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

228 REVIEW ARTICLE
real title it now appears included rajadhipat'i, was the conqueror
of Angkor in 1431, and it is tempting, even if illegitimately speculative,
to suggest that the inscription included a record of that conquest,
We may now devote some attention to the ways in which vV
contributes, and does not contribute, to certain problems of early
Ayutthayan history. One of the most important of these is the question
of relations between Ayutthaya and Cambodia. There is a good deal
of, reference to Cambodia in the reigns of Mahathammaracha and
Naresuan, but both the details and the chronology are confused and it is
only possible to disentangle them by reference to the better information
of LP and contemporary European reports.
Moving back in time, in the reign of Chaiyaracha, vV mentions
that the king, "waged war often with Cambodia," and, "toward the end
of his life ... wenf. .. to the borders of Cambodia and captured tbe
city of Lamphun." Wyatt understandably exclaims that this is "an
apparent contradiction ... Lamphun is hardly near the borders of
Cambodia 1 LP ... makes no reference to warfare in the east" (pp. 70-
71, n. 71). Actually, the passage provides proof for the solution of a
very interesting historiographic problem which I discuss thoroughly
elsewbere.44 This is the existence of two quite different terms, Kamboja
and Kambuja, the latter meaning since early Angkorean times the
kingdom of Cambodia and based on the etymology kambu-ja, ''born of
Kambu", and the former the name of one of the sixteen great divisions
of classical India, later transferred to Southeast Asia as part of a
geographical system and localized in the Burmese Shan States, and in
northern and central Siam.4s Eventually the two terms became
44) In my dissertation on Cambodian and Thai chronicles which is due to be pre·
seuted to Yale University within the next few months. I realize how mad·
dening it is to be directed to a reference which is not yet available, and which
in some cases seems to avoid publication for a number of years. There is
nothing else to do, though, for the full argument is much to long to include
here. I can say, however, that it is all dow,n on paper, and I am prepared to
send copies of r.elevant sections to any reader who will pay the cost of xeroxing
and postage from Penang.
45) See Sasanavan;sa, edited by Mabel Bode, Pali Text Society, p. 15; G.P. Mala·
lasekera, Dictionary of Pali Proper Names, I, pp. 526-7; Dr. Than Tun,
"Administration Under King Thalun," Journal of the Burma Research SQciety,
LI (2), December 1968, pp. 173-188.