IV
kong. It occupied all the coast of the gulf of Siam and
the centre of the Indo-Chinese peninsula between the
Annamese Chain & the mountains which separate the
Saloven from the Menam. It was bounded on the
east by Champa, on the North-east by Kiao tcheou
(Tonkin, a Chinese province at that time ) and on the
north by Chinese outpost of Je-nan. The most impor-
tant port of Fu-non which served as a distributing
centre for all her relations with India was Takkola
(Var Kakkola)1 situated on the western coast of Malay
peninsula a little to the south of the Isthmus of Kra.
The kingdom of Fu-nan was prosperous for several
centuries and it was only towards the end of the 6th
cen. A. D. that one of its vassal states, Eambuja rose to
power, usurped the supremacy of Fu-nan and over*
shadowed her. Henceforth we hear of the splendours
of the Empire of Kambuja and Fu-nan disappears
completely from the history.
The early history of the Siam is inseparable from
the history of Fu-nan—Kambuja. The valley of the
Menam formed an integral part of the kingdom of Fu-
nan and the empire of Kambuja for long centuries.
In the middle of the lothcen. the valley of the Menam
1. Teou-Mu-li of the Chinese travellers who visited Fu-nan in
the 3rd cen A. D. and Takola of Ptolemy who mentions it
as a very important harbour and market place. P. Pelliot—
Le-Fu-nan (BEFEO II, 1902) j S. Levi, Ptolemee, laNiddesa
et le Brhatkatha, Etndes Asiatiques, vol II.