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

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1767). The first story cannot be dated and need not concern us, while
the second was written by one Vilbagedara Naide, one of the leaders of
a religious mission sent to Ayudhia by Kirti Sri Rajasimha of Kandy in
1750. On the return journey 'the party was nearly shipwrecked but
managed to wade ashore at Nakorn Sri Thammaraj (Muan Lakon and
Pataliputra in the text.) The following translation by Dr. P.E.E.
Fernando is quoted from page 137 of Paranavitana's book, Ceylon and
Malaysia:
"On Tuesday, the thirteenth day of the bright half of the
same month (December 17, 1751), when they were about to reach
Muan Lakon, a territory that belonged to Siam, the ship sank in
the mud. But no one was injured, and all on board landed in the
district called Muan Lakon. In this district is a large city called
Pataliputra with ramparts around it. In the centre of the city is a
stupa as large as the Ruvanali Stupa at Polonnaruva in Cey Ion.
This bad been constructed by King Dharmasoka who had enshrined
relics of the Buddha there. From the spire down. to the triple
berm, this stupa still glitters like a newly made sheet of gold without
a blemish. Around this stupa are three hundred images, seated,
recumbent and standing, and two hundred stupas, some nine
carpenter's cubits and others eleven carpenter's cubits in height.
There is also a bodhi tree here which had been taken from
Anuradhapura at the request of King Dbarmasoka the Younger,
who became king of that city in later times."
The younger Dharmasoka in this text was the same as the first
Cbandrabanu of the Nakorn chronicles, who succeeded his elder brother,
while his younger brother, Pongse Suraha, became Chandrabanu in his
stead. The name Pataliputra (Nakorn) also appears in one or two local
chronicles and in a poem written in the Dhonburi period, between 20 and
30 years after the mention of this name in the Ceylonese source.
1230 A.D. Tambralinga Inscription of Chandrabanu: Chandrabanu,
the third of that name to appear in the records, set up an inscription at
Nakorn Sri Thammarj in 1230. This is No. 24 in Professor Coedes'
Receuil Il, and he said that it came from Wat Hua Wieng, Cbaiya. Such