Kapilapura
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Only 300 m north-east of the north-eastern corner of Angkor Wat's moat there are some sparce remains of a former settlement with sanctuaries. Besides Kuthishvara, this excavation site called Kapilapura is the only ancient structure in Angkor bearing its original Sanskrit name. The reason is, it was forgotten, and then uncovered by French researchers only at the beginning of the 20th century. For lack of a local name they reintroduced the name mentioned in inscriptions. "Kapila" is the name of a highly venerated Hindu sage, "Pura" in Sanskrit simply means town.
To be honest, there is not much to see at this site, the ancient Kapilapura, only foundations of small square sanctuaries and rectangular chambers, and some pedestals scattered on the ground. It is not even easy to recognize the site when walking around in this area. In the corner of the moat of Angkor Wat you have to follow the diagonal path to the north-east. At a fork after 100 metres you have to take the left path, after 150 metres more there is a less densely forested and slightly higher area on the right side, this is the mound called Kapilapura, 5 m high and 175 m in diametre. So here leave the path, and after 100 metres you will find the poor stone remnants. There were two small Prasat towers, of laterite and brick, one with a Mandapa orientated east, and a third building with a rectangular ground plan. One of the four inscriptions already known to Finot in 1925 mentions the date 968 for the consecration of the temple. This was during the reign of Rajendravarman II or Jayavarman V. A dedication to Shiva was made by a guru of the king, inscribed on a large stone stele that once was misnomered the "Inscription of Angkor Wat" because of its proximity to the intact temple monument. The inscription commemorates the digging of several ponds and reservoirs, further donations to the huge reservoir East Baray, and the installation of a deity statue on an island. It is an inscription not of a king, but of his guru. This means, Kapilapura's shrine was a private temple, similar to the nearly contemporary Prasat Kravan and Wat An Kao Sai and, most famously, Banteay Srei. What is interesting about Kapilapura is its scientific rediscovery. Though aleady included in some early French maps it was newly explored in the late 20th century by satellite imagery. Kapilapura seemed to have been a small suburb of the main capital area of the tenth century. But there were pre-Angkorian stone pieces found in Kapilapura, and traces of very early Vishnu worship, indicating a much earlier settlement from the Chenla period. Earthwork curving around the mound was found on the north and north-west of Kapilapura. A circular ground plan as in Kapilapura was uncommon in Angkor, but widespread already at the beginning of the first century, particularly in Northeastern Thailand. It seems that the founders of Angkor's imperial cities and temples such as Yashodharapura and Angkor Wat respected the earlier site and deliberately refrained from using its ground for their new purposes. Kapilapura remained to be an own small separate settlement during the centuries of Angkor's heydays. Remarkably, this site prior to Indianization remained to be a religious sanctuary, but of changing Indian religions, such as Vishnuism and Shivaism. Several statues of the Hindu god Vishnu were found in Kapilapura already in the 1920s when it was first excavated. Maybe not accidentally, Angkor Wat, the monument marking the triumph of Vishnuism over Shivaism in the Khmer state cult, was built in such close proximity to this centuries older traditional place of Vishnu worship. Presumably, a secluded site with small ruins will be rarely visited by ticket inspectors. However, you need a ticket for admission to the whole area between Angkor Wat and Ta Som. |
