28 On some Siamese Inscriptions. [No. 1, 
forms of their Pali alphabet for profane uses, but have never employed 
two distinct alphabets, as has been the case in Siam. The introduction 
of the Pali alphabet in Ultra-India, is connected everywhere with the 
arrival of Buddhaghosa, the Brahmin of Maghada, who visited Ceylon 
to translate the Atthakatha, but the invention of their vernacular 
alphabet is ascribed by the Siamese to their favourite king Phra- 
Ruang, whose exact date is a great point of controversy amongst them. 
In the Phongsavadan Muang niia, or the history of the northern towns, 
it is said, that Phaya Ruang, (who was carried by his kite to foreign 
lands, like the Raja of Dewaju), invented for the nations, subjected to 
his rule, the Xieng thai (Siamese strokes or letters), the Xieng mon 
(Peguan letters), the Xieng khom (Cambodian letters), and the now 
unusual employment of the word Xveng (inclined or oblique) seems 
to have reference to the straight and angular shape of the Siamese 
letters, (recalling the ancient alphabets of the Bugis and Battas in the 
Eastern Archipelago), in contradistinction to the circular one of the 
Pali. But without going farther into the claims of Phaya Ruang to 
the invention of the alphabet, a subject which would require a disser- 
tation by itself, I shall lay before you the translation of an old stone- 
inscription, found at Sukhothai, (the ancient capital of Siam during the 
reign of Phaya Ruang and before him,) and placed at present in the 
palace of Bangkok, by the order of the reigning king. You will see 
that the king mentioned in it under the name of Ramkhamheng, 
assigns to himself the honour of having invented the written character, 
which he, (a very interesting cireumstance,) calls Laz-sé. The present word 
for books in the Siamese language is Nangsd, pronounced by a fanciful 
whim and against all rules of Siamese grammar, as Nong-si. Nang-st 
means verbally the writing on skins (nang), and thus illustrates in a strik- 
ing way, the old traditions of the Lawa, Karen, &c., regarding the former 
existence of parchment books, and it appears that the Siamese, a 
people of quite recent growth, as they could not understand the reason 
for the appellation, gave intentionally a different pronunciation, al- 
though they retained the original spelling, a manner of proceeding, 
which could be illustrated by many similar examples in the Siamese 
language. The other term Lai-si “‘ would, according to the same 
analogy, mean writing in (various) colours, or writing in stripes.” A 
Chinese officer who visited Cambodia in the year 1295, says of the — 




