Cœdès was born inParis to a family known as having settled in the region ofStrasbourg before 1740. His ancestors worked for the royal Treasury.[1] His grandfather,Louis-Eugène Cœdès [fr] was a painter, pupil ofLéon Coignet. His father Hippolyte worked as a banker. It has also, incorrectly, been asserted that he was descended fromHungarian-Jewish émigrés.[2]
He wrote two texts in the field,The Indianized States of Southeast Asia (1968, 1975) (first published in 1948 asLes états hindouisés d'Indochine et d'Indonésie) andThe Making of South East Asia (1966), as well as innumerable articles, in which he developed the concept of theIndianized kingdom. Perhaps his greatest lasting scholarly accomplishment was his work onSanskrit andOld Khmer inscriptions fromCambodia. In addition to scores of articles (especially in theBulletin of theÉcole française d'Extrême-Orient), his 8-volume workInscriptions du Cambodge (1937-1966) contains editions and translations of over a thousand inscriptions from pre-Angkorian and Angkor-era monuments, and stands as Cœdès'magnum opus. One stele, the recently rediscovered K-127, contains an inscription of what has been dubbed the "Khmer Zero", the first known use of zero in the modern number system.[3] Thetransliteration system that he devised for Thai (and Khmer) is used by specialists of Thai and other writing systems derived from that ofKhmer.
George Cœdès is credited with rediscovering the former kingdom ofSrivijaya, centred on the modern-day Indonesian city ofPalembang, but with influence extending fromSumatra through to theMalay Peninsula andJava.[4]
However, due to focusing on the history of lowerSoutheast Asia, Cœdès was criticized by another historian Tatsuo Hoshino as having underestimated the importance of northern Indochina,Yunnan, and the central Mekong Valley.[5]: 235
Listes generales des inscriptions et des monuments du Champa et du Cambodge, Hanoi, Imprimerie d'Extrême-Orient, 1923
The Vajiranana National Library of Siam, Bangkok, Council of the National Library, 1924
Documents sur l'histoire politique et religieuse du Laos occidental, 1925
"Une exposition de sculptures Khmères et Siamoises au Musée Cernuschi",Artibus Asiae, Vol.1, No.3 (1926), pp. 190–202
"À propos de la chute du royaume de Çrīvijaya".Bijdragen tot de Taal-, Land- en Volkenkunde van Nederlandsch-Indië, Deel 83, 2de/3de Afl. (1927), pp. 459–472
"Pa-sseu-wei",T'oung Pao, Second Series, Vol. 30, No. 3/5 (1933), pp. 224–230
Un grand roi du Cambodge: Jayavarman VII, Phnom Penh, Editions de la Bibliothèque Royale, 1935
"L'origine du cycle des douze animaux au Cambodge",T'oung Pao, Second Series, Vol.31, Livr.3/5 (1935), pp. 315–329
Inscriptions du Cambodge, Hanoi, Imp. d'Extreme-Orient, 1937–1966
Pour mieux comprendre Angkor, 1943
Les stèles de Sdok Kok Thom, Phnom Sandak et Prah Vihar, 1943–1946
Histoire ancienne des États hindouisés d'Extrême-Orient, Hanoi, Imprimerie d'Extrême-Orient, 1944
"Fouilles en Cochinchine: Le Site de Go Oc Eo, Ancien Port du Royaume de Fou-nan",Artibus Asiae, Vol.10, No.3 (1947), pp. 193–199
Les états hindouisés d'Indochine et d'Indonésie, 1948
"Un yantra recemment decouvert a Angkor",Journal asiatique, Année 1952, p. [465]–477.
"Une Roue de la Loi avec inscription en Pāli provenant du Site de P'ră Păthŏm",Artibus Asiae, Vol.19, No.3/4 (1956), pp. 221–226
"The Traibhūmikathā Buddhist Cosmology and Treaty on Ethics",East and West, Vol.7, No.4 (January 1957), pp. 349–352
"Note sur une stele indienne d'epoque Pāla découverte a Ayudhyā (Siam)",Artibus Asiae, Vol.22, No.1/2 (1959), pp. 9–14
"Les Môns de Dvāravatī",Artibus Asiae. Supplementum, Vol.23, pp. 112–116
Les Peuples de la péninsule indochinoise, 1962
Découverte numismatique au Siam interessant le royaume de Dvaravati, Paris, Librairie C. Klincksieck, 1964.
L'avenir des études khmères, Saigon, Imprimerie nouvelle d'Extrême-Orient, 1965
Angkor: an Introduction translated and edited by Emily Floyd Gardiner, photographs by George Bliss, Hong Kong, Oxford University Press, 1966
The making of South East Asia, translated by H. M. Wright, London, Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1966
Catalogue des manuscrits en pali, laotien et siamois provenant de la Thailande, Copenhague, Bibliothèque Royale, 1966
The Indianized States of Southeast Asia, edited by Walter F. Vella, translated by Susan Brown Cowing, Canberra, Australian National University Press, 1968
—and Charles Archaimbault,Les trois mondes = Traibhumi Brah R'van Paris, École française d'Extrême-Orient 1973
Sriwijaya: history, religion & language of an early Malay polity. Collected studies by George Cœdès andLouis-Charles Damais, Kuala Lumpur, MBRAS, 1992
^Alatas, Farid, et al. (2004)Asia in Europe, Europe in Asia International Institute for Asian Studies, Institute of Southeast Asian StudiesISBN981-230-206-9
^Aczel, Amir (2015).Finding Zero. New York, NY, USA: Palgrave MacMillan. pp. ix, 95, 96,174–178, 219.ISBN978-1-137-27984-2.
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Commander (Third Class) of the Most ExaltedOrder of the White Elephant, a royal decoration in theHonours System of Thailand[6]
