Kulaprabhavati ( km, កុលប្រភាវតី,

ALA-LC ALA-LC (American Library AssociationLibrary of Congress) is a set of standards for romanization, the representation of text in other writing systems using the Latin script. Applications The system is used to represent bibliographic information by ...

: ; 6th-century CE) was a queen regnant of

Funan Funan (; km, ហ៊្វូណន, ; vi, Phù Nam, Chữ Hán: ) was the name given by Chinese cartographers, geographers and writers to an ancient Indianized state—or, rather a loose network of states ''(Mandala)''—located in mainla ...

(in present-day

Cambodia Cambodia (; also Kampuchea ; km, កម្ពុជា, UNGEGN: ), officially the Kingdom of Cambodia, is a country located in the southern portion of the Indochinese Peninsula in Southeast Asia, spanning an area of , bordered by Thailan ...

from 514 to 517. She was the first queen in Cambodia noted to have been an autonomous wielder of the ultimate political authority since the legendary Queen Soma. She was married to King

Jayavarman Kaundinya Jayavarman Kaundinya ( km, កៅណ្ឌិន្យជ័យវរ្ម័ន, ) was a ruler of Funan. He died in 514. Biography According to the Chinese annals, he reigned over a prosperous kingdom influenced by Shaivism, but at the same ...

of Funan, one of the first historically attested monarchs in Cambodian history. Kulaprabhavati is referred to in an inscription as ‘the great queen, principal spouse of King Jayavarman’. The Chinese account ''History of the Liang'' states that king Jayavarman of Funan died in 514, and ‘the son of a concubine, Rudravarman, killed his younger brother, son of the legitimate wife, and ascended the throne’. It is attested that Jayavarman had another son named Gunavarman, and since all inscriptions mentioning Gunavarman and Kulaprabhavati are

Vaishnavite Vaishnavism ( sa, वैष्णवसम्प्रदायः, Vaiṣṇavasampradāyaḥ) is one of the major Hindu denominations along with Shaivism, Shaktism, and Smartism. It is also called Vishnuism since it considers Vishnu as the ...

, it is possible that Gunavarman was the son of queen Kulaprabhavati and king Jayavarman, and the younger son was murdered by his half brother Rudravarman, who appears to have been a follower of

Shiva Shiva (; sa, शिव, lit=The Auspicious One, Śiva ), also known as Mahadeva (; ɐɦaːd̪eːʋɐ, or Hara, is one of the principal deities of Hinduism. He is the Supreme Being in Shaivism, one of the major traditions within Hindu ...

rather than

Vishnu Vishnu ( ; , ), also known as Narayana and Hari, is one of the principal deities of Hinduism. He is the supreme being within Vaishnavism, one of the major traditions within contemporary Hinduism. Vishnu is known as "The Preserver" withi ...

. In 517, king Rudravarman sent his first emissaries to China and was recognized by China's emperor as the king of Funan. At this point, he lamented that his accession in Funan was contested. It appears that the death of king Jayavarman resulted in a three year long succession war between king Rudravarman and his stepmother queen Kulaprabhavati, who herself claimed the throne after the death of her spouse, and was supported by some of the elite before she was defeated by her stepson. The Chinese would not have recorded this, since female monarchs was something which was not possible in Chinese eyes prior to the accession of Empress

Wu Zetian Wu Zetian (17 February 624 – 16 December 705), personal name Wu Zhao, was the ''de facto'' ruler of the Tang dynasty from 665 to 705, ruling first through others and then (from 690) in her own right. From 665 to 690, she was first empres ...

.Jacobsen, Trudy, Lost goddesses: the denial of female power in Cambodian history, NIAS Press, Copenhagen, 2008 She is the last women ruler in Cambodia until

Jayadevi Jayadevi ( km, ជ័យទេវី, ; fl. 713) was the queen regnant of the Kingdom of Chenla, the predecessor polity of the Khmer Empire, from 681 to 713. She was the daughter of king Jayavarman I. She also had a sister, princess Sobhajaya, ...

over a century later.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Kulaprabhavati Cambodian Hindus 6th-century Cambodian monarchs 6th-century women rulers 6th-century Cambodian women Funan