ABSTRACT
The northern and western sides of the Bay of Bengal seem to have experienced the coastal drive earlier, Mengrai’s conquest of Lamphun with its links to coastal regions such as Thaton, are reminiscent of Aniruddha of Bagan’s putative conquest of Thaton in 1057 ce. The sea is dominant in tracing Chola-Srivijaya conflicts and in the Chola desire to establish a permanent foothold in the coastal districts of Song China. According to Kenneth R. Hall and John K. Whitmore, the Chola raids reinforced the coastal orientation in the eleventh century, creating a power vacuum in the upper Malay peninsula which Bagan, Angkor, Sri Lanka, and the Malay rulers sought to fill. Whitmore and Li, however, see a very firm coastal orientation in Dai Viet between the eleventh and twelfth centuries visible in increasing control over inland waterways, the establishment of royal outposts, the construction of Buddhist temples as centres of trade and the emergence of a coastal literati.
