Synonyms of "the Great King" in Royal Encomiastic Literature of the Ayudhyā Period

Abstract

     The present paper is devoted to a study of the synonyms of "the Great King" in four royal encomia of the Ayudhyā Period, namely, Lilityuanbāy, Gamchansarsr∂∂ñbrakiratisomtec-brabuddhacaoluanprāsāddoon, Glooncha- l∂∂mbrakirtisomtecbranārāyanamahārāja, and Gloonjaloobrabuddhasaiyāsana. The word formation, derivation, meaning, and the poets' vision of the monarch were studied as reflected by the synonyms they used for "the Great King". The synonyms for "the Great King" here mean the lexical set which the poets used to convey the meaning of "the ruler", or in Thai, "Bramahākshatriya", or "Phrachaopandin."  We found 178 synonyms for the word "Bramahākshatriya", and these were of various forms. The largest proportion (44.94 %) of the synonyms was compound words, and the next largest (34.83 %) proportion was adapted compound words. The word formation models of the the synonyms were simple words, compounds of Thai words, compounds of phonologically or semantically related words, compounds of Pali and Sanskrit words without sandhi, compounds of Pali and Sanskrit words with sandhi, and words formed by infixation. These words were combined according to various models, and it was found that the largest proportion (44.94 %) of the synonyms were combinations of words employing three models and that the next largest proportion (34.83 %) were combinations employing four models. In terms of derivation, 11 models were found; the largest (43.26 %) proportion was from Pāli and Sanskrit, and then the next largest (28.08 %) was from Thai, Pāli , and Sanskrit. It was found that the meaning of 68.54 percent of the synonyms referred to "the Great King" through connotation. With regard to the visions of the poets, the greatest (43.26 %) proportion of the synonyms depicted "the Great King" as a ruler, and the next largest (25.84 %) proportion as Buddha.