Page:History of Indian and Eastern Architecture Vol 2.djvu/443

 CHAP. II. CAMBODIA. CHAPTER II. CAMBODIA. Approximate Dates. Jayavarman II. A D. 802 Jayavarman V. Jayavarman III. Indravarman 86 9 877 Suryavarman I.. Udayadityavarman Yajovarman. , 88 9 Harshavarman III. Harshavarman I. (?) 910 Jayavarman VI. . Ijanavarman (?) 9l8 Dharanindravarman I. Jayavarman IV. 928 Suryavarman II. . Harshavarman II. . 942 Dharanindravarman II Rajendravarman. 944 Jayavarman VII. CONTENTS. Introductory The various classes of temple and their disposition Temples of Angkor Vat, Angkor Thorn, Beng Mealea, Ta Prohm, Banteai Kedei, Prah-khan, etc. Palaces and Civil Architecture. The King Builders)- Approximate Dates. A. D. 968 1002 1049 1070 1090 1108 III2 1152 II62-I20I SINCE the exhumation of the buried cities of Assyria by Mons. Botta and Mr. Layard nothing has occurred so startling, or which has thrown so much light on Eastern art, as the discovery of the ruined cities of Cambodia. Historically, they are infinitely less important to us than the ruins of Nimrud and Nineveh ; but, in an architectural point of view, they are more astonishing ; and, for the elucidation of certain Indian problems, it seems impossible to overrate their importance. The first European who visited these ruins in modern times was M. Mouhot, a French naturalist, who devoted the last four years of his life (1858-1861) to the exploration of the valleys of the Me-kong and Me-nam rivers, Though the primary object of his travels was to investigate the natural productions of the country, he seems to have been so struck with the ruins of Angkor Vat that he not only sketched and made plans of them, but wrote descriptions of all the principal buildings. Unfortun- ately for science and art he never returned to Europe, being struck down by fever while prosecuting his researches in the northern part of the country ; and, though his notes have been published both in this country 2 and in France, they were not 1 Aymonier, { Le Cambodge,' tome iii. p. 529. 2 'Travels in Indo-China, Cambodia, and Laos,' by Henri Mouhot. 2 vols, 8vo. Murray, 1864.