Sri Dharmasokaraja I

Sri Dharmasokaraja I (Thai: ศรีธรรมโศกราชที่ 1) was a 12th-century monarch of mainland and peninsular Southeast Asia, known primarily from epigraphic and legendary sources. He is mentioned in the Dong Mè Nang Mưo’ng Inscription (K. 766), written in Pali, Khmer, and Thai, as well as in later Thai chronicles, notably the Legend of Nakhon Si Thammarat and the Legend of Phatthalung (ตำนานเมืองพัทลุง). These sources associate him with the polities of Indaprasthanagara, Lavo, and Tambralinga, and portray him as a key figure in the political and religious reconfiguration of southern Thailand during the transitional period. He is traditionally credited with the refoundation of Nakhon Si Thammarat in 1077 and the establishment of a dynastic line that produced two successors bearing the same regnal title.

The reign of Sri Dharmasokaraja I at Indaprasthanagara–Lavo came to an end in 1117 CE, when the principal center at Indaprasthanagara was severely affected by an epidemic, prompting his relocation southward and the refoundation of Nakhon Si Thammarat in Tambralinga, while Lavo was simultaneously taken over by the Angkorian monarch Sri Jayasinghavarman; his authority at Tambralinga appears to have continued until approximately 1157 CE, when his elder son, Sri Dharmasokaraja II, ascended the throne.

The reign of Sri Dharmasokaraja I at Tambralinga, followed by those of his successors—Sri Dharmasokaraja II and Sri Dharmasokaraja III—was probably a period of Pagan suzerainty over Tambralinga, extending from the mid-11th century, after the Chola invasion in 1025/26, to the early 13th century, when the well-known Tambralinga ruler Chandrabhanu expanded his authority into Lanka.