The introduction of Hinduism to Cambodia was probably the single most important contribution the Indian traders made to Cambodia in relation to Khmer cultural development. This is particularly true in the development of Khmer temple building. Most of the temples of Angkor were built to honor Hindu gods.
Hinduism quickly became established and absorbed into Cambodian culture. The Hindu religion had a long tradition of sacred literature and philosophy. The earliest Hindu texts, the [G 33 / Vedas] (books of knowledge), were begun around 1,400BC. By the time Hinduism reached Cambodia in the first century AD, there were three principal gods: [G 07 / Brahma], [G 34 / Vishnu] and [G 29 / Siva]. Together these three gods made up a holy trinity called the [G 31 / Trimurti]all of whom controlled the universe.
Brahma, a four-headed god who could oversee all of existence, was the creator. This god never enjoyed a great deal of popularity and no cult grew up around him. Both Siva and Vishnu were worshipped in Cambodia.
Siva was the god of destruction and chaos. He was connected with darkness and terror and was represented by a statue of the male phallus called a [I 002 / linga]. Hindus believed that the world passed through several eons, some of them good and others bad. At the end of an eon, Hindus believed that Siva danced the universe to its death and made way for new life.
In the Hindu religion, Vishnu was the god of harmony, order and preservation. He was represented by a human figure with four arms on each side, wearing a cylindrical miter on his head. In one hand he held a sphere representing the earth and in the other a sword. He was able to take on an earthly form of a super-human or an animal with magic powers to fight for the good of mankind.
Temples dedicated to both Vishnu and Siva were built by the Khmers at Angkor. In the ninth and 10th centuries, it was mainly Siva who was worshipped. In the 11th and 12th centuries, temples were built to Vishnu, culminating in the great temple of Angkor Wat. In some temples the two gods co-existed.
Before the settlement of Angkor, the two gods were worshipped as one and were collectively known as [G 14 / Hariharalaya]. This god had a split personality, his left side representing Vishnu and his right side Siva. The first king of the independent Khmer kingdom, Jayavarman II, who ruled at Roluos from around AD800 to AD850, worshipped this god and named his capital city after him.
Many of the temples at Angkor are decorated with Hindu religious iconographic carvings and statues. When the first Europeans arrived in Angkor in the 1860s, they believed the temples to be Buddhist, as Buddhism had by then been firmly established in Cambodia for many centuries. When the scholars of the [G 12 / Ecole Francaise d'Extreme Orient] came to Angkor in the early 20th century, they recognized the Sanskrit inscriptions and the iconography as Hindu.
