believed that early Srivijaya was located in Kelantan and K.A. Nilakanta Sastri (1949) supported the idea. The Kelantan theory may not be far-fetched, since the Chinese Sui dynasty annals of the 7th century describe an advanced kingdom called Chi Tu or Raktamrittika (as in Kelantanese history) as being in Kelantan, which the name was later changed to "Sri Wijaya Mala". The founding of Sri Wijaya Mala was 667 BC with its capital called "Valai", and it was situated along the upper Kelantan river of Pergau, known for its rich gold mines. It was until 570 BC that the kingdom changed its name to Sri Wijaya. Songkhla vicinity theory The inscription of the Buddhagupta Stone found in Kedah mentioned a Raktamaritika, the meaning is red earth land, to be the home town of a seafarer named Buddhagupta. The old name of Songkhla is Singgora (City of Lions), which coincides with the fact that according to the Chinese chronicles the capital of Chitu was Sing-Ha (means lion) and also the nearby Singhanakhon district. This name may also be related to Tambralinga because there is "Tam" (means red) in this name as same as Raktamaritika and Tampapanni. And this state has appeared in 642, the same area of the central Malay peninsula after Chitu has already faded away from the history. The best evidence supporting this theory is the mention that when the envoys left Chitu, the sailing took 10 days to reach Champa, which indicates the kingdom was located at the 'red earth' areas such as Rattaphum because Rattaphum means red earth as well. See also Early History of Kedah Mahanavika Buddhagupta Pan Pan Nakhon Si Thammarat kingdom (Ligor) Kelantan Sultanate of Kedah References Further reading External links https://web.archive.org/web/20040810090708/http://mis-pattani.pn.psu.ac.th/registra/grade/temp/speech/panel16fullpaper/EvanescentKingdom1panel%2016.html Chinese Sui dynasty annals India's Cultural Relations with South-East Asia 赤土国 Indianized kingdoms Former countries in Malaysian history History of Malaysia Former countries in Thai history Ancient Thailand 7th-century disestablishments in Thailand Historical Chinese exonyms