Indrapura (Champa)

Indrapura ("City of Indra" in Sanskrit, Indra being the Hindu God of Storm and War, and King of the Gods in the Rig Veda) from 875 CE was the capital city of the ancient kingdom of Champa for several decades,[1] under the reign of Indravarman II and some of his followers belonging to the 6th dynasty.

The site is near the present-day village of Đông Dương, not far from the modern city of Da Nang, Vietnam. Unlike his predecessors, Indravarman II was a Mahayana Buddhist, so he built a great Buddhist temple, which has been destroyed by Vietnam War bombings and nowadays even by looting of bricks.[2]

The Museum of Cham Sculpture ("Bao Tang Cham") at Da Nang, founded in 1915 by the École française d'Extrême-Orient (EFEO), has a valuable collection of Cham sculptures, which were retrieved from Đông Dương as well as from other archeological sites, such as Mỹ Sơn and Tra Kieu.

Notes

  1. ^ O'Reilly, 2006 p.139
  2. ^ The Southeast Asian Archaeology Newsblog

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