Page:Origins of Sukhodaya dynasty - Coedes - 1921.pdf/8

 mahādevī, the sword Jaiyaśrī, and an honorific title similar to his own. Phō Khun Bāng Klāng Thāo received the name of Śrī Indrapatīndrāditya, because Phō Khun Phā Mu'ang took his own name in order to give it in his turn to his friend … … … of Mu'ang Sukhodai. That is why" (ll.31 to 33).

The form of this explanation is a little confused, but its meaning is clear enough; it indicates that the title of Kamratēng Añ Śrī Indrapatīndrāditya, given by Phō Khun Phā Mu'ang to Phō Khun Bāng Klāng Thāo, had been conferred previously on Phō Khun Phā Mu'ang by a personage designated under the expression:— the God (phi fā) Chao Mu'ang S'rīŚrī [sic] Sodharapura. Is it possible to identify this latter?

In modern documents, Cambodian or Siamese, SrīŚrī [sic] Sodharapura appears as one of the elements of the literary name of the kingdom (or of the capital) of Cambodia. The Cambodian Annals recount that on the foundation of Phnom Penh in the XVth. century by King Poña Yàt, the town received the name of: "Catummukha Maṅgala Sakalakambujādhipati Śrīsodhara Pavara Indapattapuri Raṭṭharājasīmā Mahānagara". A fragment from a Cambodian chronicle translated into Siamese (published in Praxum Phongsāvāa [sic]dān, iv), to which I have recently drawn attention (B. E. F. E.-0., XVIII, ix, p. 24), states that King Mahānibbāna, the first known King of modern Cambodia, reigned at Śrī Sodararājadhānī. At the present day, it is generally spelt Siri Sandhara (Srei Santhor): but the form Śrī Sodhara is the only one which can be shewn to have been employed in former times.

The above name long puzzled me. I have successively tried to restore it under the forms "Siridhara" (B. E. F. E.-0., XIII, vi, p. 9), and "Siri Sundara" (Ibid., XVIII, ix, p. 24), but without being satisfied by either of these two attempts. Quite recently I lit by chance upon the key to the enigma whilst examining facsimile of letters addressed by the King of Cambodia to the King of Japan during the course of the XVIIth century. In these documents emanating from the Cambodian Chancery the name of Cambodia is written: "Kambujādhipati Śrīyasodhara braḥ