English
It is best here to quote verbatim a passage from the Burmese scholar to whose researches I am indebted for so many facts : " The native writers of Burma, how- ever, both lay and clerical, aver with great seriousness that the Apardntaka referred to is Burma Proper, which comprises the upper valley of the Lrawaddy. . . . Such flagrantly erroneous identification of classical names has arisen from the national arrogance of the Burmans, who, after their conquest of the Taking kingdoms on the seaboard, proceeded to invent new stories and classical names, so that they might not be outdone by the Talaings, who, according to their own history and traditions, received the Buddhist religion direct from missionaries from India. The right . bank of the Irawaddy river near Pagan was accordingly re- named Sunaparanta, and identified with Aparantaka " (Taw Sein Ko, Some Eemarks on the Kalijani Inscrip- tions, Ind. Ant., vol. xxiii. p. 103). In the British Burma Gazetteer (vol. ii. p. 746) 2 18 INTRODUCTION. Thoonaparanta is identified with the upper portion of the Thayet district, or the west bank of the Irawaddy. "West" is the sense in which " Aparanta " has been taken as indicating a borderland west of the Punjab by European scholars, of whom I need only quote Professor Ed. Miiller {Journal of the Pali Text Society, 1888), Professor Khys Davids {Buddhism, p. 227), Koppen {Religion des Buddha, vol. i. p. 192). Taranatha (p. 262 of Schiefner's translation) mentions Aparantaka as a part of India including " Bhangala and Odivi9a." The rest of Part I. of the Sasanavamsa must be dis- missed here with a few words. The religious history of the three regions outside Indo-China and Ceylon is not carried beyond the point where Buddhaghosa leaves it. To the brief account of the Atthakatha and the Dlpa- vamsa the Burmese author adds a few words of melan- choly comment on the darkened state of those lands whence the sunlight of Keligion has vanished. Maha- rattha, Yonakarattha, and Vanavasi are treated some- what more fully, but these six chapters together made up only a small part of the book. I may add here that the Pali of the Sasanavamsa also shows the author's intimate acquaintance with the commentaries. The style is plainly founded on that of Buddhaghosa and his suc- cessors. Naturally, in so modem a text there are no points of strictly philological interest. The obscurities that occur here and there may, I believe, be set down to the difficulties a Burman author would meet with in rendering into Pali some phrases characteristic of the Burmese language. Again, some words used by Paiina- sami in Part II. would appear to have a special applica- tion to the circumstances of his own country. It is this Part II., the most original and interesting chapter (on Religion in Aparanta), that is properly the subject of the present short study. THE MONKS AND THE KINGS OF MRAMMA. [Jn the folloinng chapter the names and dates of the Kings of Burma ap})earing in the text follow Panhasdmi ; thoxe in the notes are drawn frotn other sources (see authors cited) for comparison. Occasional references are giren (by page) to the printed text of the S&sanavatnsa (published by the Pali Text Society).] In the Burma of to-day, as in the Europe of the Middle Ages, the monks are the historians ; the last recension of the National Chronicle, or History of the Kings (Maharaja vamsa), was the work of "a body of learned monks and ex-monks " in the year 1824. ^ But, though a lay point of view is hardly to be ex- pected from such a body of editors, the native chronicles consulted by students of Burmese history have been described as very full and by no means untrustworthy. ^ The Sasanavamsa, a work of narrower scope, cannot, of course, add to our knowledge of the political and military ^ See Taw Sein Ko's remarks on the native histories of Burma {Indian Antiquary), vol. xxii. p. 61. Lassen (Indische Alterthumskunde) , vol. iv. p. 369), writing in 1861, mentions a recension of the Mahdrd- javamsa, made by command of the king, some sixty years before. The work was based on two older histories. Among the works of the celebrated thera Aggadhamma- lamkara (17th centiuy), mentioned in our text, occurs an abridged version (Samkhepa) of the Bdjavamsa, written at the request of the king. * See preface to Sir Arthur Phayre's History of Burma, London, 1883. 19 20 A BURMESE HISTORIAN OF BUDDHISM. history of the author's country. Yet, in so far as the religion of the Buddha has played a great part in Burma's social life, and has been the first awakener of her intel- lectual life and the supreme interest controUing it, a record of the Order which, for centuries, has been the living embodiment of that religion, cannot but be interesting. The Kajavamsa is one of the authorities frequently referred to (besides inscriptions and " ancient books ") by the author of the Sasanavamsa, but he chooses from his material with a very strict regard for the purpose of his book. The National Chronicle is quoted here and there, but, as a whole, the part history plays in the religious records is slight. We find here only abrupt mention of wars and sieges, and allusions to kings of Burma, who serve as chronological milestones by the way, or stand out as pillars of the Keligion, if they spend liberally to do it honour. Paiiiiasami's history is a purely ecclesiastical piece of work. Kings are judged, as a rule, according to their " acts of merit " — the building of cetiyas and viharas and the supporting of the Samgha — with a certain calm detachment, that is able to separate their names from any other associations, and to measure their virtue and im- portance by a measure of its own. In the following analysis of the Sixth Chapter of the Sasanavamsa I have set set side by side with such hints of history — 'bare dates and scanty facts — as occur there, some references to the national chronicle.^ Occasionally ^ That is to such translations or abstracts as were accessible to me in the works of European writers, namely, Sir Arthur Phayre {History of Burma), Bishop Bigandet {Life or Legend of Gaudama), Sir H. Yule {Narrative of a Mission to the Court of Ava), J. Crawfurd {Journal), A. Bastian {Geschichte der Indo-Ghinesen) , Father San Germano {The Burmese Empire, ed. Jardine), DISSERTATION. 21 there is a carious and characteristic difference be- tween the ecclesiastic's version and that of the kings' chroniclers. I have been compelled to leave out the picturesque element brought into the Mramma chapter by the stories told of noteworthy theras. The historical thread is broken by these side-episodes, and some of the chief points obscured, which a closer drawing together of the more important events may serve to bring out clearly. The History of Rehgion in Mramma begins with a legendary visit of the Buddha himself to the Lohita- candana vihara (presented by the brothers Mahapunna and Culapunua of Vanijagama) . The Faith was not " established " in the land till the mission to Aparanta- rattha in the year 235 after the Pannirvdna,3 but the historian mentions communities of bhikkhus as already existing in Aparanta when Yonakadhammarakkhita ar- rived and points out that the Sutta preached by that thera — the " Aggikkhandhopama " • — has a special bearing on the duties of bhikkhus. In this connection he refers, for the first time, to the heretics called Samanakuttakas,5 Taw Sein Ko {Indian Antiquary, vols. xxii. and xxiii.), E. Forchhammer {Reports to the Government), British Burma Gazetteer, Col. Bumey's articles in J. A. S.Bengal, vol. iv., &c., &c. Cf. Spence Hardy, Manual of Buddhism, pp. 215 and 268. ^ Legaing (Taw Sein Ko, Indian Antiquary, vol. xxii. p. 6). 3 The Burmese tradition places the Parinirvana at 543- 544 B.C. 4 A discourse in the Suttanipata (not yet edited) of the Anguttara Nikaya. I owe this reference to Prof. E. Hardy, editor of the Anguttara (together with other kind help in my study of the Sasanavamsa). 5 It is certain that the Buddhism of Burma fell away from purity at an early time. Positive evidence exists of 22 A BURMESE HISTORIAN OF BUDDHISM. who are said to have gained a footing in Arimaddana (Pug&n) even at that early period. To give Arimaddana due religious importance from the earliest times, another legend is quoted here from the Ancient Books (pordnapotthakd), telling how the Buddha visited a spot in Tambadlpa ^ and prophesied that Sammutiraja 2 would build a city there, and religion would stand fast in that city.