Ligor inscription is an 8th-century stone stele or inscription discovered in

Ligor Nakhon Si Thammarat Municipality ( th, เทศบาลนครนครศรีธรรมราช, ; from Pali ''Nagara Sri Dhammaraja'') is a municipality (''thesaban nakhon'') in Southern Thailand, capital of Nakhon Si Thammarat prov ...

Nakhon Si Thammarat Nakhon Si Thammarat Municipality ( th, เทศบาลนครนครศรีธรรมราช, ; from Pali ''Nagara Sri Dhammaraja'') is a municipality (''thesaban nakhon'') in Southern Thailand, capital of Nakhon Si Thammarat prov ...

Southern Thailand Southern Thailand, Southern Siam or Tambralinga is a southernmost cultural region of Thailand, separated from Central Thailand region by the Kra Isthmus. Geography Southern Thailand is on the Malay Peninsula, with an area of around , bounded ...

Malay Peninsula The Malay Peninsula (Malay: ''Semenanjung Tanah Melayu'') is a peninsula in Mainland Southeast Asia. The landmass runs approximately north–south, and at its terminus, it is the southernmost point of the Asian continental mainland. The area ...

. This inscription was written and carved on two sides, the first part is called Ligor A inscription, or also known as Viang Sa inscription, while on the other side is called the Ligor B inscription written in

Kawi script The Kawi or or Old Javanese script is a Brahmic script found primarily in Java and used across much of Maritime Southeast Asia between the 8th century and the 16th century.Aditya Bayu Perdana and Ilham Nurwansah 2020Proposal to encode Kawi/re ...

dated 775 CE. The Ligor B inscription was probably written by Mahārāja dyāḥ Pañcapaṇa kariyāna Paṇaṃkaraṇa (Panangkaran), king of

Shailendra dynasty The Shailendra dynasty (, derived from Sanskrit combined words ''Śaila'' and ''Indra'', meaning "King of the Mountain", also spelled Sailendra, Syailendra or Selendra) was the name of a notable Indianised dynasty that emerged in 8th-century ...

. This inscription was connected to the kingdom of

Srivijaya Srivijaya ( id, Sriwijaya) was a Buddhist thalassocratic empire based on the island of Sumatra (in modern-day Indonesia), which influenced much of Southeast Asia. Srivijaya was an important centre for the expansion of Buddhism from the 7th t ...

and the

Interpretation

Ligor A inscription tell about a Srivijayan king named

Dharmasetu Dharmasetu was an 8th-century maharaja of Srivijaya. Under his reign, he successfully incorporated Pan Pan, a kingdom located in the north of the Malay Peninsula, into the Srivijayan sphere of influence before 775 AD. At an old monastery of Nakhon ...

, the king of kings in the world, who built the ''Trisamaya caitya'' for ''Kajara''. While the Ligor B inscription, dated 775 CE, written in Kawi script, contains the information about a king named ''Visnu'' who holds the title Sri Maharaja, from '' Śailendravamśa (Wangsa Syailendra)'' hailed as ''Śesavvārimadavimathana'' (the slayer of arrogant enemies without any trace). There are some different interpretations regarding the king mentioned in Ligor B inscription; some suggest that the king mentioned in this inscription was King

Panangkaran Dyah Pancapana (7 October 746 – 1 April 784) or regnal name Śrī Mahārāja Dyaḥ Pañcapaṇa Kariyāna Paṇaṃkaraṇa Śrī Saṅgrāmadhanañjaya, was the second king of Mataram from the Shailendra dynasty whose kingdom was centered on ...

, while others argue that it was his successor, King

Dharanindra Dharanindra or commonly known as King Indra was the ruler of the Sailendra dynasty who was the Emperor of Mataram in Central Java and Srivijaya in South Sumatera. Dharanindra was the successor of Panangkaran, he ruled the kingdom in the period 775� ...

References

{{Reflist History of Nakhon Si Thammarat Srivijaya Shailendra dynasty Nakhon Si Thammarat 8th century in Thailand