Indrapura (Champa)


Indrapura was the capital city of the ancient kingdom of Champa from 875 CE, for several decades, under the reign of Indravarman I and some of his followers belonging to the 6th dynasty in Dong Duong. The word Indrapura means "City of Indra" in Sanskrit, Indra being the Hindu God of Storm and War, and King of the Gods in the Rig Veda.
The site is near the present-day village of Đồng Dương, Bình Định Bắc commune, Thăng Bình District of Quảng Nam province. Unlike his predecessors, Indravarman II was a Mahayana Buddhist, so he built a great Buddhist monastery. The ruins was mostly destroyed by Vietnam War bombings and nowadays even by looting of bricks.
The Museum of Cham Sculpture at Da Nang, founded in 1915 by the École française d'Extrême-Orient, has a valuable collection of Cham sculptures, which were retrieved from Đông Dương as well as from other archeological sites, such as Mỹ Sơn and Tra Kieu.