(, ; Pali: , ; ) is a toponym that appears in many ancient Indian literary sources and Buddhist texts such as the Mahavamsa,"To Suvarnabhumi he [Moggaliputta] sent Sona and Uttara"; Mahānāma, The Mahāvaṃsa, or, The Great Chronicle of Ceylon, translated into English by Wilhelm Geiger, assisted by Mabel Haynes Bode, with an addendum by G.C. Mendis, London, Luzac & Co. for the Pali Text Society, 1964, Chapter XII, "The Converting of Different Countries", p.86. some of the Jataka tales,Sussondi-Jātaka, Sankha-Jātaka, Mahājanaka-Jātaka, in Edward B. Cowell (ed.), The Jātaka: or Stories of the Buddha's Former Births, London, Cambridge University Press, 1897; reprinted Pali Text Society, dist. by Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1969, Vol. III, p.124; Vol. IV, p.10; Vol. VI, p.22J. S. Speyer, The Jatakamala or Garland of Birth-Stories of Aryasura, Sacred Books of the Buddhists, Vol. I, London, Henry Frowde, 1895; reprint: Delhi, Motilal Banarsidass, 1982, No.XIV, Supâragajâtaka, pp.453-462. the Milinda PanhaR.K. Dube, "Southeast Asia as the Indian El-Dorado", in Chattopadhyaya, D. P. and Project of History of Indian Science, Philosophy, and Culture (eds.), History of Science, Philosophy and Culture in Indian Civilization, New Delhi, Oxford University Press, 1999, Vol.1, Pt.3, C.G. Pande (ed.), India's Interaction with Southeast Asia, Chapter 6, pp.87-109. and the Ramayana.
Though its exact location is unknown and remains a matter of debate, Suvarṇabhūmi was an important port along trade routes that run through the Indian Ocean, setting sail from the wealthy ports in Basra, Ubullah, and Siraf, through Muscat, Malabar, Ceylon, the Nicobars, Kedah and on through the Strait of Malacca to fabled Suvarṇabhūmi.
Ian Glover, Emeritus Reader in Southeast Asian Archaeology at the University of London, has said: “It is widely accepted in the 21st century that Suvarnabhumi as reported in early Indian literature was not a specific location which can be marked on a map. Rather, it was an idealised place, perhaps equivalent to Atlantis in Western history, a distant somewhere to the east of India where traders, sailors, and Buddhist and Hindu teachers went to make their fortunes and spread their teachings and bring back gold and other exotic products desired by a rising elite and the wealthy classes at home.”Ian Glover, “Suvarnabhumi – Myth or Reality?”, Banchā Phongphānit& Somčhēt Thinnaphong (ed.), Suvarnabhumi: the Golden Land: the New Finding for Suvarnabhumi Terra Incognita, Bangkok, Thailand, GISTDA and BIA, 2019, pp.11-16.
Historiography
means 'golden land' or 'land of gold' and the ancient sources have associated it with one of a variety of places throughout the Southeast Asian region.
It might also be the source of the Western concept of Aurea Regio in Claudius Ptolemy's Trans-Gangetic India or India beyond the Ganges, and the Golden Chersonese of the Greek and Roman geographers and sailors. The Periplus of the Erythraean Sea refers to the Land of Gold, Chryse, and describes it as “an island in the ocean, the furthest extremity towards the east of the inhabited world, lying under the rising sun itself, called Chryse... Beyond this country... there lies a very great inland city called Thina”.Lionel Casson (ed.), Periplus of the Erythraean Sea, Princeton University Press, 1989, p.91. Dionysius Periegetes mentioned: “The island of Chryse (Gold), situated at the very rising of the Sun”.Dionysios Oecumenis Periegetes (Orbis Descriptio), lines 589-90; Dionysii Orbis Terrae Descriptio
Or, as Priscian put it in his popular rendition of Periegetes: "if your ship… takes you to where the rising sun returns its warm light, then will be seen the Isle of Gold with its fertile soil."”At navem pelago flectenti Aquilonis ab oris / Ad solem calido referentem lumen ab ortu, / Aurea spectetur tibi pinguibus insula glebis”; Priscianus Caesariensis, Periegesis Prisciani (lines 593-594), in Habes candide lector in hoc opere Prisciani volumen maius, Venetiis, Boneto Locatello, 1496, p.281. Avienius referred to the Insula Aurea (Golden Isle) located where “the Scythian seas give rise to the Dawn”.Rufius Festus Avienius, Descriptio orbis terrae, III, v.750-779. Descriptio orbis terrae Josephus speaks of the "Aurea Chersonesus", which he equates with the Biblical Ophir, whence the ships of Tyre and Israel brought back the gold for the Temple of Jerusalem."Solomon gave this command: That they should go along with his own stewards to the land that was of old called Ophir, but now the Aurea Chersonesus, which belongs to India, to fetch him gold."; Antiquities, 8:6:4. The city of Thina was described by Ptolemy’s Geography as the capital city of the country on the eastern shores of the Magnus Sinus (Gulf of Thailand).
Location
The location of Suvarṇabhūmi has been the subject of much debate, both in scholarly and nationalistic agendas. It remains one of the most mystified and contentious toponyms in Asia. Scholars have identified two regions as possible locations for the ancient Suvarṇabhūmi: Insular Southeast Asia and Southern India.R. C. Majumdar, Ancient Indian Colonies in the Far East, Vol. II, Suvarnadvipa, Calcutta, Modern Publishing Syndicate, 1937, Chapter IV, Suvarnadvipa, pp.37-47.Suvarnadvipa In a study of the various literary sources for the location of Suvarṇabhūmi, Saw Mra Aung concluded that it was impossible to draw a decisive conclusion on this and that only thorough scientific research would reveal which of several versions of Suvarṇabhūmi was the original.Saw Mra Aung, "The Accounts of Suvannabhumi from Various Literary Sources", Suvannabhumi: Multi-Disciplinary Journal of Southeast Asian Studies (Busan University of Foreign Studies, Korea), vol. 3, no.1, June 2011, pp.67-86.
Some have speculated that this country refers to the Kingdom of Funan. The main port of Funan was Cattigara Sinarum statio (Kattigara the port of the Sinae).George Coedès, review of Paul Wheatley, The Golden Khersonese (Kuala Lumpur, 1961), in T'oung Pao 通報, vol.49, parts 4/5, 1962, pp.433-439; Claudius Ptolemy, Geography, Book I, chapter 17, paragraph 4; Louis Malleret, L’Archéologie du Delta du Mékong, Tome Troisiéme, La culture du Fu-nan, Paris, 1962, chap.XXV, "Oc-Èo et Kattigara", pp.421-54; "Mr. Caverhill seems very fairly to have proved that the ancient Cattagara [sic] is the same with the present Ponteamass [Banteaymeas], and the modern city Cambodia [Phnom Penh] the ancient metropolis of Sinae, or Thina", The Gentleman's Magazine, December 1768, "Epitome of Philosophical Transactions", vol.57, p.578; John Caverhill, "Some Attempts to ascertain the utmost Extent of the Knowledge of the Ancients in the East Indies", Philosophical Transactions, vol.57, 1767, pp.155-174.
Due to many factors, including the lack of historical evidence, and the absence of scholarly consensus, various cultures in Southeast Asia identify Suvarṇabhūmi as an ancient kingdom there, and claim ethnic and political descendancy as its successor state.Prapod Assavavirulhakarn, The Ascendancy of Theravada Buddhism in Southeast Asia, Chieng Mai, Silkworm Books, 2010, p.55. As no such claim or legend existed before the translation and publication of the Edicts, scholars see these claims as based on nationalism or attempts to claim the title of the first Buddhists in Southeast Asia.
Chingduang Yurayong and colleagues read the sources as describing more than one such land. In their reading the Sanskrit texts use Suvarṇadvīpa for the mainland and the islands together and Suvarṇabhūmi for the mainland alone. Chinese usage separates the two in the same way, with Jīndì or Jīndìguó for a mainland Golden Land and Yijing’s Jīnzhōu, Golden Island, for Śrī Vijaya on Sumatra. Following Étienne Lamotte, they take the notices together as describing a broad region of several Golden Lands rather than a single polity.
Mainland Southeast Asia Cambodia
Funan (1st–7th century) was the first kingdom in Cambodian history and it was also the first Indianized kingdom that prospered in Southeast Asia. Both Hinduism and Buddhism flourished in this kingdom. According to the Chinese records, two Buddhist monks from Funan, named Mandrasena and Sanghapala, took up residency in China in the 5th to 6th centuries, and translated several Buddhist sūtras from Sanskrit (or a Prakrit) into Chinese.T'oung Pao: International Journal of Chinese Studies. 1958. p. 185
The oldest archaeological evidence of Indianized civilization in Southeast Asia comes from central Burma, central and southern Thailand, and the lower Mekong Delta. These finds belong to the period of Funan Kingdom or Nokor Phnom, present-day Cambodia, and South Vietnam including part of Burma, Laos, and Thailand, which was the first political centre established in Southeast Asia. Taking into account the epigraphic and archaeological evidence, the Suvarṇabhūmi mentioned in the early texts must be identified with these areas.Pang Khat, «Le Bouddhisme au Cambodge», René de Berval, Présence du Bouddhisme, Paris, Gallimard, 1987, pp.535-551, pp.537, 538; Amarajiva Lochan, "India and Thailand: Early Trade Routes and Sea Ports", S.K. Maity, Upendra Thakur, A.K. Narain (eds,), Studies in Orientology: Essays in Memory of Prof. A.L. Basham, Agra, Y.K. Publishers, 1988, pp.222-235, pp.222, 229-230; Prapod Assavavirulhakarn, The Ascendancy of Theravada Buddhism in Southeast Asia, Chieng Mai, Silkworm Books, 2010, p.55; Promsak Jermsawatdi, Thai Art with Indian Influences, New Delhi, Abhinav Publications, 1979, chapter III, "Buddhist Art in Thailand", pp.16-24, p.17. Of these areas, only Funan had maritime links with India through its port at Óc Eo. Therefore, although Suvarṇabhūmi in time was broadly applied to all lands east of India, particularly Sumatra, its earliest application was probably to Funan. Furthermore, the Chinese term of “Funan” for Cambodia, may be a transcription of the "Suvaṇṇa" in “Suvaṇṇabhumī”.
In December 2017, Dr Vong Sotheara, of the Royal University of Phnom Penh, discovered a Pre-Angkorian stone inscription in the Province of Kampong Speu, Basedth District, which he tentatively dated to 633 AD. According to him, the inscription would “prove that Suvarnabhumi was the Khmer Empire.” The inscription was issued in the reign of King Isanavarman I (616–637 AD) of the Cambodian Kingdom of Chenla, the successor of Funan and the predecessor of the Khmer Empire. The inscription, translated, read: “The great King Isanavarman is full of glory and bravery. He is the King of Kings, who rules over Suvarnabhumi until the sea, which is the border, while the kings in the neighbouring states honour his order to their heads”. The Inscription is the oldest found mention of Suvarṇabhūmi in Southeast Asia, identifying it with Chenla. The inscription is now exhibited in the National Museum of Cambodia in Phnom Penh. However, his claim and the findings are yet to be peer-reviewed, and remain in doubt with other historians and archaeology experts across the region.Rinith Taing, “Was Cambodia home to Asia’s ancient ‘Land of Gold’?”, The Phnom Penh Post, 5 January, 2018.
Myanmar
Mon tradition maintains that the Thaton Kingdom in Lower Myanmar was called Suvannabhumi ( Thuwunnabhumi). However, dating the Thaton Kingdom independent of traditional chronicles gives an terminus post quem foundation year of 825; even this date remains unattested.