Grahi at Chaiya

Who rules

Name

Galanai (named in 1183; his title 'Kamrateng An'); living or not on 1 January 1200 is not recorded

Title

Mahasenapati (commander) of Grahi, under the Maharaja of Malayu

Since

not known (in office 1183)

Born

not known

Family

not known

Confidence

medium

Old Khmer inscription on the base of a bronze Buddha at Wat Hua Wiang, Chaiya, Saka 1105 (1183): the image made by order of Maharaja Srimat Trailokyaraja Maulibhusana Warmadewa and carried out by the mahasenapati Galanai. Chit Phumisak reads 'Kamrateng An' as the title of a governor of a subject city; Walailak Songsiri reads the style the other way, as a formal form of address.

Overlord

The Maharaja of Malayu in 1183 (Trailokyaraja Maulibhusana Warmadewa). After 1183 nothing shows the tie, nor any Khmer or Tambralinga claim: Wyatt notes that Grahi's later inscriptions show no Angkorian power.

What the realm holds

• Chaiya town and Wat Phra Borommathat (the stupa in Srivijayan manner)
• Ban Don and the Tapi mouth, the bay's harbour
• The Phum Duang junction (Phunphin) where cargo from the Khao Sok road is reloaded
• The upper Tapi (Wiang Sa), for forest goods
• The second crossing by Lang Suan, by claim
• The portage from Takua Pa, as a route, not a boundary

How it was acquired

Allies and rivals

The Mauli court of Malayu; Tambralinga to the south; the Khmer and Pagan on the Isthmus to the north; the carriers of the portage.

The realm that morning

Not recorded beyond 1183. The portage keeps working whoever sits at Chaiya.

Wealth

The carry: goods landed at Takua Pa and walked across the hills go to sea again from the bay; tin and forest goods.

Military

A commander and a bay; no figure.

Threats

• A Khmer or Pagan claim on the Isthmus
• A rising Tambralinga

What the year holds

What happened next, if nothing in play changes it. Each event carries what it depends on and what would stop it.

1. 1230Chandrabhanu of Tambralinga is named Sri Dharmaraja on the Wat Sema Mueang inscription at Nakhon; the English Wikipedia summary says an inscription at Chaiya (Hua Wiang) gives the same start, which we could not confirm. If so, Tambralinga reaches Chaiya by then.Depends on: Tambralinga's rise. Stopped by: A Grahi able to resist.

Places of note

• Wat Phra Borommathat: Stupa in Srivijayan manner.
• Khao Sok pass: Footpath over the hills to Takua Pa.

Where the sources disagree

• The campaign board (chaiya-grahi) calls the Chaiya stupa the finest early Buddhist building standing; its present form is much later (a reconstruction). Seat and date of the stupa are separate questions.
• The campaign board's phrase 'Srivijayan title' is the brief's; the English Wikipedia names the maharaja as of the Mauli line of Melayu, which this record follows.

Evidence: One dated inscription in Old Khmer with a named commander and a named overlord, 17 years before the date, and a later Chinese list.

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

On the map: The bay and the Tapi are firm; the northern edge is a convention at the Chumphon line.

Primary sources for this realm

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