File:The kingdom of Siam.. (1904) (14780747721).jpg

Identifier: kingdomofsiam00cart (find matches)
Title: The kingdom of Siam..
Year: 1904 (1900s)
Authors: Carter, A. C. (from old catalog)
Subjects:
Publisher: N.Y. and Lond
Contributing Library: The Library of Congress
Digitizing Sponsor: The Library of Congress

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ent, with the Brahmano-Buddhist period. From several centuries before the Christian era adouble system of traders and adventurers began toThe indu flow iuto Indo-Chiua from, respectively,northern and southern India, reaching theupper parts of the peninsula by land through Burmahand its southern coast by sea, and founding theresettlements and commercial stations. Brahminismand later on Buddhism (third century B.C.), withmost other achievements of Indian culture, followedin the wake of these pioneers; and thus it is toancient India that Indo-China owes her early civili-zation. At the dawn of the Christian era, as I haveelsewhere demonstrated, Buddhism had alreadygained a firm foothold on the east coast of theMalay Peninsula, near the head of the Gulf of Siam,whence it advanced and soon spread all over thecountry of the Menam delta. On the other hand,Brahminism had established itself in central andnorthern Siam, where Swankhalok and Sukhothaiformed its principal foci. Not more than about
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Ruins at Ayuthia Archaeology 215 four centuries later we begin to hear of Nagara SriDharmaraja, or Ligor, as the chief centre of bothBuddhism and Brahminism on the east coast of theMalay Peninsula; while on the Menam delta wefind both faiths prevalent, but more especially Bud-dhism, in the territory of Phrah-Prathom in thepresent Nakhon-Chai-Sri province. In the sixth century A.D. no less than three citiesalready existed in central Siam, to wit: Swankhalok(gt; B.C.), Sukhothai (circa 70 B.C.), and ^^^ ^ V / /> SiamsMost Kampheng-phet (a.d. 457); and in the Ancient Cities. north, not far from the headwaters of theMenam, another one, Lamphun, had just beenfounded (a.d. 527). The two first-named werealternately, for the next eight centuries, the capitalsof the famous Swankhalok-Sukhothai State, whichso long held hegemony over central Siam. Thelast one became the capital of the first Thai king-dom in the Menam valley, holding its own untilA.D. 1281, when it was supplanted by the newlyr

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