Dvaravati

Dvaravati was a Mon-speaking Buddhist civilisation of the lowlands of what is now central Thailand, flourishing from roughly the seventh to the eleventh century. Whether it was a single kingdom or a loose cluster of related principalities is still debated, and the name is used today as much for a culture and an art style as for a state. It played a central part in bringing Buddhism and Buddhist art to mainland Southeast Asia.

The name comes from coins inscribed in Sanskrit with the words śrī dvāravatī; the Sanskrit term means roughly "the one with gates". Chinese pilgrims of the mid-seventh century describe a Buddhist realm they called To-lo-po-ti, placed between Isanapura in Cambodia to the east and Sri Ksetra in Burma to the west. Beyond these short notices, and a handful of inscriptions, most of what is known comes from archaeology and the study of art.

The traditional chronology rests on the Chinese accounts and on stylistic comparisons made by art historians. Excavations at Chansen and at the Tha Muang mound at U Thong have unsettled that scheme: some typical Dvaravati objects from U Thong have been dated as early as about 200 CE, and archaeologists now speak of a "Proto-Dvaravati" phase in the fourth and fifth centuries, perhaps earlier. Inscriptions, art and excavation together still point to the seventh to ninth centuries as the main period of the culture.

Dvaravati was a world of moated towns. U Thong, in today's Suphan Buri Province, appears to be among the earliest. Nakhon Pathom, Suphanburi and Praak Srigacha seem to have been the largest settlements, with other centres at Khu Bua, Phong Tuk, Lopburi, Si Thep, Si Mahosot and elsewhere. Little is known about how these places were ruled. Some scholars see a loose association of chiefdoms rather than a centralised state, spreading from the coast of the upper peninsula into the Chao Phraya river basin. Inscriptions on royal urns name three kings of the late seventh and early eighth centuries: Suryavikrama, Harivikrama and Sihavikrama. From the sixth century onward the culture also spread north-east into the Khorat Plateau and parts of lowland Laos, at sites such as Mueang Fa Daet and Mueang Sema.

Both Buddhism and Hinduism were important, and Indian influence shaped much of Dvaravati's culture. Its best-known monuments are stupas and sanctuaries, such as the sanctuary of Khao Khlang Nai and the stupa of Khao Khlang Nok at Si Thep, and carved stone Wheels of the Law, a Buddhist emblem. Stucco decoration on religious buildings shows mythical beings such as garudas, makaras and nagas, alongside scenes of daily life: musicians with their instruments, soldiers, prisoners and women with attendants. Excavations have also produced votive tablets, moulds for tin amulets, pottery, terracotta trays, earrings, bells and cymbals.

A Khmer inscription of 937 records a line of local princes at Chanasapura, beginning with one Bhagadatta. By the twelfth century the Dvaravati lands faced repeated attacks from the Khmer Empire, and the Khmer king Suryavarman II invaded central Southeast Asia in the first half of that century. In the north, the Mon kingdom of Haripunjaya, traditionally linked to Dvaravati, outlived its southern relatives until it was absorbed into Lan Na in the late thirteenth century.

Dvaravati belongs to the early history of Thailand. Its moated towns, its Buddhist monuments and its role as a channel for Indian religious ideas and art make it a key subject for archaeologists of the region, and art historians still use its name for a distinctive early style of Buddhist sculpture and stucco work in the country.

Our 600, 700, 800 and 1000 maps draw Dvaravati in central Thailand, reaching west into today's Myanmar with the Khmer lands to the east. The outline is an estimate for a culture whose political borders are not known.