The accompanying 35 astonishing photographs show the dazzling magnificence of the remnants of the Angkor Wat sanctuary in Cambodia. The sanctuary was initially committed to Ruler Vishnu. The advanced name, Angkor Wat, signifies “City of Sanctuaries” in Khmer language.

Angkor, signifying “city” or “capital city”, is a vernacular type of the word nokor, which comes from the Sanskrit word nagara (नगर). Wat is the Khmer word for “sanctuary grounds” (coming from the Sanskrit word vāṭa (वाट) “walled in area”).

In many spots in the Puranas and Mahabharata there are references to the Kamboja administrations. Cambodia’s old sanskrit name is “Kambuja” (कंबुज). Later this was mutilated into Cambodia.

Yaska, a preeminent Sanskrit grammarian who lived in the seventh century BCE and wrote before Panini, etymologizes the name as Kambal.bhojah and Kamaniya.bhojah.

As stated by Nirukta:

shavtirgatikarma Kambal kambojesveva bhasyate kamboje.”bhojah kamaniya”vikaramasy bhoja va kambalaha kamaniyo.
Aryesu bhasyante shava iti
(-Nirukta 2.2)

The Kambojas are “kamaniya.bhojah” because they appreciate both beautiful (kamaniya) goods and kambalah (blankets), making them “Kambal.bhojah.” As a result, they go by the name “Kambojas”.

In his Adhyy, the Sanskrit grammarian Panini, who was born in Gandhara (modern-day Kandahar, Afghanistan), lists a number of terminology related to the geography and ethnology of pre-Mauryan India. Panini mentions a number of Kshatriya janapadas in his sutras (4.1.168–177) and lists it as one of the fifteen notable Kshatriya kingdoms of the time.

Please refer to The Lost Hindu Empire of Cambodia for further details about this historic temple.