Phraya Pan

Phraya Pan (Thai: พระยาพาน, RTGS: Phraya Phan), also called Balaraj (พาลราช or พาละราช, RTGS: Phalarat), is a semi-legendary monarch of the later Dvaravati period in west-central Thailand. He is attested chiefly in the Legend of Phra Pathommachedi (ตำนานพระปฐมเจดีย์) and in the recensions of the Legend of Phraya Kong – Phraya Pan [th], which make him the son and successor of Phraya Kong of Nakhon Pathom.^{: 15 : 39}

Accession and reign at Nakhon Pathom

In the narrative he came to the throne after defeating and killing his father.^: 11 Working from the Northern Chronicle [th] and the Yonok Chronicle, Borihan Thepthani placed his reign at Nakhon Pathom between 867 and 913.^: 31, 67 The legends remember him principally for the patricide by which he took power.^: 10–43 His reign there ended when the king of Ratchaburi, who was his adoptive father, seized the throne, after which he moved north.^: 67

Foundation of Suphan Buri

Phraya Pan is credited with founding several cities, of which the most notable is Suphan Buri,^: 33–4 later the principal city of the Suphannabhum kingdom.^: 140 Its foundation is traditionally dated between 877 and 882, coinciding with the appointment of his son Pansa (พรรษา) as its first ruler.^{: 33–4 : 59}

The Yonok Chronicle suggests that Pansa was succeeded by Chandra Devaraja, whose reign would fall between 927 and 946. In those years Tambralinga, under Sujita and his son Kampoch, campaigned against several polities of the Menam valley, and the external threats the chronicle records Chandra Devaraja as facing have been associated with those incursions.^{: 191 : 70}

Haripuñjaya

After leaving Nakhon Pathom he ruled at Haripuñjaya in the north. The Yonok Chronicle records two reigns there: a first in 899, lasting two months and fifteen days, and a second from 913 until his death at Lamphun in 916.^: 530

References