Mahidharapura Kingdoms

The Mahidharapura Kingdoms (Thai: มหิธรปุระ) were a group of ancient political entities under the control of the Mahidharapura dynasty from the 600s to the 17th century in the present-day Nakhon Ratchasima and Buriram provinces of Thailand. Its main chief centers were Vimayapura (วิมายาปุระ) in modern Phimai and Kasitindrakama (กษิตีนทรคาม), near the Prasat Phanom Rung and Prasat Muang Tam in Buriram province; however, some speculate Kasitindrakama was probably in the present Sisaket province and Mahidharapura was in modern Mueang Buriram. The Mahidharapura house, led by Jayavarman VI, that subdued Yaśodharapura in the Tonlé Sap Basin in 1080, likely originated from Vimayapura. The most recent archaeological studies suggest its capital, Mahidharapura, was probably modern Sakon Nakhon.

Mahidharapura polities covered the area of the present-day Buriram province and the eastern part of Nakhon Ratchasima. To the south, it met the well-known Angkor and adjoined Dvaravati's Canasapura (later Khorakhapura) to the west. Bordered an unknown kingdom ruled by Sri Jayasimhavarmman to the north in the Kaset Sombun Valley; possibly part of Bhavapura. To the east and northeast, met a group of city-states of Wen Dan, which occasionally equated to Bhavapura, and adjoined Keoi Lau Mì of the Kuy to the southeast.

Previously, several scholars believed the Phimai region had been a vassal to the kings of Angkor since the beginning of the Angkorian period. Nonetheless, the Phanom Rung Inscriptions (K.384), dated 1050 CE, which outline the ancestry of the Mahidharapura dynasty, demonstrate the alliance between Mahidharapura and Yaśodharapura rather than a relationship of vassals and suzerains, at least before the specified period.

Following the decline of Angkor in the late 13th century, the Mahidharapura polities experienced limited population and vanished from the historical records, reappearing in the 15th century when it was vassalized by the Ayutthaya Kingdom. Intriguingly, a monarch with an identical regnal title, Mahīđharavarman (III), appears in the 13th-century Chinese text. He was enthroned as the king of a short-lived kingdom of Chen Li Fu in the western Menam Basin in 1204; however, was later overthrown by Phrip Phri's king Mahesvastidrādhirājakṣatriya in 1225. Songsiri proposes that Chen Li Fu probably had a close dynastic relation with Mahidharapura.