The Culayuddhakāravaṃsa in Pali and Thai: Background and Content Relation

Abstract

          The Culayuddhakā -ravaṃsa is generally known as a Pali language chronicle composed in the early Rattanakosin period in Thailand, but apart from the famous Pali version, there are also Thai language versions of this literature: the “Chulayutthakāravong Khwam Riang (Culayuddhakāravaṃsa in prose)” and the “Thetsana Chulayutthakāravong (preaching of Culayuddhakāravaṃsa)”, with the addition of the newly discovered manuscript from Paris, neither published nor identified. Therefore, this research aims to clarify the characteristic and background of every text and manuscript of the literature found, and to explain the relation between versions by comparing and discussing the content. Unfortunately, the texts of most versions of the Culayuddhakāravaṃsa are handed down to us incompleted, as the manuscripts are discovered in fragment, so the name of the author and the time of composing of each version are not affirmable. However, with the study of the texts, it can be deduced that the Pali version is the first Culayuddhakāravaṃsa composed. Then the Chulayutthakāravong Khwam Riang, using the previous version as a guide, is composed afterward as an independent text, not a work of translation. The Thetsana Chulayutthakāravong is the lastest composition, following the detail of Chulayutthakāravong Khwam Riang closely. While the text preserved in the manuscript from Paris, despite being quite similar in style with the Chulayutthakāravong Khwam Riang, is yet to be concluded whether or not it is the text of the same version, due to a very limited infomation of the piece.