Officers: prévôtés, bailiwicks, seneschals · The Khmer empire of Jayavarman VII · as at first light, 1 January 1200

Jayarajapuri

Ratchaburi is the crossing town on the Mae Klong where the road from Lavo and Suphan Buri turns south for Phetchaburi and the peninsula.

It is on the Preah Khan list as Srijayarajapuri. The old Mon town of Khu Bua, a rectangle of earth wall and moat of about 160 hectares with stucco Buddhist ruins, flourished in the Dvaravati centuries (the English article says to about the 11th century) and is a shrunken place beside the busier town; Songsiri is cited for the later Ratchaburi growing out of Khu Bua. No Khmer building is confirmed by what we read; Wat Mahathat of Ratchaburi, with three prang in the Khmer manner, is by style of the 13th century and later.

Who he is

Title
Lord of Jayarajapuri (Ratchaburi)
Since
not known
Born
not known
Family
not known
Confidence
low

Srijayarajapuri is on the 1191 list (English Wikipedia, Jayavarman VII), identified with Ratchaburi. Khmer-style brickwork under the later temples is the campaign board's remark. No ruler named.

Overlord

Angkor by title.

What it holds

  • The Mae Klong crossing and its ferry tolls
  • Salt flats on the Mae Klong mouth
  • The old Mon site of Khu Bua

How things stand that morning

A listed seat; no lord, garrison or building attested.

Places of note

  • Ratchaburi: Crossing town.
  • Khu Bua: Old Mon moated town.

Where the sources disagree

  • The campaign board entry khu-bua 'likely': English Wikipedia says Khu Bua flourished to about the 11th century and was abandoned in the 16th; we give a shrunken Mon town with no Khmer phase attested.
  • English Wikipedia (Lavo Kingdom) after Wyatt: sixteen dated inscriptions of 1168-1219 from Lopburi and the western plain show no sign of Angkorian political or administrative power ('not conclusive'); Baker and Pasuk: the plain has none of the temple-endowment inscriptions typical of Angkorian provinces. The Preah Khan stele of 1191 lists six western towns among the 23 that received Jayabuddhamahanatha images.

Evidence: Name on the list; archaeology of Khu Bua.

"The campaign board" is OMNIA's working map. These notes record where its earlier claims were checked against the sources.

On the map: A block round the town.

Primary sources for Khmer empire

Chronicles, registers, sagas and inscriptions written in or near 1200 that cover this entry. Each has its own page with editions, translations and where to read it.

  • The Abridged History of Viet, Anonymous (attributed by some to Su Hy Nhan) (about 1377, probably as an abridgement of Le Van Huu's lost history of 1272). The oldest surviving Vietnamese history, a century older than the Complete Annals and in places fuller for the Ly dynasty, which fills its second and third books.
  • The Complete Annals of Dai Viet, Ngo Si Lien, drawing on Le Van Huu's Dai Viet su ky (1272) and Phan Phu Tien; continued by Pham Cong Tru and Le Hi (1479; printed 1697 in the standard Chinh Hoa edition). The main narrative source for Dai Viet in 1200, compiled in 1479 from Le Van Huu's lost history of 1272. Read online
  • The later Tai, Lao and Mon chronicles of the north, Ratanapanna (Jinakalamali); Bodhiramsi (Chamadevivamsa); anonymous monks and court scribes (the Chamadevivamsa about 1410; the Jinakalamali 1516 to 1528; the Chiang Mai Chronicle in its surviving form 1827; the Nithan Khun Borom 16th to 17th century). There is no text of 1200 for the Mon kingdom of Haripunjaya, the Tai muang of Ngoenyang (Chiang Saen), Chiang Rung, the Yom and Nan valleys, or the Lao middle Mekong.
  • History of Song, chapters 488 and 489: Jiaozhi, Dali, Champa, Zhenla, Pagan, Srivijaya, Java, Brunei, Chola and Tambralinga, Toqto'a (Tuotuo) and the Yuan history office, from the Song court records (1343 to 1345, from Song veritable records and court diaries). The Chinese court's record of its southern neighbours, compiled from Song archives. Read online
  • History of the Song, the chapters on Xia and on foreign states, Toqto'a (脫脫) and the Yuan history office (1343 to 1345). The Song court's accounts of its neighbours, each arranged as an annal of embassies and wars. Read online
  • Corpus of the Inscriptions of Campa (EFEO and ISAW), Various (the Cham kings and their officers), edited by Arlo Griffiths, Amandine Lepoutre, William Southworth and Thanh Phan (inscriptions of the 4th to 15th centuries; the online corpus from 2012). The online edition of the Cham inscriptions, with photographs, texts and translations, keyed to the C. numbers. Read online
  • The Inscriptions of Cambodia, Various (the Khmer kings and their officers), edited by George Coedes (inscriptions of the 6th to 14th centuries; edited 1937 to 1966). The Khmer empire of 1200 is known almost entirely from the great foundation stelae of Jayavarman VII (reigning from 1181), which Coedes edited: the Ta Prohm stele of 1186 (K. Read online
  • The Sanskrit inscriptions of Cambodia and Champa (ISCC), Various (Khmer and Cham kings), edited by Auguste Barth and Abel Bergaigne (inscriptions of the 7th to 12th centuries; edited 1885 to 1893). The founding edition of Khmer and Cham Sanskrit epigraphy, public domain and online, which Coedes's later corpus supersedes but does not replace. Read online

5 more in the sources library for Mainland Southeast Asia.

Sources and studies

  1. English Wikipedia, Khu Bua
  2. English Wikipedia, Jayavarman VII
  3. OMNIA board notes for the Khmer and Lao area (a lead, not a source)

Last revised 4 November 2026. Published 4 November 2026. Suggest a correction on the OMNIA Discord.