Cāmadevivaṃsa

The Camadevivamsa (ตํานานจามเทวีวงศ์, tamnaːn t͡ɕaːm theːwiː woŋ, literally, "Chronicle of the Lineage of Cāmadevi") is a Pali chronicle composed in the early 15th century by the Lanna Buddhist monk Mahathera Bodhiramsi (พระโพธิรังษีมหาเถระ). The chronicle, dated to c. 1410, is a semi-historical recounting of the founding of the Mon Dvaravati kingdom of Hariphunchai (Haripunjaya) in the mid-sixth century by Queen Cāmadevi and her establishment of a lineage destined to rule Haripunchai for the next 500 years. The manuscript ends with King Adittaraja's discovery of a sacred relic of the Buddha in the eleventh century that became central to the Theravada Buddhist culture of Haripunchai and is still enshrined in Wat Phradhatu Haripunjaya (Wat Phra That Hariphunchai) in present-day Lamphun, Thailand. In addition to the Camadevivamsa, which is also known in English as The Legend of Queen Cama and The Chamadevivongs, Bodhiramsi also composed, in 1417, the Tamnan Phraphutthasihing, another chronicle which describes the history of the Phra Phuttha Sihing image, from its creation in Ceylon (Sri Lanka) to its enshrinement in 1411 at Chiang Mai, the capital of Lanna. Haripunchai was a kingdom affiliated with Dvaravati, a Theravada Buddhist culture that existed in a loose confederacy of Mon-ruled principalities in the area of present-day Thailand from the sixth to thirteenth centuries. Known as a center of scholarship and Theravada study at a time when other kingdoms in the area were still practicing a form of Hinduism, Dvaravati played a major role in diffusing Buddhism and Indian culture to the rest of Southeast Asia. The southern portion of Dvaravati came under increasing influence from the growing Khmer Empire culminating in an invasion by Suryavarman II in the early twelfth century. Haripunjaya remained independent and flourished until defeated in 1281 or 1292 by Mangrai, leader of the fledgling Tai city states in what is now northern Laos. Mangrai united the city states and, incorporating conquered Haripunjaya, founded the kingdom of Lanna.