INTRODUCTION
Mount Meru is believed to be the highest point of the
universe in ancient Hindu texts. It is also regarded as
the earth‟s navel, the point at which the creation
began in other words „the centre of theuniverse.’ The
mountain is said to be separating the heaven and
earth. It is commonly said that the mountain is the centre of
the universe its symmetry is vertical and horizontal,
surrounded by the waters of life which is surrounded
by seven concentric seas each diminishing in size
from the centre if we see this technically it is the
entire landmass of the earth surrounded by the
mountains and sea.(Image A)
Mount meru is believed to be the part of the sacred
Hindu cosmos, Hinduism believes that universe is
created, destroyed and recreated in an endless series
of repetitive cycles where Brahma is the creator,
Vishnu the sustainer and Shiva the destroyer. This
holy trinity as referred to combines to form
„Parmeshwar Purusha,’(Image B)the supreme being
who is the manifested form of the whole of infinity.
It is a philosophy of Hinduism that the human being
is said to contain within itself the entire cosmos
‘Aham Bhramosmi’ which reinforces the idea of part
in whole and whole in part. It has been stated that the
ancient Hindu cosmos is inspired from the human
anatomyAngkor wat temple located in Cambodia is a gigantic
temple complex which was built by King
Suryavarman II in the early 12th century in order to
serve as the king‟s state temple and capital city, over
a period of 500 years from the seventh to the twelfth
century successive rulers sought to build sacred
spaces that bore witness to the presence of gods and
the legitimacy of the kings. Since its been
constructed it has maintained religious significance
for nearly 900 years all of its original religious
motifs are derived from Hinduism and the temple is
dedicated to the holy trinity of Hinduism Shiva,
Brahma and Vishnu, the 5 central tower of Angkor
Wat symbolises the peaks of Mount Meru, since
Mount Meru is surrounded by the ocean with the
same context the temple complex has the central
shrine with enormous moats which represent the
oceans at the edge of the world. METHODOLOGY
This research paper aims to study and interpret the
concepts and religious philosophy pertaining to the
Hindu Cosmos of which Mount Meru is a symbolic
and also to understand the representation of the
symbolism of this mountain in the architecture of the
Angkor Wat Temple. To analyse and establish that
Angkor Wat Temple is considered as the miniature
replica of the Mount Meru and the Central Axis
theory associated with the mountain
HISTORICAL BACKGROUND AND ORIGIN OF
ANGKOR WAT TEMPLE
The Angkor Wat Temple was built by King
Suryavarman II at the height of the political power of the Cambodian dynasty namely Khmerin between
years 1113-1150.
Khmer civilisation flourished between early 9th
century A.D. and mid-15th century A.D. It was
founded by King Hiranya Varman in the year 1080.
There has been an inscription of King Suryavarman
II discovered in “Phnom Rung” located in NorthEastern Thailand which contains a detailed
description of the royal family lineage and the native
place of stay of the Khmers. This description also
contains information about Hiranya Varman being a
descendant of ‘Aditya‟ -the Sun God and „Lakshmi‟-
the consort of Vishnu thus establishing a relation of
the empire with the divine Brahmanical Hindu
ideologies. Thus ‘Aditya‟ and„Lakshmi‟ were also
used as suffixes to characterize the members of royal
family. The most notable rulers of this dynasty were
Suryavarman II and Jayavarman II. CENTRAL AXIS THEORY
In Hindu Cosmos the central axis or the Axis Mundi
is around which the cosmos turns. This centre serves
as a communication link between Heaven and Earth.
In ancient Hindu texts Hindu lifeworld is a
pilgrimage which is an act to cross from one world to
another and “to cross” means to transform, it is a
spirit guiding force that is a sacred journey to
discover the wholeness of oneself and in this journey
each stage has a significance- a message and a
meaning. Thus, there exists a genius locus which
inter-connects the varying niches of the levels and
this deeper association between man and the nature
results in a divine connection which transcends
beyond the boundaries of time and space and createsa world of meaning, feeling and revelation. This field
where man meets divinity is regarded as
“Faithscape” which is an embodiment of sacred time,
rituals, places and meanings. In terms of architecture
it is to be used in the form of planned human
construction, the designing of the holy spot is
essentially a specific transformation of human
creativity which is often interpreted in the terms of
signs and symbols and the hidden meaning preserved
on them all. This presentation of wholeness is a
representation of the cosmos which forms a cosmic
geometry referring to a sacred and stereotypical
dimension ofpattern/relationship, order/sequence and
temporality/changes. This forms a harmonic bond
between man and its surroundings. In symbolic form
analogy if human body has been accepted as a
representation of the universe. Thus, drawing
parallels between the macrocosms (universe) and
microcosmos (temple/human body) and this
interlinkage is represented in the Axis Mundi or the
Central Axis Theory. CONCLUSION
Angkor Wat temple is an insightful accumulation of
the religious philosophy of Hinduism the co-relation
of the temple construction with Mount Meru speaks
about the evolution of the architecture of the period
on the basis of religious psychology. We can see the
construction of the central tower which has several
stages and eachsuccessive stage results in the
increase in height which is similar to the concept of
Mount Meru and the consecutive planes with the
residing of different deities.(Image C) The concept
of Horizontal and Vertical axis that was followed in
the temple which is the moat that surrounded the
temple with a bridge on it connecting it to the city
horizontally whereas the central tower that vertically
connected the temple to the planets and sky above,
which mimics the mythical reference of Mount Meru
a central axis around which the Cosmos itself
revolves.