Dvaravati refers to a cultural and political network of early historic polities that flourished in the present-day central Thailand from approximately the 6th to the 11th century; however, archaeological evidence suggests that the cultural developments associated with Dvaravati began several centuries earlier, often described as a Proto-Dvaravati phase. It is tentatively regarded as a successor to the polity known in Chinese sources as Lang-chia or Lang-ya-hsiu. and north of Pan Pan. and Si Thep in the Pa Sak basin in central Thailand. around 605–616, in 638, 640, 643, 647, and 649.
The term Dvaravati also denotes a broader cultural and artistic sphere associated with a loose conglomeration of Mon principalities rather than a centralized state. This development appears to have followed a transitional “Proto-Dvaravati” phase during the 2nd–5th centuries, associated with early principalities such as Chin Lin in the western plains and Tou Yuan to the east.
The location of Dvaravati’s early political center remains debated. Proposed centers include Ayojjhapura (Si Thep), and Avadhyapura (). These included the expansion of Angkor from the lower Mekong basin between the 11th and 13th centuries, northward campaigns by Tambralinga under King Sujita in the mid-10th century, which reportedly included the seizure of Lavo, and Pagan incursions into central Thailand during the 11th–12th centuries. According to Jean Boisselier, although Dvaravati lost influence over eastern centers such as Lavo by the 10th–11th centuries, Mon principalities in the western plains likely persisted into the early 12th century, before coming under brief Angkorian influence during the reign of Jayavarman VII (r. 1181–1218).
The traditional chronology of Dvaravati is mainly based on the Chinese textual account and stylistic comparison by art historians. However, the results from excavations in Chan Sen and Tha Muang mound at U-Thong raise questions about the traditional dating. Newly dated typical Dvaravati cultural items from the site of U-Thong indicate that the starting point of the tradition of Dvaravati culture possibly dates as far back as 200 CE.
The earliest known epigraphic reference to "Dvaravati" occurs in the Wat Chanthuek Inscription (K.1009), discovered in Pak Chong, Nakhon Ratchasima Province. The text is composed in Sanskrit and inscribed in the Pallava script, and is conventionally dated to the 5th century CE. It records a queen of Dvaravati who instructed her daughter to sponsor the dedication of a Buddha image.
Proto-Dvaravati: 1st – 5th centuries
This period predates the 6th century CE, although some scholars argue for a narrower chronological range, extending only from the 4th to the 5th centuries. which has been suggested as one of the five capitals of Tun Sun; the moated city of Mueang Uthong, which has sometimes been identified as the center of Chin Lin; alongside other major centers such as Si Thep in the eastern plain. The territorial interface between this polity and Yonok of Tai Yuan is situated in the region around the mouth of the Ping River.
The Legend of Singhanavati further records sustained interactions between Tai Yuan and Lawa or Lua groups beginning with the formation of the Yonok Kingdom, Despite the prominence of this migration narrative, no demonstrable relationship has been established between these accounts and the earliest epigraphic attestation of the ethnonym syam, which appears in a Funan inscription K.557, dated to 611 CE. Drawing on a distinct documentary tradition from the same period, Chinese sources dating from the late 6th to early 7th century, the Tang Huiyao and the Cefu Yuangui, describe the existence of an independent polity known as Duō Miè, which, although not territorially extensive, was noted for its relatively large population, and seemingly contiguous with the western border of Tou Yuan, centered at either Lopburi or , of Dvaravati. This migration narrative also influenced later reconstructions of Tai-speaking migrations, which commonly posit two principal routes: one from the northwest, associated with the polity later known as Möng Mao,
Early Western accounts from the Ayutthaya period provide retrospective evidence that King Phrom of the Singhanavati dynasty, father of Chaiyasiri, was regarded as Ayutthaya’s primordial monarch. Authors such as Jeremias van Vliet, Guy Tachard, and Simon de La Loubère report that this belief was widely held and reinforced by court traditions under the reigns of Maha Chakkraphat, Prasat Thong, and Narai, which traced Ayutthayan royal lineage to Phrom. This belief has also shaped modern interpretation on the Burmese chronicle Hmannan Yazawin. The chronicle records that in 1056 the Gywans of Ayoja (or Arawsa), described as residing to the southeast of Thaton, undergoing continuous development until the construction of major religious monuments in the early to middle Dvaravati period, dated approximately from the first half of the 7th century to the first half of the 9th century. However, following reported Chenla incursions during the 7th century, several Dvaravati polities are thought to have become involved in wider regional conflicts. ordered his nine sons to establish their own domains in different regions. One of these sons, Khoun Kôm ( or ), is said to have founded Indaprasthanagara, a polity which the Ayutthaya Testimonies place to the east of Sankhaburi, in the Phraek Si Racha historical region. rendering the area unsuitable for settlement.
Rivalry among Dvaravati polities
Rivalries between regional centers such as Nakhon Pathom and Si Thep have been suggested by some scholars, and may be sporadically reflected in later local traditions, which have commonly been interpreted as forms of regional competition, although scholarly interpretations vary. The earliest narratives of conflict are preserved in several versions of the Legend of Nakhon Chai Si and the Legend of Phra Praton Chedi. These traditions recount that Siddhijaya, originating from Manohana—a toponym identified with Ayojjhapura in the Pali chronicles Ratanabimbavaṃsa and Jinakalamali;—relocated to the Nakhon Pathom region and established his authority around 590 CE. Kalavarnadisharaja’s reign is characterized in the Northern Chronicle as a period of territorial expansion, This founder narrative, however, is irreconcilable with the account preserved in the Cāmadevivaṃsa, which states that in 647 CE—one year prior to Kalavarnadisharaja’s supposed accession—Lavo was already ruled by Navaratna (), Some sources further propose an earlier foundation date, as early as 538 CE.
On the basis of Chinese sources, Tatsuo Hoshino interprets that political power had already shifted significantly around 665 CE, when Pú jiā yuè mó, The Jinakalamali and Cāmadevivaṃsa later introduce Uchitthaka, a cakravartin who is described as having lost the capital of Lavapura to Sujita of Tambralinga in 927 CE during a campaign associated with conflicts involving Haripuñjaya. Uchitthaka is further said, in these accounts, to have marched on Haripuñjaya, seized its throne, and ruled there until 930 CE.
By 757 CE, a ruler named Padumasuriyavamsa is said to have emerged at Indaprasthanagara in the central Menam valley. His authority is described in later tradition as encompassing Lavo and Sukhothai, and extending eastward into the Korat Plateau as far as Mueang Talung ( or ) in present-day Prakhon Chai district; several later Siamese monarchs subsequently claimed descent from him. However, the Ratanabimbavaṃsa also records that in the early 9th century Indaprasthanagara was besieged by Adītaraj of Ayojjhapura (Si Thep) after the demise of its great ruler. The Si Thep line is further attested by Bhagadatta, whose reign is dated from 859 CE by the Śrī Canāśa Inscription (K.949) and his dynasty is said to have ended in 949 CE following incursions from Angkor. Angkor, Chola, However, following the siege of Funan's capital by the brothers Bhavavarman I and Mahendravarman I of the Suryavaṃśa dynasty of Chenla, Rudravarman is said to fled to Champa, while members of his lineage dispersed to other polities such as Pan Pan.
Claude Jacques has proposed an alternative interpretation, identifying Chakravartin with Mahārājādhirāja Śrī Devanika, who is described in the Devanika Inscription (K.365), dated to the early 5th century, as having come from a distant land. Jacques suggested that Devanika ruled from a center corresponding to Si Thep and dispatched princes to govern several cities along the trans-Mekong trade route. These cities may have included Dong Mueang Aem in modern Khon Kaen province, in present-day Yasothon province, and Vat Phou in southern Laos. The lineage associated with Vat Phou was later identified as the founding line of Chenla. However, this identification has been disputed by Zakharova.
George Cœdès and Claude Jacques initially dated the Wang Pai Inscription to the mid-6th century and identified the Bhavavarman mentioned in the inscription with Bhavavarman I of Chenla. However, Claude Jacques later reinterpreted the inscription and proposed that the Bhavavarman mentioned in the text was a local ruler of Si Thep rather than the Chenla monarch. whose principal center has been proposed to correspond to modern Lopburi or . The conflict is described as having concluded with a dynastic marriage between a princess of Chenla and a prince of Dvaravati. and with other polities influenced by Dvaravati, including Zhu Jiang and Can Ban. As a result of these dynastic connections, artistic traditions in the Menam Basin, particularly in the western region, show influences from both Chenla and Champa. the former seat of Bhavavarman II between 637 and 639. Jayavarman II (r. 780–850), ruler of Lower Chenla and later regarded as the founder of the Angkorian monarchy, is recorded as having re-established relations with polities in the Mun–Chi basins, where the former ally Zhu Jiang was located, and as having encountered Dvaravati Si Thep in the Menam–Pa Sak valleys. Woodward has further proposed that Jayavarman II defeated Wen Dan during this period, after which the remaining Dvaravati-associated Wen Dan region in the Chi valley entered the Javā era. Archaeological and textual data suggest that by the early 8th century, the political predominance of Dvaravati had entered a phase of decline. Thereafter, Si Thep declined and was abandoned by approximately the 13th century, contemporaneously with the rise of the Sukhothai and Ayutthaya kingdoms. Another Dvaravati center, Lavapura of Lavo, came under Angkor influence from the 10th century,
thumb|Costumes of a man and a woman in the Dvaravati period, reconstructed from terracotta figures found at [[Khu Bua, Ratchaburi Province.
Regional power reconfiguration
Following the conquest of Lavo by Tambralinga in 927 During this period, several Dvaravati polities experienced external incursions or displacement. According to the ', Suphannaphum, situated in the western Menam valley, is recorded as having suffered an assault that compelled its two princes to flee northward into Haripuñjaya territory in the 930s, while a series of ultimately unsuccessful Tambralinga campaigns launched from Lavo attempted to advance toward Haripuñjaya. These disruptions coincided with a northward relocation of the political center of the early Siamese polity led by Sudhammaraja from the central Menam valley to Phitsanulok in 937, as mentioned in the Ayutthaya Testimonies. shortly thereafter, Srisimha the Siamese ruler at Phetchaburi returned to the central Menam valley.—marched against the Thaton kingdom, then in the process of annexation by Pagan, an episode corroborated by Burmese inscriptions from the Arakan Pagoda in Mandalay. The chronicles of Thaton likewise mention an attack by the Krom, with both ethnonyms likely referring to the Khom people. George Cœdès proposed that Ayoja (or Arawsa) corresponds to Ayudhya or Siam.
The aforementioned hypothesis of Tai Yuan descent is consistent with the narrative preserved in the Northern Chronicle, which records that during the reign of Suvacanaraja of Mueang Chaliang—commencing around the 1050s—a coalition of several Tai Yuan mueang, led by Śrīdharmatripiṭaka () of Ngoenyang Chiang Saen, advanced into the upper Menam Valley. Although the conflict was ultimately resolved through negotiation, a dynastic alliance was established whereby Suvacanaraja gave his only daughter in marriage to Śrīdharmatripiṭaka, In turn, a son of Kesariraja, Duangkrian Krishnaraja () is reported to have entered into a further interdynastic marriage with a Xiān princess, who is said to have relocated the capital from Sukhothai to Phitsanulok in 1349.
Pagan expansion and final decline
As a consequence of the 1056 incursion by the Gywan, it has been suggested that Anawrahta of the Pagan Kingdom extended his authority into the lower Menam basin, during which Dvaravati Nakhon Pathom may have been destroyed around 1058, and Kamalanka has in turn been equated with Nakhon Pathom.
The Northern Chronicle further records that the Pagan noble Kar Tayy exercised political authority over the Suphannaphum–Mueang Uthong region after which Mueang Uthong was abandoned