Page 15 - Hikayat-Patani-The-Story-Of-Patani 1

6 HIKAYAT PATANI
Whether or not the story is true, it would suggest that Patani early
became identified with Thai policy on the peninsula, in opposition to
Malacca. (And this fact, indeed, may suggest why the HP is so strangely
oblivious of Malacca).
Ayudhya’s long struggle with Malacca in the fifteenth century must
have involved the isthmian states from Nakh^n Si Thammarat and
Kedah to Patani and Pahang at least as much as objects of contention
as in the role of participants in the conflict. Although Portuguese
sources suggest a campaign extended over many years, and are supported,
if not corroborated, by the SM and Chinese sources, the Thai chronicles
mention only one expedition sent against Malacca, in 1455—56, without
any indication of its success or failure.22 However, it is probably the
result (or the rationale) of this campaign which is alluded to in the Thai
claim to suzerainty over Malacca expressed in the Thai Palatine Law
of 1468.23 In addition, Pires makes it clear that one prominent develop­
ment of the century was a heightening of the position of Nakhijn Si
Thammarat in Ayudhya’s relations with the Malay states. He described
the “Viceroy” of Nakh^n Si Thammarat (Ligor) as a “very rich and
very important person” who was the “governor” of all the states and
provinces from Pahang to Ayudhya.24 It was he who, as late as 1500,
led a Thai attack on Pahang on the instructions of the Thai monarch;
and even thirty years later Pahang still paid tribute to Ayudhya.25 Patani
within such a political and economic framework must have been a sub­
ordinate state, clearly within the Thai sphere of influence on the penin­
sula.
Thai activities in the isthmian region originated in a period of some
economic disorganization in the thirteenth century, and it is important
to note that the Peninsula provided manpower resources critically im­
portant to the Thai in their warfare with Cambodia during the Sukhothai
and early Ayudhya periods. Both trade and warfare were important to
the survival and development of the Thai empire, which initially had
been confined to the western and northern edges of the Caophraya
Valley. Immediately prior to the foundation of Ayudhya, Thai vassals
had raided Singapore; and the Chinese author who recorded this event
seems to suggest that the Thai were engaging in piracy along the east
coast of the Malay Peninsula.26 This was a time when trade through
22 BM, p. 31; LP, p. 448.
23 Wyatt, “Kata Mandiarapala”, 1967, pp. 279—86.
24 Cortesao, 1944, pp. 109—10.
25 Linehan, 1936, pp. 17,20—21.
20 Rockhill, 1915, p. 100.