Rajendravarman II

Rajendravarman II returned the Khmer capital to Angkor. Coming to the throne in 944 after the reign of Harshavarman II at Koh Ker, he based his claim on descent from earlier royal lines through his mother Mahendradevi, and his inscriptions present his accession as a restoration of legitimate order. Whether the transfer from Koh Ker involved force is unclear; the inscriptional language of renewal may conceal a coup, a possibility some historians have raised without decisive evidence.

At Yasodharapura, Rajendravarman rebuilt and repopulated a city that his inscriptions describe as having stood empty, a claim probably exaggerated for rhetorical effect. His two principal monuments rose east of the old center: the East Mebon, consecrated in 953 on an island in the East Baray and dedicated to his ancestors, and Pre Rup, his state temple-mountain, consecrated in 961. Both were directed by his chief minister and architect Kavindrarimathana, one of the few non-royal builders named in Khmer epigraphy, who was himself a Buddhist — an indication of the standing Buddhism enjoyed within a formally Shaiva state.

Rajendravarman pursued an aggressive foreign policy. Around 946 his armies invaded Champa and carried off a golden image from the temple of Po Nagar near modern Nha Trang, an episode recorded in Cham inscriptions. The campaign opened a long phase of intermittent Khmer-Cham warfare that would recur for centuries. Internally, his reign is associated with administrative consolidation and a productive period of Sanskrit learning at court.

Among his officials was the scholar-priest Yajnavaraha, a grandson of Harshavarman I, who with his brother founded the temple of Banteay Srei, consecrated in 967 near the end of the reign; its miniature scale and exceptionally fine sandstone carving have made it one of the most admired Angkorian buildings. Rajendravarman died in 968 and received the posthumous name Shivaloka. He was succeeded by his young son Jayavarman V, for whom Yajnavaraha served as guru, providing an unusual degree of continuity between the two reigns.