In October 1931, Dr. H. G. Quaritch Wales, describing the Coronation and Anointing Ceremonies of the seventh ruler of the present Chakri Dynasty, King Prajadhipok (1925 1935), in his treatise on Siamese State Ceremonies, 1 referred to the fact that the High Priest of Siva, after rendering homage to the King who was seated on the Bhadrapitha throne, pronounced the Tamil mantra, the Siamese name of which (Poet pratu Sivalai) meant 'Opening the Portals of Sivalaya'.
Dr. Wales mentioned also in the same book that the Tamil mantra was recited by Maharaja Gru of the Thai Court Brahmans also on the occasion of another Siamese State Ceremony, namely, Triyambavay- Tripavay (popularly known as Lo Jin Ja. 'Pulling the Swing') or the Swinging Festival. Also, on the seventh day of the same festival which used to be held annually in Bangkok and in the former capitals of Ayudhya and Sukhodaya as well as in other chief cities of the Thai realm such as Nakhorn Sri Thammarat (Ligor) in the first lunar month and later in the second month, yet another mantra, called Loripavay, was said to have been recited by four Brahmans.2
Then, in July 1955, Prof. Xavier S. Thani Nayagam, soon after a successful study-tour of South-east Asian countries including Burma, Cambodia, Indonesia, Malaysia, and Thailand, published his paper on Tamil Cultural Influences in South-east Asia in the Tamil Culture (IV, 3, July 1955). It was in this paper that Prof. Thani Nayagam made known for the first time the fact that the Tamil verses recited at the Thai Coronation Ceremony and the Swinging Festival were those from Manikkavacakar's Tiruvempavai.3
Subsequently in 1961, Prof. T. P. Meenakshisundaram wrote his Cayämil Tiruvempavai Tiruppavai,4 in which he gave an account in Tamil of the Thai State Ceremonies including the Coronation Ceremony and the Swinging Festival. Then in 1963, on his way back from a visit to the University of Malaya, Prof. Meenakshisundaram visited the Brahman Temple in Bangkok and ascertained that the Tamil mantra mentioned by Dr. Wales in his book, consisted of Tevaram verses of Tirundvukkaracar.
In the same year, the National Education (Indian Schools) Development Council, Malaya, made provision for an Endowment Fund at the University of Malaya for purposes of facilitating research in the field of Tamil Cultural Contacts with Thailand and Cambodia. With the assistance of the Research Funds made available for carrying out research in Thailand, the writer of the present paper was able to undertake a month-long field-trip to Thailand in April 1965.
In the course of this trip, thanks to the good offices of H. H. Prince Dani Nivat Kromamun Bidyalabh, President of the Privy Council, in Bangkok, the author of the present paper was able to meet Phra Maharaja Gru, Vamadeva Muni, the present Chief Brahmanical Priest of the Royal Thai Household, and Phragru Asadachariyan in the Brahmin Temple 5 in Bangkok, and record recitation of the verses entitled Part prata Sivalai (`Opening the portals of Sivalaya) Pit pratu krailat (Closing the portals of Kailasa') and Laripavay (`Elor- empavay', the refrain of the Tiruvempavai verses). He was also able to obtain microfilm copies of the manuscripts containing these verses written in the old South Indian Grantha script.6
With the help of the recorded recitation of Phra Maharaja Gru Vamadeva Muni who recited the Pwt pratu Sivalai and the Pit pratu Krailat, and that of Phra Gru Asadachariyan who recited the Loripavay, and also with the assistance of the manuscripts containing the texts of these verses, it has been possible to identify (a) the poet pratu with the first eleven stanzas of the first Tirumurai (beginning with 'to- tutaiya ceviyan') of the Tamil Tevaram sung by Tirugnanacampantar, as well as with the first ten verses of the seventh Tirumurai (beginning with `pitta pirai cuti perumane') of Cuntarar; (b) the Pit pratu Krailat with the first ten stanzas of the fourth Tirumurai 'Tiruvatikaivirattanam) sung by Appar or Tirunavukkaracar, and (c) the Loripavay with the first eleven verses of Tiruvempavai of Manikkavacakar's Tiruvacakam.
The immediate question arising from the identification of these sacred Tamil verses of the Sivaite Tevaram is : How is it that the recitation of these verses had become an integral part of the Thai State Ceremonies of the Coronation and the Swinging Festival? It is not easy to answer the question unless and until one is acquainted with the historical background, particularly of religion, relating to the peninsular region of South-east Asia in general and in the territory now covered by Thailand in particular.
To begin with, let us briefly review the geographical features of the present-day Thailand. Thailand is situated right in the middle of the Indo-Chinese peninsula, hound by Burma on the west and partly on the north-west, by Laos on the north, north-east and partly east, and by Cambodia on the east. The southern part of the land juts deep into the Malay peninsula between the Bay of Bengal and the South China Sea. Topographically, the country may be divided into four areas : the northern, the north-eastern, the central, and the southern areas.
The northern area is mountainous terrain divided into four valleys by the four rivers of Mae Ping, Mae Wang, Mae Yom, and the May Man Nan, which finally unite their waters in the Maenam Chao Phraya (`the mother-of-the-waters-in-chief') which is the principal river of the Thai kingdom. (In Thailand, a river is correctly known as Mae Nam mother of water, but this is often abbreviated to Mae or Nam.) The north-eastern Thailand is a saucer-shaped plateau with the great river of Mae Khong (Mekong) as its eastern boundary. The Central Thailand is a large alluvial plain known as the Menam basin. Its principal and well-known river is the Menam Chao Phraya.
On the left bank of this river, some forty kilometres from its mouth, stands Bangkok (the official name in an abbreviated form is Krungdep, 'the capital city of gods'), the capital of Thailand, while on its right bank is located the city of Dhonburi which was Thailand's capital some 190 years ago, after which Bangkok or Krungdep became the Thai capital. The southern or the peninsular Thailand consists of a long peninsula extending from the head of the Gulf of Siam down to the northernmost Malays