The age of these unsigned and usually undated texts is difficult to ascertain, especially in a religion where time is irrelevant and ambition and possessiveness frowned upon.

Some legends concerning the founding of the Cambodian dynasty appear to have historical credibility.  They include reference to the mystical water goddess.  According to one legend, an Indian prince (or alternatively a Brahman) arrived by a ship from the south, from either Java or India. His name was Kaundinya.  (The name means “native of Kuhndina,” which was the capital of a state called Vidarbha in south India.)  Kaundinya was armed with a bow that he had received from Asvatthaman, son of Drona.  (Drona, teacher of material arts to the Pandavas and Kauravas, was killed in the great battle of the Mahabharata epic, which took place no later than 300 B.C.)

Kaundinya is also credited with procreating the royal dynasty. He married Somaa, reputedly the daughter of the moon god Chandra, the goddess of the secret water of life.  According to legend, Chandra was the daughter of the Naga king Shesha, the sea snake god whom the gods used to churn the ocean (and another manifestation of ocean-resting Vishnu the water god, in Indian mythology). In Chinese records, Kaundinya appears as Hun T’ien, a man who had a dream promising him a kingdom if he set sail in a given direction.  Upon arrival he shot an arrow from his divine bow.  It pierced the side of the queen’s yacht.  This act was symbolically significant, and she agreed to become his spouse.

Kaundinya became king of Cambodia. We do not know how.  Was he recognized by Khmer elders, or did he set himself up as ruler?  He had several sons, the first at least believed to be by the Naga princess, but we do not know their names nor how long they lived.  Kaundinya may have lived around A.D. 100 and became the legendary ancestor of the kings of the dynasty called Fu Nana in the Chinese records.  This may be a corruption of Phnom, which perhaps means “forest region” in Old Cambodian.

This name would have been applied to the interior by the Cham people.  They are the earliest people about whose already very advanced civilization we possess data, thanks to extensive excavations in the Mekong Delta by the French archaeologist Louis Malleret.  The Cham lived along the coasts of Cambodia and present-day Vietnam in the early centuries of the Christian era.

Cham tradition narrates that the Cambodian people wore no clothes when Kaundinya arrived, so he is credited with the introduction of clothing for women.