Kulaprabhavati (,

ALA-LC ALA-LC (American Library AssociationLibrary of Congress) is a set of standards for romanization, the representation of text in other writing systems using the Latin script. Applications The system is used to represent bibliographic information by ...

: ; 6th-century CE, ) was a

queen regnant A queen regnant (: queens regnant) is a female monarch, equivalent in rank, title and position to a king. She reigns ''suo jure'' (in her own right) over a realm known as a kingdom; as opposed to a queen consort, who is married to a reigning ...

Funan Funan (; , ; , Chữ Hán: ; ) was the name given by Chinese cartographers, geographers and writers to an ancient Khmer-Mon Indianized state—or, rather a loose network of states ''( Mandala)''—located in Mainland Southeast Asia covering ...

(in present-day

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 ...

) from 514 to 517. She was first the principal queen of King Jayavarman and later a queen in her own right.

Biography

She was married to King

Jayavarman Kaundinya Jayavarman Kaundinya (, ) was a ruler of Funan. He died in 514. Biography According to the Chinese annals, he reigned over a prosperous kingdom influenced by Shaivism, but at the same time other religions were equally well represented in his k ...

of Funan, one of the first historically attested monarchs in Cambodian history. Kulaprabhavati is referred to in an inscription as ‘the great queen, principal spouse of King Jayavarman’. The Chinese account ''History of the Liang'' states that king Jayavarman of Funan died in 514, and ‘the son of a concubine, Rudravarman, killed his younger brother, son of the legitimate wife, and ascended the throne’. It is attested that Jayavarman had another son named Gunavarman, and since all inscriptions mentioning Gunavarman and Kulaprabhavati are

Vaishnavite Vaishnavism () ), also called Vishnuism, is one of the major Hindu denominations, Hindu traditions, that considers Vishnu as the sole Para Brahman, supreme being leading all other Hindu deities, that is, ''Mahavishnu''. It is one of the majo ...

, it is possible that Gunavarman was the son of queen Kulaprabhavati and king Jayavarman, and the younger son was murdered by his half brother Rudravarman, who appears to have been a follower of

Shiva Shiva (; , ), also known as Mahadeva (; , , Help:IPA/Sanskrit, ɐɦaːd̪eːʋɐh and Hara, is one of the Hindu deities, principal deities of Hinduism. He is the God in Hinduism, Supreme Being in Shaivism, one of the major traditions w ...

rather than

Vishnu Vishnu (; , , ), also known as Narayana and Hari, is one of the Hindu deities, principal deities of Hinduism. He is the supreme being within Vaishnavism, one of the major traditions within contemporary Hinduism, and the god of preservation ( ...

. In 517, king Rudravarman sent his first emissaries to China and was recognized by China's emperor as the king of Funan. At this point, he lamented that his accession in Funan was contested. It appears that the death of king Jayavarman resulted in a three year long succession war between king Rudravarman and his stepmother queen Kulaprabhavati, who herself claimed the throne after the death of her spouse, and was supported by some of the elite before she was defeated by her stepson. The Chinese would not have recorded this, since female monarchs was something which was not possible in Chinese eyes prior to the accession of Empress

Wu Zetian Wu Zetian (624 – 16 December 705), personal name Wu Zhao, was List of rulers of China#Tang dynasty, Empress of China from 660 to 705, ruling first through others and later in her own right. She ruled as queen consort , empress consort th ...

. She was the first queen in Cambodia noted to have been an autonomous wielder of the ultimate political authority since the legendary

Queen Soma Soma (, ALA-LC: ''Somā'') was the ruler of the Kingdom of Funan and widely claimed as the first monarch of Cambodia (reigned c. 1st century). She was also the first female leader of Cambodia. Her consort was Kaundinya I (also known as "Huntien" ...

, as well as the last women ruler in Cambodia until

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 ...

and Jayadevi.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Kulaprabhavati Cambodian Hindus 6th-century Cambodian monarchs 6th-century women monarchs 6th-century Cambodian women 6th-century Cambodian people Monarchs of Funan