Mahendravarman

Mahendravarman (, vraḥ kamrateṅ añ Śrī Mahendravarmma in Pre-Angkorian ; also titled Citrasena, ) was also called Protégé of the Great Indra.

Biography Mahendravarman was a king of the kingdom of Chenla, modern day Cambodia, during the 6th century. Chenla was the direct predecessor of the Khmer empire. Citrasena was a full brother of Bhavavarman I , both of them sons of Vīravarman according to the Wat Ban Khwao inscription whom he joined to conquer the Kingdom of Funan, and whom he succeeded as king and adopting the name Mahendravarman. Inscriptions from the Isan region of Thailand, including the Don Mueang Toei inscription of Yasothon province, name a sequence of local rulers at Śaṅkhapura, namely Pravarasena, Kroñjapāhu and Dharmasena, in a manner Depimai compares, as a naming pattern rather than a claim of shared lineage, to how Citrasena's own name appears in inscriptions predating his accession. Because these texts proclaim victories without recording any permanent apparatus of government, Michael Vickery has characterised them as exploratory probes whose lasting political effect was probably slight, and has argued that they do not demonstrate Chenla authority beyond the Dângrêk; on this view sustained intervention in the region began only under Mahendravarman's son Isanavarman I and continued under his grandson Bhavavarman II and under Jayavarman I.

After the death of Mahendravarman, his son Īśānavarman (, Pre-Angkorian ) took control of the kingdom, reigning until his death in 637; the last inscription attributed to him is dated 627, and the earliest dated inscription of his successor Bhavavarman II is from 639. Two of his grandsons, Śivadatta and Īsvarakumāra , each held the office of svāmi at Jyeṣṭhapura, a polity in what is now Aranyaprathet district, Sa Kaeo province. A third son of Īśānavarman, the Yuvarāja or crown prince, is not named in any surviving record.