52
46. ทั้ง ชิ่น must be meant for ทั้ง ซิ่น 'all'. Letters of the ข-ช-ซ group are very uncertainly distinguished in this inscription.
49. พํน here and in the next line is a perplexing word. Like several others in this brief passage it is quite as much a stumbling block to native scholars as to foreign ones. Fortunately again the precise meaning of no one of them is essential to a comprehension of the vivid scenes here sketched. I follow, but which no assured conviction, the suggestion of a native friend that it stands for พรรณ์ 'sorts', 'kinds'. เบี้ย 'cowries' recalls the time when these shells were the chief currency in Siam. The term ดอก เบี้ย, 'cowrie-flower', is still the current word for 'interest'. P translates: "monceaux de gâteaux"
51. For แล ปี แล see Note l. 25. ลาน, a palm-leaf tablet containing the formula to be recited in making the offering. สูด both here and in 85, 86, is for สวด, to recite a formula. ญดด is for ยัติ.
51—53. อไร◌ิญก, which occurs twice here, and อร◌ิญญก of ll. 63—66, are undoubtedly variant spellings of the same word, and both probably name the very same object. The word was originally a Pali adjective, araññaka, derived from arañ 'forest' and meaning 'of or in the forest'. In Siamese it became a noun, and means 'a forest-monastery' The correct Siamese spelling now should be either อรัญญิก, with modified vowel, or อรัญญกะ, which is the precise equivalent of the Pali form. The discrepant spelling admits of complete explanation. The Sŭkhothăi scheme, it will be remembered, included no direct symbol for short a, but indicated that vowel by the device of doubling the consonant. The consonant here is already doubled; but the other vowel, ĭ, must precede its consonant, or precede both of them if there are two. So it had to be moved up to the front, and stand just after the r, giving us the spelling อร◌ิญญก of ll. 63, 66. On the other hand, the Pali nasal ñ has no equivalent sound in Siamese, and the letter is rendered variously y or n, or ny according to circumstances or according to convenience. If the speaker rendered
