Page:History of Indian and Eastern Architecture Vol 2.djvu/445

CHAP. II. CAMBODIA. 373 and E. Aymonier, 1 all of whom were sent out by the Minister of Public Instruction and under the direction of the Ecole Francais de 1'Extreme Orient. The latest writer on the subject is General L. de Beylie, 2 whose work includes a description with illustrations of the monuments of India, Burma, Cambodia, Siam, Java, and Ceylon. In addition to these sources of information there is a most interesting account, written by a Chinese traveller, who spent two years in the country when the kingdom was in its most flourishing state between the years 1295-97. He was a Buddhist, and, like his predecessors in India, Fah Hian and Hiuen Tsiang, sees things a little too much through Buddhist spectacles ; but, with this slight defect, nothing can be more graphic than his account of the country and the people. 3 One of the earliest traditions is that first put forward by Dr. Bastian 4 relative to the migration of an Indian prince, and this is repeated by Tissandier, 5 who states that in 443 B.C. Prea-thong, a Hindu prince, son of the King of Indraprastha, emigrated with a large number of his followers and settled at Choukan (north of Angkor). The new emigrants introduced the Brahman rites which were engrafted on those of the Serpent worshippers of the country. Although at first they settled down amicably with the original inhabitants, in course of time troubles set in and the Indians, having vanquished their opponents, became masters of the country. In 125 B.C. the Chinese are said to have conquered the Cambodians and forced them to pay tribute. There is also a record that in the first centuries of our era emigrants from Madras made their way into Cambodia introducing the Brahman faith, the Sanskrit alphabet, and Indian rites and customs. 6 The Khmer and Sanskrit epigraphic texts give details of a dynasty of seven kings who reigned from 435-680 A.D., among whom a certain Bhavavarman seems to have been a great conqueror ; the last 1 ' Le Cambodge.' 3 vols. Imp. 8vo. 1901-1907. The Sanskrit inscriptions were translated and commented by M. M. A. Earth and Abel Bergaigne, with atlas of phototypes of the estampages. Paris 1885 and 1893. 2 ' L' Architecture Hindoue en Extreme Orient.' 1907. 3 The work is translated in extcnso in Abel Remusat's ' Nouveaux Melanges Asiatiques,' vol. i. pp. 78 et scqq. 4 Bastian, loc. cit. vol. i. p. 393. 5 Tissandier, loc. cit. p. 17. 6 From ancient inscriptions we learn that the Eastern peninsula at an early date included six regions, states or kingdoms : (i) Yavana-dera in the north-east, extending from the gulf of Tongkin westwards nearly to the 99th meridian, and including much of the Laos districts north of 17 30'. Its capital was Chudhanagari, now Luang Phrabang on the Me-kong. (2) Champ&- dera, corresponding to Annam and extending to about 160 miles westwards of the Me-kong. (3) Sayam-de^a in the north-west, including Burma proper and the northern part of modern Siam east of the Salwin, of which Haripunyapura,now Lamphum on the Me-ping, was if not the capital one of its notable cities, (4) Kambuja-de^a included all Cambodia.