose brief tales, he who knew various languages and writings and himself wrote dramas.

With medicines, wealth, and science, he wiped out people's suffering: illness, injustice, poverty, and error.

The poor, the disinherited, the blind, the weak, children, the aged, the ill, and other unfortunate people desirous of crossing the ocean of suffering filled his dwelling every day.

At Lingapura (Koh Ker) and other places he founded numerous lingas of Shiva, accompanied by statues, reservoirs of water, and ashrams.