The birth of a thai textbook

The textbook was believed to be composed in the reign of King Narai (Ayutthaya), by Phra Horathibodi, a court astrologer and literatus. As per archival texts, Jindamanee was created as a manual for the royal prince to learn and master Thai from the earliest stages. 

The name Jindamanee may be translated roughly as “Gem of the Mind,” signifying its role as a prized repository of language knowledge. 

Its content was ambitious: it covered the Thai alphabet, tone marks, rules of combining sounds, vocabulary, orthography, numeric notation, methods of spelling, and even instruction in composing various poetic forms.

In later pages, Jindamanee discusses how to write khlon and chan (a classical Thai verse) and classifies different poetic metres. 

Thus, Jindamanee was not merely an elementary primer, but also a compendium of literary technique — a “textbook for the aspiring court poet or civil official

While Jindamanee is conventionally placed in the mid-Ayutthaya era, some scholars argue parts may have antecedent origins. Some believe the work could have begun earlier before being refined in King Narai’s court.

Tragically, much of the original manuscripts were lost or destroyed — especially during the Burmese sacking of Ayutthaya in 1767.

What survived was patchy; over time, later scholars and scribes collated fragments, copied and recombined them into more complete versions. The Fine Arts Department’s edition of Jindamanee (the “complete version”) is one such reconstruction.

By the 19th century, more modern Thai primers emerged. These gradually supplanted Jindamanee as primary textbooks in the early formal school system.

Indeed, Jindamanee remained in use (especially in traditional poetry, classical training) until King Rama V’s educational reforms, when new official primers were introduced.

Because it was the first Thai-language textbook, Jindamanee holds symbolic and pedagogical importance. The Ministry of Education recognises it as a foundational work in the history of Thai education.

In recent years, Jindamanee has been republished and digitised for public interest and cultural heritage. For instance, the Fine Arts Department released fully annotated versions, making the text accessible as an e-book and as a scholarly resource. 

Its revival has even touched politics: in 2018, a reprint was sold out rapidly at the National Book Fair, reflecting popular fascination with classical language heritage. 

Moreover, Jindamanee continues to influence how later Thai textbooks were named or framed: many subsequent primers reference in their Jindamanee titles to connote classical authority.