The Journal of the Siam Society Vol. LXIV, Part 1-2, 1976 - Khamkoo

HEVIEW AH'l'ICLE 281
"enacted in order to commemorate Samara Maharaja who
drove away the Colas that remained spread over the entire Island
of Lanka.... The village of Mehendibapiti, which is belonging
to King Samara, shall be given to the tenants; it shall be made to
remember that at the present time, we have been liberated by this
king; it shall also be made to remember that at the present time,
our villages and land have been liberated by this king; it shall also
be made to remember that however much of the village one
possessed, how many houses and gardens one possessed, the houses
and gardens will remain without officers of the palace breaking
into them and confiscating them."
I will make only one short comment on these two inscriptions.
Vijayabahu stated that the Colas (Soli Tamils) chased him all over the
island; while Mahendra stated that Maharaja Samara chased the Colas
from the same island. Such is the epigraphic evidence. It would be as
well if Simbalese scholars would go through these two records again
without interference from the chronicular Culawamsa or Paranavitana's
interlinear sources, and decide who it really was who drove the Colas
out of Ceylon. In this way perhaps the discrepancy of Kassapa VII
being the predecessor of Vijayabahu could be ironed out.
To return to the Sri Vijaya story as told by Paranavitana. This
concerned Suryanarayana, the third of that name to appear in the records
(Chapter IV of his book, Ceylon and Malaysia, The Relations Between
Sri Vijaya and Ceylon from Vijayabahu I to Magha, pp. 59-73.) When
King Mahinda IV died in 972 his queen Sundari, the damsel in distress
of Appendix I, returned to the Malay Peninsula and lived with a prince
of Java named Purandara. This prince was the younger brother of
Suryanarayana to whom the princess had been betrothed before she became
Mabinda's queen. The union produced a son who was called Suryanarayana,
and the son in turn produced a son who was also called
Suryanarayana.
Suryanarayana 3 was in Ceylon when King Mahendra VI was on
the throne, and he held the office of Admiral of the Fleet (Danda-nayaka),
an office that his grandfather Purandart~ bad held under Mahinda IV,