Dvaravati

This article is about a historical Mon kingdom. For the Dvaravati in the Hindu epic Mahabharata, see Dvārakā.

Dvaravati (Thai: ทวารวดี) was a medieval Mon political principality from the 6th century to the 11th century, located in the region now known as central Thailand,^{[5][6]: 234} and was speculated to be a succeeding state of Lang-chia or Lang-ya-hsiu (หลังยะสิ่ว).^{[7]: 268–270, 281} It was described by Chinese pilgrims in the middle of the 7th century as a Buddhist kingdom named To-lo-po-ti situated to the west of Isanapura (Cambodia), to the east of Sri Ksetra (Burma),^{[8]: 76 [9]: 37} and adjoined Pan Pan in the South.^{[7]: 267, 269} Its northern border met Jiā Luó Shě Fú (迦逻舍佛), which was speculated to be either Kalasapura, situated along the coast of the Bay of Bengal somewhere between Tavoy and Rangoon,^[10]: 108 or Canasapura in modern northeast Thailand.^[11] Dvaravati sent the first embassy to the Chinese court around 605–616,^[7]: 264 and then in 756.^[12]

Dvaravati
6th–11th century
[800] SIND UYGHUR KHAGANATE GURJARA- PRATIHARAS RASHTRA- KUTAS PALA EMPIRE CHAM- PA NAN- ZHAO TURK SHAHIS TANG DYNASTY SILLA Khitans Jurchens Tungus KARLUK YABGHU Tatars CHENLA DVARA- VATI SRIVIJAYA Kyrgyzs Paleo-Siberians Samoyeds Kimeks Tanguts Shatuos ABBASID CALIPHATE KHAZAR KHAGANATE BYZANTINE EMPIRE OGHUZ YABGUS TIBETAN EMPIRE Dvaravati Kingdom/culture and contemporary Asian polities, 800 CE
Spread of Dvaravati culture and Mon Dvaravati sites Mon wheel of the law (Dharmacakra), art of Dvaravati period, c. 8th century CE Buddha, art of Dvaravati period, c. 8th-9th century CE Bronze double denarius of the Gallic Roman emperor Victorinus (269-271 AD) found at U Thong, Thailand Khao Khlang Nai was a Buddhist sanctuary. The central stupa, rectangular in shape and oriented toward the east, is characteristic of dvaravati architectural style, dated back around 6th-7th century CE. Khao Khlang Nok, was an ancient Dvaravati-style stupa in Si Thep, dated back around 8th-9th century CE, at present, it is large laterite base.
Capital	Si Thep[1] Ayojjhapura[2] Nakhon Pathom[3] Mueang Uthong[4]: 18
Common languages	Old Mon
Religion	Buddhism Hinduism
Historical era	Post-classical era
• Established	6th century
• Disestablished	11th century
Preceded by Succeeded by Mon city-states Tanling Tun Sun Tou Yuan Kamalanka Zhu Jiang Chaliang Suvarnapura Hariphunchai Lopburi Suphanburi Xiān Kingdoms

Proposed locations of ancient polities in the Menam and Mekong Valleys in the 7th century based on the details provided in the Chinese leishu, Cefu Yuangui, and others.

Thailand (now), Ku Bua, (Dvaravati Mon culture), 650-700 C.E.. Three musicians in right are playing (from center) a 5-stringed lute, cymbals, a tube zither or bar zither with a gourd resonator.

Dvaravati also refers to a culture, an art style, and a disparate conglomeration of principalities of Mon people.^[3] The Mon migrants as maritime traders might have brought the Dvaravati Civilization to the Menam Valley around 3000 BCE,^[13]: 32 which continued to the presence of a "Proto-Dvaravati" period that spans the 4th to 5th centuries, and perhaps earlier.^[3]

The center of the early Davaravati was speculated to be Ayojjhapura (present-day Si Thep) but the power was shifted to the lower basin in Lavo's Lavapura in the 10th and 11th centuries.^[2] The rise of the Angkor in the lower Mekong basin around the 11th–13th centuries, the Menam Valley and the upper Malay peninsula conquered of Tambralinga's king Sujita who also seized Lavo in the mid-10th century,^{[7]: 283 [14]: 16} the 9-year civil wars in the Angkor in the early 11th century, which led to the devastation of Lavo,^[15] as well as the Pagan invasion of Menam Valley around the mid-10th century.^{[14]: 41 [16]: 4} All of these potentially are the causes of the fall of the Dvaravati civilization.^{[7]: 283 [14]: 41}

History

The culture of Dvaravati was based around moated cities, the earliest of which appears to be U Thong in what is now Suphan Buri Province. Other key sites include Nakhon Pathom, Phong Tuk, Si Thep, Khu Bua and Si Mahosot, amongst others.^[3] The term Dvaravati derives from coins which were inscribed in Sanskrit śrī dvāravatī. The Sanskrit word dvāravatī literally means "that which has gates".^[17]: 301 According to the inscription N.Th. 21 found in 2019 in Wat Phra Ngam in Nakhon Pathom, dated the 6th century, three regional cities were mentioned, including Śrīyānaṁdimiriṅga or Śrīyānaṁdimiriṅgapratipura, then Hastināpurī and Dvāravatī, which made Nakhon Pathom where the fractions was discovered probably the center of Dvāravatī.^[18]: 281

The traditional chronology of Dvaravati is mainly based on the Chinese textual account and stylistic comparison by art historians. However, the results from excavations in Chan Sen and Tha Muang mound at U-Thong raise questions about the traditional dating. Newly dated typical Dvaravati cultural items from the site of U-Thong indicate that the starting point of the tradition of Dvaravati culture possibly dates as far back as 200 CE.^[19][3] Archaeological, art historical, and epigraphic (inscriptions) evidence all indicate, however, that the main period of Dvaravati spanned the seventh to ninth centuries.^[3] Dvaravati culture and influence also spread into Isan and parts of lowland Laos from the sixth century onward. Key sites include Mueang Fa Daet in Kalasin Province, Sema [th] in Nakhon Ratchasima Province, and many others.^[20][21]

In the book of I Ching or Yijing, dating to the late 7th century, and the 629–645 journey of a Chinese monk, Xuanzang, placed Dvaravati to the east of Kamalanka or Lang-ya-hsiu and west of Isanapura, if Kamalanka was centered at the ancient Nakhon Pathom as several scholars cited, thus, Dvaravati must be moved to the eastern side of the central plain.^{[22]: 181–3} This conforms with the location provided in the largest Chinese leishu, Cefu Yuangui, compiled in 1005, says that Dvaravati was to the west of Chenla and the east of the Ge Luo She Fen Kingdom (哥罗舍分国), which was proposed to be centered at the ancient Nakhon Pathom, same as Kamalanka, by Thai historian Piriya Krairiksh, who also identified this kingdom as the Gē Luó Kingdom (哥罗国) in the New Book of Tang.^[23]: 59

Chinese historian, Chen Jiarong (陳佳榮), claims that the Zhū Jiāng Kingdom in the Cefu Yuangui and Book of Sui was Dvaravati principality.^[24] Together with the Cān Bàn Kingdom, they established relations with Zhenla to the east via royal intermarriage after the annexation of Funan in 627.^[25] Subsequently, faced Tou Yuan to the northwest and effectively established it as a vassal of Dvaravati in 647.^{[26]: 15–16 [27]} This potentially leads the Old Book of Tang to assert that the Pyu Kingdoms bordered Zhenla to the east.^[24]

A mixed Sanskrit–Khmer inscription dated 937 documents a line of princes of Canasapura, one of the Dvaravati polities, started by a Bhagadatta and ended by a Sundaravarman and his sons Narapatisimhavarman and Mangalavarman.^[8]: 122 Further east, the Chinese Tang Huiyao mentions the kingdom of Keoi Lau Mì of the Kuy people^[28] was also influenced by Dvaravati.^[29] In the early 10th century, several Dvaravati polities in the Menam Valley, which were weakened by decade-long wars between two Mon kingdoms, Hariphunchai and Lavo, fell to the invasion of Tambralinga, then by the invasions of the Chola and Pagan in the late 10th century. Later, Dvaravati polities began to come under constant attacks and aggression of the Khmer Empire, and central Southeast Asia was ultimately invaded by King Suryavarman II in the first half of the 12th century.^[30] Hariphunchai survived its southern progenitors until the late 13th century, when it was incorporated into Lan Na.^[31]

During the decline period of Dvaravati, its succeeded polity,^[32] mentioned as Xiān (暹) by several Chinese and Đại Việt sources, was formed in the lower Menam Basin around the 11th century.^[33]: 46 This new polity evolved into the Ayutthaya Kingdom in 1351.^[1] Its capital's full name also referred to Dvaravati; Krung Thep Dvaravati Si Ayutthaya (กรุงเทพทวารวดีศรีอยุธยา).^{[34][35][36][37]} All former Dvaravati principalities, including Lavo, Suphannabhum, and the northern cities of the Sukhothai Kingdom, were later incorporated into the Ayutthaya Kingdom in 1388, 1424, and 1438, respectively.^[38]: 274

According to the Burmese Inscription of Hsinbyushin of Ava A.D. 1768 (Serial No. 1128),^[39] which was found on a bronze gun at Shwezigon Pagoda, and acquired by the Burmese in 1767, the Burmese continued to refer to Ayutthaya as Dvaravati^[40] by describing the "conquest of Dvāravati (Siam)"^[39] even after its fall to a Burmese invasion during the Pagan Kingdom. Several genetic studies published in the 2020s also founded the relations between the Mon people and Siamese people (Central Thai people) who were the descendants of the Ayutthaya.^[41][42] The Laotian Phra That Phanom Chronicle [th] also refers to Ayodhya before the traditional formation of the Ayutthaya Kingdom as Dvaravati and Sri Ayodhiya Dvaravati Nakhon (ศรีอโยธิยาทวารวดีนคร).^[43]

Government

Little is known about the administration of Dvaravati. It might simply have been a loose gathering of chiefdoms rather than a centralised state, expanding from the coastal area of the upper peninsula to the riverine region of Chao Phraya River. Hinduism and Buddhism were significant. The three largest settlements appear to have been at Nakhon Pathom, Suphanburi, and Praak Sriracha, with additional centers at U Thong, Chansen, Khu Bua, Pong Tuk, Mueang Phra Rot, Lopburi, Si Mahosot, Kamphaeng Saen, Dong Lakhon, U-Taphao, Ban Khu Mueang, and Si Thep.^{[17]: 303–312}

According to the Chinese record during the Tang Dynasty, Dvaravati has two vassal kingdoms, including Tou Yuan (陀垣) near the present-Chanthaburi or southern Myanmar, and an island kingdom Tanling (曇陵),^{[26]: 15–16 [27]: 27} whose exact location remains unknown.^{[26]: 15–16}

A study on Dvaravati settlement patterns before the 14th century in the upper Chi-Mun River basin suggests that Dvaravati might have been made up of several kingdoms linked by trade networks and centered at supra-regional level settlements, such as Dong Mueang Aem, Phimai, Mueang Fa Daet Song Yang, Mueang Sema [th], Non Mueang, and Si Thep.^{[44]: 151–152}

Rulers

The excavation in several sites found silver coins dated the 7th century that mentioned the king and queen of the kingdom written in Sanskrit with Pallava script: śrīdvaravatīsvarapunya (King Sridvaravati, who has great merit) and śrīdvaravatīsvaradevīpuṇya (the goddess of the meritorious King Dvaravati).^[45] In addition, the copper plate dating from the 6th–mid 7th centuries found at U Thong also mentions King Harshavarman (หรรษวรมัน), who was assumed by Jean Boisselier to be one of the kings of Dvaravati, while George Cœdès considered the plate was brought from the Khmer Empire, and the name mentioned might be the Khmer king as well.^[46] However, the periods seem unrelated since King Harshavarman I of Khmer reigned from 910–923, 200 years later than the age of the inscription,^[47][48] and Harshavarman I's grandfather was Indravarman I,^[49][50][51] not Isanavarman as the inscription mentioned.^[46]

Chakravantin Sārvabhauma Prathivindravarman Devi Vīravarman Unknown or Bhavavarman[a] Bhavavarman I Mahendravarman Kakapat/Sakkorndam[52]: 3  Continue to the Chenla dynasty of Chenla Kalavarnadishraj Continue to the Lavo dynasty of Lavo Kingdom Several generations Camadevi[53] Ramaraj[53] Uchitajakraphad Continue to the Camadevi dynasty of Haripuñjaya Continue to the Lavo dynasty of Haripuñjaya

Moreover, the inscription found in Ban Wang Pai, Phetchabun province (K. 978), dated 550 CE, also mentions the enthronement of the Dvaravati ruler, who was also a son of Prathivindravarman, father of Bhavavarman I of Chenla, which shows the royal lineage relation between Dvaravati and Chenla. However, the name of such a king was missing.[54] The other king was mentioned in the Nern Phra Ngam inscription, found in Nakhon Pathom province, dated mid 5th – mid 6th centuries CE but the name was missing as well.[55] However, some research suggests Bhavavarman mentioned in the Ban Wang Pai inscription of Si Thep may not be Bhavavarman I of Chenla due to different inscription styles.[56]: 17–19  The left chart shows the dynastic relation between Dvaravati polities and other kingdoms in the Chao Phraya–Mekong Valleys   Ruler of Dvaravati's Si Thep–Ramburi (Ayojjhapura?)   Ruler of Takkasila–Lavo   Ruler of Chenla (Shrestapura)   Ruler of Haripuñjaya   Ruler of Lavo–Haripuñjaya

The following is a list of rulers of Dvaravati.

Name		Reign	Title	Note	Source(s)
Romanized	Thai
Chakravantin	จักรวรรติน	Unknown	King of Si Thep (Ayodhyapura?)	Father of Prathivindravarman	Wang Pai Inscription (K.978)[54]
Prathivindravarman	ปฤถิวีนทรวรมัน	?–550		Father of Bhavavarman I of Chenla?
Unknown or Bhavavarman[a]		550–?		Son of Prathivindravarman
Unknown		c. 6th century	King of Dvaravati		Inscription on the Dvaravati coins[55]: 3544  and Wat Phra Ngam Inscription [th][55]: 3547
Kakapat/ Sakkorndam	กากะพัตร/สักกรดำ	566–638	King of Takkasila (Nakhon Pathom?)		Northern Chronicle [th][52]: 3, 25
After the death of Bhavavarman I's brother Mahendravarman, his son—Isanavarman I—expanded his influence to the Chao Phraya Valley in the early 7th century.[57]: 57
Kalavarnadishraj	กาฬวรรณดิศราช	638–648?/700?	King of Takkasila (Nakhon Pathom?)	Son of Kakapat. Later became king of Lavo (r. 648–700)	Northern Chronicle [th][52]: 25
Ramaraj	รามราช	648?/700?–?	King of Ramburi (Ayodhyapura?)	Spouse of Haripuñjaya's queen Camadevi	Jinakalamali[53]
Rulers after the reign of Ramaraj are still unknown.
The influence of Chenla was probably ended when Chenla faced the power struggle which led to kingdom division in the late 7th century during the reign of Jayadevi.
Adītaraj	อาทิตยราช	late 800s	King of Ayodhyapura	Adversary of Yasodharapura	Ratanabimbavamsa [th][58]: 51
Rajathirat	ราชาธิราช	before 946			Jinakalamali[2]
Fall of Ayodhyapura, the center of power was probably shifted to Lavo's Lavapura in the 10th century.[2] Dvaravati was then divided into two main polities: Lavo Kingdom in the east and Suphannaphum in the west. A new settlement known as Mueang Wat Derm (เมืองวัดเดิม) was founded southwestward in the lower plain in 934.[52]: 30 [b] In the 1080s, the city was set as a new Lavo capital and renamed Ayodhya, which continued to the formation of the Ayutthaya Kingdom in the 14th century.[2]
Rulers before the reign of Vap Upendra are still unknown.
Vap Upendra	วาป อุเปนทร	949-?	Governor of Rāmaññadesa	Relative of Rajendravarman II of Ankor	Rajendravarman II Inscription[55]: 3546

Art

Main article: Dvaravati art

Dvaravati itself was heavily influenced by Indian culture, and played an important role in introducing Buddhism and particularly Buddhist art to the region. Stucco motifs on the religious monuments include garudas, makaras, and Nāgas. Additionally, groups of musicians have been portrayed with their instruments, prisoners, females with their attendants, soldiers indicative of social life. Votive tablets have also been found, also moulds for tin amulets, pottery, terracotta trays, and a bronze chandelier, earrings, bells and cymbals.^{[17]: 306–308}

Note

1. If Bhavavarman mentioned in the inscription is not Bhavavarman I and Bhavavarman II of Chenla.^{[56]: 17–19}
2. Calculated from the text given in the chronicle: "สิ้น 97 ปีสวรรคต ศักราชได้ 336 ปี พระยาโคดมได้ครองราชสมบัติอยู่ ณ วัดเดิม 30 ปี"^[52]: 30 which is transcribed as "...at the age of 97, he passed away in the year 336 of the Chula Sakarat. Phraya Kodom reigned in the Mueang Wat Derm for 30 years...".