Page 45 - A History of Siam

A HISTORT OF SIAM 43

All the ancient stone found in the
inscriptions region
peopled by the Khmers are purely southern Indian,
both in and and there seems some
lettering language,
reason to that the first influx of Indians
suppose great
into this dated from the time of Asoka's
region King
invasion of and that the settlers were natives
Kalinga,
of We assume that within a few
Kalinga. may years
these Indians formed colonies at various
points along
the coasts of the countries now known as Pegu, Siam,
Cambodia and Cochin China.
Some time after his of Asoka
conquest Kalinga, King
the doctrines of Buddha, and became a most
adopted
resolute of Buddhism. In the B.C.
apostle year 307
he over a Buddhist Council at
presided great Pataliputta.
At this Council not was the Buddhist Church
only
from abuses which had but a
purified many crept in,
great missionary effort was inaugurated, for the purpose
of spreading the faith in foreign lands.
The Mahavamsa 1 a list of ten Buddhist mission-
gives
ary monks, who were sent forth to various parts of the
world by King Asoka. Among these were the monks
Sona and Uttara, who were sent to the land of Suvarnab-
humi. Professor Rhys Davids, in his work on Buddhism,
identifies Suvarnabhumi as of the
consisting region
from down the
extending Pegu right through Malay
Peninsula. There has been considerable
controversy
on this some authorities that Suvar-
point, claiming
nabhumi was Pegu, the others that it was southern Siam. 1
The exact situation of the Suvarnabhumi is
original
translation of Geiger and Bode.
"
Suvarnabhumi means land of There is no gold found in Pegu,
gold."
but there are gold mines in southern Siam. There is also a town in Siam called
Uthong, or " source of gold," which was known in the Middle Ages as Suwanp'umi,
or Suvarnabhumi. It was the capital of the State ruled over by King Rama
T'ibodi before he founded Ayuthia. Not far from this place was the ancient
" "
Buddhist shrine of Nak'on Prat'om or P'rapat'om, meaning Original town
or " Original Pagoda." These are the principal points relied upon by those who
claim that southern Siam was the cradle of Buddhism in Indo-China.