the inscriptions, but it remained in such close alliance
with Brahmanism that it is hard to say whether it should be regarded
as a separate religion. The idea that the two systems were
incompatible obviously never occurred to the writers of the
inscriptions and Buddhism was not regarded as more distinct from
Sivaism and Vishnuism than these from one another. It had
nevertheless many fervent and generous, if not exclusive, admirers.
The earliest record of its existence is a short inscription dating
from the end of the sixth or beginning of the seventh century,[296]
which relates how a person called Pon Prajna Candra dedicated male and
female slaves to the three Bodhisattvas, Sasta,[297] Maitreya and
Avalokitesvara. The title given to the Bodhisattvas (Vrah
Kamrataan) which is also borne by Indian deities shows that this
Buddhism was not very different from the Brahmanic cult of Camboja.

It is interesting to find that Yasovarman founded in Angkor Thom a
Saugatasrama or Buddhist monastery parallel to his Brahmanasrama
already described. Its inmates enjoyed the same privileges and had
nearly the same rules and duties, being bound to afford sanctuary,
maintain the destitute and perform funeral masses. It is laid down
that an Acarya versed in Buddhist lore corresponds in rank to the
Acaryas of the Saivas and Pasupatas and that in both institutions
greater honour is to be shown to such Acaryas as also are learned in
grammar. A Buddhist Acarya ought to be honoured a little less than a
learned Brahman. Even in form the inscriptions recording the
foundation of the two Asramas show a remarkable parallelism. Both
begin with two stanzas addressed to Siva: then the Buddhist
inscription inserts a stanza in honour of the Buddha who delivers from
transmigration and gives nirvana, and then the two texts are identical
for several stanzas.[298]

Mahayanism appears to have flourished here especially from the tenth
to the thirteenth centuries and throughout the greater part of this
period we find the same feature that its principal devotees were not
the kings but their ministers. Suryavarman I (A.D. 1049) and
Jayavarman VII (A.D. 1221) in some sense deserved the name of
Buddhists since the posthumous title of the former was Nirvanapada and
the latter left a long inscription[299] beginning with a definitely
Buddhist invocation. Yet an inscription of Suryavarman which states in
its second verse that only the word of the Buddha is true, open