A CRITICAL STUDY OF SUVARNABHŪMI IN PĀLI LITERATURE

Abstract

Interestingly, among the Indian scriptures, most of the information on Suvarṇabhūmi are available in the Buddhist ones, in particular the Tipiṭaka. The Buddha himself mentioned 16 mahājanapadas (great states) in Jambudīpa that were named : 1) Anga, 2) Magadha, 3) Kāsi, 4) Kosala, 5) Vajjī, 6) Malla, 7) Ceti, 8) Vaṃsa, 9) Kuru, 10) Pañcāla, 11) Maccha, 12) Surasena, 13) Assaka, 14) Avantī, 15) Gandhāra, and 16) Kamboja.2 The land’s name is of the two forms : Suvarṇabhūmi in Sanskrit and Suvaṇṇa bhūmi in Pāli. In Thai society, as the former is more popular than the latter, the former will be investigated in this work.