Ankorwat Temple, located in present-day Cambodia and ancient Cambodia, is the largest Hindu temple in the world.
This temple is located in the city of Angkor in Cambodia. The ancient name of this city was Yashodharpur.
This temple was built during the reign of Emperor Suryavarman II. It is a temple of Vishnu. Temples of Shankara were built there earlier.
The temple is situated on the banks of river Mikang in an area of 83,110 square meters.
In 1983, Cambodia gave this temple its national status. Scenes from ancient Indian scriptures are depicted on the walls of the temple.
UNESCO has included this temple in the World Heritage List. The word Ankor Wat means City of Temples.
Angkor Wat lies 5.5 kilometres north of the modern town of Siem Reap, and a short distance south and slightly east of the previous capital, which was centred at Baphuon. In an area of Cambodia where there is an essential group of ancient structures, it is the southernmost of Angkor's main sites.
The construction of Angkor Wat took place over 28 years from 1122 – 1150 CE during the reign of King Suryavarman II (ruled 1113 – c. 1150). A brahmin by the name of Divakar Pandit (1040 – c. 1120) was responsible for urging Suryavarman II to construct the temple. All of the original religious motifs at Angkor Wat derived from Hinduism.
Breaking from the Shaiva tradition of previous kings, Angkor Wat was instead dedicated to Vishnu. It was built as the king's state temple and capital city. As neither the foundation stela nor any contemporary inscriptions referring to the temple have been found, its original name is unknown, but it may have been known as "Varah Vishnu-lok" after the presiding deity.
Work seems to have ended shortly after the king's death, leaving some of the bas-relief decoration unfinished. The term Vrah Vishnuloka or Parama Vishnuloka literally means "The king who has gone to the supreme world of Vishnu", which refer to Suryavarman II posthumously and intend to venerate his glory and memory.
In 1177, approximately 27 years after the death of Suryavarman II, Angkor was sacked by the Chams, the traditional enemies of the Khmer. Thereafter the empire was restored by a new king, Jayavarman VII, who established a new capital and state temple (Angkor Thom and the Bayon, respectively), a few kilometers north, dedicated to Buddhism, because the king believed that the Hindu gods had failed him. Angkor Wat was therefore also gradually converted into a Buddhist site, and many Hindu sculptures were replaced by Buddhist art.
