There is one mystery that has remained unsolved for more than eight centuries. And I don’t think I will be the one to solve it.
In the Preah Khan temple complex, built by Jayavarman VII to commemorate his victory over the Cham invaders from the east in 1177 C.E., there are two figures carved in bas relief. Jayarājadevī and Indradevī, two of his wives. And sisters.
Jayarājadevī was the younger of the two. Yet it was she who Jayavarman VII had chosen for his principal queen. She was very pretty. Indradevī was not.
We know that she died when she was relatively young – a very rough estimate puts her in her mid-fifties. We know that, upon her death, Jayavarman VII elevated Indradevī from second to principal queen. And we know from the Phimeanakas inscription that Jayarājadevī died some time after Preah Khan was consecrated in 1191.
So, she was still alive when the two bas relief were carved. But it is Indradevī that we see portrayed as a goddess, as though she were the principal queen. Did Jayarājadevī know she was dying, and ask her husband to elevate her sister to principal queen before she died? And did he comply, so that she could see that it was done? I don’t think we will ever know.