Jayadevi (, ;

fl. ''Floruit'' ( ; usually abbreviated fl. or occasionally flor.; from Latin for 'flourished') denotes a date or period during which a person was known to have been alive or active. In English, the unabbreviated word may also be used as a noun indic ...

713) was the queen regnant of the Kingdom of Chenla, the predecessor polity of the

Khmer Empire The Khmer Empire was an empire in Southeast Asia, centered on Hydraulic empire, hydraulic cities in what is now northern Cambodia. Known as Kambuja (; ) by its inhabitants, it grew out of the former civilization of Chenla and lasted from 802 t ...

, from c. 681 to c. 713. She was the daughter of King

Jayavarman I Jayavarman I (), also called Protégé of Victory, is considered to be the last ruler of the united Chenla, the predecessor polity of the Khmer Empire. Biography He ruled from approximately 657 until around 681. Over the course of his reign, ...

and her

King consort A prince consort is the husband of a monarch who is not a monarch in his own right. In recognition of his status, a prince consort may be given a formal title, such as ''prince''. Most monarchies do not allow the husband of a queen regnant to be ...

was Nrpaditya, also known as . She also had a sister, princess Sobhajaya, who married the Indian Sivait Brahim Sakrasvamin. She succeeded her father as monarch upon his death in c. 681. She was the first female ruler since queen Kulaprabhavati (and

Kambuja-raja-lakshmi Queen Kambujarajalakshmi or Kambuja-raja-lakshmi ( Khmer: កម្ពុជរាជលក្ស្មី, Thai: กัมพุชราชลักษมี) was a Semi legendary queen regnant of Chenla in Cambodia Cambodia, officiall ...

, though she was Semi-legendary). Traditionally, her succession has been interpreted as contested, creating a turmoil ultimately resulting in the division of

Cambodia Cambodia, officially the Kingdom of Cambodia, is a country in Southeast Asia on the Mainland Southeast Asia, Indochinese Peninsula. It is bordered by Thailand to the northwest, Laos to the north, and Vietnam to the east, and has a coastline ...

. It is attested that after c. 707, the kingdom was divided in two: and . There is little information about the Land and Water Chenla, which eventually were divided further. Acrodding to the theories of

George Cœdès George Cœdès (; 10 August 1886 – 2 October 1969) was a French scholar of southeast Asian archaeology and history. Biography Cœdès was born in Paris to a family known as having settled in the region of Strasbourg before 1740. His ancestor ...

and Lawrence Palmer Briggs, a female sovereign was not accepted by the people, and it resulted in civil war. Because inscriptions, dated between 681 and 713, don't name a sovereign and Chinese records state that the kingdom split into and after 707. In 713, she left an inscription at

Angkor Angkor ( , 'capital city'), also known as Yasodharapura (; ),Headly, Robert K.; Chhor, Kylin; Lim, Lam Kheng; Kheang, Lim Hak; Chun, Chen. 1977. ''Cambodian-English Dictionary''. Bureau of Special Research in Modern Languages. The Catholic Uni ...

in which she laments the bad times of the kingdom, and mention the donation she made to the sanctuary of Siva Tripurankata, which had been founded by her sister. It is unknown how long she ruled after 713. In 716, a king named is mentioned in an inscription, and it has been suggested that he obtained his position by marriage, but this is not confirmed, and he may also have simply been an usurper. An alternative interpretation is that King Pushkaraksha was in fact her own son and successor rather than her rival. Further more, while Chinese sources mention that Chenla consisted of two kingdoms after c. 707, it appears that Chenla consisted of several smaller polities already prior to this point and that the interpretation that this signified a split was incorrect: King Pushkaraksha married Queen Indrani and became

of her kingdom, indicating that there already was another polity within Chenla before this.

References

Sources

* Coedes, G. (1962). "The Making of South-east Asia." London: Cox & Wyman Ltd. * George Cœdès: The Indianized States of South-East Asia 7th-century Cambodian monarchs Hindu monarchs 8th-century Cambodian monarchs 7th-century queens regnant 8th-century queens regnant 8th-century Cambodian women 8th-century Cambodian people 7th-century Cambodian women Monarchs of Chenla {{Cambodia-royal-stub