Research & Article

This research paper presents a study of the earliest manuscript of Lilit Phra Lo, namely, the khoi-paper leporello manuscripts no. 17077 and 17076 (2) from  the  Northern  Thai  Information  Center,  Chiang  Mai  University (Thailand).The  study  finds  that  though  registered  in  two  different inventories,  these  two  fragments  are  proved  to  belong  to  the  same manuscript, preserving the latter part of the text Lilit Phra Lo(from stanza no. 383 to 660, according to the sequence in the standard printed edition). The  colophon (versified  in khlongmeter) also  mentions that Luang  Sora Wichit found the exemplar manuscript of Lilit Phra Loin the twelfth year after the fall of Ayutthaya kingdom (1778 CE) and edited the lost part of that text. The date of the manuscript recorded by Nai Thok, the copyist, is equivalent to  1778CE in  the  reign  of  King  Taksin  of  Thonburi. Thus,  the manuscript is considered the earliest manuscript of Lilit Phra Loever found so  far. Despite  its  incompleteness  and  slight  variations  from  the  printed edition, the manuscript is arguably a significant evidence for textual criticism and for Thai literary history.