What is "suvarnabhumi"

( Sanskrit: स्वर्णभूमि; Pali: ; , ; , Sovannaphoum; , ) is the name of a land mentioned in many ancient sources such as the Mahavamsa, some stories of the Jataka tales, and Milinda Panha.

Suvaṇṇabhumī means "Golden Land" or "Land of Gold" and might be a region named Aurea Regio in "India beyond the Ganges" of Ptolemy, also referred to as the Golden Chersonese. The Periplus of the Erythraean Sea refers to the Land of Gold, Chryse, and describes it as “an island in the ocean, the furthest extremity towards the east of the inhabited world, lying under the rising sun itself, called Chryse... Beyond this country... there lies a very great inland city called Thina”. Dionysius Periegetes mentioned: “The island of Chryse (Gold), situated at the very rising of the Sun”. Avienus referred to the Insula Aurea (Golden Isle) located where "the Scythian seas give rise to the Dawn". Josephus speaks of the "Aurea Chersonesus", which he equates with the Biblical Ophir, whence the ships of Tyre and Israel brought back gold for the Temple of Jerusalem. The city of Thina was described by Ptolemy's Geography as the capital city of the country on the eastern shores of the Magnus Sinus ( Gulf of Thailand). Some have speculated that this country refers to the Kingdom of Funan. The main port of Funan was Cattigara Sinarum statio ( Kattigara the port of the Sinae).

There is a common misunderstanding that the Edicts of Ashoka mention this name. The truth is the edicts relate only the kings' names and never reference Suvarnabhumi in the text. Moreover, all of the kings referenced in the text reigned their cities in the region that located beyond the Sindhu to the west. The misunderstanding might come from a mixing of the story of Ashoka sending his Buddhist missionaries to Suvarnabhumi in "Mahavamsa" and his edicts.