The original of Phra Pathommachedi has no historical record, but according to M. C. Subhadradis Diskul, a prominent Thai historian and archaeologist, Ashoka, an Indian Emperor who ruled almost all of the Indian subcontinent from circa 269 BCE to 232 BCE, sent a prominent Buddhist monks to expand Buddhism in Suvarnabhumi including the area that is Nakhon Pathom in present day. A Buddhist temple, Wat Phra Pathom, had been established around the year 325 BCE, and the stupa had been built around the year 193 BCE.[3] The original structure is believed to be similar with the Great Stupa in Sanchi,[4] India, with a simple hemispherical brick structure built over the relics of the Buddha with chatra, a parasol-like structure symbolising high rank, on the top of stupa. The stupa is first mentioned in Buddhist scriptures of the year 675, however archaeological findings date back to the 4th century. Modern Historians believe that the stupa was one of the principal stupas of ancient Nakhon Pathom, the largest settlement of Dvaravati culture together with the nearby Phra Pathonnachedi (Thai: พระประโทณเจดีย์) during the 6th to the 8th centuries.