Valmiki and Brahma

The pediment described below with Valmiki and Brahma underneath the body of a naga

One of the most famous and frequently photographed scenes at Banteay Chhmar is from a low pediment in the eastern pavilion and one of the first carvings you encounter on your visit to this marvellous temple. It's one of the opening visual narratives from the Ramayana story, a sacred Hindu text of the story of Rama and Sita, that in Cambodia is called the Reamker. The story depicted on this pediment is of the sage Valmiki, who composed the epic poem, and who was in the forest looking for somewhere to bathe. Whilst he was admiring a pair of mating cranes, a tribal hunter killed the male bird with an arrow - which you can see in the neck of the bird - and which caused the sage to pour his emotions into his poem. He was then visited by Brahma, who asked Valmiki to write the full story of Rama for all to read. Essentially, that's the story of this carving. The tribal hunter is on the right holding bow and arrows. At the centre is Brahma with four heads and next to him, but with his face disfigured, is Valmiki holding a page of his manuscript. To the far left is a harp player who also appears in other pediments at the temple, adding music to the narration. The pediment is famous for the comparison made to older photos of the same scene when the carving was in pristine condition. A perfect example of the damage done by temple thieves at Banteay Chhmar and so many other outlying temples. My eternal thanks to Vittorio Roveda and his Images of the Gods book for bringing the iconography of this and other temples to my attention, and likewise, yours.

The disfiguring of Valmiki is often used as an example of what has happened to the carvings at many temples, as there is a photograph by Henri Marchal in 1955 that shows the figure in all its glory