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with lacquer and gold in the fashion that obtains to-day. There is a note of bitterness in a general comment of the author here on the last five kings of the No-NRA-MAH dynasty reigning in Ava.s In their indiffer- ence to religion they showed equal favour to worthy and unworthy bhikkhus, so that religion languished. Yet, he adds, the succession of theras continued unbroken — as indeed did the succession of heterodox teachers — the wars with China and later raids of Chinese marauders, who even threatened Ava. {Hist. Bur., pp. 136, 137; Bastian, Gesch. Ind. Chin., p. 62.) ^ An insurrection had followed on the king's supposed indifference to the sufferings of the people. It was headed by the Prince of Prome, who caused his brother to be drowned and was consecrated as Maha Pawra Dhamma Raja (1661). {Hist. Bur., pp. 138, 286.) * Son of Mahapavaradhammaraja. He died within a year of his accession. {Hist. Bur., p. 140.) 3 Brother of Naravara. He was not a capable ruler and his reign was marked by a gradual decline of the monarchy in Burma. {Hist. Bur., p. 140.) 4 The seventh book of the Abhidhamma. 5 That is, from Naravara (1672) to Mahadhammara- jADHiPATi (1733). (Hist. Bur., p. 286.) It was a disastrous period for Burma, with raids from the North, rebellion from the South, and a breaking-up of the state itself, till Ava was at last burnt to the ground by the Talaings in 1752. DI88BBTATI0N. 45 handing down of the so-called dearly apaveni. The two opposing elements in the Order were soon to be matched in a long and noteworthy straggle. With the reign of SirimahAsIhasPrasudhammaraja (1698 A.D.) begins a new chapter in the history of Burmese b. b. loeo. Buddhism — the Parupana-Ekamsika controversy. The rise and many phases of the dispute are set forth at length by the author of the Sasanavamsa. His account must be followed here, without such omissions as would give a false idea of the proportion this cha- racteristic part bears to the whole, though the story is as tedious as those of all such contentions, where the im- portance of the issues is comprehensible only to the parties in the dispute. Yet here and there a convincing touch shows us that certain principles were fought for as well as mere matters of monastic propriety, and the Sasanavaiusa account (by an ardent Pdrupana), gives us, if in a strong party spirit, an instructive view of a question that kept the Samgha in a state of ever-renewed strife for more than a century. A thera named Gunabhilamkara had gathered round him a following, who were distinguished by going about in the village with one shoulder uncovered by the upper garment (p. 118). From their distinguishing mark, the one bared shoulder, this party came to be called the Ekaimika sect. Meanwhile the followers of four other teachers — Buddhaukura, Citta, Sunanta, and Kalyana — strictly observed the wearing of the upper garment on both shoulders, during the village rounds. These latter, from their habit of going clothed, were called the Pdru- pana sect. 2 ^ Son of Siripavaramahadhammaraja. {Hist. Bur., p. 286.) 2 Prof. Rh. Davids has been kind enough to give me some interesting details of two sects in Ceylon at the present day (the Buramdgama and Siyamdgama) which correspond to the Pdrupana and Ekamsika sects. The 46 A BURMESE HISTORIAN OF BUDDHISM. On this difference in daily practice the whole controversy turns. The Ekamsikas asserted that their custom had been taught by the thera Saddhammacari, who had visited Ceylon (a warrant of orthodoxy) . Moreover they bribed a layman of loose morals, who had quitted the Order, to write a book supporting their views. At the same time a further irreligious tendency showed itself in the Samgha : a bhikkhu at the head of another group busied himself in drawing away the forest-dwelling monks from their retired life and attracting them to his own vihara. The king now intervened, for the first time, and issued a decree, commanding the two sects to keep to their own precincts, observing their own respective customs, and leaving each other in peace. But in the reign of his B. E.1074. successor, Setibhinda ' (1712 a.d.), the quarrel revived. Ukkainsamala, the leader of the Parupanas, was able to prove that the Parupana practice was supported by the ancient writers, while the Ekamsikas rejected it on the strength of their own party traditions {dcariyapaveni). (p. 120.) The king appointed a tribunal of four theras, before whom the two sects were to set forth their arguments. But the arbiters were monks without learning in the Sacred Texts and Commentaries, merely courtiers aiming to please the king. The question thus remained unsettled. The Ekamsikas could not conquer, by reason of the real weakness of their cause, and the Parupanas wisely lay low, since the enemy was strong for the time being. Buramagama, or Burma sect, wear the upper garment habi- tually over both shoulders and only bare the left shoulder as a mark of courtesy, in intercourse with others. The Siyamagama (Siam sect) adopt the slightly more ostenta- tious fashion of having one shoulder always uncovered. I HsENG-PHYN-SHENG (in Bdjavamsa list, 1714 a.d. Hist. Bur., p. 286), another of the insignificant kings of the declining dynasty. (Hist. Bur., p. 140.) DISSERTATION. 47 Now was indeed hardly the time for the king to occupy himself with ecclesiastical questions. From a few abrupt words of the historian we learn that we have arrived at the moment of disaster for the long declining power of Burma. In the year 1751 a.d. the King of Kamanna' b.b.iu. gained a victory over Mramma, Ratanapura was sacked, and the king carried away captive to Hamsftvatl.* But it does not appear that the political changes made any great difference to the religious world. The rule of one Buddhist king instead of another could by no means be fraught with the same dangers and terrors to the Order as a Sh^ raid or a Chinese invasion. So, in these troublous times, the head of the P&rupanas (the King's tutor, Nanavara) wrote several books. The strife of the sects was meanwhile kept up by the attacks of Pasamsa, the head of the Ekaiusikas (p. 122). The superior of one of the great royal viharas had been appointed Vinaya- dhara. But the king's weakness for a favourite had blinded him to the monk's unfitness for the responsibility, and as the king himself was only equal to issuing a decree that every bhikkhu in his kingdom should observe what rules of life he pleased, the religious difficulty remained as far from a solution as ever. Of all that passed in the eventful two years following the sack of Ava we have the merest glimpse. It is in connection with a revival of religion rather than of a people's freedom that we hear how " the king who founded Ratanasikha " 3 swept the Talaing armies out of the land, and conquered Ramaiina and ruled over it. The work of Alom:pra4 the patriot, who, obscure and almost '^ BiNTA Dala (1746 A.D.). Hist. Bur., p. 145; Bastian, Gesch. Ind. Chin., p. 64. ^ Hist. Bur., p. 147. 3 Or Ratanasingha (Shwe bo, or Montshobo) about 60 miles to the north of Ava {Ind. Ant., vol. xxii. p. 28; Hist. Bur., p. 150). 4 Alaungh-pra (vernacular rendering of the Pali Bodhisatta. See Hist. Bur., p. 149, et seq.; Yule, Mission 48 A BURMESE HISTORIAN OF BUDDHISM. single-handed, drew together the fragments of the broken state, and in two years raised Burma to a united nation, is recorded as a religious work — " Eeligion revived, so that the people of Mramma said, ' Our king is a bodhisat.' " The king insisted on the observance of Uposatha by all his court, furthered the study of the Sacred Texts and supported the Samgha, and now the Parupana-Ekamsika controversy entered on a new stage. The principal members of the Parupana sect set forth their views in a to the Court of Ava, p. 184). An incident in Alaungh-pra's conquest of Pegu is thus related by Sir A. Phayre : "By the end of October (1756) the whole of Alaungh-prsl's army . . . had closed round the devoted city (Pegu). The King of Pegu had no resource left but to appeal to the mercy and the religious sentiment of his enemy — an expedient of which several instances are mentioned in the histories of the wars of Burma. The deeply revered RahAns, headed by their venerable superior, appeared in the camp of the invader, and in the name of religion besought him to put an end to the war, and to live as elder and younger brother with the King of Pegu.