The seat of the commander of Grahi, on the eastern head of the best road over the isthmus.
A bronze Buddha of the district carries an Old Khmer inscription on its pedestal, dated Saka 1105 (1183), that names a commander (mahasenapati), Galanai, and the maharaja on whose order the work was done; the maharaja's style is Srivijayan and he is read as the Mauli king of Malayu. That one object gives the campaign board a seat, a lord and an overlord at a single date, and it is the firmest political fact on the peninsula. The town lives from the carry: cargo that crossed from Takua Pa by the Khao Sok road is reloaded at Phunphin and goes to sea from Ban Don.
The brick stupa of Wat Phra Borommathat is in the Srivijayan manner, but its present form is much later. Whether Galanai lives, or the maharaja's word still runs here, on 1 January 1200 is not known.
Who holds it
- Name
- The commander (mahasenapati) of Grahi: Galanai in 1183; the holder of 1200 is not pinned
- Title
- Lord or headman of Chaiya
- Since
- not known
- Born
- not known
- Family
- not known
- Confidence
- low
Lord in 1200
The commander (mahasenapati) of Grahi: Galanai in 1183; the holder of 1200 is not pinned
How things stand that morning
The commander's seat in 1183; after that not recorded. The portage keeps working whoever sits here.
Council
No headman, judge or council is named in any source.
Communities
A Buddhist foundation at Wat Phra Borommathat. The Avalokitesvara bronzes found in this district are, in the campaign board's judgement, the best sculpture the Malay world produced.
Fairs and markets
None known; trade follows the monsoon.
Militia
No source.
Walls and castle
No wall or citadel is known. The stupa stands; its 1200 fabric is not pinned.
Trade and crafts
The carry: porters, elephants and boatmen between the Phum Duang and the bay; forest goods from the Tapi hills.
Places of note
- Wat Phra Borommathat: The brick stupa in the Srivijayan manner; its own religious record is Wat Phra Borommathat.
Where the sources disagree
- Chit Phumisak reads 'Kamrateng An' as the governor of a subject city; Walailak Songsiri disagrees. The stupa's form is much later than 1200; the site, not the fabric, is firm.
Evidence: Fair for 1183 (one dated inscription, read differently by Chit Phumisak and Walailak Songsiri); nothing dated after it.
Primary sources for Grahi
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 Grahi (Chaiya) Buddha inscription and the Tambralinga records, Various (the officers of Grahi and the kings of Tambralinga), edited by George Coedes (the Chaiya bronze Buddha inscription 1183; the Nakhon Si Thammarat records 13th century; edited 1929, revised 1961). The peninsula in 1200 has one near-contemporary dated text: the Old Khmer inscription on the base of a bronze Buddha from Wat Hua Wiang at Chaiya, dated 1183, which records the image's casting by order of the mahasenapati Galanai, governor of Grahi, under the king Srimat Trailokyaraja Maulibhusanavarmadeva, a name that is argued to be either a Malayu (Srivijaya) overlord or a local king.
- 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
- A Description of the Foreign Peoples (Records of Foreign Nations), Zhao Rukuo (Zhao Rugua) (1225 at Quanzhou). The best single text for the island world around 1200, written by the superintendent of maritime trade at Quanzhou from merchants' reports a generation after the date. Read online
Sources and studies
- Wikipedia (English): Melayu Kingdom
- Wikipedia (English): Chaiya district
- D. K. Wyatt on Tambralinga and Grahi, as summarised in the English Wikipedia article on Tambralinga
- OMNIA board note (a lead only, checked against the sources above)
Last revised 4 November 2026. Published 4 November 2026. Suggest a correction on the OMNIA Discord.