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. This fixes Grahi (Chaiya) as a governed province in the 1180s and gives its ruler's title. Tambralinga at Nakhon Si Thammarat is known for 1200 from the Chinese notices (Zhu fan zhi, Song shi) and from its own 13th-century records of Chandrabhanu. Langkasuka has no text at all. Coedes's Recueil des inscriptions du Siam vol. 2 is the edition.
About this source
- Title
- The Grahi inscription of 1183 and the inscriptions of Chaiya and Nakhon Si Thammarat
- Author
- Various (the officers of Grahi and the kings of Tambralinga), edited by George Coedes
- Written
- the Chaiya bronze Buddha inscription 1183; the Nakhon Si Thammarat records 13th century; edited 1929, revised 1961
- Language
- Old Khmer (Grahi), Sanskrit and Pali, with French translations
- Covers
- the peninsular states from the 6th to the 14th century; this entry is for the records of about 1180 to 1230
- Kind
- Inscriptions
No free online copy could be verified. The reading of the 1183 date and the identity of the overlord named are both disputed (Coedes 1929; later discussion by Wyatt and by Jacq-Hergoualc'h). The Wikipedia article on Tambralinga summarises the inscription.
Where to read it
Editions
- G. Coedes, Recueil des inscriptions du Siam, vol. 2: inscriptions de Dvaravati, de Crivijaya et de Lavo (Bangkok, 1929; 2nd ed. 1961), Thai and French; not freely online (not freely online)