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1.6 Structure of thesisStructure of thesisStructure of thesis Structure of thesis
Research in other regions has highlighted the importance of studying spatial and temporal variations in the processes of imperial political economies (e.g. D'Altroy 1992; Sinopoli 1995; Morrison 2001; 2001; Stein 2001). These approaches are adopted for studying Angkor’s political economy to discern the patterns of change which occurred during the recorded history of the state and how the state was sustained. How Angkor’s political economy compared with those of other analogous states is also assessed. Specific questions about the operation of the Khmer state arising from critiques of some models of empires and large states, and for Angkor in particular are formulated in Chapter 2. A number of the models, some developed for other regions, tend to emphasise one aspect only of a state’s development – political, ideological or economic. These models may overlook spatial or temporal variations or important economic considerations, including the production and distribution of resources and — of relevance to this study — the nature of the polity’s commercialisation. The shortcomings of these various models underlie some of the questions of this thesis. Two models developed specifically for Angkor are outlined: one, the ‘Temple Hierarchy’ model, attempts to show how a network of linked temples helped to integrate the state economically and ideologically; the other, the Processual model, depicts the transformation from chiefdom to imperial kingdom. More recent conceptions have depicted the relations within and between states as networks, or links between nodes. This may be used for transportation networks, as well as power relations. The Territorial-Hegemonic model is used as a frame of reference here in conjunction with the Networks concepts to view the spatial and temporal variations of imperial strategies along a spectrum ranging from low control-low extraction to high control-high extraction of resources.
To set the scene for the study, an overview of some of the resources which underpinned Angkor’s success over six centuries, be they physical, biological or social, natural or artificial, is presented in Chapter 3. Much of this material is not explicit in the inscriptions. The chapter outlines some of the discussion about Angkor’s social structure, land tenure, its natural resources, rice production and infrastructure, including communication networks and irrigation. A major component of the political economy, the communications network, and its relationship to regional centres, is taken up again in Chapter 6. Many of the issues discussed in Chapter 3 are still the subject of current debate and we are far from fully understanding Angkorian society and its economy.
Theories on archaic money, markets and trade and the relationships between them are examined in Chapter 4, so as to provide a background for an examination of Angkor’s lack of money, the enigmatic absence of an obvious unit of account and apparent disinterest in markets and trading. Karl Polanyi’s views of a non-market economy, exchanges based on reciprocity and economies functioning through redistribution are still being cited to account for aspects of Angkor’s economy, including the view that the economy was centrally administered. The chapter outlines hypotheses to explain Angkor’s seemingly low level of commercialisation and the degree of central regulation of the economy, and examines the extent of the state’s involvement in foreign trade. The evidence for Angkor is compared with that for similar states. In Chapter 5, the archaeological approach to the Khmer epigraphic data is explained. Frequently cited impediments to the use of the inscriptions in research — the limited amount of available data, difficulties of interpretation of the texts and of categorisation of data — are outlined. Whereas the inscriptions have previously been considered capable only of providing a snapshot of an elite section of Khmer society, an analysis of the aggregated data helps to overcome some of these obstacles, by highlighting overall trends and anomalies in the data and placing them in a larger and inclusive spatial and temporal context. The role of a database in the analytic procedure is set out.
To examine the claim that Angkor was decentralised, distributions of epigraphic indicators of central influence (royal inscriptions and references to royal actions in non-royal inscriptions) and of other elite influence (non-royal inscriptions and the titles of officials) are examined in Chapter 6, to observe variations over time and distance from Angkor. The influence is seen to diminish with distance from the capital Angkor by gradations, and to fluctuate over time. The effectiveness of an integrated Khmer communication network of roads and rivers is then assessed through an examination of the spatial and temporal distributions of the inscription sites to identify clusters of sites and inscriptions, which might indicate strategically important regional centres. The distributions of inscription sites and indicators suggest that beyond a core area of 25km out from Angkor, the state’s administration was decentralised. This communications network is viewed in the context of strategic needs, such as the location of resources and access to external trade routes.
In Chapter 7, the epigraphic and historical evidence of Angkor’s engagement in foreign trade is examined, to seek explanations for Angkor’s lack of money and reputed low level of commercialisation. The idea that Angkor had a command economy is rejected. Patterns in the records of objects in temple inventories and exchanges are compared, and material changes in the economy over time are discerned. These indicate a considerable increase in wealth between the Pre-Angkorian and Angkorian periods. The lexicon used to describe the recorded transactions is examined and shown to represent similar commercial concepts in both periods, suggesting a unit of account was not abandoned. Differences between the temple inventory
items and exchange objects indicate that commercial values were important. As the transactions depicted in the inscriptions do not represent the wider Khmer economy, economic matters are masked by the genre of the texts, in which merit, status and hierarchy are stressed.
To assess some widely held views on the integration of the Khmer state through ideology, the relationships between the state, the founders and the religious foundations are examined in Chapter 8. The roles of the officials in state and local administration are examined and the role of temples in the collection of state taxes is assessed. The idea of a hierarchy of temples is explored through an analysis of the institution of joined foundations. It is found that deities with Indic titles were frequently joined to gods having indigenous titles, indicating some structure, though not necessarily a hierarchy of deities. The extent to which the joins were symbolic or pragmatic in the Angkorian period is partially resolved. The immunities granted to religious foundations by the rulers in the Angkorian period are also analysed, as these had the effect of linking the rulers, the foundations and the officials who were their founders. The absence of reports of immunities or joined foundations from the late 11th century is consistent with other
evidence of changes in the political economy and here is interpreted as an attempt to curb the power of the officials.
Angkor was able to acquire wealth, to trade and to administer its territories for six centuries. The processes and strategies discerned in this study as helping to sustain the empire relate to: the effectiveness of the communications and trade network; the decentralised administration; the support of regional elites; the capacity to accumulate wealth and the promulgation of state ideology through a temple network. The cumulating loss of effectiveness of some of these eventually contributed to the weakening of the state. A synthesis in Chapter 9 draws together the research findings and other investigations to depict Angkor’s varying political economy. The relative frequencies of royal and non-royal inscriptions are used to depict the political economy as cycles of influence of royal and non-royal factions, in conjunction with an overall trend to increasing central influence. Cycles of gains and losses of imperial territory are viewed in the context of these events.
Chapter 10, the conclusion, returns to the thesis question. It summarises the results of the study, highlighting new findings, previous opinions supported, and those which are not supported. Overall, the processes and strategies investigated in the study did not differ significantly from those of contemporary analogous polities. However, their forms and interactions were unique, to the extent that they depended on historical and geographic factors, and interactions between different interests within the empire, neighbouring polities and more distant trading partners. There are indications of one exception warranting further investigation, a feature of Angkor’s political economy not yet found elsewhere — a system of
linked foundation deities, possibly arranged in a hierarchy, and functioning to convey state ideology.
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1.7 ConclusionConclusionConclusion Conclusion
While the focus of much recent research has changed, the translations and analyses of the Khmer corpus of inscriptions provided by the Sanskritists remains the basis for epigraphic studies today. Recent studies of the political economies of states, together with an acceptance of Khmer indigenous innovation in its history, have generated interest in how the Angkorian Empire might have functioned. Studies, such as those by Sedov, Sahai and Hall have set the foundations for later enquiries into the political economy. However, the Angkorian period political economy has been largely overlooked, because it was thought the temple inscriptions had little to say on this topic. Indeed, many aspects of the political, economic and ideological structures of the Angkorian period are not explicit in the inscriptions.
Vickery’s work has demonstrated that the inscriptions are capable of providing a comprehensive account of the Khmer political economy, through analysis of the interrelated data in the epigraphy and observation of temporal variations. We can now complement close reading of the texts with analyses of the broad trends and anomalies in the epigraphic data to improve our understanding of how Angkor’s whole political economy functioned. Depictions of Angkor have mostly depended on generalised models for Southeast Asia or India, and have tended to focus on political or ideological aspects of state integration, often with little regard for spatial or temporal variations and economic factors and activities. This study seeks to identify broad variations in material and socio-political epigraphic data, to suggest imperial strategies and their impact on the political economy. Some previously expressed views are assessed in the thesis — that the state was overly inflexible when compared with similar states; that it was not greatly concerned with international commerce; that it had a low degree of monetisation and marketisation; and that a hierarchy of linked deities was the basis of the state’s ideological integration. The method proposed for eliciting additional information — analysing data aggregated from the corpus as a whole, in conjunction with archaeological and other historical data — contributes to a changed perception of Angkor as an empire, by showing it to have been less rigid and more engaged in commerce than depicted. It was a successful inland agrarian state, whose various processes and strategies gave it the resilience, for more than half a millennium, to meet such internal and external stresses as arguably are faced by all empires.