Indian social organization was very advanced by the time their traders reached Cambodia. Society was organized into castes in a strict hierarchy, headed by the [G 08 / brahmins]. They were the priests and teachers of India.
Indian ideas of social organization were absorbed by Cambodia and the Cambodians gradually formed a structured society, based on an omnipotent king, a powerful nobility and the ownership of slaves. From this basis, a strong independent kingdom was formed which became a significant power in [G 16 / Indo-China]. This social structuring based on Indian society was decisive in transforming Cambodian tribalism into the sophisticated kingdom that built the Angkor temples.
