DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.27192#0456
Chap. III.
SIAM.
405
the capital. It is by no means certain whether this migra-
tion downwards was caused by political events and increasing
commerce, or from the country gradually becoming drier and
more fit for human habitation. Judging from what happened
in Bengal in historical times, I should fancy it was the latter.
In India we find civilised nations first established in the
Panjab and on the watershed between the Satlaj and the Jamna.
Between 2000 and 3000 years B.c. Oudh seems to have become
dry enough for human habitation, and Ayodhya (from which
the Siamese capital took its name) became the chief city.
Between 1000 and 500
B.C. Janakpur on the
north, and Rajagriha on
the south, were the
capital cities of Bengal;
but both being situated
on the hills, it was not
till Anoka’s time (250
B.C.) that Patna on the
Son and Vauali on the
Ganges, became capi-
tals ; and still another
1000 years elapsed
before Gaur and Dacca
became important, while
Murshidabad, Hugli,
and Calcutta, are cities
of yesterday.1 The
same phenomenon
seems to have occurred
in Siam, and, what is of
still more interest, as we
shall presently see, in
Cambodia.
As Ayuthia was for
three centuries the
flourishing capital of
one of the great building 4y2> Ruins of a Pagoda at Ayuthii>
races of the world, we
should, of course, look for considerable magnificence having
been displayed in its architecture. From the accounts of the
early Portuguese and Dutch travellers who visited it in the
1 For the particulars of this desiccation of the Valley of the Ganges, see the
‘Journal of the Geological Society,’ April, 1863.
SIAM.
405
the capital. It is by no means certain whether this migra-
tion downwards was caused by political events and increasing
commerce, or from the country gradually becoming drier and
more fit for human habitation. Judging from what happened
in Bengal in historical times, I should fancy it was the latter.
In India we find civilised nations first established in the
Panjab and on the watershed between the Satlaj and the Jamna.
Between 2000 and 3000 years B.c. Oudh seems to have become
dry enough for human habitation, and Ayodhya (from which
the Siamese capital took its name) became the chief city.
Between 1000 and 500
B.C. Janakpur on the
north, and Rajagriha on
the south, were the
capital cities of Bengal;
but both being situated
on the hills, it was not
till Anoka’s time (250
B.C.) that Patna on the
Son and Vauali on the
Ganges, became capi-
tals ; and still another
1000 years elapsed
before Gaur and Dacca
became important, while
Murshidabad, Hugli,
and Calcutta, are cities
of yesterday.1 The
same phenomenon
seems to have occurred
in Siam, and, what is of
still more interest, as we
shall presently see, in
Cambodia.
As Ayuthia was for
three centuries the
flourishing capital of
one of the great building 4y2> Ruins of a Pagoda at Ayuthii>
races of the world, we
should, of course, look for considerable magnificence having
been displayed in its architecture. From the accounts of the
early Portuguese and Dutch travellers who visited it in the
1 For the particulars of this desiccation of the Valley of the Ganges, see the
‘Journal of the Geological Society,’ April, 1863.