Page 48 - A History of Siam

A HISTORY OF SIAM
46
Prat'om, Nak'on Srit'ammarat, and in other parts of
Siam.
As time went we that
on, may suppose among
the Khmers of Siam, as in India, the religion of the
people consisted of a jumble of northern and southern
Buddhism and Brahmanism.
As Buddhism declined in it be
India, may supposed
that it likewise declined the Khmers. However
among
this it is certain that the earliest Khmer
may be, Kings
of whom we have were followers of
any knowledge
Brahmanism. This line of of Indian
Kings, presumably
commenced to rule in the seventh
origin, early
century A.D.
The of this Indian named
eighth King dynasty,
who for over
Jayavarman II, reigned sixty years (A.D.
802 to A.D. was the builder of the famous stone
869),
temple at Angkor T'om, and one of his successors,
Suryavarman II, built the still more celebrated temple
Angkor Wat, about A.D. noo.
at
All these Kings of Cambodia were Brahmans, not
Buddhists, and their temples were dedicated to the
worship of Indian deities.
The statement that these the remains
huge temples,
of which fill all beholders with awe and wonder, were
built under any particular monarch, requires some
Hundreds of were
qualification. years probably spent
in the construction of these Sir Clifford
buildings. Hugh
has us a wonderful of the miserable Khmer
given picture
serfs from to to
toiling generation generation complete
these Brahman for their Indian rulers and
temples
taskmasters. 1 Yet in the end the work was never
finished. As we shall see in chapter iv., the power of
the Cambodian Kings was so undermined by the Tai
1
The Downfall of the Gods,