Preah Thaong (Kaundinya I)
Preah Thaong (also known as Kaundinya I) is the legendary Brahmin prince from India who founded the Kingdom of Funan, the earliest known Cambodian state, in the 1st century CE. According to the foundational Khmer creation myth, Preah Thong received a divine instruction in a dream to take a magic bow and sail east. He arrived on the coast of what is now Cambodia, where he encountered the Naga princess Neang Neak (Queen Soma) — daughter of the Naga serpent king. After shooting a magic arrow from his bow, the princess agreed to marry him. Her father, the Naga king, drank the ocean waters to revea