Suvarnaraja

Suvarnaraja () was a ruler of Xiān's Ayodhya from 1289 to 1301 in the reconstruction of early Siamese history drawn from Thai chronicle tradition. He came to the throne when Jayasena, his paternal uncle and adoptive father, abdicated and withdrew north to .

His reign coincides with the period in which Xiān appears most frequently in Yuan dynasty records, both as a tributary and as an aggressor. Chinese sources of these years report Xiān campaigning against Melayu and Tanmayang, identified with present-day Singapore, mounting an expedition against Pasai in northern Sumatra, and pressing eastward on Angkor.

He was succeeded by his two sons-in-law, Dhammaraja in 1301 and Baramaraja in 1310, who continued the same direction of policy toward Angkor and the lower Malay Peninsula. That line ends with Baramaraja's son Uthong V, who held Phrip Phri and Ayodhya by direct descent and added Suphannabhum and Lavo through marriage. The conventional date of 1351 for the Ayutthaya Kingdom is read from the transfer of the seat from Ayodhya, onto the Ayutthaya island. What the period marks is a change of site together with the gathering of these centres under one ruler, not the first appearance of a city here.

Origins and accession

Suvarnaraja was the son of Jayadatta (), an elder Tai prince of Phichai Chiang Mai. According to the Northern Chronicle, Jayadatta entered into a clandestine relationship with Rajadevi, the only daughter of Uthong II, and was put to death by the king. When the princess was found to be pregnant, Jayadatta's younger brother Jayasena was compelled to marry her, and the child was raised as his adopted son.

Jayasena succeeded his father-in-law in 1253 and reigned until 1289. In that year, on the death of his own father, he gave up Ayodhya to Suvarnaraja and returned to govern Phichai Chiang Mai.

Suvarnaraja had two daughters, Kalyādavī () and Sunandhadevī (), who married the princes Dhammaraja and Baramaraja respectively, both sons of King Dhammatriloka of Si Satchanalai. On his death in 1301 Dhammaraja took the throne and ruled until 1310, after which Baramaraja reigned to 1344.

Relations with the Yuan court

After completing the conquest of China, Kublai Khan set out to extend Yuan suzerainty over polities across mainland and maritime Southeast Asia, despatching embassies whose language was one of peremptory demand for submission, as in his missions to the Burmese court.

The first recorded contact fell in the reign of Suvarnaraja's predecessor, when a Yuan naval embassy under He Zizhi was sent to Xiān and its envoys were intercepted and killed by Cham forces, then at war with China.

In November 1292 Xiān sent an embassy to the Yuan court at Canton (Guangzhou), opening formal relations. In 1294 envoys came again, under the authority of Sam (), a son of Uthong II, from the polity identified in the records with Phrip Phri. The emperor responded by demanding either the king's attendance in person or the surrender of hostages, a demand at first refused.

The court repeated the demand in the same year, and the ruler of Xiān complied, appearing at the imperial court and rendering tribute the following year. The last recorded mission of his reign came in 1299; the embassy's request for gifts in return was refused.

Military campaigns

In 1295 Melayu lodged a complaint with the Yuan court that it had been under sustained attack from Xiān for several years, and the emperor ordered Xiān to desist. Xiān also raided Tanmayang, identified with present-day Singapore.

Between about 1297 and 1301 Xiān mounted an expedition against the Samudera Pasai Sultanate in northern Sumatra. The campaign killed the sultan of Pasai, but Xiān suffered heavy losses and withdrew.

To the east, Angkor came under heavy pressure from Xiān. During the reign of Jayavarman VIII (r. 1243–1295) it is reported to have been devastated by a major Xiān invasion, an account supported by Zhou Daguan, the Yuan envoy who recorded in The Customs of Cambodia that by 1296 Angkor under Indravarman III had been at war with Xiān for a long period and was left severely damaged.

These campaigns have prompted debate about how far Angkorian authority still reached over intermediary polities, particularly Lavo. Lavo may have attained de facto autonomy by the 1280s, as suggested by Chinese notices of substantial Xiān settlement there and by its own tribute missions to China in 1289 and 1299.

Xiān and Sukhothai in the Chinese records

Earlier scholarship frequently equated Xiān with the Sukhothai Kingdom. That identification has since been rejected. The Dade Nanhai-zhi () of 1304 distinguishes the two, calling Sukhothai Sù Gū Dǐ () and placing it under Xiān's jurisdiction upstream (). Records of 1299 further show Xiān and Sù Gǔ Chí (), another rendering of Sukhothai, sending separate tributary embassies to the Yuan court. Their recognition as distinct tributaries in the same year is the principal evidence that the two were not the same polity.

See also

• Jayasena
• Xiān
• Dhammaraja