Kar Tayy
Kar Tayy was a Pagan monarch who assumed control of the Dvaravati throne at Mueang Uthong following the succession disputes that arose after the death of Anga Indra in 1081. During his reign, Kar Tayy is recorded as having commissioned the construction of three Buddhist temples in Mueang Uthong, after which he relocated the principal administrative center to Phanthumburi. The city was subsequently renamed Songphanuri, and additional constructions included, alongside the restoration of Wat Pa Lelai. Archaeological studies suggest that Mueang Uthong was abandoned around the 12th century, corresponding to the period when Kar Tayy relocated the principal center to Suphanburi.
Kar Tayy’s polity probably served as the southeastern frontier of the Pagan. In this context, Pagan forces conducted a subsequent incursion into the Menam Valley again in 1087, a campaign that ultimately resulted in victory for Narai I of the Xiān of Ayodhya. However, Narai I died later in the same year.
Kar Tayy’s 40-year tenure on the throne, concluding in 1121, potentially marks the end of Dvaravati as an autonomous polity. Sources indicate that no immediate successor assumed authority upon his death. A new monarch subsequently emerged under the leadership of the brothers Uthong I and Pra Poa Noome Thele Seri, who arrived from Sukhothai to the north and established rule in Phanthumburi, which had been described as lacking a ruler. The younger prince, Uthong I, claimed the vacant throne in 1163, marking the beginning of the Xiān era in Suphan Buri, while the elder prince was later installed as monarch of Jayasimhapuri in 1169, followed by the re-establishment of Phrip Phri circa 1188.