Tambralinga at Nakhon Si Thammarat

Who rules

Title

Ruler of Tambralinga

Since

not known

Born

not known

Family

not known

Confidence

low

No inscription or Chinese notice names the ruler of 1 January 1200. A modern ruler table puts a Sri Dharmasokaraja (III) at 1183 to 1230, but it leans on local chronicles and the English Wikipedia article itself gives no source-based confirmation. The first securely dated king is Chandrabhanu (Sri Dharmaraja), on the Wat Sema Mueang inscription of 1230.

Overlord

Not pinned. Candidates: San-fo-ts'i (the Zhufan zhi, about 1225, lists Tan-ma-ling among its dependencies); Angkor (the Song shi is said to show Tan-mei-liu as a dependency of Jayavarman VII, 1181 to 1218; the Zhufan zhi also lists Teng-liu-mei among Zhenla's dependents); Pagan (Luce, 1060 to 1200, and Wyatt, 1130 to 1176, both disputed); or nobody.

What the realm holds

• The Nakhon plain, the rice that feeds the town
• The shallow roadstead at Pak Phanang and the landings of Tha Sala
• Tin gravels behind Nakhon (Ron Phibun)
• The Thung Song saddle and the road to Trang and Kantang on the Andaman side (by position)
• The Phatthalung and Songkhla lagoon coast, by claim

How it was acquired

Not known. The name Tambralinga is attached to the Nakhon area by a Pallava-script Sanskrit inscription found at Wat Phra Mahathat (No. 28, which the English Wikipedia article dates to the fifth century and which names the Siva of Tambralinga), by the Tanjore list of the raid of 1025 (Madamalingam) and by the Chinese from 970 (Dan-mei-liu, Song record; embassies in 1001, 1016 and 1070).

Allies and rivals

Grahi to the north; the Khmer and Pagan to the north and west; San-fo-ts'i; Sri Lanka, with which the Buddhist community of Nakhon has ties; Langkasuka to the south.

The realm that morning

Not recorded. A rising Buddhist rice state with no known king, whose overlordship is disputed by modern historians.

Wealth

Rice; tin; a road that spares ships the long voyage round the peninsula; relics.

Military

Said by the campaign board to be the only power on the peninsula able to feed an army; no figure. Chandrabhanu's later invasions are in the future.

Threats

• Khmer or Pagan reach down the Isthmus
• Pressure from the strait

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. 1230 (some argue 1244)Chandrabhanu takes the style Sri Dharmaraja (Wat Sema Mueang inscription).Depends on: His accession; the date is argued. Stopped by: Failure of the succession.
2. 1247 (or 1244)Chandrabhanu invades Sri Lanka; the Pandyas beat him in 1258 and again about 1262, when he dies (Sri Lankan and Tamil sources, Coedes).Depends on: His accession and a weak Lanka. Stopped by: A strong Lanka; a Pandya answer.
3. 1278The Nakhon chronicle mentions the town refounded and fortified.Depends on: Chronicle tradition, unreliable. Stopped by: Not applicable.

Places of note

• Wat Phra Mahathat: Reliquary stupa; the central holy site of the isthmus.
• Thung Song saddle: The gap through the Banthat hills toward Trang.

Where the sources disagree

• The campaign board (tambralinga, regions.txt) says Tambralinga is 'the strongest thing here and is rising'. No source for 1200 shows strength; it is an inference from its later history.
• The campaign board's note on Wat Phra Mahathat: the bell-shaped tower is later work; the site is certain, the fabric of 1200 is not.
• The Zhufan zhi's Tan-ma-ling is read as Tambralinga by the brief and by the older readings; the English Wikipedia article on Tambralinga calls that identification dubious and cites Roderich Ptak for a place in the Tembeling country of Pahang. The Song record's Dan-mei-liu (Teng-liu-mei in the Lingwai daida of 1178) is the safer name for Nakhon, so the Zhufan zhi's 'dependency of San-fo-ts'i' may be about another place.

Evidence: A name, a site, Chinese lists of different dates that disagree about who owns it, and nothing dated near 1 January 1200.

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

On the map: Core firm in position; the claimed part follows the brief rather than any source.

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.

• 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
• The Leiden grants of Rajaraja I and Kulottunga I concerning the Srivijaya vihara at Nagapattinam, The Chola chancery (Rajaraja I, Rajendra I, Kulottunga I) (the Larger plates about 1005 to 1014 (completed under Rajendra I); the Smaller plates 1090). Background documents for the relations between the Cholas and the Malay world. Read online
• 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
• Description of the Foreign Peoples (Chau Ju-kua), Zhao Rukuo (趙汝适) (about 1225, while superintendent of maritime trade at Quanzhou). The Song customs officer's survey of the overseas world, compiled from merchants and from Zhou Qufei, a generation after 1200 but describing trade routes that were the same in 1200. Read online