100 AD
An adventurer brahmana, of aristocratic Kambhoja ancestry, from a gotra of kshatriya caste named Kaundinya, had a dream when he was in his homeland in Mithila, a kingdom in northeastern Hindustan. In his dream, the arrow that he loosed from his bow flew high, so high into the sky, kept flying for so long, until eventually coming down again, plunging into the earth in golden rays so brilliant and glaring.
An adventurer brahmana, of aristocratic Kambhoja ancestry, from a gotra of kshatriya caste named Kaundinya, had a dream when he was in his homeland in Mithila, a kingdom in northeastern Hindustan. In his dream, the arrow that he loosed from his bow flew high, so high into the sky, kept flying for so long, until eventually coming down again, plunging into the earth in golden rays so brilliant and glaring.
His good friend a wise rishi interpreted the dream to mean that he would one day found a new kingdom in the east. So he made his way east until he reached shore by a port in the land of Bhangala. There he made preparations and obtained a ship fully provided with equipment, supplies and men. Thus he set sail, always keeping in the general direction of the rising sun, but of course having to stick closely to the shoreline all the way, for in those days there was yet no ship that could safely traverse the vast oceans.
Passing by the country of the Arakan, then the lands of the Pyu and the Mon, after two years of sailing and transitting he eventually reached a land named Langkasuka, its name meaning Land of Happiness. An auspicious name, he thought. It was actually a confederation of two allied kingdoms, one on each side of an isthmus at the neck of a peninsula, but travellers just called them both Langkasuka. By coincidence there was already a kambhoja agama, a settlement of Kambhoja merchants and adventurers, in the first kingdom, named Kedah Negara, which his people knew in their tongue as Kataha Nagara.
Passing by the country of the Arakan, then the lands of the Pyu and the Mon, after two years of sailing and transitting he eventually reached a land named Langkasuka, its name meaning Land of Happiness. An auspicious name, he thought. It was actually a confederation of two allied kingdoms, one on each side of an isthmus at the neck of a peninsula, but travellers just called them both Langkasuka. By coincidence there was already a kambhoja agama, a settlement of Kambhoja merchants and adventurers, in the first kingdom, named Kedah Negara, which his people knew in their tongue as Kataha Nagara.
He lived for a while in Kedah Negara, serving its king as a brahmana. It so happened that the king was a dynamic ruler striving to develop new facilities to enhance the prosperity of his kingdom and the well being of his people.
Thus the brahmana contributed every ability and talent he had toward the building of a jetty, a temple and a foundry. It so happened too that he had in him the rare skill of ironworking, a family legacy he had inherited as a result of his Kambhoja lineage. He became a good and trusted friend of the king, and eventually married one of his daughters. Their union produced a beautiful daughter.
Still keeping staunch belief in the prophecy of his friend the rishi several years earlier, the brahmana continued his journey onward, sailing further east, until he reached the port of a kingdom called Ba Phnom, or Funan. On his arrival, his ship was attacked by forces of the local queen named Liu Yeh or Betel Leaf, a moniker accorded to her by virtue of the elegant longish ovalish shape of her face resembling that of a betel leaf.
The brahmana had no ill intent, but the queen had harboured suspicions on the unannounced appearance of a foreign ship on her kingdom’s shores, considering it a threat which could harm her kingdom’s interests.
With the aid of his magic bow, the brahmana defeated the queen’s army. The two sides finally made peace, and the brahmana married the queen. He became the ruling king, and reigned together with his queen. The people called him Korn Danh or Huen Tien, in tribute to his gotra name Kaundinya, in a way that rolled off their tongue easier.
King Huen Tien directed all his efforts and energies toward building up his new kingdom, improving on their existing customs and traditions, adding sophistication to their then relatively backward civilisation. In remembrance of his Kambhoja homeland, Huen Tien named a large swath of territory in Funan, presented to him as dowry, Kambhoja Desha, with its capital called Kambhoja Nagara.
The natives, however, called the new city Nokor Kampuchea, due to the different grammar of their language as well as their native accent. While in the elegant high language of the native court and nobility it became Angkor Kampuchea.
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The daughter of Huen Tien in Langkasuka, when she grew up, met her love match in a prince of Tambra Linga, an ally city kingdom to Langkasuka, further to the north. Their union produced many children and grandchildren. One of those grandchildren was a prince with an adventurous spirit named Wan Sri Mara. When he grew up, excited by tales told by his grandparents, he travelled eastward, to Funan, to seek and meet his illustrious great grandfather, the Kambhoja brahmana who had become king of Funan.
But alas, Wan Sri Mara's avid desire to meet King Huen Tien was not to be fulfilled, for his old great grandfather passed away before Wan Sri Mara reached Funan. Huen Tien was succeeded first by his son Huen Phan Huang, then his grandson Huen Phan Phan.
Huen Phan Phan, as it turned out, was not so inclined toward statecraft and administration. Whereas his father Huen Phan Huang had been an energetic king who commanded the felling of forests to make farms and the capture of elephants to be trained into beasts of burden and battle, Huen Phan Phan's interests lay more in the spiritual world, often leaving much of state affairs in the hands of his trusted general, Fan Shih Man. After a mere three years on the throne, Huen Phan Phan abdicated completely to live the reclusive life of a tapasha, leaving his kingdom for Fan Shih Man to take over.
In order to continue the bloodline of Huen Tien in the ruling family of Funan, Fan Shih Man made a proposal of marriage to a daughter of Huen Phan Phan. The wedding, conducted with all the pomp and pageantry befitting a king's marrriage, was attended by a younger sister of Fan Shih Man who came with a big delegation representing the court of Tambra Linga. As fate would have it, the sister later fell in love with and married a local nephew of Huen Phan Phan, and settled in Funan.
Fan Shih Man faced numerous tough challenges, including the stiff resistance of a section of the nobility, who dismissed him as a gold digging foreigner, toward his rule. Ironically, no such thing ever happened during the reign of Huen Tien. It could be, as Fan Shih Man contemplated, that they feared that one day he might inherit the throne of Tambra Linga, and then proceed to put Funan under the overlordship of Tambra Linga.
Despite it all, Fan Shih Man went on to claim his place among the most glorious and successful kings in the history of Funan, expanding Funan's borders far to the north, south, east and west of its previous boundaries, including convincing his closest kith and kin in the courts of Tambra Linga and Langkasuka, the kingdoms of his ancestors in the west, to ally and unite, under Funan's hegemony, into the greatest and grandest federation of kingdoms in the history of Suvarna Bhumi.
Besides building up Funan's army, Fan Shih Man also strengthened its administrative machinery. He introduced a system which enhanced the overall prosperity of the entire Funan federation even further, without in the least interfering with the local customs and traditons of any member kingdom.
Fan Shih Man faced numerous tough challenges, including the stiff resistance of a section of the nobility, who dismissed him as a gold digging foreigner, toward his rule. Ironically, no such thing ever happened during the reign of Huen Tien. It could be, as Fan Shih Man contemplated, that they feared that one day he might inherit the throne of Tambra Linga, and then proceed to put Funan under the overlordship of Tambra Linga.
Despite it all, Fan Shih Man went on to claim his place among the most glorious and successful kings in the history of Funan, expanding Funan's borders far to the north, south, east and west of its previous boundaries, including convincing his closest kith and kin in the courts of Tambra Linga and Langkasuka, the kingdoms of his ancestors in the west, to ally and unite, under Funan's hegemony, into the greatest and grandest federation of kingdoms in the history of Suvarna Bhumi.
Besides building up Funan's army, Fan Shih Man also strengthened its administrative machinery. He introduced a system which enhanced the overall prosperity of the entire Funan federation even further, without in the least interfering with the local customs and traditons of any member kingdom.
Fan Shih Man spent much of his time making war and expanding Funan's territories ever more. Making friends with the Cham to the north east, he allied with them and led them to liberate themselves from the dominance of the Han Empire. He installed himself their king, and married a daughter of the Cham army commander, thus founding the kingdom of Champa. The throne of Champa passed down to his Cham grandson Fan Hiong, then Fan Hiong's Son, Fan Yi. Thus Champa became a brother kingdom to Funan, their kings sharing the same common ancestry from Fan Shih Man as did the kings of Funan.
To compensate for his frequent absences in the Funan capital, Fan Shih Man appointed his son Fan Chin Sheng as his regent to look after affairs of state of Funan. To provide protection for his son, he also appointed his nephew Fan Chan as Chief of the Imperial Guard, assigning two thousand able fighters to him to help him do the job.
Unfortunately, Fan Shih Man's trust in Fan Chan was completely misplaced. His action turned out to be like putting a lamb in the care of a wolf. When Fan Shih Man was sickly from his advanced years, Fan Chan captured Fan Chin Sheng and executed him, then apointed himself the new king. Fan Chan then appointed his own nephew, Fan Sun, to be the new Chief of Imperial Guard.
They say history has a habit of repeating itself. Seventeen year later, a younger brother of Fan Chin Sheng, Fan Chang his name was, who had been sent to live with a distant relative in the countryside for his own safety in the aftermath of Fan Chan's violent usurpation, led a corps of warrriors to attack the palace and kill Fan Chan. In turn, some time later, Fan Sun, a younger brother of Fan Chan who had somehow escaped Fan Chang's retribution, returned to stage a vengeance of his own and killed Fan Chang, then installed himself king.
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