User:Eucrosia/ราชวงศ์มหิธรปุระ

Mahidharapura Dynasty (Khmer: រាជត្រកូលមហិធរៈបុរៈ ; Thai: เรียจฺตระกูลมอหิดเทียปูเรี๊ยะ ; Roman: House of Mahidharapura, Mahidra pura) family of Mahidharpura, some sources call Mahitarapura dynasty or Khom royal family. The Mahidharapura dynasty of the Varman dynasty was established by Jayavarman VI in 1080. Its ancestor wasBhavavarman I of Chenla kingdom. King Jayavarman VI was a nobleman of the royal family ruling Phimai (now Phimai District Nakhon Ratchasima Province). The royal line of Mahidharapura was the beginning of the family of many Khmer kings who settled in the Mun River basin near Prasat Phanom Wan, Prasat Phimai, Pradsat Phanom Rung, and the area of Lavo. It is an ancient royal family since the Funan era, having influence and power base in the southeast region and the Phanom Dong Rak mountain range. There are eleven monarchs in Mahidharpura, the first of which was Jayavarman VI and the last was Jayavarman IX (Jayavarmadiparamesvara).

In 1080, Jayavarman VI of the Mahidharapura lineage seized power. He hailed from the upper Mun River valley in north-east Thailand, an area that will figure prominently below, and two of his successors were responsible for the final additions to bring Angkor to its present form. Suryavarman II was anointed king in 1113, and was responsible for Angkor Wat, arguably the largest and certainly one of the most impressive religious monuments known.

The distribution of inscriptions that record particular kings is possibly the best approach to identifying the extent of their influence. Those of the first dynasty concentrate north of the Great Lake and in the Mekong Valley up to its strategic junction of the Mun River. Those for the Dynasty of the Suryavarman I in the eleventh century reveal an expansion up the Mun River and into central Thailand, a pattern that seems to have gathered pace with the accession of the dynasty of Mahidharapura from its home base in the upper Mun Valley. The weight of evidence makes it clear, that the areas more remote from the centre of Angkor had their own aristocratic families who had for generations exercised local authority, a situation that induced a degree of instability not unusual among pre-industrial states. The inscriptions also disclose that Angkor was never the capital of an extensive empire, but concentrated in the flat riverine and lacustrine lowlands of Cambodia and the Mun Valley.

Appreciating the importance of indigenous language and culture in the Chenla period serves to emphasise the need to illuminate and better understand the prehistoric communities of the Mekong Valley. To what extent did they contribute to the genesis of Angkor? A decade ago, Dr Rachanie Thosarat and the author instituted a research programme to respond to this challenge. It began by concentrating fieldwork in the upper Mun Valley of north-east Thailand, home of Angkor’s dynasty of Mahidharapura, and as political conditions have improved, it has also undertaken field research at Angkor and in north-west Cambodia.

The capital of the early state of Funan at Angkor Borei accumulated over a prehistoric Iron Age settlement. At Angkor, there was prehistoric occupation, and large and opulent Iron Age sites are now coming to light in Banteay Meanchay Province west of Angkor. In the upper Mun Valley, an important region that provided the third or Mahidharapura dynasty of Angkor, extensive excavations have documented a long prehistoric cultural sequence marked by increasing social complexity.