The Khmers, the ancient inhabitants of Cambodia, are
conjectured to have been the offspring of a fusion between the
autochthonous dwellers in the Indo-Chinese peninsula, now represented by
the Kouis and other savage tribes, and an invading race from the
plateaus of central Asia. As early as the 12th century B.C., Chinese
chronicles, which are almost the only source for the history of Cambodia
till the 5th century A.D., mention a region called Fou-nan, in later
times appearing under the name of Tchin-la; embracing the basin of the
Menam, it extended eastwards to the Mekong and may be considered
approximately coextensive with the Khmer kingdom. Some centuries before
the Christian era, immigrants from the east coast of India began to
exert a powerful influence over Cambodia, into which they introduced
Brahmanism and the Sanskrit language. This Hinduizing process became
more marked about the 5th century A.D., when, under S'rutavarman, the
Khmers as a nation rose into prominence. The name _Kambuja_, whence the
European form Cambodia, is derived from the Hindu _Kambu_, the name of
the mythical founder of the Khmer race; it seems to have been officially
adopted by the Khmers as the title of their country about this period.
At the end of the 7th century the dynasty of S'rutavarman ceased to rule
over the whole of Cambodia, which during the next century was divided
into two portions ruled over by two sovereigns. Unity appears to have
been re-established about the beginning of the 9th century, when with
Jayavarman III. there begins a dynasty which embraces the zenith of
Khmer greatness and the era during which the great Brahman monuments
were built. The royal city of Angkor-Thorn (see ANGKOR) was completed
under Yasovarman about A.D. 900. In the 10th century Buddhism, which had
existed for centuries in Cambodia, began to become powerful and to rival
Brahmanism, the official religion. The construction of the temple of
Angkor Vat dates probably from the first half of the 12th century, and
appears to have been carried out under the direction of the Brahman
Divakara, who enjoyed great influence under the monarchs of this period.
The conquest of the rival kingdom of Champa, which embraced modern
Cochin-China and southern Annam, and in the later 15th century was
absorbed by Annam, may probably be placed at the end of the 12th
century, in the reign of Jayavarman VIII., the last of the great kings.
War was also carried on against the weste