Nine deities

Nine deities sit on their characteristic animals or thrones within arched niches. Only a few, such as Surya, the sun god, at the far left, can be positively identified.

Many similar stone representations of this set of nine deities are known from ancient Angkor. Scholars have long debated exactly whom they depict. There is a Hindu tradition of nine planetary deities, each associated with a “planet”—such as the sun, Venus, or a comet—known to ancient astronomers, and these nine are sometimes represented together in Indian sculpture. It is likely that similar depictions of nine deities from Cambodia represent the same set of nine planets.

It is not certain where and how such stone groupings of nine deities were displayed in temples.