Page 24 - A History of Siam

INTRODUCTION
24
1473. The name of this King does not appear at all
in the main text of Bradley's version, though it is given
in two brief summaries incorporated by Bradley in his
first volume. In the present book this King's name will
not be found, as I have followed the version, which
will be referred to known as Prasoet's
later, "Luang
History."
Both the usual versions of the P* ongsawadan, that is
"
to and the are
say, Bradley's Royal Autograph,"
derived from a version drawn up in 1840 by Prince
under the orders of P'ra
Promanujit Jinnorot, King
Nang Klao (Rama III). Prince Promanujit's work
was, in its turn, compiled from two manuscript editions
of the P* which are in the National
ongsawadan, preserved
Library at Bangkok. The first of these was written in
1783, under King Taksin, and the second in 1795,
under King P'ra P'utt'a Yot Fa Chulalok (Rama I).
as well as all the
These two versions,
printed versions,
one and the same book.
are, practically speaking,
The chief which strikes the student of
peculiarity
all these versions of the P'ongsawadan is that, starting
from about the almost date
year 1370, every given is
This can be the
wrong. easily proved by comparing
dates with those in the annals of
given neighbouring
countries, such as Burma, Luang P'rabang, Chiengmai,
and Cambodia, or those recorded
by European authors,
Mendez Pinto, P. W. Floris, and van Vliet.
e.g. J.
Moreover, the error is not uniform; sometimes the
dates are one or two some-
given wrong only by years,
or The conclusion to
tfmes by eighteen twenty. only
be drawn is that the of the
compilers P'ongsawadan,
for some reason or other, invented a complete system
of chronology for themselves, and this does not make
us too ready to accept without question their authority