Sai Thong Som
| Sai Thong Som ใสทองสม | |
|---|---|
| King of Devapura | |
| King of Dvaravati's Kamalanka | |
| Reign | 688–? |
| Predecessor | Anuruddha |
| Successor | Under Indaprasthanagara (title next held by Sikaraj) |
| Born | Lopburi |
| Died | Late 8th century |
| House | Lavo dynasty |
| Father | Balidhiraja of Sukhothai |
Sai Thong Som (Thai: ใสทองสม) is described in the Legend of the Arhat (Thai: ตำนานนิทานพระอรหันต์, RTGS: Tamnan Nithan Phra Arahan) as a ruler of Dvaravati's Devapura (เทพบุรี), also called Rajgir (ราชคฤห์),[1]: 4 a place modern scholarship associates variously with Nakhon Pathom, Ratchaburi or Khu Bua.[1]: 5 He is presented as a monarch of mixed Mon and Tai descent.[1]: 4–5
Accession
The Legend of the Arhat relates that his father Balidhiraja, a son of Kalavarnadisharaja, moved south from Sukhothai about 687 and deposed the reigning monarch of Devapura, after which the throne was given to his younger son Sai Thong Som.[1]: 3–4 His only recorded sibling is his elder brother Balipatijaya, who acceded at Lavo in 700 in succession to their grandfather Kalavarnadisharaja.[1]: 4
Mon–Tai descent
On the evidence of his name, the Thai historian Manit Vallibhotama proposed that Sai Thong Som was born to a Tai queen consort.[1]: 5 The suggestion fits the political circumstances of the preceding reign: after his enthronement at Lavo, Kalavarnadisharaja is reported to have extended his influence north into the Tai polity of Chiang Saen,[1]: 5 which the Northern Chronicle names Nagendhara (Thai: นาเคนทร).[2]: 25 Intermarriage between the Mon dynasty of Dvaravati and Tai elites is placed within that expansion.[1]: 5
Tai political weight in the region grew afterwards. By 861 the Tai Yuan, or Tai Chiang Saen (ไทเชียงแสน), are recorded as established at Lavo and increasing in influence there.[3]: 39
Later reign
No record survives of Sai Thong Som's immediate successor. Archaeological and textual evidence indicates that by the early 8th century, within the span of his reign, the political predominance of Dvaravati had begun to decline.[4]: 60 The seat is nonetheless attested after that point in the epigraphic record, under the name Sambuka: the Lopburi inscription K.577, of about the 8th–9th century, names its donor Arushva, chief of the people of Tangura, as the son of the king of Sambuka.[5][6]: 68–69, 72 That centre is placed by several scholars at Nakhon Pathom.[7]: 24–25, 30 The inscription leaves the king unnamed, and no study has proposed a connection with Sai Thong Som or with any other named ruler.
One account of that decline places the initiative outside the Menam basin. Hiram Woodward, who situates Si Thep within the polity known to the Tang court as Wen Dan, has proposed that a Si Thep powerful enough to dominate the 8th century may have exercised some control over Nakhon Pathom together with Lopburi, U Thong and Khu Bua, and has asked whether central Dvaravati should accordingly be understood as having pre- and post-Wen Dan phases. He offers an alternative in which Dvaravati features at Si Thep resulted from a peaceful movement of monks rather than from conquest, and presents the whole as a possibility rather than a finding.[8]: 93
Ancestry
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References
- 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Sukanya Sudchaya. "ตำนานพระประโทณ: ตำนานแบบพึทธศาสนาในสุวรรณภูมิ" [Legend of Phra Praton: Buddhist legend in Suvarnabhumi] (PDF) (in Thai). Archived from the original on 29 September 2025. Retrieved 29 September 2025.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link) - ↑ Northern Chronicle (in Thai)
- ↑ Chatchai Sukrakarn (October 2005). "พระเจ้าศรีธรรมาโศกราช" [Sri Thammasokaraj] (PDF) (in Thai). Archived from the original (PDF) on 12 August 2024. Retrieved 6 November 2024.
- ↑ Saritpong Khumsong (2014). โบราณคดีเมืองนครปฐม: การศึกษาอดีตศูนย์กลางแห่งทวารวดี [Nakhon Pathom Archaeology: A Study of the Former Center of Dvaravati] (PDF) (in Thai). Bangkok: Papermet (Thailand). p. 230. ISBN 978-974-641-498-2. Archived from the original (PDF) on 29 April 2025.
- ↑ "จารึกฐานพระพุทธรูปยืนวัดมหาธาตุเมืองลพบุรี" [Inscription on the base of the standing Buddha statue at Wat Mahathat, Lopburi Province]. Princess Maha Chakri Sirindhorn Anthropology Centre (in Thai). 13 February 2007. Retrieved 18 July 2025.
- ↑ Anna Bennett; Hunter Watson, eds. (2019). Defining Dvāravatī: Essays from the U Thong International Workshop 2017 (PDF). Distributed by Silkworm Books, Chiang Mai. DASTA and BIA. Archived from the original (PDF) on 18 May 2026.
- ↑ Dejdanai Supasilapalert (2003). "Cultural Landscape of Khmer Cities During Bayon Period in Lower Central and Western Thailand" (PDF). Silpakorn University (in Thai). Retrieved 18 July 2025.
- ↑ Woodward, Hiram (2010). "Dvaravati, Si Thep, and Wendan". Bulletin of the Indo-Pacific Prehistory Association. 30: 87–97. Archived from the original on 15 October 2022.