Some Literary References in the Grande Inscription dy Angkor

(IMA 38) Peter Skilling

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'he longest of the group of inscriptions known to scholars as "Inscriptions modernes d'Arigkor" has been dubbed the "la Grande Inscription d'Angkor Vat". Dating to Mahâsakkarâj 1623 (CE 1701), it is an extraordinary document. Fifty-three lines long and composed in 152 verses using three different metres, it is indeed a poem, a very human document, rich in metaphor and literary allusion. The author - "grand dignitaire du rang de uk M jouissant de la faveur royale, et upâsak remarquablement pieux" (Pou 1985, 283) is also responsible for an earlier inscription, dated Mahâsakkarâj 1618 (CE 1696). 1

The first section of IMA 38 (vv. 1-45) is in the Brahmagïti metre, as announced in verse 3. The author pays homage to the Buddha and other deities, and requests a panoply of blessings. He identifies himself as one Jaiya Nan gives a brief account of his career - his rise in the court from Senâpati to Yamaràj (vv. 23-26). He describes his meritorious deeds (vv. 32-44), and deeply laments the recent loss of his wife (for whom he built a caitya) and the earlier loss of his children (for which see IMA 34). The second part (vv. 46-104), in the Bhujangalïlâ metre, as announced in verse 46, lists the negative conditions the author wishes to avoid. The third part (vv. 105-152) is in Kâkagati, as announced in verse 105. The second and third parts are an effusion of aspiration directed towards future lives, a verse inventory of the dangers and ills that the author wants to avoid and the felicities that he wants to obtain, with the ultimate aim of meeting Maitreya and receiving from him the prediction of his own future Buddhahood.

Aséanie 8, décembre 2001, p. 57-66