The inscription goes on to relate the gratifying history of the priestly family, the grants of land made to them, the honours they received.  We gather that it was usual for an estate to be given to a priest with the right to claim forced labour from the population.  He then proceeded to erect a town or village embellished with temples and tanks.  The hold of Brahmanism on the country probably depended more on such priestly towns than on the convictions of the people.  The inscriptions often speak of religious establishments being restored and sometimes say that they had become deserted and overgrown.  We may conclude that if the Brahman lords of a village ceased for any reason to give it their attention, the labour and contributions requisite for the upkeep of the temples were not forthcoming and the jungle was allowed to grow over the buildings.

Numerous inscriptions testify to the grandeur of the Sivakaivalya family.  The monotonous lists of their properties and slaves, of the statues erected in their honour and the number of parasols borne before them show that their position was almost regal, even when the king was a Buddhist.  They prudently refrained from attempting to occupy the throne, but probably no king could succeed unless consecrated by them.  Sadasiva, Sankarapandita and Divakarapandita formed an ecclesiastical dynasty from about 1000 to 1100 A.D. parallel to the long reigns of the kings in the same period.[289] The last-named mentions in an inscription that he had consecrated three kings and Sankarapandita, a man of great learning, was de facto sovereign during the minority of his pupil Udayadityavarman nor did he lose his influence when the young king attained his majority.

The shrine of the Royal God was first near Mt.  Mahendra and was then moved to Hariharalaya.[290] Its location was definitely fixed in the reign of Indravarman, about 877 A.D.  Two Sivakaivalya Brahmans, Sivasoma and his pupil Vamasiva, chaplain of the king, built a temple called the Sivasrama and erected a linga therein.  It is agreed that this building is the Bayon, which formed the centre of the later city of Angkor.  Indravarman also illustrated another characteristic of the court religion by placing in the temple now called Prah Kou three statues of Siva with the features of his father, grandfather and Jayavarman II together with corresponding statues of Sakti in the likeness of their wives.  The next king, Yasovarman, who founded the town of Angkor round the Bayon, built near his palace another linga temple, now known as Ba-puon.  He also erected two convents, one Brahmanic and one Buddhist.  An inscription[291] gives several interesting particulars respecting the former.  It fixes the provisions to be supplied to priests and students and the honours to be rendered to distinguished visitors.  The right of sanctuary is accorded and the sick and helpless are to receive food and medicine.  Also funeral rites are to be celebrated within its precincts for the repose of the friendless and those who have died in war.  The royal residence was moved from Angkor in 928, but about twenty years later the court returned thither and the inscriptions record that the Royal God accompanied it.