Banteay Srei or Banteay Srey (Khmer: ប្រាសាទបន្ទាយស្រី) is a 10th-century Cambodian temple dedicated to the Hindu god Shiva. Located in the space of Angkor in Kingdom of Cambodia. It lies near the hill of Phnom Dei, 25 klick (16 mi) north-east of the main cluster of temples that when belonged to the medieval capitals of Yasodharapura and Angkor Thom. Banteay Srei is built for the most part of red arenaceous rock, a medium that lends itself to the elaborate decorative wall carvings that area unit still noticeable nowadays. The buildings themselves are miniature in scale, unusually thus once measured by the standards of Angkorian construction. These factors have made the temple very widespread with tourists, and have led to its being wide praised as a "precious gem", or the "jewel of Khmer art."
Consecrated on 22 Apr 967 A.D., Bantãy Srĕi was the only major temple at Angkor not designed by a monarch; its construction is attributable to the courtiers named Vishnukumara and Yajnavaraha:367 / Yajñavarāha (modern Khmer: យជ្ញវរាហៈ), who served as a counsellor to king Rajendravarman II (modern Khmer: ព្រះបាទរាជេន្រ្ទវរ្ម័ន).The foundational stela says that Yajnavaraha, grandson of king Harsavarman I,:117 was a scholar and philanthropist United Nations agency helped those United Nations agency suffered from malady, injustice, or poverty. His pupil was the future king Jayavarman V (r. 968- ca. 1001). Originally, the temple was surrounded by a city referred to as Īśvarapura.
"Bantãy Srĕi" (Citadel of Women) is the modern name of a 10th-century Khmer temple originally referred to as "Tribhuvanamaheśvara" (Great Lord of the Threefold World), an denomination of the god Hindu deity.
Yajñavarāha's temple was primarily dedicated to the Hindu god Śiva. Originally, it was carried the name Tribhuvanamaheśvara—great lord of the threefold world—in regard to the Shaivite linga that served as its central religious image. However, the temple buildings appear to be divided on the central east-west axis between those buildings situated south of the axis, which area unit devoted to Śiva, and those north of the axis, which area unit devoted to Viṣṇu.
It has been speculated that the temple's modern name, Bantãy Srĕi, is due to the numerous devatas carved into the red arenaceous rock walls.
The temple's modern name, Bantãy Srĕi—citadel of the women, or citadel of beauty—is most likely connected to the elaborateness of the relief carvings found on the walls and therefore the small dimensions of the buildings themselves. Some have speculated that it relates to the many devatas incised into the walls of the buildings.
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