ഏറ്റവും വലിയ വിഷ്ണുക്ഷേത്രം

The Maha Vishnu temple in Angkor Wat, Cambodia is the largest religious monument ever built anywhere in the world. It occupies an area of 1626 sq. km. (402 acres). It was built almost 900 years ago by the Khmer King Suryavarman II in the early 12th century in Yaśodharapura (present-day Angkor), the capital of the Khmer Empire.

It is an architectural masterpiece (perfection in composition, balance, proportions, relief's, and sculpture), making it one of the finest monuments in the world. The modern name, Angkor Wat, means "City of Temples". The original name of the temple, after the presiding deity, was Vrah Viṣhṇuloka, which means the sacred dwelling of Vishnu.

The temple is a representation of Mount Meru, the celestial home of the gods in Hindu mythology. Surrounding the temple complex is a 190 meter wide moat (a deep, wide ditch) with a perimeter of 5.5 kms. Within an outer wall 3.6 km long are three rectangular galleries, each one higher than the one below starting from the outer limits of the temple. At the center of the temple stands a set of five towers symbolizing the five peaks of the mountain.

Covered galleries with columns define the boundaries of the first and second levels. The third level supports five towers – four in the corners and one in the middle. This is the most prominent architectural feature of Angkor Wat. This arrangement of graduated tiers, one rising above the other, give the towers a conical shape and rows of lotuses, near the top, taper to a point.

Angkor Wat is a miniature replica of the universe in stone and represents an earthly model of the cosmic world. The central tower rises from the center of the monument symbolizing the mythical mountain, Meru, situated at the center of the universe. Its five towers correspond to the peaks of Meru. The outer wall corresponds to the mountains at the edge of the world, and the surrounding moat the oceans beyond.

It took 50,000 workers and 32 years to build this extraordinary temple. There is a carving in the main temple that gives clues to the mystery of building this huge temple without any modern technology in such a short period of time. The story carved in the stones suggests the use of a lever used to push big stone blocks one over another to assemble it perfectly. This shows the temple complex was planned, assembled, and then carved.

Many walls of this masterpiece are covered with carvings that display the Hindu mythological stories of Ramayana and Mahabharata. But how did the stories from far off India arrive in Cambodia? The answer is “Indian Traders”. The Indian traders travelling towards south-east Asia passed their religion, art, and architecture to the people of Cambodia.