This article is about the ancient city mentioned in Thai legendary texts. For the historical capital and kingdom, see Ayutthaya Kingdom. For the legendary Indian city, see Ayodhya (Ramayana).
Ayodhyapura or Ayojjhapura (Thai: อโยชฌปุระRTGS:Ayotchapura or อโยชฌนครAyotchanakhon) was an ancient settlement in central Thailand. It existed before the 14th century and is mentioned in the Ratanabimbavamsa[th] or The Chronicle of the Emerald Buddha written in Pali by Brahmarājaprajña in the 15th century:51:411–412 and in another Pali chronicle Jinakalamali. Where it stood is disputed. It has been identified with Si Thep in present-day Phetchabun province, central Thailand.
The settlement is thought to have declined from about the middle of the 10th century, and to have been abandoned or heavily depopulated by the 13th, a collapse that Thai scholars have attributed to climate and epidemic disease. Its people are said to have moved to Lavapura and to Ayodhya, the two towns that later joined to form the Ayutthaya Kingdom.
The name outlived the place. The Jinakalamali applies Ayojjhapura to Ayutthaya itself in the Sukhothai and Ayutthaya periods, and Burmese sources sometimes call Ayutthaya Dvaravati.
History
Ayodhyapura is believed to have entered a period of decline by the mid-10th century. A Khmer inscription dated to 946 CE records that the Angkorian king Rajendravarman II subdued Rāmaññadesa (lit.'the land of the Mon') and Champa. Subsequently, in 949 CE, he appointed a member of his lineage, Vap Upendra, as governor of Rāmaññadesa.:3546
Earlier sources, such as the Ratanabimbavamsa[th], recount a conflict between Ayodhyapura, under Adītaraj, and Yaśodharapura over the possession of the Emerald Buddha during the late 9th or early 10th century.:51 Hostilities between the two may have begun much earlier. Jayavarman II established Kambujadesa and moved the capital north to Yaśodharapura in the mid-9th century.:87 On Hiram Woodward's reading he may have allied with city-states in the Mun-Chi basin, including Wen Dan, against the power of Si Thep in the Pa Sak River basin to the west.:93
Ayodhyapura is believed to have been abandoned or severely depopulated around the 13th century. Several Thai scholars attribute its decline to climatic changes and widespread epidemics. Following this period of collapse, the inhabitants are thought to have sought refuge in Lavapura of Lavo (Luó hú) and Ayodhya of Xiān. These two settlements subsequently amalgamated to form the Ayutthaya Kingdom (Xiānluó hú; 暹羅斛) in the 14th century. During the Sukhothai and Ayutthaya periods, the Jinakalamali also referred to Ayutthaya as Ayojjhapura,:97,102–103 while Burmese sources occasionally identified Ayutthaya with Dvaravati.
The Ratanabimbavamsa[th], which mixes fact with fable and varies the story, has the Emerald Buddha brought from Pataliputra to Inthapatnakhon (อินทปัตย์นคร, Yaśodharapura) in present-day Cambodia by way of Lankadvipa (Sri Lanka). Pataliputra is today's Patna in India, although Ligor was also known by that name during the reign of Tambralinga's Chandrabhanu.:173 It was then brought to "Ayodhyapura" before to Vajiraprakarapura (Kamphaeng Phet), Chiang Rai and Lampang. Ayodhyapura as described in the text was ruled by the great king Adītaraj (อาทิตยราช) and was said to be located on the north of Lavo's Lavapura.:411–412
At that time, the meritorious king named Adītaraj, who was as marvelous as the heavenly gods, ordered to wage war and led an army to attack the great city of Mahapura (Inthapatnakhon) and obtained that excellent Buddha image (Emerald Buddha) to install in the great city of Ayodhyapura.
The Jinakalamali also mentions Ayodhyapura as a big city Mahā-nagara located in Rāmaññadesa. Its king, the greatest of all kings, had five Buddha images made from precious black stone. One was installed in Ayodhyapura, one given to Lavapura, one to Thuwunnabumi, and the other two enshrined in the far Rāmaññadesa.
...When he had thus thought, he ordered the sculptors to gather together and had them make five Buddha images from that stone. When they were finished, one was installed in the great city (Mahā-nagara), one in Lavapura, one in the city of Sudhamma, and two were installed in the distant countries of Rammana...
—Legend of Phra Sikk̄hī Pt̩imā Silā Dảm (พระสิกขีปฏิมาศิลาดำ) in Jinakalamali:126
As per the location given in the text, Thai scholar Pensupa Sukkata speculated that Ayodhyapura is potentially the present-Si Thep, the early center of the Dvaravati civilization, which flourished from the 6th to 11th century. Haripuñjaya Study scholar, Akrin Phongphanthacha, agrees with the mentioned theory and additionally asserts that:
...It is possible that Sri Thep city is an old Ayutthaya Sri Dvaravati, with Lavapura (Lavo) as a secondary city or southern fortress. Si Thep City is situated at the headwaters of the Pa Sak River. It is a place abundant in natural resources. It is believed that mineral and forest goods were transported from the Pa Sak River to Lavapura. Until the 6th to 9th centuries, demand for Si Thep forest products may have diminished or there could have been an outbreak in Si Thep, leaving the city abandoned during the period when Khmer influence began to take hold. As a result, the center of Dvaravati's prosperity shifted to the lower basin. When Ayutthaya Kingdom gradually built itself up and became stronger, separating from Lavo, some of the population was old Lavo, mixed with old Ayutthaya (which used to be in Sri Thep), and probably brought the name ‘Ayutthaya Sri Dvaravati’ or ‘Dvaravati Sri Ayutthaya’ back to use with the new city-state again for good fortune...”
—Akrin Phongphanthacha
Two other readings have been proposed. Some interpretations place the city in present-day northern Thailand, although its precise location remains indeterminate. Others identify it with Lavapura, the principal urban center of Lavo, an identification generally regarded as the least plausible,:56 since the text itself treats the two as distinct and separate places.
Notes
↑The city was mentioned in the Jinakalamali during the reign of Lan Na's king Kue Na (r.1355–1385). However, previous scholars suggest it possibly was Lavo's Ayodhya.:97
↑Hall, Kenneth R. “Khmer Commercial Development and Foreign Contacts under Sūryavarman I.” Journal of the Economic and Social History of the Orient, vol. 18, no. 3, 1975, pp. 318–336. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/3632140. Accessed 3 June 2020.
