The oldest traditions and Khmer architectural constructions in the former Nokor Phnom have been under the influence of Indian culture because Khmer people have followed Brahmanism and Buddhism as the testimonies of monuments and art objects since the 1^st century.

Prasat Roung Phnom On Phnom Da Mountainside, Takeo’s Angkor Borei

Thus, Khmer people who were under the influence of Indian culture and who well-absorbed the religious ideology and definitely constructed the earliest monument following the Indian artistic style.

To demonstrate the influence of Indian culture over the pre-Angkorean architecture, we would like to raise a case of Prasat Roung Phnom on the mountainside. The importance and root of other four Roung Phnom monuments have never clearly illustrated up to the present even though the European researchers have studied the Khmer architecture from the early history period until today.

Fig. 1-2 Achenda’s The 5th-Century Prasat Da Roung Phnom Adorned With The Hoof-Shaped Art In Prasat Roung Phnom 1, Phnom Da, India

What more difficult study is that most French researchers in that period have failed to study the Khmer history through the architecture since they thought that the real Khmer history has just began in the reign of King Rudravaraman in the mid 6^th century.

Generally speaking, the insufficient information of archaeology before 1970, as well as illiteracy of Sanskrit, Sanskrit-Khmer, and Pali-Khmer inscriptions does not positively provide us with enough information to compile the Khmer history. Those researchers, moreover, forget to study Indian culture before studying the ancient Khmer culture. These reasons have resulted in difficulty to reach a general aspect or agreement smoothly.

More importantly, it was real that the inscriptions or Chinese writing was not found to identify Khmer architecture under the influence of the south or the north Indian culture, and the procedure for monument construction in Sanskrit was not found too. However, the study would not be so difficult only if we have a deeper understanding of t the root of monuments; furthermore, the age of Prasat Roung Phnom on the base of Phnom Da, as well as the sculpture was relevant to the monuments in India. Thus, we must have been conducting research on Khmer Roung Phnom monument through comparing to the monuments in India; adding that, not all Indian culture had reflected Khmer culture. It is so necessary that we must have collected the involving documents to examine.

Fig. 1-2 Prasat Da Roung Phnom 1 On The Phnom Da Mountainside, Phnom 1, Phnom Da

In response to the question, where do the holes in eight mountains constructed as monuments on the mountainside come from? The response is not so hard to say that we could precisely understand the root of Khmer Prasat Roung Phnom from Ajanta providing that the comparison of the artistic style and the monumental shape are carried out. It means that Khmer artists in the ancient time have studied architecture in India with reference to the construction of grottos in those regions. What led us to believe is its similar artistic style.

With regards to the historic site in Ajanta situated on the mountainside where there is the Khura River shaped like a bow, we noticed that there were a number of grottos dug by the ancient Idian people in order to dedicate to both Theravada Buddhism and Mahayana Buddhism. Not only this, they have been dug twice from the 1^st century B.C to the 7^th centuries A.D. The grottos have been built to dedicate to Theravada Buddhism from the 1^st century B.C to the 3^rd centuries A.D. Then from the 6^th to the 7^th centuries A.D, the grottos have been built to dedicate to Mahayana Buddhism. There are totally twenty-nine grottos in Ajanta. In other words, the color oil painting representing Jataka, noticeably impressive biography of the Buddha, was found.

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