Si Prat

According to traditional tellings, he was subsequently banished to South Thailand as a result of his personal indiscretions and executed after having an affair with the wife of a provincial governor.

However, the attributions have been questioned by late 20th-century literary scholarship, and the historical existence of Si Prat is nowadays regarded as a myth by most academics.

[5][7] The story goes that one day when Si was twelve years old, his father had been tasked by King Narai to finish a poem for him due to writer's block.

Unable to complete the task right away, Si's father brought the work home, and next morning found that the missing lines had been filled in by his young son.

[11] Many anecdotes tell of Si Prat engaging in improvised oral poetry with members of the court, such as guardsmen and royal concubines, sometimes flirting with the latter.

[28] Winai Pongsripian, who made a detailed analysis of Kamsuan Samut in 2010, believes that the events ascribed to Si Prat's life may have been actual events of court gossip which later came to be attached to the name,[29] while Na Pramuanmak and Gilles Delouche have explained the name's mention in the testimony documents as deliberate misinformation or an attempt to create a mythical poet figure to rival the Burmese Nawade.

[30] The general public remains familiar with the traditional version of the Si Prat story, thanks in part to its popularization by the Fine Arts Department and its inclusion in school curricula since the 1970s.

[24][30] But whether seen as a historical figure or a fictional creation, Si Prat is regarded as a symbol of creative genius, the great poet from an idealized period of literary flourishing.