Angkorian harp

Last update: December 5, 2023

Representations of Angkorian harps are found in Angkor Wat, Bayon, Banteay Chhmar, Banteay Samre, Elephant Terrace, Preah Pithu and Western Mebon.
The shape of the instruments differs according to the sculptors. There is no standard. All the harps, however, have in common a boat-shaped sound box and a handle more or less arched. The strings and the tuning system are sometimes represented. The head above the handle is a variable element.

During the reign of King Jayavarman VII, late 12^th-early 13^th centuries the harp, accompanied by other instruments, animated the dance at the royal palace and in the temples, and also accompanied the entertainment.

This orchestra, composed of 2 harps, 2 zithers, 1 scraper and 1 pair of small cymbals, animates the dance at the court of King Jayavaman VII. Bayon.

Tuning system

A sculptural detail of this harp gives us a precise knowledge of the tuning system in the 13th century (1). This high relief is damaged but the residual sculpture shows the essential: a peg tuning system. The end of the axle around which the rope is wound and the winding direction of the string. The pegs are on the left side for right-handed harpists, the majority case.
Another harp from the Elephant Terrace and some others at Bayon temple, with less precision, seem to have the same type of tuning.

Some ancient harps of India were tuned with a braided necklace sliding along the neck. In the case of the Burmese saùng-gauk, it is a stringent stringing system nowadays increasingly supplanted by guitar mechanics. A Bayon harp shows this tuning mode. We clearly see links around the neck (3).

1. Garuda harp and detail of its tuning system. Elephant Terrace. 13th c.

2. The prominences visible on the handle of this harp probably represent the end of the axis of the peg on which the rope is wound. Bayon temple.

3. The strings are linked around the neck. Bayon. Last 12th-Early 13th centuries.

How many strings?

How many strings did the harps have? Although they are often depicted, it is difficult to draw any conclusion as to their number. Sometimes it can be considered that the sculptor represented them in large numbers without reference to reality. In other cases, the artist seems to have applied himself to sculpting them accurately. The best representations show a maximum of eleven or twenty-one strings. There are also some representations with seven or fourteen strings. The number seven reflects the exact scalar system and fourteen, its repetition.

In classical India, the number of strings varied, depending on the period, from seven to fourteen.

Harp accompanying a dancer. Strings and pegs of indefinite number have been represented. Bayon.

For this high relief, the artist seems to have taken extreme care to represent both the eleven strings of the harp. Bayon.

You see here two harps represented one behind the other. The one at the back shows 15 tuning pegs and some are broken. Banteay Samre.

Court harp of King Jayavarman VII with 11 strings. Bayon.

We photographed this harp in the dark in low light. This bas-relief of the eastern interior gallery of the Bayon did not inspire confidence a priori given its condition and the lack of care taken to certain details. However, a closer look reveals that the strings and their attachment to the neck received the greatest attention. We can almost affirm that the instrument has twenty-one strings and that the angle of the string plane, given this number, is consistent. A recent reconstruction of this instrument by Sounds of Angkor attests to this.

Symbolism of the number of strings/notes

The monochord zither kinnara, with its harmonic playing technique, is a constrained instrument by nature. Indeed, the number of notes it can emit is limited and cannot be increased by any process; this is inherent to the physical functioning of the string. On the contrary, zithers or lutes with frets can emit a greater number of notes as soon as their length and the number of frets are increased. The kinnara can produce a sound with a pitch equal to one twelfth of the fundamental sound, or, in the Khmer scalar system, twelve notes.

According to Khmer symbolism, the number twelve represents the mother. We do not yet know why. In royal ceremonies, a twelve-tiered bay sei is present among the offerings; it represents royalty; the king himself is the "spiritual mother" of the Khmer people.

The harp, for its part, seemed to have twenty-one strings according to a count on two instruments represented in the Bayon bas-reliefs. This number represents the father and the neck of the harp could well represent a stretched phallus!

In several cases, in the Bayon, the harp is represented with eleven strings because the instrument is small and the sculptor made this choice, perhaps for technical reasons related to the friability of the rock to be carved. However, it could be, once again, harps with twenty-one strings with eleven strings represented in positive relief and ten in negative by omission.

It can therefore be seen that the Khmer orchestra, as might be expected, is composed of a female instrument - principal, generator of the melody - and a male instrument - follower, accompaniment of the melody. We believe that this situation existed before the arrival of the Brahmins since the gong ensembles and bamboo instruments of the proto-Khmer people living on the border borders of Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam are structured in this way.

Nature of the strings

No source tells us the nature of the strings. However, if we refer to Burmese ethnology, it is probable that they were made of silk. It is known that the ancient Khmers imported them from China. Moreover, the use of silk allows us to adapt the diameter of each string, like contemporary Burmese harps.

Burmese harpist playing on silk strings.

Soundbox

All listed soundboxes are boat-shaped. However, few details appear. If we rely on contemporary instruments such as the Burmese saùng-gauk, it is very likely that they were carved from a single piece of wood and covered with a skin. No decoration is visible. It is also probable but we cannot say for sure that the soundboard and the neck were carved in one and the same piece of wood. We take as an example the piece of wood that is still today at the front of the oxcarts.

Playing position

The harp is played in a sitting or standing position. The musician sometimes holds his instrument with a shoulder strap. On the Banteay Chhmar instrument above, the button for fixing the strap is shown. The musician is mostly placed to the right of his instrument, whether sitting on the ground or standing.

Harpist of the Eastern gopura, Eastern lintel. Banteay Chhmar. 12th-13th c.

Harpist in standing position in a procession. Strings and pegs of indefinite number have been represented. Bayon temple.

Here, the left hand is placed on the bass strings. Bayon.

If the right hand played the melody, the left hand probably had a technical role, either accompaniment or play of the bass strings or, as is the case with the Burmese saùng-gauk, of accidental alterations by pressing with the thumb on the string near the handle, or all this at once. On the bas-reliefs, the right hand is sometimes sculpted with great realism. The combination of the best representations of the Angkorian sculpture and the playing technique of the Burmese harp reveals several similarities as below where the index and the middle finger are joint.

A delicate sculpture anxious to show the beauty of the gesture rather than the strings. Banteay Chhmar.

The Angkorian harp through the epigraphy

In the ancient Khmer epigraphy, the harp is invariably referred to as vīṇa. However, the word is ambiguous as it refers to a wide range of string instruments in India, especially the stick and tube zither. In India, a prefix or suffix specifies the nature of the vīṇa. In Cambodia, it is necessary to distinguish texts in Sanskrit from those in ancient Khmer. If it is proved that this term designates the harp in ancient Khmer, it must be translated as "zither" in Sanskrit texts.

The stele of Prasat Komphus (K. 669 - 816 AD) mentions - vīṇa 20 mvāy vluk - 20 harps (including) one in ivory. It also teaches us that the temple received ten harps made of copper alloy and other one of silver.
The inscriptions of the 9th century of Lolei temple (K. 324S & N, 327S & N, 330S & N, 331S & N) specify the presence of three different harpists for each week of the lunar calendar, divided into light and dark weeks.