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New evidence on Thai shadow-play invocations

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 December 2009

Extract

The long struggle of the Thai against the Khmers, culminating in the attacks on and conquest of Angkor early in the fifteenth century A.D., brought the two peoples into intimate association. Thai literature was clearly a beneficiary of this close culture contact, and Cambodian influence upon it, dating back to this early period, is undoubted. Nevertheless, little detailed study of such influence has so far been attempted, partly because of a lack of suitable manuscript material, especially on the Cambodian side, and partly because serious comparative work of an historical nature on the two languages has hardly begun.

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Articles
Copyright
Copyright © School of Oriental and African Studies 1961

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References

page 542 note 1 The transcription used (except in the case of personal and some proper names for which generally accepted conventions are followed) is the general system of the Royal Institute of Thailand (Journal of the Thailand Research Society, XXXI, 1, 1941, 4965)Google Scholar.

For a note on the transliteration of textual material quoted see p. 559.

page 542 note 2 Four texts (here called DA, DB, DC, DD) in Kham phak Ramalcian, Bangkok, Vajirañana National Library, 1918, vi, 88 pp.Google Scholar; and the VN text (see p. 543, n. 1).

page 542 note 3 Nicolas, René, ‘Le théâtre d'ombres au Siam’, Journal of the Siam Society, XXI, 1, 1927, 3751Google Scholar; H. H. Prince Dhani Nivat Kromamün Bidyalabh Bridhyakorn, The nang (Thailand Culture Series, No. 12), Bangkok, National Culture Institute, 1954, 16 pp.Google Scholar; idem, ‘The masked play and its possible origin from the shadow-play’, JSS, XXXVII, 1, 1948, 26–32.

DC text, canto ii, verses 2–14 are printed, without comment, in Nakorn, Nai Phlu'ang na, Prawat wannakhadi thai ‘History of Thai literature’, Bangkok, 1955, 269Google Scholar.

page 542 note 4 University of Edinburgh Library. Oriental collection, MS no. PL 42.

page 542 note 5 An English translation of VN canto ii, verses 9, 10, and canto iii, verses 2–6, is given in Nivat, Prince Dhani, op. cit., 1954, 10Google Scholar.

page 543 note 1 Tamra len nang yai nai ngan mahœrasop. Latthithamniam tang tang, Bangkok, 1920, text, pp. 811Google Scholar. This text is used for all VN references and quotations in the present article, the Vajirañana magazine text not being available to the writer.

page 544 note 1 In DB Brahma and Indra are also mentioned; in DC also Brahma.

page 544 note 2 For details of ceremonial procedure see, particularly, Nicolas, , op. cit., 4250Google Scholar. Nicolas relies heavily on Tamra len nang yai.

page 544 note 3 Kap may be composed of chabang, yani, or, a third type, surangkhanang verses, or of combinations thereof. Where syllable quantity is observed and an absolutely strict syllable count is maintained, enabling the verse-type to be associated, with some degree of relevance, with a Sanskrit metre (e.g. yani 5 + 6 = 11 syllables = intharavichian, Skt. indravajrā), the Thai type is known as chan(d). Because of the nature of distribution of short syllables in Thai in relation to long, these frank imitations of Sanskrit metres produce a very artificial effect, and more flexible forms such as kap were generally preferred for dramatic poetry.

page 544 note 4 For a discussion of Cambodian versification, see Roeske, M., ‘Métrique khmère’, Anthropos, VIII, 1913, 670–87, 1026–3Google Scholar.

page 546 note 1 In Lévi, Sylvain (ed.), Indochine, Paris, 1931, I, 183Google Scholar.

page 546 note 2 An explanation of the transliteration system is given on p. 559.

page 546 note 3 An English translation of EB passages is given. VN is frequently so obscure in the passages under discussion that it is unrewarding to attempt fully meaningful English versions.

page 547 note 1 cf. man and description of its uses in Giles, Francis H., ‘About a love philtre’, JSS, XXX, 1, 1937, 25–8Google Scholar; see also tai prai, Icalok taiprai in Halliday, R., Môn-English dictionary, Rangoon, 1955, 193Google Scholar, and the Cambodian kmoch-préai in Moura, J., Le royaume de Cambodge, Paris, 1883, I, 178Google Scholar. An important reference in Thai literature to the powerful magical effects of death in pregnancy and the foetus occurs in the ‘golden child’ episode in Khun Chang, Khun Phaen, ch. xvi, lines 416–56; summary in French in Sibunruang, J. Kasem, La femme, le héros et le vilain (Annales du Musée Guimet. Bibliothèque d'Études, Tom. 65), Paris, 1960, 4950Google Scholar.

page 548 note 1 The EB reading isuan ṇarāy tāv with tāv in direct attributive position to a nominal has a grammatical parallel in DD, canto i, line 11, in the construction sītā tuaṅaṅ(g).

page 548 note 2 Prince Paramanujit Jinorot (1790–1853) was an enthusiastic advocate of would-be classical correctness.

page 549 note 1 sanuk <srnok (Cambodian) <śukha (Skt.).

page 550 note 1 bat–ubād(v) may be intended as a rhyme but, if so, it is a bad one.

page 550 note 2 Items in square brackets are restorations proposed by the present writer.

page 551 note 1 cf. VN/DA/EB, canto i, v. 12; ii, v. 10; iii, v. 1; and DC, canto iii, v. 7, v. 9.

page 551 note 2 See discussion on canto ii, v. 9, above, braḥ gō also occurs, again without reference to ṯay , in DC, canto ii, v. 10, apparently in connexion with the figures of Rāma, Śītā, and the monkey host.

page 552 note 1 de Zoete, Beryl and Spies, Walter, Dance and drama in Bali, London, 1938, 7980Google Scholar, plate illustrating the dancer opp. p. 79.

page 552 note 2 Pigeaud, Th.. Javaanse volksvertoningen, Batavia, 1938, passim, but especially pp. 215–42Google Scholar.

page 552 note 3 ibid., plates opp. pp. 261, 292, 300.

page 552 note 4 Pigeaud, , op. cit., 218Google Scholar.

page 552 note 5 Pallegoix, J. B., Dictionarium linguae Thai, Paris, 1854, 436Google Scholar.

page 552 note 6 It should be noted, however, that Thai historical and literary texts refer to special entertainments being given by Laotians, Indians, Malays, and Javanese. These were foreign residents in Ayutthaya and Bangkok and, perhaps in some cases, prisoners of war. The writer has not found meṅ ‘Mon’ in this context.

page 552 note 7 Pallegoix, , op. cit., 379Google Scholar.

page 552 note 8 But negative particle pa is written ; cf. Lao .

page 553 note 1 In modern Thai, of course, but it is reasonable to infer no significant sound change in the case of this vowel.

page 553 note 2 The form in VN, canto i, verse 2, line 2, is clearly plural in sense.

page 554 note 1 This u/a variation is attested as early as the Sukhothai period, e.g. for khabun, in the well-known ‘spirit of the mountain summit’ passage of the Bam Khamhaeng inscription, the form khab”ṅ occurs in the Nan inscription of 1392 (1. 16). See Thœngkhamwan, Cham, ‘Kham an ĉharu'k phasa thai ĉh. s. 754’, Warasan Silpakọn (Bangkok), VII, 12, 1954, 117–31Google Scholar.

page 554 note 2 Pigeaud, , op. cit., 264, 271–2, 482Google Scholar.

page 554 note 3 ibid., plate opp. p. 301.

page 555 note 1 ChῠỊăkdntamaṅgala, Bangkok, 1895, 120Google Scholar.

page 555 note 2 Belo, J., Bali: temple festival (Monographs of the American Ethnological Society, XXII), New York, 1953, 6Google Scholar.

page 555 note 3 The writer is grateful to Dr. T. Mukherji for this information.

page 555 note 4 Cambodian forms are taken from Guesdon, J., Dictionnaire cambodgien-frar¸ais, Paris, 1930Google Scholar.

page 556 note 1 Kot monthian ban in Kotmai mu'ang thai, Bangkok, 1896Google Scholar. Existing MSS date only from the first decade of the nineteenth century but much of the content of the kotmai is clearly early.

page 556 note 2 ibid., pp. 102, 129, 137.

page 556 note 3 See Yupho, Dhanit, ‘Boek rong natsin’, Warasan Silpakœn (Bangkok), I, 3, 1947, 3543Google Scholar.

page 556 note 4 Gerini, , op. cit., 120Google Scholar.

page 556 note 5 Kot monthian ban, pp. 129, 135.

page 557 note 1 In Moura, , op. cit., I, 106Google Scholar.

page 557 note 2 Marchal, H., ‘Cérémonies de l'incinération de S. M. Sisowath’, BEFEO, XXVIII, 1928, 321–8, 619–39Google Scholar.

page 557 note 3 Leclère, A., Cambodge: fêtes civiles et religieuses, Paris, 1926, 612–23Google Scholar.

page 559 note 1 Cœdès, G., Recueil des inscriptions du Siam, Bangkok, 1924, I, pp. 10, 11Google Scholar.