Page 25 - Hikayat-Patani-The-Story-Of-Patani 1

16 HIKAYAT PATANI

received in marriage the queen’s niece, apparently Raja Kuning,
daughter of Raja Ungu by the Sultan of Pahang,67

RAJA UNGU AND SIAM
For reasons unexplained, but which must be related to the collapse
of Johore at the hands of Acheh in 1615,68 as well as to great internal
disturbances in Ayudhya in the later years of King Song Tham’s reign
and after his death in 1628,69 Patani adopted an anti-Siamese policy
under Raja Ungu, who succeeded to the throne around 1624.70 The
HP specifically states that she refused to allow herself to be called by
the Thai title Phrao-cao,"1- and goes on to say that she arranged for the
marriage of her daughter, Raja Kuning, to the Sultan of Johore, not­
withstanding her earlier marriage to Qkphaya Deca, who would appear
to have still been alive.72 There followed warfare between the two states,
explained in Thai and European accounts as rebellion against the crown
and in the HP as a Siamese attack.
King Song Tham of Ayudhya died in December 1628, and there
ensued a long period of internal political crisis which persisted up to the
accession of King Prasat Thqng in 1630. At that time, Patani already
was in rebellion, and Nakhqn Si Thammarat “was threatened with a
serious war by the people of Patania.” 73 The events which followed
are described by Jeremias van Vliet, who arrived in Ayudhya in 1633
and wrote his account in 1636 and 1640.74 Noting that Patani long had
sent tribute to the kings of Siam, Van Vliet explained that the rebellion
arose
by the ambition of the late princess [= ruler, Raja Ungu] to obtain
the highest power and by the great authority of some mandarins especial­
ly Dato Bestaar (who were not loved by most of the Orangh Cayos)... 75

And so, cloaking their rebellion in terms of legitimacy,
...the ambitious princes and mandarins... made known in public that

67 HP text, p. 51.
08 Winstedt, 1932, p. 35.
60 Wood, 1959, pp. 168—76.
70 Wyatt, 1967, p. 30, n. 57; and see below, Chapter VI, section 16—20.
71 HP text, p. 51.
72 HP text, pp. 51—54.
73 Van Vliet, 1938, p. 131.
74 Van Vliet, 1958, p. vii.
75 Van Vliet, 1910, p. 37.