Sricandradhipati

Sricandradhipati (Thai: ศรีจันทราธิบดี), also known as Phra Ruang II (พระร่วงที่ 2), is a legendary monarch mentioned in the Legend of Phra Ruang. According to the narrative, he originated from Lavo Kingdom and was said to be the son of a commoner named Kongkrao (คงเครา). He was subsequently offered the throne of Sukhothai in 1502 BE (959 CE).

The legend recounts that while residing in Lavo, at the age of 11, Ruang was assigned the duty of collecting tribute for submission to Indaprasthanagara, which early Thai scholarship once tentatively identified with Yaśodharapura of Angkor. However, when the king of Indapraṣṭhanagara, potentially Sindhob Amarin, ordered his arrest, Ruang fled—first to Phichit and subsequently to Sukhothai—where he entered the Buddhist monastic order. In 959 CE, following the death of the reigning monarch of Sukhothai, who left no direct heir, the local populace invited Phra Ruang to leave the monkhood and he ascended the throne under the regnal title Sricandradhipati.

During the same period, another local tradition, the Sihinganidāna, asserts that in 1500 BE (958/59 CE) Sukhothai was ruled by Śayaraṅga (ไสยรงค์) or Sunaraṅga (สุณรงค์) or Suraṅgarājādhipatī (สุรังคราชาธิบดี), identified with the honorific title Phra Ruang Aong Prasert (พระร่วงองค์ประเสริฐ; lit. 'Phra Ruang the Exalted') and also known as Phra Ruang Nak Rob (พระร่วงนักรบ; lit. 'Phra Ruang the Warrior'). The text attributes to him an extensive sphere of authority, extending northward to the Nan River basin and to the south, met Nakhon Si Thammarat (Tambralinga) and Ayodhya. However, the narrative preserved in this tradition exhibits internal chronological inconsistencies, as the text asserts that the buddha image of Sihinga was brought to Sukhothai by Sunaraṅga, an event which later interpretations have dated to 1307 CE, a period during which Sukhothai was demonstrably under the rule of Loe Thai.

No extant contemporary source explicitly identifies his immediate successor, and the chronicle merely states that he died at the age of 102. However, Thai historian Birihan Thepthani has postulated that Arunaraja (Phra Ruang I), the son of Sricandradhipati’s predecessor and then-ruler of Mueang Chaliang, assumed sovereignty over Sukhothai.