Sri Jayapuri
| Native Name | ศรีชยาปุรี, ស្រីចាយ៉ាបូរី |
|---|---|
| Alternative name | Sri Jayapura, Muang Suphan, (CIS?) |
| BA# | 1749 |
| CISARK# | T73006 |
| Type | Ancient City |
| Location | |
| Commune | Phra Prathom Chedi |
| District | Muang Nakhon Pathom |
| Province | Nakhon Pathom |
| Country | Thailand |
| Coordinates | 13.82150, 100.04639 |
| History | |
| Verification | GPS |
Sri Jayapuri (ศรีชยาปุรี - Pronounced: See Jaya-puri)
The importance of the Dvaravati-period city, located on the site of present-day Nakhon Pathom City, is well documented; vestiges abound and the Phra Pathom Chedi National Museum houses an impressive collection of period artefacts. Additionally, several of what are today the city's most impressive monuments such as Phra Pathom Chedi and Wat Phra Pathon are considered to have been originally founded during the Dvaravati era.
For much of the first millennium of the Common Era, Nakhon Pathom's size and importance clearly outweighed that of other settlements in the region and was likely rivalled only by the northern city of Muang Boran Si Thep. So much so that it has prompted some historians to describe the city as the capital of a Dvaravati kingdom or to suggest that while Si Thep was the northern capital, Nakhon Pathom formed the southern one; both of which theories presuppose a highly unlikely unified Dvaravati state or empire.
While such theories are now dismissed by most archaeologists, the role of the settlement as an important early port on trade routes connecting the Indian subcontinent east to China via Muang Paniat, (Boran Sathan Muang Paniat) and the Funanese entrepot of Oc Eo is undisputed. (1) It is likely to have formed one of the principal channels through which early Indian cultural, linguistic and, of course, religious influences spread to the region's scattered Dvaravati city-states and settlements.
However, what is far less evident is the city's status during the subsequent period of Khmer influence and intermittent administration in the Chao Phraya Delta region. There were likely to have been significant contacts - commercial and political - with Funan and Chenla although confirmed early Khmer settlements such as the aforementioned port of Muang Paniat (dating back to the early 7th or possibly even late 6th centuries) and the Jayavarman I vestiges at Muang Si Mahapot lie some distance to the east.
Attempts by Angkor to exert control over the region are not considered to have begun until the early 11th century and continued sporadically until the firmer hand of Jayavarman VII consolidated Khmer authority over the region in the late 12th century. The latter interlude was of course of short duration although widespread vestiges in neighbouring provinces; Lopburi, Prachinburi, Ratchaburi Province and Kanchanaburi provinces are testament to a flurry of imperial projects - settlements, arogyasalas, sanctuaries and fortified garrisons - throughout the region.
As a large and wealthy city, Nakhon Pathom is hardly likely to have escaped Jayavarman's attention although today Khmer vestiges are scarce in the province and no standing structures remain. The city saw substantial renovation, rebuilding and additions during the later, Siamese, Rattanakosin period while even more development has taken place in recent times as Nakhon Pathom is slowly but surely absorbed into Bangkok's expanding western suburbs, Additionally, the principal southern rail route passes through the town centre as does multi-laned Highway 4. These may have avoided the city's principal monuments but not the 'minor' ones.
Today, Khmer vestiges are limited to the occasional pedestal or linga displayed, usually next to a ruined Dvaravati chedi, in the grounds of a Rattanakosin-period monastery. It may be that faced with a preexisting and impressive array of Buddhist structures, Jayavarman simply made a few tweaks and moved on to concentrate his efforts on Jayasinghapura although it has been suggested that a Bayon-period settlement named Sri Jayapuri was located in what is today the northwestern sector of the city. (This site is noted in the famous Preah Khan list, compiled by Indravarman II, of important settlements founded by his father throughout the empire.)
Satellite images of this area do show more regular, straight-lined features, (canals and possibly ancient walls) - as favoured by Khmer builders - in contrast to the irregular outline of the moated area to the east, centered on Phra Pathom Chedi. We're uncertain what, if any, firm archaeological evidence has been found to back up this theory and a few straight lines don't necessarily make a late Angkorian settlement. Ruins of an arogyasala, Bayon-style structures or even any laterite walls are notable by their absence. With the present-day combination of prestigious monuments and urban sprawl any revelatory excavations are highly improbable so, while some form of Khmer presence in the late 12th, if not early 11th, century can be presumed - what form it took will remain speculative.
(1) In earlier times, before in-fill from sedimentation of the Chao Phraya and adjacent river systems, Nakhon Pathom would have been situated on the northwestern coast of what is today the Gulf of Thailand.
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Nearby Sites
- Ban Lum Din
- Chom Prasat
- Jayarajapura
- Ko Si Narai
- Muang Khao Kamphaeng Saen
- Phong Tuek
- Phong Tuek Site 1
- Phra Pathom Chedi
- Phra Pathom Chedi National Museum
- Phra Rachawang Sanam Chan
- Ratchaburi National Museum
- Sra Ko Si Narai
- Sra Ko Si Narai Community Museum
- Sri Jayapuri
- Tham Rishi
- Wat Aranyikawat
- Wat Dong Sak
- Wat Mahathat Worawiharn (Ratchaburi)
- Wat Phra Pathon
- Wat Thammasala
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References