Wat Maha Saman, or the Monastery of the Rising Morning, is situated on the city island in the southwestern area of Ayutthaya in the Pratu Chai Sub-district, west of the Somdet Phra Sri Nakarin Park. It stands opposite the Siriyalai Palace and is part of the Ayutthaya Historical Park.
The temple name might be referring to the Jataka of the "Deer King", where Buddha in a previous life takes the form of a deer being the leader of a herd in the Isipatanamarukatiyawan Forest. This forest is the actual Deer Park in Sarnath (close to Varanasi/Benares - North India), where Gautama Buddha first taught the Dharma to five companions with whom he had previously sought enlightenment and where the Buddhist Sangha came into existence through the enlightenment of Kaundinya.
Maha Saman could also be translated as “the rising morning”, referring to the guardian deity of the Theravada Buddhist religion and Sri Lanka. Sumana Saman invited Lord Buddha to the Samanalakanda. On request, Gautama Buddha left his footprint on the rock at the top of the Sri Pada mountain (Adam's Peak) as a token of symbolic worship 2,580 years ago. Following his death, Prince Sumana Saman became a god by the name God Maha Sumana Saman. The God Maha Sumana Saman depicts crowned and bejewelled, holding a lotus flower in his right hand while accompanied by a white elephant.
In situ is a restored ruin of an ubosot or ordination hall with its entrance to the east and a chedi in Sri Lankan style. On the westside of the chedi is an undefined square foundation of a monastic structure.
The rectangular ubosot has a porch in the east. The brick foundations of the sema stones are visible, and some broken boundary stones are present. The Fine Arts Department reconstructed the brick floor and the columns supporting the roof. Broken sandstone Buddha images lay in the location of the altar.
The chedi stands on a square brick base. The round drum has two levels, whereupon rest the bell-shaped dome. The mouth of the bell is decorated with three rings, likely indicating the Traiphum (three worlds) and a band with a lotus petal design. The square harmika is damaged, and the typical colonnade supporting the umbrella is missing. I counted 31 discs that stand for the thirty-one Planes of Existence.
The sanctuary has some foundations of satellite chedis, and an outer brick wall surrounds the premises. Wat Maha Saman has traces of a moat with an exception for the west side. Via U-Thong Road, you can access the area. Its historical background and period of construction are unknown.
Neither Engelbert Kaempfer nor Jacques Nicolas Bellin have Wat Maha Saman on their maps. The monastery is for the first time indicated on a mid-19th century map, while Phraya Boran Rachathanin has it in the same position as on his map drafted in 1926.
The restored ruin of Wat Maha Saman is in geographical coordinates: 14° 20' 40.02" N, 100° 32' 44.79" E.
