Chandrabhanu (, ; reigned from 1255 to 1262) or Chandrabhanu Sridhamaraja or Sri Dharmasokaraja IV, was the King of Tambralinga Kingdom in present-day Thailand, Malaysia and the Jaffna Kingdom in northern Sri Lanka. A Javaka, he was known to have ruled from during the period of 1230 until 1262.
He was also known for building a well-known Buddhist stupa in southern Thailand. In 1247 he sent an expedition to the island ostensibly to acquire the Buddhist relic from the island. Sinhalese King Parakramabahu II sent his nephew Prince Veerabahu to handle the unexpected Malay invasion. He was able to defeat Chandrabhanu. But Chandrabhanu's forces, using poison darts, were able to occupy the Jaffna kingdom, the northern part of the island in 1255. Repeated attempts to conquer the rest of the island ensued. In 1258 his forces faced an invasion of the island by the forces of the Pandyan Dynasty commanded by Jatavarman Sundara Pandyan I, and Chandrabhanu submitted to Pandyan rule, bringing the Jaffna kingdom under Pandyan suzerainty. From 1262–1264 Tambralinga forces, using Chola and Pandyan soldiers commanded by Chandrabhanu's son Savakanmaindan and two Sinhalese princes were defeated by the Pandyans led in the invasion by Jatavarman Vira Pandyan I.
In 1270, Savakanmaindan, kept on the Jaffna throne under Pandyan suzerainty attempted to invade the south of the island once again, and was defeated decisively by the Pandyans under Maravarman Kulasekara Pandyan I by the late 1270s. He spent more than 30 years in his attempt to conquer Sri Lanka. He was eventually defeated by the forces of the Pandyan Dynasty from Tamil Nadu (in present-day South India) in 1262 and was killed by the brother of the south Indian Emperor Jatavarman Sundara Pandyan.India's interaction with Southeast Asia, by Govind Chandra Pande p.286
Tambralinga According to the inscription no.24 found at wat Hua-wieng (Hua-wieng temple) in Chaiya near to Nakhon Si Thammaraj, Chandrabhanu is a ruler of Tambralinga and was of Padmavamsa (lotus dynasty). He began to reign in 1230, he had built the Phrae Boromadhatu a buddhist stupa in Nakhon Si Thammaraj to hold the Buddha's relic.Liyanage, A. The Decline of Polonnaruwa and the rise of Dambadeniya, (Colombo, 1968) p.136; Recuil des Inscriptions du Siam II, 26, tr.27.
Following his death in Lanka, the throne of Tambralinga was succeeded by his younger brother, Sri Dharmasokaraja V.
Accession and the title
A ruler of this region is named in an inscription of 1183 on the base of a bronze Buddha image at Chaiya, recording that the minister Tal Nai commissioned the image by order of Kamrateng An Maharaja Sri Mat Trailokyaraja Mauli Bhusanavarmadeva. The image is in Srivijayan style on a naga base of purely Khmer form, the script is the Kawi of old Java, and the language is Old Khmer.
Chit Phumisak read the titulature as marking a subordinate rank. He took Maharaja to indicate the Shailendra line of Srivijaya, or at least Javanese-Malay descent. He held that Kamrateng An was the Angkorian style for the governor of a dependent city rather than for an independent king. He also noted that the inscription renders the royal command as tabeh sakti instead of the prah bandval or prah ongkar used of a sovereign. On that reading Nakhon Si Thammarat was a dependency of Angkor under Jayavarman VII at this date. George Cœdès took the ruler for a king in Sumatra; Chit preferred Nakhon Si Thammarat, on the ground that its rulers had used Maharaja both earlier and later.
An inscription records that in 1230 Chandrabhanu, a younger brother, came to the throne of Tambralinga as Phaya Sri Dharmaraja, the office of uparaja passing to the youngest brother, Phaya Phongsuraha, who was invested with the style Chandrabhanu. Chit took this to mean that Chandrabhanu began as a personal name and became the title attached to the viceregal office, in the way that Ramathibodi and Ramesuan later became titles at Ayutthaya; he traced the same style to the court of Ayodhya and thence into the Ayutthayan palace astrologer's title Phra Horathibodi Si Chanthraphan.
The years 1246 to 1250 he describes as the height of Chandrabhanu's power, with a strong fleet that carried two expeditions to Lanka, the second of them joined by naval forces levied from the Pandya, Chola and other Tamil states of southern India.
A later tradition connects his reign with the emptying of Nakhon Si Thammarat by epidemic, its people fleeing to the forests and hills, after which Phra Phanom Wang and Nang Sadiang Thong were sent from Phetchaburi to refound the town.
First invasion of Sri Lanka It was recorded by the Mahawamsa, the historic chronicle of Sri Lanka to have invaded Sri Lanka in 1247 in search of Buddha's relict that Sri Lanka already had. According to Sri Lankan sources he was a Javaka chieftain and a sea pirate from the kingdom of Tambralinga. Although King Parakramabahu II (1236–70) from the Sinhalese Kingdom of Dambadeniya was able to defeat him, Chandrabhanu moved north and secured the Tamil throne for himself around 1255. Jatavarman Sundara Pandyan of the Pandyan Empire in Tamilakkam intervened in 1258 and made Chandrabhanu submit to Pandyan rule, annually offering precious jewels and elephants in tribute. A second attempt by Chandrabhanu to invade from the north prompted the south Indian Prince Jatavarman Veera Pandyan, brother of emperor Jatavarman Sundara Pandyan to intervene in 1262–1264. Chandrabhanu was killed in the battle. Veera Pandyan proceeded to plant the Pandyan bull victory flag at Koneswaram temple, Konamalai.Bennett, Mathew The Hutchinson Dictionary of Ancient and Mediaeval warfare, p.100 Savakanmaindan, son of Chandrabhanu, inherited the northern Tamil throne upon his father's death.
Chandrabhanu's son Chandrabhanu's son Savakanmaindan submitted to Pandyan rule and was rewarded, he was allowed to retain control of the Jaffna kingdom while Sundara Pandyan remained king of Pandyan. Marco Polo, describing Sundara Pandyan's empire as the richest in the world, visited the Jaffna kingdom upon docking at Trincomalee, and described the locals under king Sendemain's rule as mostly naked and feeding on rice and meat. The land was abundant with rubies and other precious stones, although by this stage Savakanmaindan had stopped paying tributes to the Pandyans. When Savakamaindan embarked on an invasion of the south, the Pandyan Dynasty under King Maravarman Kulasekara Pandyan I again invaded and defeated his forces in the late 1270s. However, to further the power of Tamil hard power in the region,deSilva 67 they eventually installed one of their ministers in charge of the invasion, Kulasekara Cinkaiariyan, an Aryacakravarti as the King.de Silva, A History of Sri Lanka, p.91-92Kunarasa, K The Jaffna Dynasty, p.# In the local Tamil language, all South East Asians are known as Javar or Javanese. There are number of place names in the Jaffna peninsula which pertains to its South East Asian connections. Chavakacheri means a Javanese settlement. Chavahakottai means a Javanese fort all alluding to Chandrabhanu's brief rule in the north.
Notes
References
External links History of Chandrabhanu and the Sailendras History of Sri Vijaya and Tambralinga