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Thai Language and Literature: Glimpses of Indian Influence

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India-Thailand Cultural Interactions

Abstract

Cultural and commercial contacts between India and mainland Southeast Asia began with the spread of Hindu–Buddhist ideology along with influence of Pali and Sanskrit languages since 500 B.C.E. New ideas, new modes and patterns of life were introduced. Language and literature of Thailand were not an exception. India had a strong influence on the various linguistic and literary traditions of Thailand. Versions of the epics Ramayana and the Mahabharata, the Pañcatantra (animal stories) and the Jataka stories migrated to the land of Siam and took new localized forms. So the notion of indigenization became vibrant and a new form of associated as well dialectical culture evolved.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    For more discussion on this matter see Bayard (1980), Stark (2006), O’Reilly (2007).

  2. 2.

    Kshatriya in Sanskrit means warrior.

  3. 3.

    Vaisya in Sanskrit means trader.

  4. 4.

    Brahmana in Sanskrit means priest.

  5. 5.

    For this aspect, see more details in Saraya (1999).

  6. 6.

    For details about epigraphic evidences from the Pali inscriptions of Siam, see Skilling (1997, pp. 93–98).

  7. 7.

    For details see Coedès (1968), Hartmann (1986), Wimolkasem (1999).

  8. 8.

    Grantha was derived from the southern Brahmi script of Prakrit characters by the Pallavas (sixth century A.D.) to write Sanskrit in the Tamil country.

  9. 9.

    Also, similar inscriptions have been found in Southeast Asia such as the Lan Thong inscription in Burma, the Mahanavik Buddhagupta inscription in Malaysia, the Mulavarman inscription in Indonesia, Mahendravarman inscriptions in Lao, Kadaey-ang inscription in Cambodia and Kwangnam inscription in Vietnam.

  10. 10.

    This Sukhothai inscription one has been thoroughly read and studied by both Thai and foreign scholars, anthropologists, archaeologist, historians, art historians, linguists and epigraphists, including Kings Mongkut, King Chulalongkorn, King Vajiravudh, Prince Pawaret Wachiyalongkorn, Prince Damrong Rajanubhab, Prince Subhadradis Diskul, M.R. Subhawat Kasemson, George Coedes , Adolf Bastian, Pere Schmitt, C.B. Bradley, James R. Chamberlain, Yoneo Ishii, Hiram Woodward Jr., Betty Gosling, B.J. Terwiel, Richard A. O’Connor and David K. Wyatt. All of them have no doubt confirmed its authenticity.

  11. 11.

    For example, the English word ‘crash’ is to be written in the Indian or Khmer style, the initial of the word crash and also of sh of its ending will have to be merged as one whole by abbreviating the r and the s and blending them with their c and h.

  12. 12.

    For details, see Le Bar et al. (1964) and Seidenfaden (1958).

  13. 13.

    The Thai belong to the same ethnic group as the Laos of the Lao kingdom to the north-east Thailand and the Shan of Upper Burma. There are also certain Tai minor tribes to be found scattered in various places over a large area of southern China, Tongking of North Vietnam, and in Assam and Arunachal Pradesh, the north-eastern of India. Most groups of these people called themselves ‘Tai’ before they migrated down from southern China to the present-day Thailand.

  14. 14.

    The work was written by a famous court poet of King Narai in Ayutthaya period, named Phra Maha Rajakru but not yet finished, and then King Narai himself wrote but still left unfinished for 160 years until Krom Phra Paramanuchit Chinorot in the reign of King Rama III completed this great literature.

  15. 15.

    After the restoration of Thai sovereignty, and the establishment of a new capital at Bangkok, many law codes, religious works and literary texts were rewritten. These include the Ramakien.

  16. 16.

    The Rama story of the northern Thailand, written in Lan Na language, called Horaman, derives the name from Hanuman. The north-eastern and Laos version is known as Phra Lak Phra Lam, which derives the name from Lakshmana and Rama, respectively. The southern version is called Wat Kuan Geai Ramakien because it was found at Kuan Geai temple in Nakhon Sri Thammarat province.

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  1. Department of South and South East Asian Studies, University of Calcutta, Kolkata, India

    Lipi Ghosh & Kanokwan Jayadat

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  1. Lipi Ghosh
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  2. Kanokwan Jayadat
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Correspondence to Kanokwan Jayadat .

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  1. Department of South and South East Asian Studies, University of Calcutta, Kolkata, West Bengal, India

    Lipi Ghosh

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Ghosh, L., Jayadat, K. (2017). Thai Language and Literature: Glimpses of Indian Influence. In: Ghosh, L. (eds) India-Thailand Cultural Interactions. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-10-3854-9_9

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-10-3854-9_9

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