Abstract:
This research is an analysis of quality in an aspect of religious ethics, especially
Brahmanism-Hinduism. A considerable amount of documents were analyzed: Primary
documents - Phnom Rung Inscriptions and secondary documents - journals, printed material,
related research, books of Phnom Rung Sandstone Sanctuary and scriptures of Brahmanism-
Hinduism. The analysis of Phnom Rung Inscriptions, Princess Maha Chakri Sirindhorn’s
thesis, Inscriptions Found at Phnom Rung Sandstone Sanctuary was analyzed as a guideline
and Her Royal Highness’s translation was adopted. There are two main purposes of this
research: (1) The analysis of ethical principles in Brahmanism-Hinduism; (2) The analysis of
ethical values in Phnom Rung inscriptions.
According to the first purpose, it was found that Brahmanism-Hinduism took part in
the development of human society and civilized humans to have customs, traditions,
ceremonies and religious beliefs that Brahma brought an end to the world and created
humans. They also believed that Brahma established a foundation of values, merit, beauty and
human destination- deliverance. Deliverance is the proper practices as a result of pure analysis
that causes all creatures no troubles and focuses on giving benefits to the collective. All
practices should be performed with loyalty to God’s teachings and mind should be controlled
under the power of yoga practices.
Furthermore, since Siva was worshiped as the great God, the Siva Sect was
established. It was believed that Siva created and brought an end to the world. There were
several practices in order to dedicate oneself to Siva who is sacred and more powerful than
humans. A considerable amount of worship ceremonies to gods were practiced, for instance
praying to gods to help humans and praising gods for peace and prosperity of human lives.
According to the second purpose, ethical values were found in the inscription with
registered number K. 384 which makes statements about morality of brave and talented rulers.
As for the suggestions of the research, it was found that the rulers’ ethical values influenced
the warriors’ power to protect their hometowns. Furthermore, the rulers were praised as
worshiped gods and ceremonies were done to express loyalty to kings and gods that showed
faith and gratitude.
I suggest that society should support those who have proper morality to be good
examples for society. Phnom Rung Inscriptions can be compared to a bright light that shows
us the knowledge of past society in aspects of history, society, religion and ethical values
concerning moral practices in the society that could be applied to living patterns in the society
at present