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

68 M-Aung.Thwin
nastery.26 The famous Ajawlat inscription, recorded in 1165 A.D.,
showed generous endowments being made to the sahgha as if everything
were normal. 27
Thus daily affairs of state and society, such as religious dedications,
water consecration ceremonies by the King and his ministers, the building
of monumental architecture (whose economic function of bringing
land under cultivation, employing people, providing social welfare, and
in general bringing about and carrying on tbe economic depelopmeni of
the kingdom) continued rather vigorously during the so-called interregnum
when presumably no king reigned. Moreover, Narapatisithu's
achievements in empire building and expansion, ·consolidation of the
military, and all those elements that implies secure foundations, could
not have come about with an interregnum that would have been the basis
for that growth. Rather, Narapatisitbu's long and secure reign of 37
years were based ,upon the progressive developments of those years that
preceded him, years in which effective administration governe~ tbe
country, not the chaos of an interregnum.
If there were no interregnum, who ruled during the period, and is
there evidence for it? If we depend entirely on the inscriptions, and for
a moment, reject the theory that Kulakya alias i m-ta w-syai1 was killed
in 1166, the problem could be solved. An origihal inscription has a
short list of kings in which Im-taw-syan was placed after Sak tau rhe or
Alaungsithu,2s while the chronicles placed Kulakya after Alaungsithu;
therefore historians had agreed that Kulakla was most likely im-tawsyan.
The questions arise only after Kulakya;. who followed him? The
Jatabon Chronicle, ~· 1 (List), pt.T; Rangcion, Strpt.
Govt. Print, 192!, no. 263, p. 31, which. noted that the inscription was
original.