STRUCTURES AND MEANINGS OF VILLAGE NAMES IN THE SRIVIJAYA EMPIRE

Abstract

This research article presents two aspects of village names in three towns of the Srivijaya Empire: Khirirat Nikhom, Chaiya, and Tha Thong, covering 146 villages. The data sources were paper documents and electronic documents from Subdistrict Administrative Organizations. The study results revealed two types of structure: single-component structure (32 villages or 21.92%) and multiple-component structure (114 villages or 78.08%). The single-component structure could be classified into 5 aspects: 1) Plants and animals (8 villages or 5.48%), 2) Geographical characteristics (6 villages or 4.11%), 3) Beliefs and values (6 villages or 4.11%), 4) Buildings (2 villages or 1.37%), and 5) Objects and utensils (1 village or 0.69%). For multi-component structure, 3-component structure comprised 105 villages or 71.92% classified into 3 groups: 1) Administrative area + geographical characteristics + specific name (21 villages or 14.38%, 2) Administrative area + geographical conditions + characteristics (19 villages or 13.01%, and 3) Administrative area + geographical conditions + economic plants (13 villages or 8.90%). For 4-component structure, it comprised 9 villages or 6.16%. Regarding meanings of the names, they could be classified into 5 groups: 1) Environmental and natural conditions (95 villages or 65.07%, 2) Objects and utensils (14 villages or 9.59%), 3) Auspiciousness (13 villages or 8.90%), and 4) High status (13 villages or 8.90%), and 5) Sacredness (11 villages or 7.54%).