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

332 REVIEW ARTICLE
Then after seven more reigns with which no events are associated
we reach the date 622 after the Buddha's nirvana or as the text of PP part
61 bas it, "the Buddha's religion bad completed 622 years." 22
At that time tri cakkhu ("three eyes") of bhukam (Pagan) had
become brabya dharrma, and seeing that the religion was no longer
flourishing he cut the era which bad been established by Ajatasatru of
Rajagrha by 622 years and established a new era. Since 622 is precisely
the conversion factor necessary to transform the Buddhist era used in
Burma and Ceylon to !aka era, or mahalakaraja, as it is known in Thai
material, it would seem clear that this is the new era which has been
established. The identification is reaffirmed throughout several succeed·
ing reigns in which both the new era and tbe number of years since the
nirvana are mentioned. We need only note that the diff.erence is frequently
621, the Thai conversion factor, rather than 622.23 This would
seem to indicate that tbe BE dates were inserted after the text and .§aka
dates had been composed, a point to which I shall return later.
After this there are twelve more empty reigns which bring the
story up to 279 saka or 900 BE (AD 357}, at which time there is a long
story about war between Yonakanagara and the khom. The latter, who
lived to the southwest of Yonakanagara, had been tributary to the Thai
since the time of Sinhanavatikumara. Now, however, they conquered
their former overlords and all the Thai were forced to move to another
location and pay tribute to the Kbom. This situation lasted 19 years
until a Thai prince bra~makum(ua drove the Khom out and chased them
as far as the sea where they settled in a large plain in the territory of
indapa(hanagara, and the Thai moved back to Yonakanagara. Shortly
after this Brahmakumara founded another city, viaft jaiyaprakiira.24
22) PP6l,p.76.
2 3) See note 16, above.
24) Manit, pp. 7 3-85. In modern times, from at least the end of the 18th century,
khom has been used to mean the Khmer of Cambodia, although I have
previously called attention to •vidence that in earlier. times this was not so.
See Vickery, Review of Prachmn sila charu;k etc., JSS 60 (1), Jan 1972, pp.
397·410. Since TS has the KhOm finally settling at indapa~hanqgara, one of
the names of Angkor, it is certain that TS uses khum in the modern sense.