4*
There is a Pali inscription relating to this king,
which is known as the Vajirafla^a Library Stele. The
Pali gathas of Mahasami Sangharaja give us the same
information as the previous Khmer inscription. It
tells us how the king Liddeya (or Lidayya) Dhamma-
raja took vow and entered the monastery of ambavana,
1905 years after the parinirvaqa of Lord Buddha.
After taking pabbajja, the king continued to per-
form miracles. His absence from the royal throne
caused troubles in the kingdom, and, therefore, a
deputation of his subjects waited upon him to request
him to return to his former duties of the king. While
the monks begged the king to stay in the monastery
as their preceptor, his subjects pleaded him to return
to his old life. The matter, subsequently, was referred
to the Mabasami Sangharaja, the spiritual guide of the
king, for decision. The Sangharaja decided in favour
of the subjects. At his advice, the king took up again
his secular duties and set to putting things aright in his
kingdom by defeating the people of Luang Prabang.
From another inscription of the same king we
learn that in Saka 1279 (=A. D. 1358), a cutting of
the Bodhi tree, * under which Sri mahabodhi sought
refuge, our master Buddha, when after having been
humiliated by the army of Maradhiraja by the grace
of meditation attained omniscience and to the state of
Buddha/—was brought from the island of Ceylon to
Siam. It should be mentioned that it was in the
reign of Asoka, the great that his daughter Saoglxa-