A Thai-Buddhist ‘Ayodhya’ was one of Asia’s greatest kingdoms. Then came a reckoning

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As early as the 1 st and 2 nd centuries CE—around the Sangam period in South India—Thailand’s Chao Phraya river basin was well-connected to the world. In their chapter ‘Contacts between the Upper Thai-Malay Peninsula and the Mediterranean World’, archaeologists Brigitte Borell, Bérénice Bellina, and Boonyarit Chaisuwan discussed a number of Roman artifacts, including cameos and pendants, discovered in their excavations. These were most likely brought by merchants from India’s east coast. A golden seal dating to the 2 nd –4 th centuries was inscribed with the name of one of these sailors: Brihaspati-Sharma, possibly a Brahmin. In A History...