Suryavarman II

Suryavarman II was a Khmer king who ruled from 1113 to about 1150 and commissioned Angkor Wat, a temple dedicated to Vishnu.

Khmer Empire: A Southeast Asian empire centered at Angkor that flourished from the ninth to fifteenth centuries. Suryavarman II ruled this empire during its twelfth-century expansion.
Devaraja: A Khmer royal cult that associated kingship with divine power and was linked to Mount Mahendra. This royal ideology helps explain how Angkorian rulers expressed authority through sacred architecture.
Angkor Wat: A monumental temple complex in Cambodia, originally dedicated to Vishnu and later used as a Buddhist site. This is Suryavarman II's defining architectural commission and enduring royal monument.
Yasovarman II: A Khmer king who ruled after Suryavarman II in the mid-twelfth century. His reign followed the succession after Suryavarman II's death.
Harshavarman III: A Khmer king who ruled in the late tenth and early eleventh centuries. His reign preceded the period of political conflict that Suryavarman II overcame.
Vishnu: A major Hindu deity associated with preservation and cosmic order. Angkor Wat was dedicated to Vishnu, distinguishing its original religious focus.
Champa: A historical collection of Cham polities along the coast of central and southern Vietnam. Suryavarman II campaigned against Champa, a major rival of the Khmer Empire.
Jayavarman VII: A Khmer king who ruled in the late twelfth and early thirteenth centuries and oversaw extensive building. His later reign followed Cham occupation of Angkor and reshaped Khmer kingship and religion.
Dharanindravarman I: A Khmer king who ruled before Suryavarman II in the early twelfth century. Suryavarman II displaced this predecessor in a contest for the throne.
Mount Meru: The cosmic mountain at the center of Hindu, Buddhist, and Jain cosmologies. Angkor Wat's central towers evoke the cosmic mountain in Hindu temple symbolism.

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Jayavarman IIRelated: His era preserves the later empire whose foundation tradition names Jayavarman II.