The art and architecture of India - Buddhist, Hindu, Jain (Art Ebook)

420 CEYLON AND SOUTH-EAST ASIA
debacle. Another reason that might be advanced
for the disappearance of Khmer civilization is
that, with the sweeping away of the Cambodian
aristocracy and priesthood, folk-art replaced
the grandiose dreams of a cosmos created in
stone.
It is a commentary on the failure of the last
century of Khmer religion that the people
apparently were quite eager to abandon the
complexity of Vajrayana Buddhism and its
352. Pottery amphora.
Hanoi, Musee Finot
fantastic symbolic architecture in favour of the
simple philosophic Pali Buddhism which their
Siamese conquerors offered. 27
The finds of ceramics in the precincts of the
ancient Khmer capitals include numerous
vessels which are presumably Sung or early
Ming imports or the productions of Chinese
workmen attached to the local kilns. Other
wares are almost certainly of indigenous manufacture.
These are pottery vases, some in the
shape of animals, covered with a brownish
glaze. 28 A particularly splendid shape is an
amphora with an elegant profile that recalls the
curvature of the balusters of the Angkor style
[352].
A fitting object with which to close our consideration
of the minor arts in Indo-China is the
Prah Khan, or sacred sword, a relic returned by
the Siamese in
1864 for the coronation of the
first Cambodian king and presumably still preserved
as part of the royal palladia in the palace
at Phnom Penh. 29 The two-edged steel blade
and its hilt are heavily encrusted with relief
decoration in gold [353]. The ornament comprises
representations of a kirtimukha or monster
mask, Indra on a three-headed elephant, and
Brahma. The same type of long sword without
guard may be seen in many reliefs at Angkor
Wat and the Bayon, so that it would seem
possible to date this precious object, to which
many fantastic legends are attached, to the
twelfth or thirteenth centuries. The actual
relief ornament is executed with the same
precision of craftsmanship that distinguishes all
Khmer sculpture. As a kind of symbol of the
passing of Khmer power into the hands of the
Siamese, the scabbard of the sacred sword
[354], executed in an elaborate gold filigree,
originally studded with rubies and green and
red enamel, is almost certainly of Siamese
workmanship comparable to objects in the
famous golden treasure of Ayudhya. 30