Cultural object
Visnu (National Museum of Cambodia)
Visnu is a sixth-century sandstone statue of the god Visnu from Tuol Dai Buon in Prey Veng province, held by the National Museum of Cambodia in Phnom Penh.[1] The four-armed figure stands 193 centimeters (76 inches) high.[2]
The object
The objects in his hands identify the figure as Visnu, the Preserver of the World.[1] He leans slightly to the left. His upper right hand holds a cakra, or disk, strengthened by a long support joined to the head. The lower right hand is broken, the upper left holds a broken conch, and the lower left rests on a mace that also serves as a prop.[1][2] Like other stone figures of the pre-Angkorian period, the sixth to eighth centuries, the statue was steadied with supports such as a horseshoe-shaped arc.[3][4]
He wears a cylindrical miter. A row of curls shaped like silkworms, with a fringe below, lines his forehead, and his hair falls over the nape of the neck.[2] He has a faint smile, a full belly and wide shoulders.[1] The museum reads the small bangs on the forehead as signs of youth, elegance and kindness.[2]
His sampot, the lower garment, is worn in the traditional Khmer manner called chang kbin (also written can kbin). A rectangle of cloth covers the body from the hips, is knotted over the stomach, and passes between the legs. Its rolled edge is fastened at the back in a fishtail form called kantuoy kbin.[2][5] In front, the garment has a folded edge above the knee and a fishtail below the stomach, with a simple rim around the hips.[2] The museum's catalog references are B.343, B.30.15 and Ka.1597.[1]
Iconography
Four arms let the sculptor show the power of Visnu's attributes, which were regarded as weapons against his enemies.[2] The four objects can also be read as the elements of the cosmos: the disk is fire, the conch water, the sphere earth and the mace wind.[2] Khmer art also shows the incarnations of Visnu, among them Krsna, Rama and Kalkin. On a lintel in the museum (Ka.1774), a four-armed Visnu reclines on the naga Ananta in the ocean. Other works in the collection join Visnu and Siva in a single figure, Harihara.[2][5]
Date and origin
The museum places the statue in the Nokor Phnom period, from the first to the eighth centuries.[2] Nokor Phnom, "mountainous country," was an old name for Cambodia, and Chinese writers turned phnom into the name Funan.[2][5] Its capital moved several times, and the last was at Angkor Borei in what is now Takeo province.[2] At the beginning of the seventh century, Nokor Phnom was conquered by Chenla, one of its vassal states.[5]
The museum classes the art of Funan as the Phnom Da style (540 to 600). The art of Chenla falls into the Sambor Prei Kuk, Prei Khmeng and Kompong Preah styles (600 to 800). Together they make up pre-Angkorian art.[2][5]
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 National Museum of Cambodia
- ↑ 2.00 2.01 2.02 2.03 2.04 2.05 2.06 2.07 2.08 2.09 2.10 2.11 2.12 cambodiamuseum.info, Visnu
- ↑ cambodiamuseum.info, Stone Objects - cambodiamuseum.info
- ↑ National Museum of Cambodia, Pierre (stone collection)
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 5.3 5.4 National Museum of Cambodia, Visnu