Ayodhya

Ayodhya lies on the lower Chao Phraya plain, where the Chao Phraya, Pa Sak and Lopburi rivers meet and wrap around the island on which Ayutthaya stood. Thai chronicles place a settlement called Ayodhya here long before the royal city, and the great Buddha of Wat Phanan Choeng is recorded as made in 1324. Persian merchants later called the new capital shahr-i naw, the new city.

By tradition King U Thong, crowned Ramathibodi I, joined Phetchaburi, Ayodhya, Suphanburi and Lopburi and founded Ayutthaya on 4 March 1351. It began as a maritime confederation that took tribute from the Malay coast as far as Temasek and sent sixty missions to Ming China between 1369 and 1429. The houses of Suphanburi and Lopburi fought over the throne for decades. Burmese armies besieged the city in 1563–64 and took it in 1569, and Naresuan proclaimed independence in 1584.

After 1600 peace brought commerce. Japanese, Portuguese, Dutch, English, Persian and French merchants and mercenaries settled in quarters along the canals. King Narai welcomed French Jesuits and withdrew to a palace at Lopburi, which stirred resentment at court. In 1767 a Burmese army captured and burned the capital, ending the kingdom.

The later city of Bangkok lies here.