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

REVIEW ARTICLES 307
great deal to be desired, to say the very least. A few of the more
controversial names include: Funan and Cbenla, Cbeie-Foche and
San-fo-ch'i, and Pyu.
Colonel Gerini was the first to interpret Funan as Banom, meaning
a mountain. This is generally accepted, but of course there is no real
proof and historians tend to use Funan rather than Banom in their
writing. Funan was a country which some place in Cambodia, others
in the Central Plain of Siam, and still others in the Isan or Northeastern
Plateau. Cbenla is also thought to have been a country, the state that
succeeded Funan. Nobody knows what this name corresponded to, but
it has generally been located in Cambodia. This is contrary to the
earliest epigraphic evidence. Three inscriptions of the Cbenla period,
possibly earlier than any found in Cambodia, came from the Jsan Plateau
in present-day Siam. When this fact had been pointed out to some
scholars, at least one thought that Chenla was not located where it had
been thought, at least in the early period. I think Cbenla was not a
country at all. It was the name of a dynasty that ruled Funan. The
dynasty was the Cbandrawamsa which the Chinese pronounced Chenla.
Some people also call me Tan Chenla because I am of the Lunar Line
too, though I regret to report that others think the Loony Line would be
more appropriate. But I wouldn't care to be quoted on this.,
The equivalent for the 7th century Chinese name Pyu bas also not
been found. It is thought to refer to a people or race that lived in the
district of Sri Ksetra (Prome) in upper Burma. The names of some
kings (?) of Sri Ksetra written on funerary urns have been deciphered:
Suryavikrama, Harivikrama, Sihavikrama, Prabhuvarman, and Jayacbandravarman.
These names are Indian and it might be asked whether the
Pyu were an Indian tribe, or perhaps the race has been located in the
wrong place. I will make a guess, not very seriously, that the Chinese
name Pyu was Phya, a title used in several countries and means King.
The Chinese might have used tbis shorter form for Phya Sri Ksetra
(Pyu Shi-li-ch'a-ta-lo). But in such a case, the title could have been used
for any country that bad come into being by the 7thcentury-PhyaLakorn
Chaisri (Pyu Lang-chia·shu), Phya Kamalanka (Puy Chia-ma-lang-chia),