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

360 REV!E\\ ARTICLE
something which western scholars have assumed not to exist? 76
does the story of Devakala and his descendents provide some true information
about an area which may have contained a Thai state, even if
identification with Jen Kuo or any other specific individual is impossible?
To answer these questions we must pay some attention to the story's
structure and examine the meaning and relationships of some of its motifs-something
which should be undertaken first of all in the study of
such texts, before seeking to relate them to events known from other
sources.
The first thing to look at is the Indian and Buddhist framework
into which much of the story is fitted.
Or,
Siil.hanavati, founder of Chiang
Saen, is younger brother of the famous king of Rajagrha, Bimbisara, a
contemporary of the Buddha, and the Chiang Saen area, where Sinhanavati
settles, is southeast of Rajagrha. Mithila, another Indian place
name, is located to the north. Another connection with Rajagrha is
made when, at the Buddha's death, King Ajatasatru and Maba Kassapa
gather up the relics and the latter transports them to Chiang Saen.
Still later, 500 years after the Buddha's death, the Buddhist faith is said
to have been flourishing only from Rajagrha down to Chiang Saen.
Thus Chiang Saen is established as a center with close connections to
the homeland of Buddhism from the very beginning of the religion, and
even the story of Sinbanavati and his brothers pairing off with sisters to
found new kingdoms is the same theme as the dispersion of the Sakyas
in Buddhist lore,76a
76) Mote, "Problems", p. 104, "No Thais of our grandfathers' generation had
heard of the Nan-Chao Kingdom , •. certainly none of them thought of it as a
Thai state", and p. 102, " ... the view, first advanced by those earlier Western
scholars, that the Thai peoples had undergone a First Migration from
North China into Central China ••. and a Second Mig.ration from Central
China into the Southwest , .. and then a great Third Migration • , , into modern
Thailand". Much earlier, E.H. Parker, in a report of 1892, noted that, "In
speaking four years ago to Siamese of high rank at Bangkok, I found that they
were totally ignorant of the history of the Shan Empire", by which Parker
meant Nan-Chao. Quoted in Sao Saimong Mangrai, op. cit., p. 250, n.l.
76)a. Thomas, op. cit., pp. 6-7.