The Discovery of Indradevi and Jayarajadevi, Queens of the 12th Century Khmer Kingdom
This discovery was made possible through the focus on two particular sculptures: the sisters and queens Indradevi and Jayarajadevi, both advisers and wives of King Jayavarman VII.
Queen Indradevi’s unique features exemplify the ideal Khmer beauty, with her oval face accentuated by a long nose and cleft in her chin. The queens were attired like saints/deities. Their sculpted images can be found in three temples, Preah Khan, Bayon, and Banteay Kdei, which were built during their reign as a testimony to their historical influence on that era. When viewed in the context of the royal life depicted in the bas-reliefs located in the 2nd inner gallery of Bayon temple, these sculptures provide proof-positive evidence that these women existed and corroborate with the oral legends handed down about them.
Obviously, not all apsaras(defined in Sanskrit or Tep Apsars in Khmer) are celestial dancers; some apsaras might be royal court dancers, princesses, devatas, saints, goddesses, or queens. It’s unconscionable to categorize and label all Khmer women of the royal kingdom as apsaras. Clearly, these are sculpted portraits of powerful, influential, beautiful, and compassionate Queen Jayarajadevi and Queen Indradevi of the 12th century Khmer Kingdom, who made major contributions to culture and governance.
The reverberations of their tremendous influence still resonate in the nowadays body of research. These royals left behind a legacy of wealth cultural heritage that propelled Cambodia on the international stage and made tourism its first and main economic drive.
Summary of recognized historical fact and cultural context: (Short, Visual Intro to the Royals' History new)
Fact 1. They are the known sisters, queens, and royal spouses of King Jayavarman VII. In Bayon, the inner 2nd gallery bas-relief illustrated the hierarchy and the activities of the King and his two Queens. Please see the notes in the two bas-reliefs depicting the differences of types and classes of all the figures.
Fact 2. The word “preah ang” means sacred, divinity or saint, and is a formal manner of addressing royalty. In Khmer mythology and history, it is common to give kings god-like status. King Jayavarman was considered as a god-king. Therefore, his queens would also be considered goddess-queens. (See appended notes) In historical records we were led to believe that he was a Buddharaja; thus, we "found" the sculpted images and statues of King Jayavarman VII in the likeliness of the Buddha by the thousands, but we only found 3 presumed statues of Queen Jayarajadevi and zero, none of Queen Indradevi’s statues or sculptures. (See the comparison's table of the presumed images in 1955 to the discovered images in 2010. Please click on "The Two Queens" tab.) It was not surprising that at the present, I found more than dozens of paired sculptures of the sisters-queens in their temples built during their reign, once I differentiated them from the common apsaras.
Fact 3. In Preah Khan, Queen Indradevi’s sculpture originally had precious gemstones encrusted in her eyebrows and crown. Gold hoops once dangled from her earlobes and still more gemstones had been woven into her body belt, all treasures long-ago stolen. The fact that she was adorned in precious gemstones and gold is a revealing feature of her true royal identity. No other apsara sculptures have ever been encrusted in gold and precious stones in Khmer history.
Queen Indradevi in the collapsing chamber in Preah Khan
Fact 4. In Preah Khan, Bayon, Banteay Kdei Temples were built under the same reign only a few years apart. Temple building averaged 20+ years before completion. In their era (and in nowadays) only the few elites and religious high order could read Sanskrit. However, all the people, men, women and children of past and in the present can tell the narratives looking at the bas-reliefs. (See notes on the Bayon bas-reliefs.)
Fact 5. In Bayon and Preah Khan their facial features are unique and recognizable, despite the wear and tear and minor damages occurring over the centuries. The western, Indian-like traits of Queen Indradevi’s clef chin, oval face, slight squarish jaw lines, long nose, slightly slanted eyes, elegant eyebrows, and unmistakable smiles are more similar on both sculptures than different. Striking Chinese/Asian looking facial features on Queen Jayarajadevi are a rounder face, cute little nose, slanted eyes, and elegant, curling lips either smiling mischievously in life or gracefully in death.
Queen Indradevi in Preah Khan is compared to her images in Bayon:
Queen Jayarajadevi in Preah Khan is compared to her images in Bayon:
Fact 6. Queen Indradevi was probably named due to her Indian looks. Indra is derived from India, Inde. Indra is also referred to as a god in Hindu.
Fact 7. At the main entrance in Bayon, their most sacred temple, Queen Jayarajadevi was represented in a dwelling structure fit for a queen. It had curtains, maids, musicians, and apsara dancers with two other sculptures on her left side, one of them which is Indradevi. At Bayon, on the second floor, the main tower walls were covered by the sculptures of these paired queens, recognized by their hallmark attire and standing position of a divinity. In addition, above their alcoves, the little Buddhas (their King representations, some are left, most are desecrated), were blessing them reasserting again their status of goddess-queens. On the other side of the main entrance, initially thought as the many wives of the King, upon closer examination, was Indradevi’s look-alike.
In Bayon Queen Jayarajadevi is seen in her palace like dwelling, and Queen Indradevi is to her left.
Fact 8. Queen Indradevi’s image represents the perfect, idealized features of a Khmer woman. To this day, Cambodian women and men are desirous of having a cleft chin! This feature is usually considered a masculine and authoritative trait in the western world.
Fact 9. In Preah Khan and Bayon, Queen Indradevi’s body posture from hand to foot was the same. Her dress with a fishtail also folded in the same direction.
The queens pose in Preah Khan. Note the neglect and filth to which they have been subjected as a result of being mislabeled as apsaras.
Fact 10. Sculptures of kings, queens, and common people have been found throughout world history. Why are we (Westerners lead the discussion and the Khmer people follow) assuming that all apsaras are alike and dismissing them as mere concubines? “They existed to respond to the passion of the males” so wrote Vittorio Roveda in 1997 in Khmer Mythology. Other than celestial dancers there is a good probability that these standing apsaras were actually portraits of princesses, queens, or other women of the court.
Fact 11. No two hand-carved stone sculptures are alike. However, all four sculpted images of the queens have more similarities than differences. They have been subjected to the harsh, tropical weather for over 800 years. Additional variables could be: talent of sculptor, quality of stone, age, fashion, condition, and change of status. If four out of five facial traits of the two sculptures match, this should be considered compelling evidence as to the sculptures identities, along with other distinguishing features, such as tiaras, earrings, hand-arm positions, garlands, lotus, etc. (See below the table of the royal attibutes and unique hallmarks to the queens. See notes for more details.)
Fact 12. The Khmer Apsara Authority, which oversees the work and upkeep of the Angkor grounds, may be too overwhelmed to take appropriate action, as the AA allocates each temple to a different country to be maintained and studied. Therefore, as experts, they are limited to the gates of their individual temples and overstepping this boundary would be considered an international faux pas. This means the discovery process can be painfully slow, if it moves at all. http://www.autoriteapsara.org/en/apsara/about_apsara/partners_links.html
Fact 13. The only three statues that experts still question as being the image of Queen Jayarajadevi, resemble, in my opinion, the mother of King Jayavarman VII or a deity other than the queen. (See http://www.guimet.fr/Kneeling-Tara ) This is the reason for naming her “Prajnaparamita” rather than calling her Queen Jayarajadevi. Her facial traits closely resemble those of Jayavarman VII’s (See http://www.guimet.fr/Jayavarman-VII), with the exception of the queen’s angular eyebrows.