PRIZE PUBLICATION FUND

VOL II

THE

PAḶI LITERATURE OF BURMA

BY

MABEL HAYNES BODE Ph.D.

PRINTED AND PUBLISHED BY THE

ROYAL ASIATIC SOCIETY AND SOLD AT

22 ALBEMARLE STREET 1909

PREFATORY NOTE

I WISH to express my best thanks to the Council of the Royal Asiatic Society for giving this little work a place among the Society’s publications. To Professor Rhys Davids I owe, once again, a grateful acknowledgment of inspiration to begin a task and encouragement throughout. To him also as Editor of the Journal of the Paḷi Text Society my thanks are due for permission to reprint in Chapters I and II some of the material appearing in my article, “Early Paḷi Grammarians in Burma” (JPTS., 1908). My obligations to many others, by whose labours I have profited, will be seen in the pages of the Essay. Finally, I can only thank Dr. Barnett for his untiring kindness by reminding him that there are very few of those pages which do not owe something to his advice and help.

M.H.B. LONDON 1909.

ABBREVIATIONS

BEFEO. Bulletin de l’École Française d’Extrême Orient. Hanoi. 1901, etc. GV. Gandhavaṃsa (JPTS.). 1886. Index, 1896. JPTS. Journal of the Paḷi Text Society. London. 1882, etc. JRAS. Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society. London. 1834, etc. P.TH. Piṭakatthamain. Rangoon. 1906. P.T.S. Paḷi Text Society. SVD. Sāsanavaṃsadīpa, Colombo. 1881 BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTES

Students may consult with advantage— Canonical Works. I. The whole of the Paḷi Text Society’s publications Suttapiṭaka (entire). Edited by Ko AungMin (for the older Paḷi literature). Frowde. London, 1882, etc. Hsayā and others. 1904. II. Translations of the same which have appeared in Cariyāpiṭaka, with Burmese exegetical various languages (see the useful bibliography of works on commentary. Mandalay, 1899. Buddhism, by Mr. A. 3. Edmunds, in the Journal of the Paḷi Milindapañhavatthu. Burmese translation from the Text Society, 1902). Milinda. Rangoon, 1882. Particularly interesting for comparison of Burmese Abhidhamma, versions with Paḷi are the translations of Jātakas from Abhidhammatthasaṅgaha, of Anuruddha, followed the Burmese, by Mr. it. F. St. Andrew St. John, in the by Sumangalasāmi’s Tīkā Kyaw or Abhidhammattha- Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society, years 1892, vibhāvani in elucidation thereof, and copious Burmese 1893, 1894, 1896. [Cf. the Jātaka, translated from the commentary. Rangoon, 1898. Paḷi by various hands under the editorship of E. B. Maṇimedhajotaka Kyan. A Burmese treatise on Cowell 6 vols. Cambridge, 1895, etc.] Buddhist Psychology, based on the III. Bibliographies and Catalogues as follows Abhidhammatthasaṅgaha, and illustrated from Paḷi 1. Bibliographies. texts. Maulmein, 1882. (a) General. Schennan (Professor L.). Saṅkhepavyākaraṇa. Burmese epitome of Oriental Bibliography. (Quarterly.) Berlin, London, Abhidhamma doctrine as codified in the Paris, and New York Abhidhammatthasaṅgaha, illustrated from Paḷi texts. (b) Indo - China. Cordier (Henri). Essay d’une Rangoon, 1899. bibliographie des ouvrages relatifs à la presqu’île Paramatthamedhanī Kyan. Treatise on the four indo-chinoise. Prernière partie— Birmanie et conditions of the absolute. Illustrated from Paḷi Texts. Assam. Toung Pao, série II, vol. vi Rangoon, 1895. (c) Burma. Ireland (Alleyne). The Province of Grammar. Burma, a report prepared for the University of Mahārūpasiddhi, with Burmese interpretation. Chicago (with extensive bibliography). Houghton Rangoon, 1906. Mufflin, & Co. Boston and New York, 1906. Ṇvādi-Moggallāna. Paḷi treatise on Grammar, by 2. Catalogues. Saṅgharakkhita, based on the Grammar of (a) The catalogues of Paḷi and Burmese MSS. Moggallāna, with Burmese nissaya. Rangoon, 1900. and printed books in the Oriental Department of the Alaṅkāra-nissaya. Being the Subodālaṃkāra of British Museum. Saṅgharakkhita in Paḷi, with commentary. Rangoon, (b) The same in the India Office Library. 1889. (c) The alphabetical list of manuscripts and Dhātvatthudīpaka. Treatise in Paḷi verse on the books in the Bernard Free Library at Rangoon, by C. significations of Paḷi roots, by Aggadhammālaṃkāra, Duroiselle, This collection offers an excellent field with Burmese commentary. Rangoon. 1899. for research, being under the care of Professor Law. Duroiselle, who, in his large and intimate knowledge Navadhammasattha, by Hsin-pyu-mya-shin, king of Burmese literature, stands alone among Paḷists. of Toungoo. A Paḷi digest of nine law-books. Law of (d) Catalogues of Paḷi and Burmese MSS. in Inheritance. Edited with Burmese translation. Akyab, the Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris. 1894. IV. Finally, a few examples may be given from the mass Veda. of Paḷi and Burmese books in the British Museum. They Makaranda-bedin-let-yo-Tīkā, commentary on the consist chiefly of editions of celebrated Paḷi works, Makaranda-bedin, handbook of astrology. Mandalay, commentaries by Burmese authors, anthologies, and 1905. translations into the vernacular. The descriptions are borrowed from Dr. Barnett’s catalogue.

INTRODUCTION

THE Paḷi literature of Burma owes its express ideas beyond the scope of that existence to the Paḷi literature of India. It is picturesque vernacular. Being an agglutinative many years since the latter was first explored language, Burmese lacks the force, terseness, by the great scholars and pioneers—Fausböll, and delicacy that Paḷi owes to its nominal and Lassen, Rhys Davids, Trenckner, Childers, verbal inflections and its power of forming Oldenberg—whose reward has been a gain to elaborate compounds. Thus before the Oriental learning vast enough to content even translating period, authors of Burmese race them. With time a part of the material had studied Paḷi and learned to use it; ever discovered has been brought within the reach since the twelfth century it has been a tradition of students by critical editing. Buddhistic of Burmese scholars to produce literary work literature is immense in quantity and in Paḷi, and it is with this work only that we bewildering in varied interest, and it was never are now concerned. more difficult than now to avoid being too A survey of the Paḷi literature of Burma is much of the specialist. But the student of not quite a new undertaking. In the year 1879 a Buddhism who limits himself to one language report on the subject was drawn up for the or looks for solution of all questions in one Government of India by Dr. Emil literature risks slipping into an orthodoxy of Forchhammer, Professor of Paḷi at Rangoon, his own. A sounder principle has long guided who had begun a thorough search for Buddhist studies; modern research has gone manuscripts in monasteries and private forth, like Asoka’s missionaries, to Further collections, and whose premature death cruelly India, China, Japan, Tibet, Siam, and French cut short a work full of promise. This and Indo-China, armed with patience as they were other reports of Forchhammer, on the with conviction, as resolutely determined to archŚological remains of Arakan and Burma, learn as they were to teach. are Government publications; and his studies There is need nowadays to seek further in of Buddhist law (published by Sir John Jardine Burma, or rather, need to be better acquainted with his own valuable Notes, 1882—3, and in with what has already been found there. the Jardine Prize Essay) arc now extremely Among the countries in which the ideas and rare books, and the stores of knowledge they traditions of Buddhism are inseparably bound contain are not available at every moment. up with the Paḷi canon Burma possesses a And we ought also to profit by the labours of special interest which we hardly feel in the that brilliant and far-seeing scholar Minayeff, case of Ceylon, for Burma shows how the to whom we owe the disco very and leaven of Indian thought worked in a race and publication (to mention only one work) of the idiom having none of the close relationship Gandhavaṃsa (‘Book History’), written in with India which we recognize in all that is Burma, a short but interesting account of the most characteristic of the literature of Ceylon. earlier Paḷi literature of Ceylon and Burma. We may say that the essentially Indian genius, The Gandhavaṃsa is unfortunately very the psychological subtleties, and high thoughts sparing of details, and gives us little of Buddhism have forced the Burmese information as to the period of the works it language to grow, deepen, and expand enumerates, but its help is most useful in continually. When Burmese was at last raised settling some questions of authorship and (in or about the fourteenth century) to the level place. Minayeff, who used this book for his of a. literary language, it was by the addition Nouvelles Recherches sur le Bouddhisme, does of a great body of Indian words necessary to not offer any conclusion as to its date, but from comparison with the Sāsanavaṃsa and a still more modern Burmese work, the us by a biographer influenced by the old Piṭakatthamain1 (1906), it appears to be a Talaing tradition, the tradition, that is, of seventeenth century production. Lower Burma. For this school, known as the For both the early and modern periods Mrammasaṅgha (fraternity of Burma), (from the twelfth to the nineteenth centuries) maintained that there was no need to have we find great help in the Sāsanavaṃsa,2 has recourse to Ceylon for teachers in the supplied much material for the following unbroken ‘line of descent’ from the ancient chapters. Other sources have been used to missionaries. This question, almost impossible verify or correct where it has been possible. to settle with certainty, after the vicissitudes The whole of the Sāsanavaṃsa’s literary that the Buddhist Saṅgha had seen in both information, as far as it concerns Burma, is countries, divided the Order in Burma with a given in the course of the present work.) sharp line of partisanship. Therefore we must which, happily, observes the good traditions of beware of considering the Sāsanavaṃsa a Burmese chronicles and cares for chronology.3 complete record of monastic work. It enables us at least to sketch in outline a Nevertheless the author’s own point of view is connected story, while but for this record we instructive, and we have no right to say that he could only enumerate works of doubtful date does not try to be impartial. And if we follow and mention authors without knowing what only his guidance in our choice of the books to period in the growth of their country and Order explore we must arrive at some knowledge of had brought them forth. The Sāsanavaṃsa, what is, after all, of the most interest in such though a very mine of interest as compared researches; we can see the intellectual with the arid little Gandhavaṃsa, has its development of Burma through Buddhism and limitations. It is confused, rambling, and the adaptation of the non-Indian mind to prejudiced. The author, a high ecclesiastic of Indian culture, with the conception of science Min-dôn-min’s reign, belonged by all his and the standard of literary art evolved in that convictions and traditions to the Sīhaḷasaṅgha, adapting process. an important school or sect having, as the We cannot, of course, do justice to these name shows, a close connexion with the questions in a short sketch. The effect of fraternity in Ceylon. As for the other Indian Buddhism on Burmese life and. communities, whose spiritual forefathers literature has many manifestations. We can refused to look on the Mahāvihāra, that instance some as widely apart as codified law famous monastery of the old commentators, as and religious art. In the remote past we find the very centre and hearth of orthodoxy, they both Brahmanic and Buddhistic sources of interest him only moderately. He will Burmese written law. And the religious, art of sometimes dismiss one of their authors with the country is by no means without its the driest, curtest mention of the man and his problems (for example, the extent of book, while he will delight us with details and Mahāyāna or ‘Northern’ influence), which anecdotes of more orthodox writers. It would those who are masters of this subject are be interesting to have the picture filled in for gradually solving for us.4 So the subject spreads in its fascinating complexity, if we 1 I have to thank Professor Barnett for bringing to my notice will let it, far beyond our simpler theme; but it this useful Burmese bibliography of Buddhist works. must suffice for this essay to follow (if with 2 This text (edited for the Paḷi Text Society in 1897 by the present writer less serene confidence) the way marked out by 3 I have thought it best to adopt throughout this essay the the devout and simple scholars of Burma, who chronology of try two principal Burmese authorities, have left us a literature derived entirely from Paññāsāmi and the author of the Piṭakatthamain. But I must the Paḷi canon and representing almost remind the reader that their (traditional) starting-point, the Nirvāṇa of the Buddha, is no longer placed by scholars at 544 B.C. but some sixty years later. See article by Dr. Fleet, J RAS.., April, 1909, The Origin of the Buddhavarsha. 4 See p. vii. invariably the Hinayāna5 traditions of The Sanskrit commentaries composed in Buddhist belief. India on Buddhist texts are enlightening in Beginning with the study of the language proportion as the student is familiar with all consecrated in Ceylon as the instrument of the Indian philosophies and can point out parallels highest teaching, then commenting and and contrasts; the Paḷi commentaries of Burma composing in Paḷi and at last interpreting that naturally (July lead us back to the Sinhalese teaching in their, native tongue, the Burmese and Indian models they faithfully copy. When monks have left us a complete revelation of we leave Paḷi and come to Burmese their mind. Neither the sculpture, painting, interpretations of Abhidhamma texts we feel legends, plays, customs, nor law-codes of the that we follow our commentators in a (to us) Burmese, significant as they are, could serve somewhat dark adventure; but yet the effort of to show us what their religious literature alone these authors in their own vernacular is unfolds—their manner of grappling with an interesting as an effort to do more than recite abstract subject. the consecrated words of their ancient masters. Buddhism, as any other Indian system Here is the key to the sense really given. by would have done, gave them a large the Burmese to Indian abstractions, the key not opportunity. They did their best with it. But to be found where they use the exotic and Buddhist theories demanded an effort of traditional Paḷi form. abstraction doubly severe for learners whose By it we have access to some curious first lesson in philosophy was learned with treasure, rewarding the search of the scholar 6 those theories. In India, where certain of the familiar with the Burmese tongue, provided he Upanisads belonged to a yet earlier phase of be a Paḷist and (be it said without impiety) thought than the doctrines of Gotama, men’s endowed with two of the Buddhist minds were prepared for Buddhist ‘perfections’ — the power to spend himself conceptions. A philosophical language was and be very patient. Knowledge of the Paḷi already formed in which the teacher or the commentaries of Burma is the natural disputant could lead his hearers step by step in beginning of this attractive enterprise, but by an idiom they knew to conclusions not no means the end. unfamiliar to their minds. But in Burma the The commentaries, though the most grammar of the Buddhist texts first had to be important part, are not the whole of the Paḷi studied, and when the great legend of the literature. The technicalities of Indian Founder was learned and the code of the Order grammar have attracted Burmese authors from had grown familiar, there was still a new an early period. The work of the famous world to conquer, a new science to master. Kaccāyana is all bat canonical among them, After the Sutta and Vinaya there was the and the procession of his followers and Abhidhamma to interpret. Here perhaps we commentators stretches through eight centuries shall find the IPaḷi compositions of Burmese of literary history. The qualities of mind innate authors less interesting than their translations in the quick-witted Burmese race were lent to into Burmese. the service of the Word so religiously respected. The Paḷi scriptures had not been a 5 This Buddhist phrase, ‘the lesser vehicle,’ may be hundred years in Upper Burma before a employed as a convement term for the tradition as observed in grammar—the Saddanīti—was composed in the southern countries early won to Buddhism, a tradition more sober in its legend and somewhat more austere and Paḷi that called forth the wondering admiration practical in its morality than the Mahāyāna (or school of the of the scholars of Ceylon, though Ceylon was ‘greater vehicle’). 6 certainty the forerunner and model of Burma A friend has suggested to me a comparison between these in exegesis. studies in Burma and the gradual mastery by Bede and Alfred and their followers in England of the philosophy of Paul and Again, the practical side of monastic life John. It was not until Wyclif’s time, six centuries after Bede, was a subject well within the scope of the that these abstract questions were discussed in English. Paḷists of Burma. We have very numerous vernacular. Jātakas and other moral legends examples of work in this field, from the time were the material usually chosen for the Pāḷist of their first controversy on Ordination in to work upon. Sometimes the beauties of a city Narapati’s reign (A.D. 1167—1204) till the or the glory of the reigning king were extolled present day. with all the author’s resources of prosody and In the secular domain the Paḷi language has imagery. But scholarship in Burma has not been employed (as we should expect) where produced poets worthy to rank with those of solemnity was called for or the sense of an Ceylon. antique tradition was needed to support The following pages are but a sketch, and authority; for instance, some important law- perhaps a sketch without colour. Our purpose codes exist, and others probably existed, in is not to describe again the outward aspect of Paḷi versions. Paḷi is also the language chosen the temple, the monastery, and the village, for the collections of maxims known as the very vividly presented to Western readers by ‘Nīti’ literature, and for various chronicles (we learned and sympathetic writers from Bishop can instance the Rājavaṃsa, Sāsanavaṃsa, and Bigandet onwards. So many Europeans have Gandhavaṃsa). come under the charm of Burma—of the Finally we come to the very limited Burmese people, their life and religion—that province of Paḷi verse in Burma. Here and there is no need to do more than recall to there among our authors we catch a glimpse of readers the names of the writers7 who have scholars who have a touch of the poet in them made that charm a familiar thing to us. We and some of the poet’s ambition. We do not have chosen for our study the less well-known know that they ever approached the favourite subject of the Paḷi books of Burma. The theme of the poets of all ages. If they did, the authors were the ancestors and masters of the chronicles have passed it over in silence. A monks of to-day, through whom we know love story sometimes forms part of an edifying those old-time scholars and can still see, as it narrative from Pall sources; but the love lyric were, a far-off picture of their lives, their is the undisputed realm of the poets of the schools, and their work.

7 See the Bibliographies, p. vii. THE PAḶI LITERATURE OF BURMA

CHAPTER I

THE CLASSICAL PAḶI LITERATURE — ARRIVAL OF THE PAḶI TRIPIṬAKA IN BURMA

Burma, under which name we may Magadha)9 or mūlabhāsā (‘the original conveniently, if not quite accurately, include language ‘),10 but this identification of Paḷi Pegu, Arakan, and Martaban, has been the with the spoken dialect of Magadha is now home of Buddhism for many centuries. No known to be incorrect. It seems needless to Buddhist country has kept the antique faith add any remarks about the Paḷi literature, since more sheltered from change. Yet even the its capacities have been described and, better chronicles of monasteries and such strictly still, proved by the authors of scholarly and ecclesiastical works as the beautiful translations which everyone Sāsanavaṃsa8cannot unfold their quiet tale nowadays has an opportunity of reading.11 But without a necessary mention of rivalries and a few words on the classical books may be in wars between these neighbouring states, when place. the balance went down first on the side of The Tripiṭaka. Burma, then of Pegu, when Mongol armies marched on the Burmese capital, or the The Tripiṭaka (Paḷi, Tipiṭaka), to use the Burmese king marched into Siam. Rulers now familiar Buddhist name for the three great changed and the fortunes of the Fraternity with groups of canonical texts, the Vinaya, Sutta, them, but the doctrine and the tradition and Abhidhamma piṭakas (‘baskets ‘), is suffered hardly any alteration, and the known in Burma in the Paḷi recension countries of Further India developed an consecrated in Ceylon. intellectual life which was before all the The Abhidhamma and Sutta Piṭakas. product of Buddhist ideas and the work of Buddhist monks. For Burma the first language For some remarks on the last of the three of abstract thought was an Indian language; collections, the Abhidhamma, the reader is the rational and moral force which, for a large referred to Chapter IV of this essay. As to the body of, the Burmese people, broke down the Suttapiṭaka, the first thing we observe on thraldom of ancient superstitions, was inspired looking into characteristic collections of Paḷi - by India. By the predominance of Buddhist Burmese 3185. and books is that of the great influence in Burmese culture Burmese studies Nikāyas claiming to be the word of the belong rightfully to the great field of Buddha (the Aṅguttara, Majjhima, Dīgha, Indianism. Saxṃyutta, and Khuddaka) the Dīghanikāya is We must, though the subject has already been fully and admirably treated by others, 9 The ancient kingdom of Magadha was the region now remind the reader here of the form in which called Bihar. 10 The late lamented Professor Pischel (in a valuable paper the Buddhist doctrine, enshrined in a canon of on fragments of the Buddhist canon found in Chinese scripture, was conveyed to Further India. Turkestan) speaks of the tradition that the Māgadhī was the language of the first age of the world and spoken by the The language was Paḷi, the literary dialect Buddhas: ‘Es ist begreiflich dass man später die Māgadhī mit closely allied to Sanskrit. Paḷi is usually called dem Pāḷi identifizierte. Dass aber der Pāḷikanon Spuren eines älteren Māgadhīkanons aufweist is längst erkannt worden’ (R. by the Burmese the māgadhabhāsā (idiom of Pischel, Sitzungs-berichte der königl. preuss. Akademie der Wissenschaften, Mai, 1904, p. 807). See also Oldenberg’s edition of the Vinayapiṭakam, Introduction, and the Preface to Professor E. Müller’s Paḷi Grammar. 8 11 See Introduction. See Bibliography. the best known, the most studied, the most by the Burmese laity of all classes than any frequently to be found.12 On the reason for this other Paḷi book. The Paritta, learned by heart preference we can only risk a guess. The and recited on appropriate occasions, is to Dīghanikāya, though containing the long conjure various evils physical and moral. It has (dīgha) discourses, is the smallest of the naturally come to have the usual value of collections and hence the easiest to study. It is charms and exorcising, a value hardly a principle of the Burmese to avoid all religious in the Buddhist sense of the word. unnecessary pains and trouble. Without any But some of the miscellaneous extracts that disrespect to Burmese Buddhists, it is natural make up the collection are of a purely religious to suppose that they have chosen the shortest and ethical tone. The best example of these is task, especially when we remember that the the famous Maṅgalasutta14of the Suttanipāta, Dīghanikāya contains suttas of great verses in praise, of the holy life, uttered by a importance.13 For example, we find there the devatā (local divinity), who came to pay Brahmajala Suttanta, dealing with the Sixty- homage to the Buddha in the grove of two Wrong Views; the Sāmaññaphala, on the Jetavana. Fruits of the Ascetic Life; the Mahāsatipaṭṭāna, The use of the Paritta is said to have had the on Sell-mastery; and, chief of all, the 15 Buddha’s sanction. There is an example of Mahāparinibbāna Suttanta, on the Buddha’s this practice (by acknowledged saints) in the last discourses and death, that is, on the well-known legend of Soṇa and Uttara, supreme moment in the history of the Order, Asoka’s missionaries to Lower Burma. Their since it was then that the Buddhist saṅgha first act on arriving was to vanquish the demon became the guardian of the departed Master’s (yakkhinī) who spread terror in the land by teaching. On the whole the essential doctrines, devouring at their birth all boys born in the as the Burmese Buddhist conceives them, are king’s palace. The victory of the holy men was to be found in this collection and the 16 accomplished by the Paritta. We find another commentaries. illustration in an interesting little incident The Khuddakanikāya calls for a word of related of Jetavana, a Burmese monk and notice here. This collection contains among famous teacher of the sixteenth century. When other texts the Dhammapada, the Suttanipāta, Jetavana believed himself at the ‘point of and the immortal Jātaka book, which, as might death he thought of one whom he considered be expected from its character, has become fit to be his successor. At that moment the part of the popular as well as the scholarly monk on whom his thoughts were fixed literature of Burma. Very nearly connected dreamed a strange dream of a dead man, with it is the Par lila, a good example of which, on waking, he related to the novice ancient wisdom and piety crystallized into a lying near him. A paritta was then pronounced talisman. by one of the monks to avert any evil 17 Mahāparittam. foreshadowed by the dream. 18 In the days of Anorata, the first notable The Paritta or Mahāparitta, a small collection of texts gathered from the king in authentic Burmese history (who Suttapiṭaka, is, to this day, more widely known 14 See Fausböll’s edition of the Suttanipāta, p. 45 (P.T.S. edition, 1884; Glossary, 1894), and translation, SBE., vol x, 12 pt. ii. This is confirmed by information Mr. Shwe Zan Aung has 15 kindly sent me. See Milindapañha (ed. Trenckner), pp. 150 ff., and Rhys 13 The Dīghanikāya was chosen by Professor Rhys Davids Davids’ translation (Questions of King Malinda), SBE., xxxv, Pp. 213 ff. for his selection of typical suttas translated under the title 16 Dialogues of Buddha. The suttas instanced above have also See Sās., p. 38. 17 been translated elsewhere. See the useful bibliography by Mr. Sās., p. 101. Albert J. Edmunds, Journal of the Paḷi Text Society, 1902-3. 18 See below, p. 12. reigned in the eleventh century), we hear of after the Buddha’s death. The influence of the Paritta turned to a dangerous use. Corrupt Ceylon on Burma has been, as we shall see, and cynical monks proclaimed it an easy paramount in questions of monastic discipline, means of disembarrassing man’s guilty and the code drawn up by the ancient conscience from all wrongdoing even to Sinhalese theras has been carefully preserved matricide. But Burmese Buddhism has, on the by the Burmese fraternity in the letter and the whole, kept exorcism within the bounds of a spirit ever since its arrival in Burma in the superstition, contrary no doubt to the true eleventh century. A great deal of Vinaya doctrine, but not grossly transgressing the literature, mostly explanatory and sometimes ethical code of the religion. controversial, has grown up round the code Burmese tradition adds to the fifteen from the time of the early commentators to the 19 present day. The important works by Sinhalese ancient texts of the Khuddakanikāya four 20 authors ‘on this subject formed the base of other works—the Milindapañha, the 21 Burmese studies, and on the other hand Suttasaṇgaha, the Peṭakopadesa, and the 22 orthodoxy in Ceylon has often been reinforced Netti or Nettipakaraṇa. This last is studied in at a later period by teachers and texts from Burma for its analysis and explanation of Burma. passages from the sacred writings, with which, as the learned editor has said, ‘the author The complete Yinaya is rather 23 possessed a great familiarity.’ voluminous, but an epitome of the Discipline We now turn to the Vinaya Piṭaka. in the form of two short metrical texts, the Mūlasikkhā and Khuddasikkhā, was composed 24 The Vinaya, as known in Burma, is the at an early period, and these with the monastic code handed down by the Theravādin Dvemāṭīkā, consisting of the sect in Ceylon, that is, the sect professing the Bhikkhupāṭimokkha and doctrine (vāda) of the theras or ancients. The Bhikkhunipāṭimokkha (the ancient resume of name was assumed by the strictest sect at the the code for monks and nuns respectively) and time of the celebrated schisms beginning, the Kaṅkhāvitaraṇi (commentary on the according to tradition, in the second century Pāṭimokkha), were recognized as sufficient Vinaya knowledge for those who could not 25 study more. In modern times the above are 19 Khuddakapātha, Dhammapada, Udāna, Itivuttaka, called the ‘Four Smaller Vinayas’ and are Suttanipāta, Vimānavatthu, Petavatthu, Theragāthā, Therīgāthā, Jātaka, Mahāniddesa, Paṭisambhidāmagga, studied by those who have not time for the 26 Apadāna, Buddhavaṃsa, Cariyāpiṭaka. complete Vinaya. 20 See above. 21 See the Piṭakatthamain, pp. 12, 13. The Suttasaṅgaha was In Burmese Paḷi collections we find no less written at Anurādhapura in Ceylon by a thera whose name is frequently than the Paritta of the laity the not recorded. Kammavācā of the Mendicant Order. These 22 In Buddhist tradition the Petakopadesa and Nettipakaraṇa are both ascribed to Mahākaccāyana, the disciple of the texts have a purely ecclesiastical use, though it Buddha. The Gandhavaṃsa (p. 66) and Piṭakatthamain (p. 13) speak of Kaccāyana, author of the Netti, as chaplain to 23 Candapajjota of Ujjenī in the Avanti country (see Introduction It has been critically edited by H. Oldenberg in five volumes (1879-83) to the late Professor Hardy’s Introduction to the Netti, p. ix, 24 note; also pp. viii and xix); Professor Hardy’s conclusion was They were written in Ceylon. See Wickremasinghe, that the work was composed at an early date, perhaps about Catalogue of Sinhalese MSS, in the British Museum, the first century of our era, and put into its present form by the Introduction. 25 commentator Dhammapāla, and that the author’s name may Professor Barnett has pointed out to rue that the have been Kaccāyana, considered by posterity to have been compilation most recently re-edited in Burma (by Hsaya U Mahākaccāyana, the disciple of the Buddha. ‘He is, however, Pye) as Dvemāṭīkā contains the Bhikkhu and altogether different from the grammarian Kaccāyana, who Bhikkhunipāṭimokkha, the Kammākammavinicchaya, extracts likewise was regarded as identical with Mahākaccāyana’ from the Parivāra and other Vinaya texts, and a (Netti, Introd., p. xxxii). On Candapajjota see Vinaya, i, 276 Pāṭimokkhuddesa, Burmese notes on the Pāṭimokkha. ff. 26 I owe this information to Mr. Shwe Zan Aung’s kindness. would be a mistake to call them ‘ritual’. The Kammavācās are handed down suit the texts. first work of the first Buddhist mission to The thick, square lettering, pompous and Burma was undoubtedly to receive into the decorative, the shining lacquer, and heavily Saṅgha believers wishing to renounce the gilded, silvered, or ivory-plated leaves, bear a world. For those, before they entered’ on likeness to church-property wherever found. further studies, a knowledge of the sacred Yet we should not forget that they are the texts word in Paḷi would probably begin with the of a religion that has known neither altar nor formal and rigid language of the Kammavācā, sacrifice, and if in Burma the system has and this association lends a touch of interest to developed clerics and a hierarchy, it has never some extremely wearisome matter. First, the had a privileged priesthood. formulas of the pabbajjā (renunciation) and The Vinaya has led to mention of upasampadā (ordination) must have become familiar. Then the ordinary course of monastic The Commentaries. — The Burmese life included various ceremonies, each of tradition as to the great commentators follows which had its prescribed form for the presiding the Sinhalese, which places Buddhaghosa, theras. The bhikkhus taking part were silent, Dhammapāla, Buddhadatta, Ñāṇagambhīra, unless dissenting from what was proposed, but Kassapa, and Ānanda in the fourth, fifth, and 29 in cases where they had offended, sixth centuries A.D. The earliest aṭṭhakathās acknowledged transgression of the rules aloud. (commentaries) and ṭīkās (sub-commentaries or glosses) on the three piṭakas are associated The Kammavācā cannot, of course, be with these names. Equally famous and called literature, but it must be noticed as a authoritative is the compendium of doctrine text representing the immovable tradition of known as the Visuddhimagga (‘Path of old days in Burma. The ceremonies of Purity’) by Buddhaghosa. As for the familiar admission to the Saṅgha and so forth have 30 story of Buddhaghosa’ s career, the Burmese continued to modern times, accompanied by adhere closely to the Sinhalese version, but the ancient formulas; and in the history of the though the scene of this almost incredibly Order we find that some lively movements in prolific writer’s great commenting feats is literature and one most important mission to always considered to be Ceylon, he has been Ceylon were due to ceremonial questions, gravely claimed by the Talaings as a native of particularly the question of consecrating 31 27 Thatōn. boundaries (sīmā). For this last was a formality on which the validity of ordination Dhammapāla32 wrote at Kañcipura and thence the ‘legitimate descent’ of teachers (Conjeveram) in the Dekkhan, the region with depended, and such consecration has always which, according to their ancient records, the been considered in Burma of great importance Talaings kept up active communication. to religion and the religious reputation of a Knowledge of Buddhist texts in Lower Burma region or community. was derived, Forchhammer thinks, from Dhammapāla’s country.33 We do not know of In all these texts we find the same any works written in the Talaing ‘country conventional character and monotonous 28 itself during the fifth, sixth, and. seventh repetition. Even the MSS. in which the

27 The boundaries in question mark the enclosure within 29 Sās., pp. 33, 34; Piṭakatthamain, pp. 21 ff. which ceremonies such as ordination can be properly 30 performed. The observance of these bounds is very strict, and See the article an Buddhaghosa by T. Foulkes, Ind. Ant., a ceremony carried out in a place unfitted for’ consecration is vol. xix, pp. 105-22. 31 not valid. Modern Burmese scholars have abandoned this belief. See 28 ‘As in law-books all the world over,’ says Professor Rhys Foulkes’ ‘Buddhaghosa’ (Ind. Ant., vol. xix, ‘pp. 113, 114). 32 Davids, who has, in his wide experience, plumbed the depths Gandhavaṃsa, pp. 60, 69; Forchhammer, List, pp. vi, vii. of Vinaya and law both. 33 Forchhammer, Jardine Prize Essay, p. 27. 37 centuries, a period of great literary activity in Buddhism, need not be discussed here. The Ceylon and South India. point from which we start is their acceptance Most of the well-known ṭikās were written of Buddhist teaching from India and the rise of 34 a body of learned monks in Rāmañña who in Ceylon, and works such as the preserved the ancient Doctrine and Discipline commentary on the Nettipakaraṇa and another and conveyed them’ to Upper Burma, where entitled Saccasaṅkhepa (‘Compendium of the 35 both had long been forgotten. We say Truth ‘). Better known, perhaps, than any forgotten, for Burmese authors will not admit other in Burma is the twelfth century 38 that they were newcomers. But the tradition compendium of the Abhidhamma known as that no less than three out of the nine missions the Abhidhammatthasangaha, also of sent out by Aśoka went to Upper Burma in the Sinhalese origin. These old exegetical books, 39 which we shall find again and again in our third century B.C. looks like a piece of the progress through Burmese literature, must be national pride that is so inventive in these matters, and can only be quoted as an known at least by name before we can discuss 40 ‘uncorroborated legend’. the work of the scholars of Burma. Some obscurity hangs over the beginnings 37 of Buddhist culture in Further India. For views of different authorities on this subject see Reports on the Census of Burma, 1891 (Eales) and 1901 According to a well-established tradition (Lowin). The Talaing chronicles and inscriptions are rich in Indian Buddhism moved from the south material for study, material which we are less and less likely coast—that is, from the region called in the to unearth as time goes on, for this ancient language is fast disappearing from Burma, and students of it are unfortunately ancient chronicles Suvaṇṇabhumi— very few. northwards, while some archŚological and 38 It is certain that the accounts of Burmese chroniclers do linguistic evidence allows us to suppose that it not support Forchhammer’s belief that there was no Burmese also found its way through the mountain civilization to speak of till the Talaings conquered the upper 36 country. Neither Taw Sein Ko (Ind. Ant., xxiii, p. 258) nor passes of the North. But it was certainly not Phayre (History of Burma, p. 3) take this view. I have not yet in the upper valley of the Irrawaddy that the discovered Forchhammer’s reason for concluding that there was so great a difference between the two countries, though Paḷi literature of Burma had its origin. This the southern provinces were more easily accessible from India gift the Burmese owe to their more advanced than Upper Burma. neighbours, the Talaings of Rāmaññadesa, 39 The well-known names of the regions visited by the now called Lower Burma. missions are carefully displaced by the Burmese, to cover regions in Further India. See Sāsanavaṃsa, Introduction, pp. 3 The origin and history of the Mōn or ff., and note by Dr. ‘Burgess, ‘Fabricated Geography’ (Ind. Ant., 1901, vol. xxx, p. 387). As an example of the sources Talaing people, who were to be (unwillingly as from which we may hope to add much to our knowledge see it happened) the messengers of the purer the Maunggun Gold Plates, by Tun Nyein; an account of two gold plates found in a brick in the year 1897 at the village of Maunggun in the Prome district The inscriptions on the plates consist of quotations from the Buddhist scriptures. ‘They are in the Paḷi language, and are written in characters which it is believed were in vogue in the first century A. D., when the 34 Sās., p. 33. Vide Minayeff, Recherches, pp. 273, 274. kingdom of Prome (Sīrikhettarā) was in the zenith of its T’ho ṭikās are sometimes mentioned in Burmese lists under power. The alphabet corresponds to a large extent with that collective titles. The most important ṭikās of Dhammapāla are used in the inscriptions of Pagan in the fourth and fifth known as the Līnatthappakāsanī (see GV., pp. 60, 69). centuries, and several of the letters also resemble those of the Piṭakatthamain, pp. 32, 33. South Indian class of alphabets’ (Epigraphia Indica, vol. v, p. 35 Forchhammer, Essay, p. 25. See also SVD. 101). The two plates are now in the British Museum. (Sāsanavaṃsadīpa), verses 1194 and 1220. 40 Forbes, Legendary History of Burma and Arakan, p. 10. 36 See Taw Sein Ko, ‘The Origin of the Burmese Race’ The researches of Forchhammer and other scholars who have (Buddhism, vol. i, No. 3, p. 445); also ‘Preliminary Study of followed him in’ this subject since 1890 have been summed the PO: U: Daung Inscription’ (Ind. Ant., vol. xxii, p. 7); up lately (1908) by Mr. C.C. Lowis in the Imperial Gazetteer Phayre, History of Burma, pp. 3, 4, 14; R. C. Temple, ‘Notes of India. He says: “A close study of the inscriptions and native on Antiquities in Rāmaññadesa’ (Ind. Ant., vol. xxii, pp. 37 histories has revealed the fact that as the religion, letters, and ff.); A. Grünwedel, Buddhistische Kunst in Indien, pp. 132, civilisation of Upper Burma were influenced by Magadha, 136, 138. Nepal, Tibet, and China, so those of the Talaings of Lower We must seek a safe starting-point for our Forbes, who follows the Talaing record, says history of the Paḷi literature, and we find it in of the early days following the Indian mission: the eleventh century A.D. At that time the Paḷi ‘Gradually the new doctrines gained ground, scriptures were introduced to Upper Burma by pagodas arose, and the faith of Buddha or Talaing teachers. The existence of a strong Gaudama established itself in Thatone, to Buddhist community in the maritime flourish amid all vicissitudes for over two provinces (Rāmaññadesa) long before this date thousand years to the present day, on the spot is very probable. It has been supposed that where the great Thagya pagoda lifts its worn Indian colonies were already flourishing in and ancient head, probably the oldest Talaing territory, from Chittagong to the architectural monument of Buddhism in 44 Straits (Forchhammer), at the time of the Burma.’ Aśokan mission. If so, the early missionaries When a religious reform in the eleventh brought the teaching of Gotama to a country century drew Ceylon and Burma together where Indian religion and customs had already 45 Anorata, king of Burma, fresh from vigorous made a home, and whether they were opposed measures against heresy in his own country, or not41 they could be understood; and in time agreed with Vijayabāhu, king of Ceylon, on the doctrine of the Buddha prevailed. the Paḷi texts which were to be accepted as There is no elaborated ancient Paḷi representing the true teaching of the Buddha. chronicle for Further India to be compared Afterwards, in the reign of Parākramabāhu I, a with the Mahāvaṃsa and Dīpavaṃsa of council was held (A.D. 1165) in Ceylon to 42 Ceylon, but there are allusions in these works revise this agreement and settle all such 46 which throw some light on the religious questions. history of Pegu and Arakan. The Burmese We shall see that from the eleventh century chronicles are of more recent date, and help onwards new recruits press into Paḷi must be sought from monuments which do not scholarship. And whence? Not only from the always yield up their secret readily. But we Talaing country but from Upper Burma, an may safely say that events in India and Ceylon advance which was directly due to the action greatly affected religion in the maritime of the strenuous Burmese king. The reforms provinces (Rāmaññadesa). Refugees from the with which Anorata’s name is associated were countries where Buddhism was persecuted or 47 greatly needed, and had important results. declining, as in India after the eighth century, without doubt strengthened the Buddhist 43 44 element in the Talaing country. Captain Forbes, Legendary History, p. 10. 45 The Anawrata of Forbes’ History. ‘The date of the commencement of his reign is uncertain, as the chronicles Burma were affected by Ceylon, South India, and Cambodia” differ from each other’ (Legendary History, p. 221; Phayre, (Article ‘Burma’, in vol. i, p. 28, Imperial Gazetteer of India, History of Burma, p. 22). Cf. Duroiselle, Bulletin de l’Ecole Provincial Series. Calcutta, 1908). Française d’Extrême Orient, tome v, p. 150. 41 ‘According to the Talaing legend the Buddhist 46 Kern, Manual of Indian Buddhism, p. 132 (Grundriss der missionaries on their arrival met with great opposition from Indo-Arischen Philologie und Alterthumskunde, vol. iii, Pt. the local teachers — probably Brahmins—being denounced viii). The Sāsanavaṃsa (p. 61) says: ‘Jinacakke ekasaṭṭhādhīke and reviled by them as heretics.’—Forbes, Legendary History, pañcasate sahasse ca sampatte kaliyuge ekasattatādhike tisate p. 10. sampatte Anuruddharājā rajjam pāpuṇi’ Anuruddha became 42 See on these chronicles Dr. Wilhelm Geiger, The king in the year 1571 of religion (lit, of the Buddha cycle) and Dīpavaṃsa and Mahāvaṃsa (translated by Ethel the year 371 of the kaliyuga (the common era, beginning 638 Coomaraswamy), Colombo, 1908. A.D.). 43 Sir R. C. Temple pointed out some years ago that 47 See Sās., p. 56. The Sāsanavaṃsa agrees in certain details ‘Suvarṇadvīpa’ was the ‘headquarters of Buddhism in the with the Burmese chronicles from which Forbes drew his East’ in the tenth century. He gives a reference to a passage in account, which is as follows: ‘It would be difficult to decide Sarat Chandra Das’ Indian Pandits in the Land of Snow, where what the system of religion that at this time prevailed in we find mention of an Indian ‘Northern’ Buddhist’s visit to Burma can be termed. It was certainly not Brahmanism. The Chandrakirtti, head of the Order at Suvarṇadvīpa. The visitor native records state that King Sawlahan built five hollow was Dīpaṅkara Śrījñāna Atira (Ind. Ant., vol. xxii, p. 358). temples. In each temple was placed an image resembling A religion48which a Buddhist from the credulity of the people he succeeded, for he South would have scorned to call ‘religion’ had convinced the king. But even when the completely possessed the region over which communities were dissolved and the ‘false Anorata ruled, and the Burmese king himself, Samaṇas’51 reduced to the state of ‘ownerless with mistaken piety, supported it in default of dogs’, confusion, heresy, and ignorance still a better. A community numbering many reigned in the land, and Arahanta pointed thousands of monks. with their disciples earnestly to the only means of putting religion flourished on the popularity of theli debased beyond all danger. doctrine, teaching the laity that the worst The true doctrine must be obtained and crimes need bring no retribution if the guilty guarded (he preached) with the sacred texts. man recited (or engaged some one to recite) an 49 They were not to be had in Burma, but existed appropriate paritta. The tyranny of these in abundance at Sudhammapura, besides relics monks went so far as to exact from parents the of the Buddha. Anorata was full of faith, and handing over of either sons or daughters ‘to 50 he was not a man to believe passively. He sent the teacher’ before giving them in marriage. an embassy to the Talaing king reigning at But in course of time a Buddhist from the Thatōn, Manohari, to ask, as a believer having South was in Anorata’s counsels, and a the right to ask, for relics and copies of the sweeping change was brought about. scriptures. Arahanta, a Talaing monk from Thatōn (the But Manohari was, or chose to appear, too Sudhammapura of the Paḷi chronicles), became strict a Buddhist to allow holy relics and texts the king’s preceptor and adviser, and used all to go to a country with the indifferent religious his great influence to break up the supposed reputation that disgraced Burma. He refused order of Samaṇas (ascetics): In spite of the Anorata’s request, and refused in wounding 52 and contemptuous terms. The King of neither nat nor para. To these, morning and evening, food and Burma, outraged and furious, descended the spirits were offered, and so they were worshipped and Irrawaddy with his armies and laid siege to propitiated. The priests or teachers of this religion are called the thirty great Arees and their disciples. Their doctrines are Sudhammapura. In the year 1058 the Talaing represented as a complete subversion of all moral law. They capital fell before the besiegers. Spoils and taught, it is said, whosoever shall commit murder he is freed prisoners, among whom were Manohari and a from his sins by repeating a prayer or invocation; whosoever shall kill his parents, by repeating a prayer he is freed from the number of learned monks, were carried off to punishment due to the five greatest sins. These teachers also Pagan. Anorata’s end was gained and the Paḷi were addicted to the practice of gross immorality.’ (Forbes, Tipiṭaka came to Burma. Legendary History, p. 22; see also Phayre, History of Burma, p. 33.) 48 A form of Nāga-worship, according to Burmese histories, had already prevailed for some five centuries in Pagan before Anorata’s accession, while ‘Buddhism itself had been corrupted by the Tantric system, which is a mixture of magic, witchcraft, and Siva-worship; and this Tantric Buddhism apparently percolated into Burma through Bengal, Assam, and Manipur, and allied itself with the northern school prevailing at Pagan’ (Taw Sein Ko, ‘Introduction of Buddhism into Burma’: Buddhism, vol. i, No. 4, p. 589). The statements of the Burmese histories are a help, but the chronology needs careful sifting. 49 See above. 50 The Sāsanavaṃsa gives no further explanation. The mention of sons as well as daughters prevents our concluding the custom mentioned to be that prevailing in Cambodia, where marriageable virgins were yielded up to a bonze before the marriage ceremony (see article by P. Pelliot, Mémoires sur 51 les Coutumes du Cambodge’; Bulletin de l‘Ecole Française Paḷi, Samaṇakuttakā. d’Extrême Orient, tome ii, p. 153). 52 Sās., Introduction, p. 18. CHAPTER II

THE RISE OF PAḶI SCHOLARSHIP IN UPPER BURMA — THE SADDANĪTI — CHAPAṬA AND THE SĪHALASANGHA — LEARNING AT PAGAN ( ARIMADDANA) IN THE TWELFTH, THIRTEENTH, AND FOURTEENTH CENTURIES

Though the Burmese began their literary with awe at the loss of his magical attribute, history by borrowing from their conquered sold one of his royal gems and devoted the neighbours, the Talaings— and not before the price to two great images of the Buddha, 55 eleventh century— the growth of Paḷi which are said to exist to the present day. scholarship among them was so rapid that the Anorata, mindful of Arahanta’s counsels, epoch following close on this tardy beginning was, above all, eager to enrich his city with the is considered one of the best that Burma has sacred texts. Those brought from Thatōn had seen. The works then produced supplied the 56 been stored in a splendid pavilion and placed material or afforded the favourite models for at the disposal of the Saṅgha for study. Not much of the Pall-Burmese literature of later content with his large spoils, the king sent to times. Ceylon for more copies of the Tipiṭaka, which The causes of this speedy maturity are easy Arahanta afterwards examined and compared 57 to trace. Rāmañña was conquered. Relics, with the Thatōn collection. So the ground books, and teachers had been forcibly carried was prepared for the harvest that soon to Burma. Instead of suffering by followed. Anorata did not live to see the first 58 transplantation the religion of the Buddha fruits of his husbandry, but, if we can accept seems to have flourished more vigorously in the date of the Piṭakatthamain, the first essay its new centre. The Burmese king had of a Burmese author in Paḷi scholarship was conveyed the whole state and dignity of the made in the year 1064 A.D., during the reign 59 conquered Sudhammapura to his own capital, of Kyansitthā, a son of Anorata and even his captive Manohari helped to add 53 Kyansitthā was the founder of the to the religious splendour of Pagan. About 60 celebrated Nanda or Ānanda temple and Manohari a curious little legend is related,54 vihāra (monastery) at Pagan. The legend goes perhaps to show that his religion needed purifying, notwithstanding that he had scorned 55 the Burmese as heretics. It is said that he Sās., p. 64. 56 Paḷi, Batanamaye pāsāde (Sās., p. 6.3). The Libraries of possessed a magical power by which fire the ancient monasteries were mostly buildings apart. issued from his mouth when he spoke. Thus, 57 Sās., p. 64. The Siñhalese chronicles say that a common whenever he came to pay a vassal’s duty to canon for Burma and Ceylon was arranged by Anorata ‘and Vijayabāhu the Great (see appendix to Mr. Nevill’s Anorata, the flames burst forth, to the great manuscript catalogue of his collection, made in Ceylon and terror of his liege, who anxiously applied a now at the British Museum). religious cure to the dreadful prodigy. Food 58 M. Duroiselle mentions inscriptions which establish 1059 A.D. as the year of Anorata’s death (‘Notes sur la Géographie was taken from a holy shrine, and after due apocryphe de la Birmanie’: Bulletin de l’Ecole Française, homage it was given to Manohari to eat. The tome v, p. 150). flames appeared no more. Manohari, filled 59 Some religious foundations of Kyansitthā are dated 1059 A.D. (Bulletin, tome iii, p. 676). His Paḷi name is Chattaguhinda (Sās., p. 75; Forbes, Legendary History, p. 23; 53 Called Arimaddana in the Paḷi chronicles. A temple exists Phayre, History of Burma, pp. 39, 281 Piṭakatthamain, p. 68). at Myin Pagan, 2 miles south of Pagan, built by Manohari (or M. Duroiselle expresses some doubt as to the exactness of Manuha) in 1059 A.D. See Taw Sein Ko in ArchŚological Phayre’s dates for the eleventh and twelfth centuries. Survey of Burma (quoted in Bulletin de l’Ecole Française, 60 Described in Sir Henry Yule’s Mission to the Court of tome iii, p. 677) Ava, p. 36; and Craufurd’s Journal of an Embassy to the Court 54 Sās., p. 64. of Ava, p. 114. that the temple was designed from a vision of grammar divided into twenty-five paricchedas the Nandamula cave in the Himalaya granted or sections. It is very interesting to see that in to the king by eight saints of that region, who the second part of the work, the Dhātumālā journeyed through the air daily to receive (‘Garland of Roots’), the grammarian gives the Kyansitthā’s hospitality. These miraculous Sanskrit equivalents of the Paḷi forms. visits are of smaller interest to us than another, Aggavaṃsa was tutor to King Narapatisithu less sensational tradition of the holy place. At (A.D. 1167—1202), a powerful and peaceable this monastery Dhammasenāpati wrote the 61 monarch, whose reign was the most Kārikā, a grammatical work, in Paḷi. This prosperous epoch in the history of the modest little metrical treatise has lived bravely 64 kingdom of Pagan. According to the through some eight centuries and was last Gandhavaṃsa, Aggavaṃsa was of Jambudipa republished a few years ago. (strictly meaning India, but with Burmese Dhammasenāpati composed two other writers often Burma).65 Forchhammer works, the Etimāsamidīpanī (or mentions him among the famous residents in Etimāsamidīpikā) and the Manohāra62 Beyond the retired monastery on the northern plateau the bare mention of these last two titles, and above Pagan, ‘the cradle of Paḷi-Burmese the statement that the author wrote the Kārikā literature.’66 at the request of the monk Ñāṇagambhīra, the The Saddanīti was the first return gift of Gandhavaṃsa leaves us without information. Burma to Ceylon. A few years after its Ñāṇagambhīra of Pagan is perhaps the thera completion the thera (‘elder’) Uttarājīva left mentioned in the Piṭakatthamain as the author Pagan and crossed the sea to visit the of the religious work Tathāgatuppatti. 67 celebrated Mahāvihāra, taking with him a During the reigns of Anorata’s immediate copy of the Saddanīti, which was received successors learning took firm root at Pagan, with enthusiastic admiration, and declared and in the year 1154 the monk Aggavaṃsa superior to any work of the kind written by completed the Saddanīti, a grammar of the Siñhalese scholars. Tipiṭaka, described as ‘the most 63 Uttarājīva was accompanied by his pupil comprehensive in existence’ It established the 68 the novice Chapaṭa, whose name was reputation of Burmese scholarship in that age destined to eclipse, for a time at least, even and the fame of the author to the present day, that of Aggavaṃsa. He received ordination for the Saddanīti is still republished in Burma from the Saṅgha in Ceylon, and lived in its as a classic. It consists of aphorisms on Paḷi midst for some years, ardently studying the doctrine as handed down in the Mahāvihāra,

61 and, we may suppose, mastering many ancient GV., pp. 63, 73. Dhammasenāpati is called an ācariya (teacher) in Gandhavaṃsa, but in Forchhammer’s List the texts of high authority which had not yet found author of Kārikā and Kārikātīkā is put down as a Burmese their way to Burma. His talents and forcible nobleman of Pagan bearing the honorary title of personality were just the other elements Dhammasenāpati. It is likely that be was known as a man of rank and importance before he entered the Order, and perhaps he threw himself into serious studies while still a layman. We shall find such cases later. 64 62 Forbes, Legendary History, p. 24. The Gandhavaṃsa (pp. 64, 73) is my only authority here. 65 The curious title Etimāsamidīpanī appears to have no meaning GV., pp. 67, 72; see also SVD, verse 1238; Fausböll, Cat. whatever and may be wrongly copied (perhaps for Ind. MSS., p. 49. 66 Ehimāyasaṃdīpanī). Forchhammer, Report (Pagan), p. 2. 67 63 C. Duroiselle, Bulletin, tome v, p. 147, note. The This famous and ancient monastery is said to have been Sāsanavaṃsa mentions another learned monk of Pagan, founded by the King of Ceylon, Devānampiya-Tissa, for the sometimes called Aggapaṇḍita and sometimes Aggavaṃsa, thera Mahinda, Aśoka’s son. with whom our author might be confused. Aggapaṇḍita, who 68 Or Chapada, so called after the village where he was born, lived in the thirteenth century, wrote the Lokuppattipakāsanī near Bassein (Paḷi, Kusimanagara). In religion his name was (see Piṭakatthamain, pp. 60, 66). Saddhammajotipāla (Sās., p. 74). needed to make his stay in the sacred island The Sīmālaṅkāra or Sīmālaṅkāraṭīkā, a important for the literary history of Burma. treatise on boundaries and sites for religious ceremonies, is a commentary on a work by the The works usually ascribed to 74 Saddhammajotipāla, otherwise Chapaṭa, Siñhalese thera Vācissara. Another work on represent the second stage in the monastic monastic topics is the scholarship of his time and country. Vinayasamuṭṭhānadīpanī, written, as the favourite formula has it, ‘at the request of’ 75 The Suttaniddesa or Kaccāyanasuttaniddesa Chapaṭa’s preceptor. The is a grammatical treatise explaining the Vinayagūḷhatthadīpanī, again, is an ‘sūtras’ (aphorisms) of the Indian grammarian explanation of difficult passages in the Kaccāyana.69 Forchhammer70 mentions the Vinayapiṭaka.76 The Nāmacāradīpanī (‘on Suttaniddesa as a work, originally ascribed to ethics,’ according to Forchhammer, but Kaccāyana, introduced by Chapaṭa into classed by the Piṭakatthamain as Burma. The Sāsanavaṃsa, Gandhavaṃsa, and ‘Abhidhamma’) may be of Chapaṭa’s Sāsanavaṃsadīpa give Chapaṭa as the author, composition. It was, at all events, introduced 77 and say that he wrote at Arimaddana by him into Burma. 71 (Pagan). The Gandhavaṃsa adds that he 78 composed the Suttaniddesa ‘at the request of The Gandhisāra or Ganthisāra is evidently his pupil Dhammacāri. an anthology or manual for study condensed from important texts. The remaining works His other well-known work is the ascribed to Chapaṭa, the Mātikatthadīpanī and Sankhepavaṇṇanā. According to Paṭṭhānagaṇānaya, treat of Abhidhamma 72 79 Forchhammer’s sources Chapaṭa introduced subjects. the Sankhepavaṇṇanā from Ceylon and transcribed it from the Siñhalese into the It would be rash to say, without careful Burmese-Talaing alphabet, but the comparison of the literature of the two Sāsanavaṃsa, Sāsanavaṃsadīpa, and countries, that, even at that early period, the Gandhavaṃsa state that he composed it. Burmese Sangha showed a keener interest in the Abhidhamma than the Siñhalese, but this According to the Gandhavaṃsa it was the only 80 one of his eight works that was written in was certainly the case later. The school or Ceylon. As to the basis of this work, it sect founded by Chapaṭa and known as the appears, from the title given in the MSS., to be Sihaḷasaṅgha (or Ceylon sangha) of Burma a commentary on the was probably absorbed in monastic questions. Abhidhammatthasaṅgaha, then recently For Chapaṭa had returned to Pagan, a written by a Siñhalese thera, Anuruddha. In missionary of Siñhalese orthodoxy. Deeply arrangement the Sankhepavaṇṇanā follows the imbued with the belief that the Mahāvihāra Abhidhammatthasaṅgaha, being divided into 73 nine paricchedas. Piṭakatthamain mentions Sankhepavaṇṇanā under the heading Abhidhamma (P.TH., p. 50). 74 Piṭakatthamain, pp. 43, 49 ; GV., p. 62; SVD., verses 12, 69 For Kaccāyana see the edition of E. Senart, Paris, 1871; 13. 75 for MSS. consult Fausböll’s Catalogue of Mandalay MSS. in GV., pp.. 64, 74. the India Office Library, pp. 45-8; cf. Forchhaminer, List, pp. 76 P.TH., p. 44. xx, xxi. For editions produced in Burma and Ceylon see 77 Forchhammer, Essay, p. 35; P.TH., p. 45. British Museum Catalogue of Sanskrit and Paḷi Printed Books, 78 Gaṇḍhisāra in the Gandhavaṃsa, p. 74. 1892-1906. 79 70 The Piṭakatthamain (p. 37) mentions another, the Jardine Prize Essay, p. 34. Visuddhimaggagaṇṭhi, on difficult passages in Buddhaghosa’s 71 Sās., p. 74 ; GV., pp. 64, 74; Sāsanavaṃsadīpa, verses Visuddhimagga. 1247-8 of Piṭakatthamain, p. 66. 80 An observation to this effect is made by Mr. Nevill, 72 Jardine Prize Essay, p. 35 whose information was supplied, for the most part, by 73 Oldenberg, Paḷi MSS. in. the India Office, JPTS., 1882, p. Siñhalese monks well versed in the Paḷi literature of their 85; Fausböll, Cat. Mand. MSS., JPTS., 1896, p. 39. The country. alone had kept the legitimate ‘line of grammarians follow close on one another at descent’81 unbroken from teacher to teacher, this period. Schisms had indeed arisen, but the and that valid ordination could only be time had not yet come for works of polemik, received in Ceylon, he wished to confer the and the good monks of Pagan were busy upasampadā on the Pagan brethren who, never enriching the new store of learning in the having visited the sacred precincts, were still country. In the work of Saddahammasiri, the outside the pale. To fulfil all conditions author of the grammatical treatise 85 required by the Vinaya he brought with him Saddatthabhedacintā, we catch a glimpse of a four companions82 qualified like himself. The culture that recalls Aggavaṃsa. little group was to be the nucleus of the new Saddhammasiri’s grammar is based partly on Order in Burma, the rightful heirs of the one Kaccāyana’s Paḷi aphorisms and partly on tradition. Sanskrit authorities. The Sāsanavaṃsa tells us that Saddhammasiri also translated the Brihaja But this claim was stoutly opposed in some 86 (?) into the Burmese language. of the monasteries of Pagan. The traditions of He was probably among the first to use Burmese as a the South country and of Anorata’s great 87 literary instrument. If the work mentioned is Talaing teacher were still flourishing. 88 Arahanta, it was claimed, had been in the the astrological Brīhajjātaka it could not have ‘direct line’ from the ancient missionaries put a great strain on the resources of the Soṇa and Uttara; his disciples had been Burmese idiom (even before the immense qualified to receive and hand on the body of Paḷi words added later had come to the upasampadā, and the Mahāvihāra itself could aid of the vernacular), so the feat was not a confer no better title. The older community surprising one. But the thera’s knowledge of therefore declined to be drawn into Chapaṭa’s Sanskrit is an interesting point. It is curious, fold, and he, having the then reigning king on too, to find him busied with one of the Brahmanic works known as ‘Vedas’ in his side, was powerful enough to make them 89 Burma. appear the seceders, while his followers refused all association with them in Another grammatical work of some 83 ceremonies. But King Narapatisithu was a importance is the commentary generally Buddhist of the old magnificent school, and known as Nyāsa, but sometimes as though he believed devoutly in Mahāvihāra Mukhamattadīpanī, on the Kaccāyanayoga. 90 orthodoxy, he neither persecuted nor neglected The author was Vimalabuddhi, who is the communities that denied it. The ruins of claimed by the Sāsanavaṃsa as a thera of old Pagan still witness to his bounty towards Pagan, but is said by some authorities to be of the different Sanghas84 of which the Arahanta sect (called, to distinguish it from Chapaṭa’s 85 GV., pp. 62, 72; Fausböll, Cat. Mand. MSS., pp. 47, 48; Ceylon school, the Mramma or Burma Forchham mer, List,p. xix. 86 Sās., p. 75: ‘So yeva thera Brīhajam nāma Vedasatthana Sangha) was the most important. Names of pi maramma-bhāsāa parivattesi.’ Cf. Piṭakatthamain, p. 68. 87 M. Duroiselle mentions inscriptions in Burmese of the tenth and eleventh centuries, containing words of Sanskrit 81 This line is established by the learning of ‘right doctrine’, derivation, and he expresses the belief that Sanskrit was from the teacher and director chosen by the novice; the teacher known in Burma before Paḷi, which, so shortly after its must be duly and himself a pupil of another such, and so on in importation from Thatōn (at the epoch of the inscriptions), direct ascent of the disciples of the Buddha. ‘n’était connu que de l’élite des moines’ (Bulletin, tome v, p. 82 Ānanda, Sīvali, and Tāmalinda (Sās., p. 65). Five was the 154). 88 smallest number of which a Chapter (for acts of the Sangha) Of Varāha-Mihira; see Weber, Indische could consist according to the Vinaya. Literaturgeschichte, 2nd ed., pp. 277, 278. 83 See the Kalyāṇi inscriptions (edited by Taw Sein Ko), 89 For this term applied to the miscellaneous learning of Ind. Ant., vols. xxii and xxiii. Brahman immigrants to Burma, see below, Chapter IV. 84 ‘Fraternities from Ceylon, from the conquered Haṃsāvati, 90 Called Mahā-Vimalabuddhi to distinguish him from a from Siam, Camboja, and probably Nepal and China, later writer (Sās., p. 75; P.TH., p. 63; Forchhammer, List, p. sojourned in Pagan.’—Forchhammer, Report (Pagan), p. 2. xxiii; Fausböll, Cat. Mand. MSS., pp. 47, 48). 96 Ceylon. A ṭīkā or gloss on the Nyāsa was were all of Pagan. A written by Vimalabuddhi91 to whom an Lingatthavivaraṇavinicchaya,97 by an author Abhidhammatthasaṅgahaṭīkā is also whose name is not mentioned, is apparently ascribed.92 based on Subhūtacandana’s treatise, or explains difficult passages in it. Uttama, the The Nyāsa was glossed by another 98 author of the Lingatthavivaraṇaṭīkā, commentator in the reign of Narapatisithu. The also wrote a scholium on Bālāvatāra, the well- scholiast this time was a man of high rank who 99 addressed himself to the task for love of one of known grammar by Vācissara of Ceylon. the king’s daughters. At least, the story, as Another of the Pagan grammarians, whose related by the Sāsanavaṃsa, is that Narapati, work has been studied for centuries and knowing this nobleman to be violently in love republished in recent times, was with one of the princesses, promised him her Dhammadassi, a novice (sāmaṇera) in the hand on condition that he should produce a Order100 when he composed his well-known 93 work of profound learning. He undertook a treatise Vācavācaka or Vaccavācaka. A scholium on the Nyāsa. The Sāsanavaṃsa does commentary on it was written by 101 not make it clear whether he was an official at Saddhammanandi. the Court first and entered the Order on From the Saddatthabhedacintā of purpose to write his book, or whether he was Saddhammasiri sprang a number of already of the Order when he fell in love. We commentaries of which the best known is the are only told that when he ‘returned to the lay 102 Mahāṭīkā by the thera Abhaya of Pagan. life’ the king conferred on him the title Abhaya’s name reappears as the author of the rājjuggāhāmacca. The Burmese title by which 103 Sambandhacintaṭīkā, a commentary on the his work is sometimes mentioned is 104 Sambandhacintā of Saṅgharakkhita. Thanbyin.94 Forchhammer places both Saddhammasiri A treatise entitled Lokuppatti by 105 and Abhaya in the fourteenth century. Aggapaṇḍita95was written at Pagan. The author was a native of Burma. He was 96 GV., pp. 63, 67, 72, 73. The P. TH., p. 72, ascribes apparently one of the few Palists of his time Lingatthavivaraṇa and the ṭīkā to Saddhammakitti of Sagaing. who was not chiefly devoted to the study of 97 GV., pp. 65, 75. the language. 98 GV., pp. 63, 67; Forchhammer, Report (Pagan), p. 2; Forchhammer, List, p. xxiii; P.TH., p. 70. The Gandhavaṃsa mentions a grammar, 99 Dhammakitti in Forchhammer’s List ; Vācissara in India Office MS.. etc. See Cat. Mand. MSS., p. 46. Lingatthavivaraṇa by Subhūtacandana, who 100 was followed by Ñānasāgara with Sās., p. 75. 101 See Fausböll, Cat. Mand. MSS., p. 50, for commentary Lingatthavivaraṇappakāsaka and Uttama with and ṭīkās on Vaccavācaka. They are entitled Lingatthavivaraṇaṭīkā. These three doctors Vaccavācakavaṇṇanā, Vaccavācakaṭīkā, and Vaccavācakadīpanī. Saddhammanandi is the only author mentioned. In Forchhammer’s List (p. xxii) these works 91 GV., pp. 63, 73. appear without names of authors; cf. P.TH., p. 71, according 92 See SVD., verse 1223. to which the Vaccavācaka was written at Pagan by a thera, 93 It seems that the king’s request was not out of the way, for ‘name unknown,’ and the ṭīkā by Saddhammanandi. 102 the nobleman was a learned grammarian according to the GV., pp. 63, 73 ; Forchhammer, Report (Pagan), p. 2; SVD., verse 1240, where it is said that the Nyāsappadīpaṭīkā List, p. xix. The commentary in the Mandalay Collection at the was written ‘ekena amaccena saddatthanayaññunā’. Cf. P.TH., India Office is called Saddatthabhedacintādīpanī; v. Fausböll, p. 64. There is a ṭīkā. called Nyāsappadīpa (incomplete) at the Cat. Mand. MSS., p. 50. India Office. The author’s name is missing. See Fausböll, Cat. 103 Fausböll, Cat. Mand. MSS., p. 50; Forchhammer, List, p. Mand. MSS, p. 48. xxi; P.TH., pp. 69, 71. 94 Sās., p. 75; Forchhammer, List, p. xxiii. Thanbyin 104 The Sambandhacintā, on syntactical relation, is probably (rājjuggāhāmacca) was a title given to revenue officers, of the twelfth century. The author was a scholar of Ceylon, nearly corresponding to the thugyī of modern times. See better known by his famous Subodhālaṃkāra, on the art of Inscriptions of Pagan, Pinya, and Ava, p. 128, note. poetry, and the Vuttodaya, on prosody. 95 GV., pp. 64, 67; Sās., p. 74; P.TH., p. 60. 105 Forchhammer, Jardine Prize Essay, p. 36. Unfortunately the Sāsanavaṃsa and preceptor to the king, who wished to be Gandhavaṃsa, usually careful to give us the instructed in the Vinaya. The end of Rāhula’s birthplace or residence of our authors, rarely story is curious. Under him the king studied give us their exact date. Without a close the Khuddasikkhā107 and the ṭīkā on the same; comparison of the texts one with another, or a afterwards, with the largess that his grateful minute study of the chronicles of monasteries, pupil bestowed on him, the thera abandoned we must be content with conjectures as to the the Order and lived as a layman. order in which the scholars of Pagan should This little history is no doubt told for appear in literary history. But we may perhaps edification more than for its human interest, venture to place most of those just mentioned like the story of Ānanda, whose transgression, in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. Before less dramatic than Rāhula’s, was also against passing on to the later period of Paḷi literature monastic discipline. Narapati had presented at Pagan it will be well to look for a moment at the three theras, Sīvali, Tāmalinda, and the state of the Burmese Sangha, or rather Ānanda, each with an elephant. Ānanda, Sanghas. wishing to give his to his relations in Narapati’s impartial benevolence had Kañcipura, was preparing to ship it from secured a peaceful life and means of study for Bassein (Kusimanagara), when the others all those who sought them, but it could not remonstrated with him, pointing out that they, prevent discord between the communities; and in a spirit more becoming to followers of the when Chapaṭa died, his school—the Buddha, had turned their elephants loose in the Sīhaḷasaṅgha—split into four factions, each forest. Ānanda argued that kindness to following one of the four theras who had come kinsfolk was also preached by the Master. with Chapaṭa from Ceylon. Neither side would be persuaded, and Ānanda The dissensions (for they can hardly be was cut off from the community. called schisms in the usual sense of the word) Sīvali and Tāmalinda afterwards disagreed that arose within the Sīhaḷasaṅgha, once on another question of conduct. Tāmalinda had stronger and more united than the other sects recommended his disciples to the pious laity in Pagan, were not, it seems, caused by for gifts and other marks of consideration, an questions of dogma. At all events, the action of which the Buddha had strongly 108 Sāsanavaṃsa tells us only of the personal disapproved. After some useless reasons for which Rāhula separated himself admonishing, Sīvali refused to have any first from his colleagues and they in their turn further intercourse with Tāmalinda, and parted company. formed a sect of his own. This very simple Rāhula’s defection was the gravest matter. account of the origin of the four factions in the The story is that he fell desperately in love Sīhaḷasaṅgha is not quite satisfying, but as an with an actress at one of the festivals given by example of monastic traditions in Burma it has King Narapati. His brother-theras entreated a certain interest. Besides, even such and reasoned with -him in vain. Finally, they prayed him to leave the country, and spare his Taw Sein Ko, ‘Remarks on the Kalyāni Inscrjptions,’ Ind. community the scandal of his ‘return to the Ant., xxiv, p. 301. The ancient Ma1ayadeśa (an Indian colony) was in the Malay Peninsula (v. Fournerean, Le Siam ancien, p. lower life’. He then took ship and went to 52). 106 107 ‘Malayadīpa’, and in that country became A compendium of the Vinaya written in Ceylon, edited by Professor E. Müller (JPTS, 1883). Ṭīkās on this text were composed by Revata and Saṅgharakkhita, both of Ceylon 106 Sās., p. 66. The reading chosen by Minayeff in his (vide P.TH., p. 48). transcript of the text, and, after some hesitation, by the present 108 Sās., p. 67. It is here called by a technical name, writer in editing the Sāsanavaṃsa, was ‘Mallarudīpa’. The vacīviññatti. For pronouncements in the Vinaya on this MS. corrects to Malayadīpa. The episode is interesting. The subject, see Vinaya, v. p. 125 (Oldenberg’s edition), and reading Malaya is confirmed by the Kalyāni inscriptions. See compare iii, pp. 227, 256, etc. fragments of the personal history of theras cases, entitled Vibhattyattha, is ascribed to his 113 sometimes give us a glimpse into the course of daughter. studies and scholarship in their day. 114 The Mukhamattasāra, another In the meantime, as our list of authors grammatical work of this epoch, was written shows, literary work went on at Pagan. After by Sāgara, called Guṇasāgara in the 115 Narapati, the next keen patron of learning was Gandhavaṃsa, which states that Sāgara 109 Kyocvā or Kya-swa. The works produced wrote a ṭīkā on his own work, at the request of under his auspices were chiefly grammatical, the Saṅgharājā (Head of the whole Order), but the Abhidhammatthasaṅgaha was also one who was King Kyocvā’s preceptor. 110 of the principal subjects of study. We should A Vibhatyattha was written, probably at expect to hear that the students of Paḷi Pagan, by the thera Saddhammañāṇa, early in grammar were chiefly monks, eager not only 116 the fourteenth century. Saddhammañāṇa was to understand the ancient texts thoroughly, but the author of a more important work on to master the classic language, in order to 117 metrics, the Chandosāratthavikāsinī (or compose in it themselves. But grammatical Vuttodayapañcikā, being a commentary on knowledge was by no means limited to the 118 Vuttodaya), and the Chapaccayadīpanī, also monasteries. We have already heard of the 119 on prosody. Saddhammañāṇa was not only a learning of Narapati’s minister. In the time of Paḷist, but a Sanskrit scholar, and translated Kyocvā, too, there were grammarians at the 111 the Sanskrit grammar Kātantra (Kalāpa) into king’s court. Indeed, Kyocvā is said to have 120 Paḷi insisted on general diligence around him, while he himself set the example by writing The Gandhatthi, by Maṅgala, is a the Saddabindu and Paramatthabindu, both grammatical work, probably of the fourteenth 112 grammatical works. A little work on Paḷi century, and written at Pagan. At a somewhat later period, but also at Pagan, Sirisaddhammavilāsa composed a Kaccāyana 121 ṭīkā, entitled Saddhammanāsinī. So far, the production of learned works in

109 the communities of Burma seems to have gone Kyaswa succeeded Jeyyasinkha A.D. 1227 (Phayre), or on steadily, in spite of sectarian differences, A.D. 1234 (Barnett). Pagan is described in a florid thirteenth- century poem, the Manavulu-Sandesaya, written in Ceylon, which, after all, would affect grammarians less ed. L. D. Barnett (JRAS,, April, 1905, p. 265). 110 For an example of studies, see the pathetic little story of the monk Disāpāmokkha. who pursued knowledge so 113 Sās, p. 77 (see Preface to Subhūti’s edition of the fervently in his old age (beginning with Kaccāyana and the Abhidhānappadīpikā, 2nd ed., Colombo, 1883). Abhidhammatthasaṅgaha) that in time he astonished the chief 114 Sās., p. 76; GV, pp. 63, 67, 73. theras by his learning, and was chosen by the King to be his 115 Guṇasara in Forchhammer’s List, p. xxiii. ācariya (Sas., p. 77). 116 111 Forchhammer, Essay, p. 36; Fausböll, Cat. Mand. MSS., Paḷi grammar was a popular study at that time even p. 50. among women and young girls. A quaint and interesting 117 passage in the Sāsanavaṃsa, reproduced by Minayeff in the Forchhammer, Report (Pagan), p. 2; Essay, p.36; Fausböll, Cat. Recherches (Sās., p. 78; Recherches, p. 69), describes how Mand. MSS., pp. 51, 52; Forchhammer, List, p. xxiii; Piṭakattharnain, p. 74. busy mothers of families in Arimaddana (Pagan) snatched 118 Vuttodaya, a twelfth-century work by Saṅgharakkhita, written in time to learn. 112 Ceyloiu. published by Fryer in JAS. Bengal, 1877. Saddabindu is ascribed to Kyaswa, and dated 1234 in the 119 Forchhammer, Essay, p. 36. Piṭakatthamain, pp. 45, 70. See also GV., pp. 64, 73; Sās., p. 120 For remarks on the Kātantra of Śarvavarman and the connection 76. Saddabindu has been ascribed to Kyocvā’s preceptor. A between this system and that of Kaccāyana, see Weber, Indische commentary entitled Līnatthavisodhanī was written by Literaturgeschichte, 2nd ed., p. 243, and Kuhn. Nāṇavi1āsa of Pagan (Nevill). The ṭīkā on Saddabindu called 121 Forchharnmer, Report (Pagan), p. 2, and List, p. xx. The MS. of Saddabinduvinicchaya, in the India Office, is by Sirisaddhammavilāsa’s work in the Mandalay collection is called Sirisaddhammakittimahāphussadeva (vide Fausböll, Cat. Kaccāyanasāra ṭīkā (Fausböll, Cat. Mand. MSS., p. 48). The Mand. MSS., p. 50.) A ṭīkā on Paramatthabindu was written at Kaccāyanasāra was composed in the Talaing country (see below, pp. Pagan by the thera Mahākassapa (Piṭakatthamain, p. 51). 36, 37). than experts in the Vinaya. But a change bad the thera Pāsādika, and on the 126 come over the fortunes of the Order in the Daṇḍīppakaraṇa. thirteenth century. The Pagan dynasty fell in Another essay on Pall grammar, written at 1277122 under the assaults of Mongol invaders Panyā under Kittisīhasūra’s patronage, was the from the north, while nearly at the same time a much-studied Saddasāratthajālinī (or Jālini) of successful revolt in the south completed the Nāgita, otherwise Khaṇṭakakhipa, a monk of overthrow of the Burmese power. Shim rulers 127 Sagu. established their capital at Myinzaing (Khandhapura in Paḷi), and the glory of Pagan, A ṭīkā on the Vuttodaya of where the very temples had been torn down to Saṅgharakkhita128was written (at Pagan 129 fortify the city against the enemy, was never according to Forchhammer, at Panyā 130 restored. according to the Gandhavaṃsa by Navavimalabuddhi, otherwise Culla- The Sāsanavaṃsa tells us that many monks Vimalabuddhi, author of a work called settled at Myinzaing, but no books were 131 Abhidhammapaṇṇarasaṭṭhāna, explaining written there. some passages of the Abhidhamma. In the In 1312 a Shān king Sīhasūra founded Gandhavaṃsa a Vuttodaya ṭīkā is ascribed to a Panyā (Paḷi, Vijayapura), where, with a new Vepallabuddhi of Pagan, who appears era of peace and safety for the Order, came a again132as the author of (a) a ṭīkā on revival of literary activity. In Sīhasūra’s reign Saddasāratthajālinī; (b) a Paramatthamañjūsā Sirimaṅgala or Sirisumaṅgala, one of the most (metaphysical); (c) a ṭīkā on the diligent of his fraternity, busied himself with Abhidhammatthasaṅgaha, called commentaries explaining the grammatical Dasagaṇṭivaṇṇanā(or Dasagaṇḍhivaṇṇanā); 133 construction of the Samantapāsādikā and (d) a ṭīkā on Vidadhimukha-maṇḍana. (Buddhaghosa’s commentary on the Vinaya) Another treatise, the Atthabyākkhyāna and the Abhidhamma commentaries, also (exegetical or grammatical), is mentioned as ascribed to Buddhaghosa, Atthasālinī, and 123 the work of a Culla-Vajirabuddhi on one page Sammohavinodanī. This is a good example of the Gandhavaṃsa, and put down to Culla- of reviving monastic industry in that day. And Vimalabuddhi in another. Now among the it is quite curious to see in the new court and Siñhalese authors enumerated in the under the new dynasty a return to the traditions 134 Sāsanavaṃsa we find a Nava-Vimalabuddhi, of Narapati and Kyaswa. An important officer of state (a caturaṅgabalāmacca, to give him 124 126 his Paḷi title) under King Kittisīhasūra wrote GV., pp. 63, 73; Sās., p. 88. The titles last mentioned do not a samvaṇṇanā (commentary) on Moggallāna’s suggest grammar or Buddhist doctrine, but other branches of learning—astrology and poetics. (See Appendix.) 127 well-known Paḷi dictionary, the The quaint nickname Khaṇṭakakhipa came from a little 125 Abhidhānappadīpikā. The same official adventure of Nāgita’s boyhood, when he was not more serious than most boys. He was so unwilling to be taken to the monastery, and wrote ṭīkās on the Koladdhaja at the request of resisted so obstinately, that his father lost patience with him, and threw him bodily into a thorny bush. See Sās., p. 88; GY., p. 74; SYD., verse 1249; Forchhammer, List, p. xx. There is a commentary on this work at the India Office entitled Sāramañjūsā. Oldenberg, Paḷi MSS. in the India Office Library, p. 102. 128 Sās., pp. 34, 75. 129 Report (Pagan), p. 2; List, p. xxiii. 130 GV., p. 67; the Piṭakatthamain (p. 74) says at Pagan. 122 131 Forbes, Legendary History, p. 25; Phayre, History of Burma, pp. GV., pp.. 64, 74, not mentioned in the Sāsanavaṃsa 132 51, 53, 54; Colonel Burney’s translations from Rājavaṃsa, JAS. There is an alternative reading, Vimalabuddhi, but the editor Bengal, vol. iv, pp. 400 ff. (Minayeff), following no doubt the best MSS., has preferred Vepulla 123 P.TH., p. 40. in these passages of the Gandhavaṃsa. 124 133 Came to the throne A.D. 1351 (Kyoaswa IV in Phayre’s History Apparently the Vidagdhamukhamaṇḍana (on riddles) of of Burma, pp. 60, 282); Sās., p. 88. Dharmadāsa (see Appendix). 125 134 See Fausböll, Cat. Mand. MSS., pp. 46, 51. Sās., p. 34. 138 author of an early ṭīkā on the Sāriputta (also called Sāriputtara) The Abhidhammatthasaṅgaha and a Cūḷabuddha, Sāsanavaṃsa139calls the author of Saddavutti, author of the Atthabyākkhyāna, whereas the Saddhammaguru, and states that he wrote at 140 only work allowed by the Sāsanavaṃsa to the Panyā; in the Gandhavaṃsa, however, Burmese Culla-Vimalabuddhi is the Saddhammaguru is among the ācariyas who Vuttodaya-ṭīkā, and to Vepulla the wrote at Pagan. 135 Vacanatthajoti. The Niruttisāramañjūsā, a ṭīkā on the 141 Possibly the confusion in the Gandhavaṃsa Nirutti, ascribed to Kaccāyana, is by a 142 arises from the author’s ignoring the Siñhalese Saddhammaguru, perhaps the author of the thera Vimalabuddhi (carefully mentioned by Saddavutti. the Sāsanavaṃsa in a passage referring also to A grammatical work entitled Vimalabuddhi of Pagan). The name is absent Sambandhamālini was, according to the from the Gandhavaṃsa list of theras of 143 136 Piṭakatthamain, composed at Pagan. Neither Ceylon, while the three, Nava-Vajirabuddhi, the date nor the author’s name is given. Vepullabuddhi, and Nava-Vimalabuddhi, are all put down as Jambudīpīkā (i.e. belonging to Our list of grammarians does not end even Burma) and their work as composed at Pagan, here. But those to be mentioned later belong to except in the case of Nava-Vimalabuddhi, who the new period beginning with the foundation wrote, according to this account, at Panyā. of Ava (Paḷi, Ratanapura) by the Burmese prince Sativa or Thado-min-byā in the year These small bibliographical puzzles, which 1364, after the fall of the Shān rulers of Panyā we are not willing to leave unsolved but must 144 and Sagaing. waste much time in solving, result sometimes from the choice of well-known or ‘well- As the delta region had not been without a sounding Paḷi names by theras of different literary history after the Burmese conquest in epochs and their pupils, commentators and the eleventh century, we must now turn back copyists, sometimes from the renaming of to earlier times, before following the progress distinguished teachers by their royal admirers. of learning in both Lower and Upper Burma It would be well to have all such details exact, from the fifteenth century onwards. but when dealing with this early period of Paḷi- Burmese literature it is difficult to avoid confusing Burmese with Siñhalese authors. The Saddavutti, or Saddavuttipakāsaka, by Saddhammapāla, a grammatical treatise, 137 probably belongs to the fourteenth century. If so, it was written when the great importance of Pagan as a religious centre had declined, though the author is mentioned by Forchammer as one of those who worked in

the famous retreat of the ‘Maramma’ 138 Forchhammer, Report (Pagan), p. 2; List, p. xix. A later ṭīkā and Fraternity near the old capital. Here also the a Saddavuttivivaraṇa are mentioned in GV. (pp. 65, 75), without ṭīkā on the Saddavutti was composed by names of authors. The ṭīkā in the India Office collection is by Jāgara. Fausböll, Cat. Mand. MSS., p. 50. 139 Sās., p. 90. 140 GV., p. 67. 135 141 Sās., p. 75; the Vacanatthajotikā, gloss on Vuttodaya, ascribed Also called the Niruttipiṭaka, a grammatical treatise. See SVD., to Vepullabuddhi, is probably a fourteenth-century work. verses 1233; 1234. 142 Forchhammer, Essay, p. 36; Fausböll, Cat. Mand. MSS., p. 51. Fausböll, Cat. Mand. MSS., p. 49. 136 143 GV., p. 67. Piṭakatthamain, p. 73. 137 144 Forchhammer, Essay, p. 36; P.TH., p. 71. Phayre, History of Burma, pp. 63, 64; Ind. Ant., xxii, p. 8. CHAPTER III

BUDDHISM AND PAḶI LITERATURE IN MARTABAN (MUTTIMA) AND AT PEGU CITY (HAṂSAVATĪ) FROM THE TWELFTH TO THE FIFTEENTH CENTURY — DHAMMACETI AND THE KALYĀṆI INSCRIPTIONS — LITERATURE IN UPPER BURMA FROM THE FOUNDATION OF AVA (RATANAPURA) TO THE END OF THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY

§ 1. Pegu (Rāmaññdesa). summoning Sāriputta he sent some court officials to find out what manner of man he Buddhist learning in Rāmaññadesa, the was. When they returned and described him as Talaing country, may have been greatly extremely old and feeble (some say, with a impoverished by the carrying away of texts slight deformity as well), Narapati was and scholars from Sudhammapura at the time unwilling to put on him the labour and fatigue of Anorata’s successful raid, but we do not of being the king’s āchariya, and contented positively know that it was so. Indeed, a himself with honouring the thera in other country so easy of access from India, Ceylon, ways. and Indo-China must have continued to Sāriputta was afterwards sent to his native receive new contributions to its intellectual country to ‘purify religion’ there, which (in the store; the northern rulers, professing Buddhism Sāsanavaṃsa) means that he was to represent themselves, could have no motive for the Sīhaḷasaṅgha in the south. This was duly discouraging students or pilgrims from abroad, done by Sāriputta, who settled at Dala and and it is not likely that the Order suffered in handed on the Mahāvihāra tradition to his any way from the Burmese power established pupils. The establishment of the Ceylon school in the south after the fall of Thatōn. in the Talaing country is said to date from that However, the first literary personage of time. It is interesting to remember in this Rāmañña that we meet in the Sāsanavaṃsa is connection that, according to the Mahāvaṃsa, Sāriputta, afterwards named Dhammavilāsa, a an earlier generation of scholars in Rāmañña twelfth century author.145 Sāriputta was born at had supplied teachers to the Sinhalese Padīpajeyya, near Dala (opposite Rangoon), fraternity, when theras of Sāriputta’s country and entered the Order late in life. He was still were called upon, in Vijayabāhu’s reign (A.D. a novice (sāmaṇera) when he went to Pagan146 1071-1123), to come over to Ceylon and 147 in the reign of Narapati-si-thu and received the restore learning there. Sāriputta probably upasampadā ordination from the thera lived till the year 1246. It is difficult to Ānanda, one of the four who had accompanied distinguish his religious works (if he Chapaṭa returning from Ceylon. Being thus composed any) from those of the other inducted into the Sīhaḷasaṅgha, Sāriputta could Sāriputtas of that epoch.148 His most claim to be in the direct ‘line of descent’, to interesting work, from the historical point of use the ecclesiastical phrase, from the ancient view, was neither in grammar, Vinaya, nor teachers of the Mahāvihāra. He became one of Abhidhamma, and is not mentioned in the the leaders of the sect. Sāsanavaṃsa or in the Gandhavaṃsa. It is said that the king heard of the aged monk’s learning and holiness and thought of 147 Kern, Man. Ind. Buddh,, p. 132, note (reference to .Mahāv., lx, appointing him royal preceptor, but before 5 148 See Sās., p. 33; GV., pp. 61, 66, 67, 71; Forchhammer, List, pp. 145 v, viii. Two Sāriputtas are mentioned in the Gandhavaṃsa list of See Sir John Jardine’s Notes on Buddhist Law, iv, Preface to doctors of Ceylon, one among those of Burma. Tikās on the Forchhammer’s translation of the Wagaru Dhammathat, p. 5; Aṅguttaranikāya, Majjhimanikāya the Sāratthadīpanī, and a tikā on it Forchhammer, Essay, pp. 29, 35. were written in Ceylon by a Sāriputta of the reign of Parākramabāhu I 146 Sās., p. 41. (A.D. 1153-84), a contemporary therefore of Sāriputta of Dala. Sāriputta, or Dhammavilāsa (to call him by the While Dhammavilāsa and his pupils were name conferred on him as a title of honour by establishing the ‘succession of theras’ at Dala, Narapati), is known to be the author of one of a like movement took place in Martaban the earliest law codes of Burma.149 (Muttima). The opposition between the Dhammavilāsa’s code stands at the Sīhaḷasaṅgha and the other sects, which had beginning of a series of Paḷi and Burmese been manifested so keenly at Pagan, was thus Buddhist law texts, which are of the greatest continued in the south. The queen’s two interest as disclosing, to quote Forchhammer’s preceptors, Buddhavaṃsa and Mahānāga, had words, ‘the practical effect of a religious visited Ceylon, had gone through a course of system upon the social and political growth of instruction, and received re-ordination at the the Talaings and Burmans.’150The question of Mahāvihāra.153 On their return to Martaban the remote origin of these codes is a they separated themselves from the other fascinating and difficult one. communities, and a Ceylon sect was formed. Whether the Brahmanic (caste and Afterwards, for many generations, a sacerdotal) element was eliminated from them scholarly rivalry existed between Pegu and by later Buddhist lawgivers, or whether they, Burma, of which we shall hear something in with all their essential Buddhistic features, go the later history of their literature. Possibly back to ‘the law of Manu as it existed in India Talaing authors may have been drawn together prior to the ascendancy of Brahmanism’, then by a bond of nationality stronger than the cannot be decided without a complete ties of sect, but the Sāsanavaṃsa makes the knowledge of the oldest law-codes of India. distinction chiefly between the Sīhaḷasaṅgha And for our present purpose it must be enough theras and the members of the Arahantagaṇa, (however unsatisfactory an ‘enough’) to say whose ‘direct descent’ was denied by those of that the Talaing monk Sāriputta or the Mahāvihāra tradition. Dhammavilāsa was the author of the oldest Our Paḷi chronicle says little about dhammasattha known by name to future Martaban and nothing about Wagaru, who, generations in Burma. however, reigned wisely for twenty-two years. The Dhammavilāsa Dhammathat151 was the We can only suppose that he did not protect basis of later codes, Paḷi and Burmese, which the Sīhaḷasaṅgh with any particular zeal. A took this title; and the Talaing influence,152 to historian of the Talaing country and the old be recognized by the presence of a Hindu tradition could fill the gap and give us more element, is visible in the Paḷi codes till the details of the progress of learning in the south. eighteenth century. But we know that the well-being of the Order depended on the state of the country, and it is

149 probable that the Sāsanavaṃsa leaves out very Taw Seim Ko says: ‘The dates of birth and death of Dhammavilāsa as well as of the completion of his Dhammathat are little that is of importance in the list, though a unknown. Even the Sāsanālaṃkāra, compiled as late as 1832 A.D. by singularly short one, of works written in the learned monk Maung Daung sa dô, Archbishop of King Bôdôp’aya at Amarapura, is silent on these points’ (Ind. Ant., xxiv, p. Rāmañña during the two centuries between 302). 150 Dhammavilāsa’s long life and the revival of See the Jardine Prize Essay (Forchhammer) and translations of legal texts, accompanied by valuable introductory remarks and notes religion connected with the name of published in Sir John Jardine’s Notes on Buddhist Law, Rangoon, Dhammaceti in the fifteenth century. The 1852-3. 151 Shāns, whose growing power in Burma had Forchhammer did not succeed in finding the original Paḷi Dhammavilāsa Dhammathat. He mentions a commentary composed broken down the old Pagan dynasty, were not about 1656 A.D., and a Burmese version by Nandamāla, made at disposed to leave Martaban and Pegu in Amarapura in 1768. Essay, p. 29; see also Notes on Buddhist Law, 154 part iv; Preface to translation of the Wagarudhammathat on marriage peace. The Zimmé Shāns had also pushed and divorce, p. 3. 152 Another example is the Wagarudhammathat, an important code 153 drawn up in Talaing by Wagaru, king of Martaban (A.D. 1281-1306). Sās., p. 42. 154 The Paḷi translation was made at the end of the fifteenth century. See See Forbes, Legendary History, pp. 26, 27; Phayre, History of Notes on Buddhist Law, vol. iii p. xi. Burma, pp. 65 ff. westward. Changes of rulers and the A south-country author who doubtless skirmishing warfare around the unstable belongs to the fourteenth century is thrones of the small southern kingdoms must Medhaṃkara, who wrote the well-known have deprived the monasteries of much Lokadīpasāra. The Sāsanavaṃsa tells us that valuable patronage, even if the monks were he was the preceptor of Queen Bhaddā, the left undisturbed. For nearly every mention of mother of Setibhinda, the king reigning at 156 important literary work in chronicles like the Muttimanagara (Martaban). Medhaṃkara Sāsanavaṃsa is accompanied by mention of had gone through a course of study in Ceylon, some royal or wealthy patron. And this need and lived afterwards at Martaban157 The not surprise us or force us to conclude that the Lokadīpasāra is described by Oldenberg as ‘a Order was at any time in slavish dependence collection of chapters on different subjects, on royalty and riches. Literary work required a arranged according to a cosmological scheme’. more spacious, convenient vihāra than was The chapters deal with different stages of needed for the simple round of the existence—in hell, in the animal kingdom, mendicant’s ordinary life, besides a whole among the pretas (ghosts), and so forth, and library of sacred texts. To supply all these and the subjects are illustrated by legends. other necessaries of scholarship was a highly Haṃsāvatī (Pegu city), the capital of the meritorious act, and rich laymen were as eager kingdom of Pegu from the middle of the to acquire merit in such ways as the monks fourteenth century, also had its learned theras; were content to accept their gifts. But, still, the Apheggusāra, written at Haṃsāvatī by a there were times when, as the chronicles say, scholar whose name is not mentioned in the ‘religion was dimmed.’ Sāsanavaṃsa, deals with Abhidhamma The briefer a literary history is, the more we topics.158 need to be clear as to the chronology of the Some important grammatical work was also works chosen to illustrate it. But often this is done in the south—and at the ill-fated only placing together fragments by guesswork. Thatōn—by the thera Mahāyasa of that city. We are glad to meet any evidence of the state Neither the thera nor his books are mentioned of scholarship at a given period, such as the in the Sāsanavaṃsa, though the Talaing inscriptions found by Forchhammer Kaccāyanabheda and Kaccāyanasāra not only near the Kumāraceti pagoda in Pegu. became standard texts for commentators and Forchhammer observed that these inscriptions students in Burma, but have since been better (which record the contributions of pious known in Ceylon than works of Burmese people to the rebuilding of the cetiya and a grammarians usually are. vihāra) are in more ancient lettering than those The Kaccāyanabheda, also called the of the Kelasa pagoda in the same region. Kaccāyana-bhedadīpikā, deals with the These latter can be dated with certainty as fifteenth-century, and Forchhammer believed 156 Sās., p. 42. Setibhinda, or Bingâ-û, began to reign A.D. 1348, the older writing to belong to the beginning of and assumed the title Hsin-hpyu-shin (possessor of a white elephant). the fourteenth century, ‘when with the rise of He made Martaban his capital. 157 Wagaru, King of Martaban, a new impulse had Fausböll, Cat. Mand. MSS., p. 42; Oldenberg, Pali MSS. at India Office, p. 126. The Gandhavarṃsa calls the author of been given to native learning, and Buddhism Lokadīpasāra, Nava-Medhaṃkara (Medhaṃkara, the younger). The again had attained to exclusive predominance Medhaṃkara who appears in the list of the theras who worked at 155 Pagan is probably not the same. 158 on the shores of the Gulf of Martaban.’ See Sās., p. 48; also Forchhammer, List, p. xviii, where Apheggupatho and Apheggusāradipanīpaṭho are mentioned. The Gandhavaṃsa is silent about this work. In Nevill’s MS. Catalogue, 155 Forchhammer, Notes on the Early History, etc., ii, p. 8. Apheggusāradīpanī is described as an anutīkā dealing with matter in Forchhammer mentions elsewhere an important sect founded in the the Abhidhammattha vibhāvanī. Cf. Fausböll, Cat. Mand. MSS., p. 39, south by Buddhavaṃsa (afterwards known, for the confusion of future where the author proposes to give the subtle and profound sāra Burmese chroniclers, as Culla-Buddhaghosa). He also had sojourned (essence) of ‘all the books’. The Apheggusāradīpanī, according to the in Ceylon and held Siñhalese views of orthodoxy. Jardine Prize Mandalay MS., was composed at Haṃsāvatī by the ācariya of Queen Essay, pp. 64, 65. Sīvalī He was Mahāsuvaṇṇadīpa, the son of Parakkamabahalarāja. grammatical terminology of Kaccāyana; the Dhammaceti’s reign was doubly Kaccāyanasāra, as the title shows, is a résumé memorable. He was famous far beyond the of or textbook on the teaching of that great limits of his own country for his statesmanship grammatical authority. and magnificence, and renowned in the whole A ṭīkā on Kaccāyanasāra was written by Buddhist world for his piety. The story of his 159 Mahāyasa himself; another by elevation to the throne gives us the impression 160 Saddhammavilāsa of Pagan, whose ṭīkā on of a very unusual personality. He was not of Kaccāyanasāra is known as the the blood royal, and came first from Burma as Sammohavināsinī. Yasa’s later commentators a simple monk, one of two who had aided the were scholars of Burma. Among them we shall flight of a Peguan princess from the Burmese find the well-known names of Ariyālaṃkāra Court. This princess, married against her will and Tipiṭakālamkāra of Ava.161 to the King of Ava, was afterwards the famous As to the date of Kaccāyanasāra, we may Queen Shin-sau-bu. When she assumed the say that it probably was not written before the sovereignty in Pegu (1453 A.D.) the sometime thirteenth century, as it contains quotations monk Dhammaceti, who had so devotedly from the twelfth century treatises Bālāvatāra, befriended her, became her chief minister and 166 Rūpasiddhi, Cūḷanirutti, and Sambandha- later her son-in-law and successor. 162 cintā. On the other hand, it was known not Dhammaceti was not only a protector of the only in Pegu but in Upper Burma by the Order he had quitted, but a reformer in the middle of the fifteenth century, as we know orthodox sense. Something of the ecclesiastic from the fact that a copy was presented to a reappears in the monarch’s attachment to the 163 monastery at Pagan in 1442. Sīhaḷasaṅgha, an attachment to which the Probably Mahāyasa belongs to the reign of celebrated Kalyāṇi inscriptions bear witness. Hsin-hpyu-shin (Pali: Setibhinda), who These inscriptions, found in a suburb of Pegu established his capital at Pegu in 1370. Hsin- city, were carved on stone tablets by order of hpyu-shin finished his reign in comparative Dhammaceti, and are a very interesting calm,164 and was, after his manner, religious. chapter in the Paḷi records of Buddhism. They There was even a temporary peace between relate how the king determined to give the Pegu and Burma, but when Setibhinda died his Order in Rāmañña a duly consecrated place for successors plunged into war, and a state of ceremonies, and how, after earnest study of things grievously unfriendly to scholarship authoritative texts, he sent a mission to Ceylon began again. But in the fifteenth century came with this object. The monks sent by him a great revival of religion under Dhammaceti, received the upasampadā ordination afresh King of Pegu, who reigned 822-53 B.E. (A.D. from the Mahāvihāra fraternity within 165 1460-91). consecrated boundaries on the Kalyāṇi River, near Colombo, and on their return consecrated 159 For Kaccāyanabheda and Kaccāyanasāra see SVD., verse 1250; the enclosure in Pegu, henceforth known as the GV., p. 74; Forchbammer, List, pp. xx and xxi where the author is 167 called Rasa of Thatone. The name Mahāyasa is given by Nevill on Kalyāṇisīmā. Within these boundaries the Siñhalese authority. In Fausböll’s Catalogue, p. 47, the name is Rassa; in GV., p. 74, Dhammānanda; the Piṭakattbamain (p. 69) says that Mahāyasa was the author. Kalliyuga (as the word is usually employed in the Sāsanavaṃsa), 160 Forchhammer, Report, Pagan, p. 2. reckoning from 638 A.D. (See Forbes, Legendary History, p. 14.) The 161 date given in the Sāsanavaṃsa for Dhammaceti’s accession is A.B. Ariyālaṃkāra’s ṭīkā on Kaccāyanabheda is entitled 2002, which corresponds to A.D. 1458. I must correct here a blunder Sāratthavikāsinī. 162 in my edition, where 202 (dvisate) should be 2002 (dvisahasse). (Sās., Written in Ceylon; see above, p. 22. p. 43.) 163 166 See Appendix to this chapter. See Phayre, History of Burma, p. 84; Forbes, Legendary 164 Forbes, Legendary History, p. 27; Phayre, History of Burma, p. History, p. 32. 167 67. See Taw Sein Ko’s Preliminary Study of the Kalyāṇi 165 Phayre, History of Burma, p. 290. Forbes remarks (Legendary Inscriptions of Dhammaceti, 1476 A.D. ‘The ceremonial [for History, p. 31) that the various copies of the Talaing histories differ as consecration of a sīmā] has been interpreted, in various ways by the to the dates of the several monarchs reigning in Pegu ‘between 710 commentaries and scholia on the Mahāvagga, such as the and 900 or A.D. 1370-1538’. The Burmese era quoted here is the Vinayaṭṭhakathā, Sāratthadīpanī, Vimativinodanī, Vinayaṭīkā. by upasaṃpadā could be conferred as from the required for novices and monks. These direct spiritual successors of Mahinda, the treatises are mostly of Siñhalese authorship. great missionary to Ceylon, and thus the link Besides those of an older period we hear of was restored in the ‘succession of teachers’ the well-known Vajīrabuddhiṭīkā (sometimes broken (said the Sīhaḷasaṅgha doctors) in called the Vinayagandhi or Vinayagaṇṭhi), a Rāmañña. We must not forget how vital this ṭīkā or explanation of difficult passages in the matter appeared to Burmese Buddhists. The Vinaya commentaries. The author, Order, in so far as such questions had gained Mahāvajirabuddhi of Ceylon, was a importance for it, was somewhat less of a free contemporary of Dhammaceti, to whom he fraternity and more of a ‘church’, and the point sent a copy of his work. of view taken by the monks was an ecclesiastical one. The part taken by the king § 2. Buddhist Literature in Panyā (Viayapura), is worthy of notice. Ava (Ratanapura), Taungu In the case of the Kalyāṇisīmā Dhammaceti (Jeyyavaḍḍhana), and Laos.— used his royal authority to support his own Ariyavaṃsa.—Grammar, Poetry, and deep conviction, and, as often happened in its Abhidhamma in the fifteenth and sixteenth history, the orthodox Sangha had the temporal centuries. power to some extent at its service. Not that We must now follow the rather faint track the Sangha in Burma has ever claimed of Burmese literary history from the time of authority over consciences (i.e. the right to the revolt and separation of the Southern persecute). It has been as all other truly free provinces. associations, and, with time, has known The chronicles of Burma tell us of a divisions and developed factions, and a sect continual struggle between different dynasties has sometimes had powerful supporters who and the hostile races they represented — were not content to stop short at a moral Burmese, Talaing, and Shān. The Shāns, ascendancy over man. The perfect tolerance forced southward and westward by the Mongol inculcated by the religion was hard for some of armies of Kublai Khan, had become a these strenuous minds to accept, and even powerful element in Burma in the thirteenth Dhammaceti, though he was far indeed from century.169 They had penetrated to the south, being a despot in religion, was anxious to and the Talaing population had accepted in establish orthodoxy in his kingdom. The Wagaru a ruler who was probably of half-Shān Kalyāṇi inscriptions show us to what degree a extraction. In Burma the King of Pagan religious superiority over the rest of the (Kyaswa) was deposed in 1298 by the three community was claimed by those who had Shān governors whose territories surrounded received the Ceylon ordination and were called his diminished and enfeebled kingdom. The the Sīhaḷasaṅgha. three, being brothers, held together and An interesting literary point is the mention founded the dynasty that reigned at Myinzaing 170 of the standard authorities on Vinaya subjects (Khandhapura), Panyā (Vijayapura), and at the time,168 and details as to the instruction

Kassapa, of the Tamil country [Damilarattha] (Sās., p. 33; Cat. Mand. Vajirabuddhi thera, Kankhāvitaraṇī, Vinayavinicchayapakaraṇa, MSS., p. 13), the Vinaya ṭīkā by Vajirabuddhi (Sās., p. 33; GV., p. 60), Vinayasaṃgahapakaraiṇa, and the Sīmālaṃkarasaṃgaha; and the the Vinayavinicchaya by Buddhadatta of Ceylon (Sās., p. 33; GV., p. object of the Kalyāṇi Inscriptions is to give an authoritative ruling on 59; Cat. Mand. MSS., p. 18), the Vinayasaṃgaha by Sāriputta of these varied opinions and to prescribe a ceremonial for the Ceylon (Sās., p. 33; Cat Mand. MSS., p. 7). The Sīmālaṃkara consecration of a sīmā which shall be in accordance with what is laid pakarana of Chapata was a result of the Talaing thera’s studies in down by Gautama Buddha, and which at the same time shall not Ceylon. Two Vinaya treatises (the Pātimokkhavisodhanī and materially conflict with the interpretations of the commentators’ (Ind. Sīmābandhanī ṭīkā) may belong to this period, but neither dates nor Ant, xxii, p. 11). The sīmā is described in this article as a boundary authors are mentioned. See P.TH., p. 44. 169 formed by pits filled with water; the appropriate Kammavācā are Forbes, Legendary History, p. 28; Phayre, History of Burma, p. chanted as the consecrating ceremony. 02. 168 170 e.g. the Sāratthadīpanī mostly by Sāriputta of Ceylon (Sās., p. Sās., p. 81. ‘The three brothers, having deposed Kittitara in the 33; Fausböll, Cat. Mand. MSS., p. 12), the Vimativinodanī by year 664 of the Kaliyuga, set up their rule in Khandhapura.’ Sagaing (Jeyyapura) till the prince of keeping his mouth filled with water when Thadominbya, who was believed to be of others were present. When the young monk Burmese royal race, made himself master of from Pagan first arrived at his monastery there 171 Upper Burma and founded Ava in l364. seemed little hope that the silent Water-carrier Ava (Ratanapura), though not always of would discourse to him on grammar. But great importance as a capital, remained a Ariyavaṃsa was not to be discouraged. He religious and literary centre for many came daily to the vihāra, performing all the generations of authors. It is not necessary for services of a disciple for Ye-din, till the latter our present purpose to look further into the broke his silence to ask the reason of the records of war, revolts, counter-revolts, thera’s visit. Ariyavaṃsa craved leave to study marriages, and murders of those times, except with the famous ācariya, since, though he had when such events are connected with religious studied many texts, he had not grasped their history and, by a rare chance, the name of a meaning, and, till then, upadesa (exposition) saintly celebrity or the title of a book can be of other masters had not helped him. Ye-din rescued from the tangle. The city of was touched and consented to give some of his Ratanapura did not entirely supersede Pagan, time to the inquirer, and then explained the Panyā, and Sagaing in religious importance. Abhidhammatthavibhāvanī175 to him with From all we can learn about the place and date ‘various methods of exposition’. Ariyavaṃsa of the Paḷi works possible to place between the was soon able to tell his preceptor that, thanks founding of Ava and the middle of the to his teaching, his pupil had grasped all the sixteenth century, it seems that scholars were knowledge he had missed till then. The always to be found busy in the monasteries ācariya then charged him to do his part in near the chief cities. However turbulent the helping others by writing a commentary on the times may have been, the reigning families text he felt best fitted to expound. Ariyavaṃsa protected the Order and loaded it with bounty. chose the Abhidhammatthavibhāvanī, and Their example was followed by men and composed a commentary on it entitled 172 women of rank and wealth. Maṇisāramañjusa. While writing it he The Sāsanavaṃsa gives us a glimpse into submitted it, chapter by chapter, to the the life of a monastic scholar of those days in criticism of his fellow-monks, reading it aloud the story of Ariyavaṃsa, a celebrated teacher to them as they sat assembled on uposatha and author of the fifteenth century.173 days in the courtyard of the Puññacetiya. Ariyavaṃsa, who was of Pagan and a member A very charming little anecdote is told of of the Chapata sect, settled in Ava in the reign his readiness to accept correction. On one of Narapati (1442-68).174 Before he became occasion a monk seated in the assembly twice famous he went to Sagaing to study grammar uttered a loud sound of disapproval during the with the learned thera known as Ye-din (‘the reading. Ariyavaṃsa noted the passages that water-carrier’). The chronicler tells us how had called forth these protests, and also found Ye-din came by his name. Either to restrain his out where the objector lived. Returned to his own inclination for talk or because he found own vihāra he carefully reviewed his work the brethren too talkative, he was in the habit and found two things to correct—a fault of composition (repeating the same explanation twice) and a fault of grammar (a mistake in the 171 Phayre, History of Burma, p. 62. Sās., p. 90, ‘in the year 722 of gender of a word). He corrected them, sent for the Kaliyuga.’ 172 See the very interesting collection, Inscriptions of Pagan, the other monk, and mildly asked him what Panyā, and Ava, edited by Taw Sein Ko and translated by Tan Nyein fault he found with the work that had cost the of the Burma Secretariat; Rangoon, 1899. The list of works mentioned in an inscription of 1442 A.D. is very valuable for the chronology of writer the intense labour of long days and works that we could not otherwise date. See Appendix to this chapter. 173 Sās., pp. 95 ff. 174 175 Phayre, History of Burma, p. 285. Commentary on the Abhidhammatthasangaha. nights to compose. The other replied bluntly gained him the favour of the king.180 This was that there was little fault to find; the book was Sīlavaṃsa, of Taung-dwin-gyī, who had perfect as to its words and sense, but he had already composed a poetical version of the observed two faults, an unnecessary repetition Sumedhakathā,181 a poem entitled and a wrong gender, and he would not let them Buddhālaṃkāra, and another, apparently on pass without protest. And Ariyavaṃsa rejoiced his native city, dignified by its Paḷi name in his heart and took off his garment of fine Pabbatabbhantara. Sīlavaṃsa was thirty years cloth and gave it to the other, saying, ‘With of age when he came to the capital. The king, this do I pay reverence to thy knowledge.’ Few after the manner of royal patrons of religion, as the words are, there shines through them the established him a vihāra where other honoured scholar’s clear and simple soul. teachers had lived before him, and there he Ariyavaṃsa lived and wrote for some time lectured on the sacred texts. He, like at Sagaing, but taught afterwards at Ava, Ariyavaṃsa, laboured to spread religious where the king was sometimes among his learning by interpreting Paḷi texts in the hearers. One of his most important later works vernacular. A Burmese atthayojanā of the was another Abhidhamma study entitled Nettipakaraṇa,182 and another edifying work, Maṇidīpa, a ṭīkā on the Atthasālinī176 of the Parāyanavatthu, prove that he was not Buddhaghosa. He also composed a merely a poet, though the author of the 177 grammatical treatise, the Gandhābharaṇa, Sāsanavaṃsa seems rather inclined to reproach and a study of the Jātaka, Jātakavisodhana. him for his attachment to verse. These works were composed, according to Another poet of Ava, Raṭṭhasāra,183 born in the old scholarly tradition, in Paḷi; but 1468, composed metrical versions of the Ariyavaṃsa was a teacher not content to write Bhūridattajātaka,184 Hatthipālajātaka,185 and only for the Learned. He stands out in the Saṃvarajātaka,186 besides a number of other Sāsanavaṃsa’s record of literary theras as the poems. He may have been a good verse-maker first name connected with a metaphysical work and the tone of his poems religious, but he in the vernacular. He composed an comes under the same mild censure as his atthayojanā or interpretation in Burmese of a brother-poet. In fact, the old-time chroniclers commentary called the Anuṭīkā on the (porāṇā) exclude these two from the Abhidhamma.178 The Gandhavaṃsa attributes succession of theras precisely because they not another work entitled Mahānissara179 to only wrote verses but recited them, and Ariyavaṃsa, but there is no mention of it in instructed their pupils in the same art of the Sāsanavaṃsa. recitation. The Sāsanavaṃsa gravely explains Ariyavaṃsa may have been still living that this is a question of discipline too large to when a new writer came to Ava whose talents be treated in the chronicle, and we are referred to a modern Vinaya treatise, the Uposathavinicchaya, for details. The composing and reciting of poems was 176 Commentary on the Dhammasaṅgani of the Abhidhammapiṭaka. See Forchhammer, List, p. xviii; GV., pp. 65, 67, 75; Sās., p. 98; 180 .Fausböll, Cat. Mand. MSS., p. 34. P.TH. (p. 40) gives 1442 A.D. as Dutiya-min-khaung or Sirisudhammarājādhipati, who began to the date of the Maṇidīpa. reign A.D. 1470. Sās., p. 98, ‘the year 842 of the Kaliyuga.’ Phayre, 177 The Gandhābharaṇa (otherwise Ganthābharaṇa or History of Burma, p. 285. 181 Gaṇḍabharaṇa) was studied and glossed by well-known Burmese The story of the ascetic Sumedha forms part of the Introduction scholars of the sixteenth and seventeenth century, and re-edited among (Nidāna) to the Jātaka commentary. See Fausböll’s edition of the standard works recently. Jātaka, vol i, pp. 2-28. 178 182 The work generally known as the Anuṭīkā was wntten by See pp. 5, 8. Dhammapāla to supplement the original ṭīkā (of Ānanda) on the 183 Sās., p. 99, ‘in the year 830 of the Kaliyuga.’ Abhidhamma. See the Sāsanavaṃsa’s list of commentaries composed 184 in Ceylon (Sās., p. 33). Jātaka, No. 543. See Fausböll’s edition of the Jātaka with its 179 commentary, vol. vi, pp. 157-219. I am not sure that this word should not be Mahānissaya (chief 185 commentary or gloss in Burmese); the work would probably be the Jātaka, No. 509. Fausböll, iv, pp. 473-91. 186 atthayojanā; of which mention has been made above. Jātaka, No. 462. Fausböll, iv, pp. 130-6. apparently a transgression of the religions rule believed, as Arahanta had believed and (sikkhāpada) concerning singing and dancing. preached to the Burmese conqueror of Pegu Taking part in or looking on at such centuries before, that the fate of religion was performances is forbidden to monks (samaṇā) bound up with the right understanding of the and all those under temporary vows sacred texts, and that this must rest on a right (uposathikā), who have undertaken a stricter knowledge of their language. And he did the 187 self-denial than the ordinary layman. best he could for the faith in those calamitous Sīlavaṃsa and Raṭṭhasāra were probably days by compiling the famous vocabulary 192 not the only poets of the monasteries in those Ekakkharakosa. days, but unfortunately such authors are far Saddhammakitti died at Taungu (Ketumatī), less likely to find mention, at least in religious then the capital of an independent chronicles, than the grammarians and kingdom193and a refuge for great numbers of expounders of Vinaya and Abhidhamma. the Burmese who had fled from the cruel The Kāyaviratigāthā mentioned in the tyranny of Thohanbwā. The King of Taungu, Gandhavaṃsa,188 but not in the Sāsanavaṃsa, Mahāsirijeyyasūra,194 protected religion and perhaps belongs to this epoch. It is described built cetiyas and vihāras.195 Thus, in Taungu, as a beautiful Paḷi poem of 274 verses on the where the Order was safe and in peace, not, as 189 subjection of sensuality. in Ava, barely surviving a relentless Till the beginning of the sixteenth century persecution, it was possible to discuss points religion seems to have been respected in the of discipline. And a controversy arose on the Burmese kingdoms notwithstanding their use of fermented drinks. Intoxicants are chronic state of disturbance and change. But forbidden to the Order, but the commentaries when the Shān chief of Monyin, after years of on the Vinaya (for example, the raiding and plundering, overthrew the King of Kaṅkhāvitaraṇī of Buddhaghosa) left it Ava190and placed his own son Thohanbwā on doubtful whether the juice of the palm and the throne, even the Buddhist Order was cocoanut trees could lawfully be drunk by the cruelly persecuted. To Thohanbwā any religious or not. Some maintained that such community of monks meant a body of juices were lawful if drunk as they flowed unmarried, disciplined men, far more from the tree, others denied it, as some dangerous to a despotic and hated government commentaries spoke of the ‘elements of than fathers of families, and he deliberately set intoxication’ latent in the seed, and the dispute about exterminating the hapless mendicants. In continued till the thera Mahāparakkama, the massacres that followed pagodas and ‘seated in the midst,’ settled the question. monasteries went up in flames and precious According to his judgment, which was libraries were destroyed.191 But even in the accepted by the disputants, the juices in terror and desolation around him the thera question might be drunk, but only fresh from Saddhammakitti, a pupil of Ariyavaṃsa, was the tree. Mabiparakkama afterwards treated the faithful to the cause of scholarship. He whole subject in a work entitled Surāvinicchaya196 (Decisions concerning 187 The Buddhist laity are only bound to observe five fundamental Intoxicants). rules of conduct, whereas the Order observes ten. A layman may bind himself to keep eight of the ten on the Uposatha days (occurring four times a month). See Kern, Man. Ind. Buddh., p. 70; Childers’ 192 Dictionary of the Paḷi Language (articles ‘Sīlam’ and ‘Uposatho ‘). The Ekakkharakosa is not mentioned in the Gandhavaṃsa. (In 188 GV., pp. 65, 75. the Mandalay collection at the India Office there is a work entitled 189 Sirivicittā1aṃkāra by a Saddhammakitti, but whether by the author of A ṭīkā on it is ascribed to a monk of Pakudhanagara (Pega city the Ekakkharakosa I cannot say. See Fausböll, Cat. Mand. MSS., p. ?). See the British Museum Catalogue of Paḷi MSS. and Mr. Nevill’s 52.) note on the copy in his collection. 193 190 Phayre, History of Burma, pp. 90 ff. Mahārājādhipati (1501-26). Phayre, History of Burma, pp. 87, 194 92, 93. Came to the throne in 1485 and reigned forty-five years. 191 195 Sās., pp. 76, 100. The Sāsanavaṃsa gives the date of these dire Sās., p. 80. 196 events as ‘the year 887 of the Kaliyuga’ (= A.D. 1525). Sās., p. 81. It would seem that religion was not long or foreign.202 Nevertheless, all we hear of him in greatly in danger at Panyā, as the Sāsanavaṃsa the Sāsanavanasa is that in 1578 ‘the Lord of assures us that many authors wrote there.197 many white elephants’,203 then at the height of Only two names are given, however— his power but near his end, appointed his son Saddhammaguru, the author of Saddavutti, and regent of Laos and sent the thera Vijitāvī, celebrated for two grammatical Saddhammacakkasāmi with him to ‘purify treatises, a Kaccāyanavaṇṇanā, or commentary religion’ in the conquered province. A few on the Sandhikappa (section treating of names of scholarly monks and their works are euphonic combination of letters) of associated with Laos in this period. Ñāṇavilāsa Kaccāyana’s grammar,198 and the wrote the Saṅkhyāpakāsaka,204 and Vācakopadesa, still recognized by Burmese Sirimaṅgala a ṭīkā on that work and the scholars. The Vācakopadesa ‘treats the commentary Maṅgaladīpanī. A thera whose grammatical categories from a logical point of name is not mentioned wrote the 205 view’ (Oldenberg). These familiar names are Uppātasanti. missing from the Gandhavaṃsa. The MS. of a At Haṃsāvatī some work was done in the ṭīkā on Vācakopadesa in the India Office199 way of commenting on the Abhidhamma. The gives the date of this treatise as A.D. 1606. In thera Saddhammālaṃkāra wrote the 1580 began a more auspicious epoch for the Paṭṭhānasāradīpanī, and Mahānāma a ṭīkā Order. A warlike and able ruler, Ta-bin-shwe- entitled Madhusāratthadīpanī.206 These works hti, succeeded Mahāsirijeyyasūra as King of are mentioned without any date in the 200 Taungu. Sāsanavaṃsa, which by the way, differing Ta-bin-shwe-hti conquered Pegu, where he from the Piṭakatthamain, gives Ānanda as the not only protected religion but added to his author of the last-named, a ṭīkā on the own glory by his magnificent foundations. In Abhidhamma. The Piṭakatthamain places both his reign a revolution overthrew the Shān in the reign of Bayin Naung. prince reigning at Ava, who had cruelly The Order never again suffered from a ruler persecuted the monks, and before many years in Burma as in the evil days under the Shān rule succumbed before Bayin Naung. Thohanbwā. From the time when the Shān rule Ava was taken by the Burmese under this was finally demolished by Burmese kings, famous soldier’s command in 1655. more favourable days began for religion. The Bayin Naung,201 one of the most striking seventeenth century saw some further changes, figures in the history of Burma, the sometime which we shall note as we proceed; a religious general and vice-regent of Ta-bin-shwe-hti and literature in the vernacular, in the Burmese successor to the throne, united Burma and language itself, grew up round the older texts, Pegu into one empire and carried his conquests but the earlier traditions of Paḷi scholarship into the Northern Shān States, Laos and Siam. always found faithful followers. He was a zealous Buddhist, zealous, indeed, to intolerance, and forced an outward profession of Buddhism on all his subjects, native or

202 See Phayre, History of Burma, pp. 108 ff. 203 197 Sās., p. 51. Sās., p. 90. 204 198 Ñāṇavilāsa wrote the Saṅkhyāpakāsaka at Ayuddha, P.TH., p. Fausböll, Cat. Mand. MSS., p. 45; SVD., verse 1242. The 61. Vācakopadesa is mentioned without the author’s name in 205 A work consulted by Minayeff and mentioned in his Forchhammer’s List, p. xxii. 199 Recherches. As Dr. Barnett has pointed out to me, from this title Oldenberg, Paḷi MSS. in the india Office Library, p. 104. The (Sanskrit: Utpātaśānti) the work would appear to treat of rites or commentary on Vācakopadesa, by another Vijitāvī, was written at charms for averting evil omens or public calamities. For śānti, in the Sagaing. The two works and the author are mentioned P.TH., p. 71. sense of expiatory rite, see Sadviṃśabrāmaṇa (Prap. v), edited by H. 200 1530 A,D., Phayre, History of Burma, p. 93. F. Eelsingh, Leiden, 1908, cf. p. 51 below and Appendix. 201 206 The ‘Branginoco’ of the Portuguese. We have not only Oriental Sās., p. 48; P.TH., pp. 40, 41. In the latest edition (by Hsaya U but European testimony to the magnificence of his reign. Hpye, Rangoon, 1908) the author’s name appears as Mahānanda. CHAPTER IV

THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY — PEGU AND UPPER BURMA — THE SCHOLARS OF AVA AND SAGAING — TIPIṬAKĀLAṂKĀRA, ARIYĀLAṂKĀRA, AND OTHERS

By the year 1617 Burma and Pegu, welded King209sent a message to the thera dwelling at into one empire by Bayin Naung’s conquests, the Four-storied Vihāra,210 saying: “Send had already been separated once and forced hither to Rāmañña some Mendicants, from into a second union by the conqueror’s thirty to forty years of age, expert in the sacred 207 grandson Mahādhammarāja. texts and learned in the Vedasatthas.” So the Pegu city (Haṃsāvatī), as in Bayin Naung’s thera sent Tipiṭakālaṃkāra, Tilokālaṃkāra, time, was the capital, and we can understand and Tisāsanālaṃkāra, with thirty Bhikkhus. the Burmese king’s popularity in the south When they arrived at Pegu the King built a when we learn (but not from the Sāsanavaṃsa) vihāra for them on the Eastern side of the that he had succeeded in breaking up the Môdho cetiya, and gave it to them. And on audacious rule of the Portuguese adventurer Uposatha days he summoned those monks of Philip de Brito, whose government of Pegu Rāmañña who were expert in the sacred texts had been carried on with the methods of a and learned in the Vedasatthas, and brutal buccaneer. De Brito, with wanton commanded them to hold a discussion with the disrespect for the country’s religion, had three theras. And the monks of Rāmañña said: destroyed pagodas, and we cannot suppose “Formerly, indeed, we thought there were no that he spared monasteries or libraries. We do monks in Burma expert in the sacred texts and not know if even the Buddhist monks learned in the Vedasatthas. But lo! these interceded for him when he was vanquished by Burmese monks are exceedingly expert and their champion, taken prisoner, and learned.” It seems to have been a triumph for condemned to an agonizing death. Burma. There is no record in the Sāsanavaṃsa of An interesting point in the little story is the Paḷi works produced in this reign. The doings, mention of the Yedaśāstras side by side with literary or otherwise, of the Sangha of Pegu the Buddhist sacred texts. It is clear, from the are probably not well known to the author of list of works given to the libraries of Burmese our Burmese chronicle. Perhaps, too, he is monasteries211and from various allusions in influenced by a certain rivalry in scholarship the Paḷi literature, that Brahmanic works were which made the Talaing monks unwilling to studied in the vihāras, and we know that some believe in the learning of Burma, while those were translated into Burmese. But this branch of the upper country were equally sure of their of learning was considered inferior. There is a own superiority.208 mention in the Sāsanavaṃsa of two monks It is almost touching to read in the living in the reign of Mahādhammarāja212who Sāsanavaṃsa the reason (as it first appeared to gained the king’s favour by their aptitude for the good monks of the south) why the kings of state affairs. They were vedasatthakovidā Bayin Naung’s dynasty preferred Pegu as the too—expert in the Yours truly Vedasatthas— royal residence, even after union with Burma: and therefore, no doubt, acute and useful ‘As for the monks in Burma, there are none advisers; but the Order disapproved of them. expert in the sacred texts and learned in the 209 Vedasatthas. Therefore, hearing this, the Ukkaṃsika, otherwise Thadodhammarāja, succeeded Mahādhammarāja 1629 A.D. 210 A royal foundation at Sagaing on the Irrawaddy. 207 211 Phayre, History of Burma, p. 128. See Appendix. 208 212 Sās., p. 106. Came to the throne A.D. 1606. They are pariyattipaṭipattisu mandā — weak We have seen how stoutly the theras grappled in the sacred doctrine and practice. They with Paḷi grammar, and we can imagine the journey to Pegu and disappear at once from sober joy with which a copy of the our sight. They have no place in the Amarakośa216 would be welcomed in a vihāra ‘succession of theras’. library. But the Vedasattha experts were probably We shall have to return presently to the innocent enough of any religious interest in the question of the Brahmanic element in Buddhist 217 hymns and sacrifices of the Brahmanic cult, Law. As for other Brahmanic contributions and they were certainly not Vedic scholars in to the literature of Burma, they were naturally the Indian pandit’s sense of the words; for the accepted by the fathers of Burmese Vedas of the Burmese, as Forchhammer scholarship, as there could be no reason for explains, are a collection of Brahmanic texts cultivating Buddhist medicine or Buddhist on astrology, medicine, and ‘science’ arithmetic. As far as we know at present the generally, such as the Sūryasiddhānta fathers were sage enough not to study the (astronomy), Laghugraha (astrology), gems of Sanskrit poetry. Dravyaguṇa (medicine), besides Tantraśāstras Let us now glance at certain features in the (manuals of magic) and Kāmaśāstras (manuals seventeenth century literature, features which treating of love).213 Some of these, especially may be traced clearly enough for our purpose the last, cannot by the greatest stretch of in a brief notice of the best-known authors. liberality be fitted into any scheme of monastic First we find that many of the distinguished learning; and, indeed, we do not hear that the teachers of that time wrote in both Paḷi and Buddhist monks ever made use of them or the Burmese. Some, for instance, Brahmanic texts composed for the practice of Varabhisaṃghanātha, author of the magic. That, in all its branches, was the Maṇikuṇḍala-vatthu, and one of his province of the professional Brahmans, of contemporaries, author of the whom there were always some, said to be Sattarājadhammavatthu, wrote their edifying experts in the Atharvaveda, in the service of tales only in the vernacular, or at least the king.214 But there are works reckoned as produced nothing noteworthy in Paḷi.218 Vedasatthas in which the monks found food Secondly, the devotion of the Burmese for study, and ‘Veda’ subjects which they scholars to the study of Paḷi grammar, style, themselves delighted to handle, either in Paḷi and prosody bore fruit in works of which the or the vernacular. For a king’s ācariya must be Rājindarājābhidheyyadīpanī is an instance. It able to discourse on ethics and polity, would not be quite fair to call any thera a court pronounce moral maxims, and give advice. poet, but on certain occasions theras composed The Rājanīti, Lokanīti, and Dhammanīti Paḷi verses adorned with the traditional represent this sort of literature215 modelled on compliment and eulogy of royal patrons. Thus, Sanskrit originals. The wise fables of the when Ukkaṃsika was consecrated and took Sanskrit Hitopadeśa have also found favour with Buddhists. Again, certain Sanskrit 216 On the famous dictionary of Amarasiṃha see Zachariae, Die grammatical works became famous in Further indischen Wörterbücher. ‘Amara,’ says Zachariae, ‘war ohne Zweifel India, and lexicons such as the Amarakośa. ein Buddhist,’ though this can be inferred only from his dedication and his placing of the names of Buddhas before the Brahmanic divinities, and not from any specially Buddhistic matter in the rest of the work, v. Die indischen Wörterbücher, Grundriss, Band i, Heft iiiB, 213 See Jardine’s Notes on Buddhist Law, pt. iv, Introduction by E. p. 18. The Piṭakatthamain (p. 73) is cautious on the subject, and only Forehhammer, p. 17. Also Forchhammer, Report (1879-80), pp. 6 ff. states that the Amarakośa was composed at Benares by Amarasiṃha. 214 217 For instance, when Anorata was baffled in his attempt to take Vide J. Jardine and Forchhammer, Notes on Buddhist Law; also Thaton, the charm which rendered the city impregnable was found out Introductory Remarks, Notes, pt. iii, p. ix, for the supposed prevalence by the king’s attendant Brahmans. of Sanskrit learning in the courts of the early kings of Prome and 215 See James Gray, Ancient Proverbs and Maxims: The Nīti Pagan. 218 Literature of Burma, pp. 119, 141, and R. C. Temple, Journal of the Sās., p. 105. These authors belong to the time of Asiatic Society of Bengal, vol xlvii (1898), pp. 239 ff. Mahādhammarāja, 1606-29. the title Sirisudhamnarājamahādhipati, the However, in 1602 we again hear that he is in thera Ratanākara wrote the residence in a monastery built by the king,223 Rājindarājābhidheyyadīpanī (on the naming of and is famed far and wide for his learning and 219 kings) to commemorate the ceremony. piety. Mahādhammarāja and Ukkaṃsika were While living at the Four-storied Vihāra both generous to the Order, and mention of built by Surakitti, Ariyālaṃkāra, given up to monasteries founded by them occurs often in Abhidhamma studies, wrote a commentary on the religious history of the seventeenth the introductory verses of the Atthasālinī. century. Some of these foundations were Later, at the request of Nyaung Ram Mm, he associated with well-known and venerable composed a lighter work, the names, such as Tipiṭakālaṃkāra, Yasavaḍḍhanavatthu. When in retreat in the Ariyālaṃkāra, his pupil Ariyālaṃkāra the quiet of the Tiriyapabbata he had some younger, and Aggadhammālaṃkāra, who were occasion to take up Vinaya questions, and the among the deepest students of their time. The result was the Vinayālaṃkāraṭīkā, one of those Sāsanavaṃsa mentions Tipiṭakālaṃkāra and numerous works composed by theras of high the elder Ariyālaṃkāra together as equally authority to keep the old traditional great examples of learning. Tipiṭakālaṃkāra ‘discipline’ pure. was a man of wide erudition, says the The list of Tipiṭakālaṃkāra’s works shows chronicle, but Ariyālaṃkāra excelled in varied learning, but he is remembered chiefly dhātupaccayavibhāga, in other words, was an as an Abhidhamma scholar and a saint. He was 220 accomplished grammarian. a chosen adviser of Ukkaṃsika, and one of his Tipiṭakālaṃkāra was born in 1578 A.D., works is called ‘Responses’ to the king’s 224 and went, while still a boy, to Prome. He questions. entered the Order at the age of thirteen, and his The theras of Sagaing at this period seem to literary career soon began. He studied with have taken the lead in Abhidhamma studies. passionate zeal, and we next hear that the One of these, the thera Tilokaguru, toiled for fifteen-year-old novice has composed in Paḷi a many years at ṭīkās and supplementary ṭīkās poetical version of the Vessantarajātaka,221 (anuṭīkā) on various texts. After dealing very that the Burmese love most to hear, the tale of thoroughly with the Dhātukathā225 he the Bodhisat’s last birth as a man and his composed a ṭīkā on the Yamaka. But his great supreme acts of merit. feat was a ṭīkā on the Paṭṭhāna, the most 226 Tipiṭakālaṃkāra received the upasampadā important book of the Abhidhammapiṭaka. ordination in his twentieth year. His studious Tilokaguru is but one example. The life underwent a great change when Prome, Sagaing monasteries also produced a number then an almost independent State, fell into the of Burmese nissayas (interpretations or hands of Surakitti,222 King of Burma. paraphrases) on Abhidhamma texts during the Tipiṭakālaṃkāra was invited or compelled to seventeenth century. But it is not easy to come to the capital, and on the banks of the

Irrawaddy near Ava the king built a vihāra for 223 Nyaung Ram Mm (1599-1605), son of Bayin Naung. Phayre, him. Afterwards, weary perhaps of royal History of Burma, p. 286; Piṭakatthamain, p. 42. 224 vihāras, Tipiṭakālaṃkāra withdrew to the See Bulletin, tome v, p. 167. 225 See the Piṭakatthamain, p. 41. Tiriyapabbata to live in the quiet of the forest. 226 The most important, that is, if we place ourselves at the point of view of the Burmese Abhidhamma students of that day. Mrs. Rhys Davids; to whose rare ability and patience we owe a scholarly edition 219 Sās., p. 102; P.TH., P. 58. Ratanākara was acquainted with of a part of this text, remarks, ‘the aim of the work seems to have been Sanskrit rhetoric and poetics. more a series of exercises in a logic of terms and relations than any 220 attempt to enunciate metaphysical propositions’ (see Introduction to Sās., p. 106. 221 the Dukapaṭṭhāna, edited for the Paḷi Text Society by Caroline F. Rhys Sās., p. 105; see Fausböll’s edition of the Jātaka, vol. vi, pp. 479 Davids; pp. x-xiv). The Paṭṭhāna is also called the Mahāpakarana ff. (Great Treatise). It consists of twenty-four sections, and in manuscript 222 Eldest son of Bayin Naung. amounts to over a thousand leaves. See Forchhammer’s List, p. xv. distribute these works aright among their Dāthanāga of Sagaing. His commentary is 233 several authors, whose Paḷi names are but an entitled Niruttisāramañjūsā. indifferent help to accuracy. There were at We here come across a mention of Pagan, least four Ariyālaṃkāras noted for scholarship. once the flourishing centre of grammatical The monk mentioned in the Sāsanavaṃsa as studies. The thera Jambudhaja (or the second Ariyālaṃkāra (pupil of the great Jambudīpadhaja, as the king named him) was thera who was ‘equal to Tipiṭakālaṃkāra’) is one whom Ukkaṃsika had delighted to probably the scholar of whom Oldenberg honour. He was of Pagan, and was first remarks that the Burmese are indebted to him brought to the king’s notice by for the version of a great number of Paḷi Tipiṭakālaṃkāra.234 The works ascribed to him works. Those ascribed to this Ariyālaṃkāra are Samvaṇṇanānayadīpanī, Niruttisaṃgraha are (1) Interpretations of the Atthasālinī of (grammar), and Sarvajñānyadīpanī (grammar Buddhaghosa, the Sankhepavaṇṇanā of and philology).235 Jambudhaja, author of the Saddhammajotipāla,227 the little grammatical treatise called Abhidhammatthavibhāvanī of Sumaṅgala,228 Rūpabhedapakāsanī, is probably this same 236 and the Vibhaṅga of the Jambudīpadhaja. Abhidhammapiṭaka.229 (2) A Paḷi ṭīkā on the The Abhidhamma seems to have had less Kaccāyanabheda, entitled Sāratthavikāsinī. (3) attraction for him than for most of his noted Ariyālaṃkāra was careful to add a Burmese contemporaries, and he devoted himself to the version to what we should nowadays call his Vinaya, of which he translated text and revised edition of Kaccāyana’s grammar. commentary into Burmese. But Maṇiratana, a This work was done mostly in the writer of the same period, is an example of a Dakkhiṇavana vihāra, or Monastery of the life spent in interpreting the abstruser side of Southern Grove, near the Rājamaṇicūla cetiya sacred learning to those who were only at Sagaing. Ukkaṃsika had built four capable of reading the vernacular. The monasteries, one on each side of his famous Sāsanavaṃsa mentions translations by him of pagoda,230 and presented them to theras the following works—the Atthasālinī and learned in the sacred texts. Another Sammohavinodanī (Buddhaghosa’s grammarian in residence on the west side commentaries on the Dhammasanganī and the produced an edition of the Nyāsa,231 ‘adorned’ Vibhaṅga) and the Kaṅkhāvitaraṇi (as the Paḷi phrase goes), and set forth with (Buddhaghosa’s commentary on the 232 various methods of explanation. Pātimokkha of the Vinaya); this last seems to The Nyāsa was taken up again in the reign have been Maṇiratana’s only departure from of Sirinandadhammarāja - Pavarādhipatirājā metaphysical studies. Then, turning to the later (A.D. 1648) by the king’s preceptor, exponents of the Abhidhamma, he translated the ṭīkās Abhidhammatthavibhāvanī and Sankhepavaṇṇanā into Burmese. Another thera, Saradassi, of the same place (Nayyinyua, in the Ava district), was the 227 See above, p. 18, Chap. II. 228 author of some works equally characteristic of See Oldenberg’s Catalogue of Paḷi MSS. at the India Office, pp. 81, 82, 84, 85, 88-90, 123, 124. Sumaṅgala is also known as the time. His Gūḷhatthadīpanī (explaining Sumaṅgalasāmi and his work as the Tīkā-kyaw. 229 The Vibhaṅga is second in order of the seven Abhidhamma 233 books. Mrs. Rhys Davids points out that it may be considered a sequel See p. 111, SVD., verse 1241; Piṭakatthamain, p. 65. A work of the Dhammasaṅganī, and was probably used, like the latter, as a with a nearly similar title (Niruttimañjūsā), mentioned in the manual for study. For other remarks on these studies see the valuable Gandhavaṃsa (pp. 60 and 70), is a ṭīkā on the Cullanirutti of introduction to the Paḷi Text Society’s edition of the Vibhaṅga (ed. C. Kaccāyaua. 234 A. F. Rhys Davids), 1904. Sās., pp. 115, 116. 230 235 The Kaung-mhu-daw pagoda, 5 miles from Sagaing. These works are mentioned by Nevill, who saw them in Ceylon. 231 See above, p. 21. He dates them 1652 A.D. 232 236 Sās., pp. 106, 110; Piṭakatthamain; p. 124. Fausböll, Cat. Mand. MSS., p. 50. difficult passages in the seven books of the The last task alone would have served a less Abhidhamma)237 and the diligent man for a lifetime, but Visuddhimaggagaṇṭhipadattha, a book of the Aggadhammālaṃkāra probably had earnest same nature on Buddhaghosa’s students to satisfy. There is no doubt about his Visuddhimagga, are in Paḷi. He also translated real devotion to his subject. the Nettipakaraṇa into Burmese, not to shirk This prodigious worker was not entirely his part in opening up the Paḷi texts to readers given up to the sacred texts. Circumstances without learning. If he is a little less shadowy made him a court historian. He came of a to us than some of his fellow-authors it is family of officials, and no doubt was better because, with all his grasp of abstruse fitted than most Paḷists of his day to carry out questions, he had, for a time at least, leanings certain royal commissions. The last of his that greatly displeased the stricter brethren. He works that we find mentioned in the lived in the village itself, and indulged in Sāsanavaṃsa is a Rājavaṃsasankhepa, a luxuries such as a head-covering and a fan. summary of the official Rājavaṃsa, or a short But we are told that he afterwards renounced chronicle of the kings. This he undertook at all those practices ‘contrary to the discipline’ the request of his protector, 239 and went into retreat in the forest. Mahāpavaradhammarājalokādhipati. The middle and, latter part of the Under the auspices of the next king, seventeenth century were not peaceful times Naravara,240 the thera Tejodipa, disciple of for Burma. The country was harassed by Tilokaguru, composed a ṭīkā on the Paritta.241 Chinese raiders, rumours and evil omens It is the only literary event noticed by the troubled the people, the tutelary devatā of the Sāsanavaṃsa in this reign, which, in fact only towns were said to be departing, and ‘religion lasted a few months. Under Naravara’s was dimmed’. Great efforts were made to successor Siripavaramahādhammarājā242 a conjure these and other ills by the practice of thera named Devacakkobhasa comes upon the religion; the local gods were conciliated with scene, whose influence with the king was offerings, and ‘merit’, in the Buddhist sense, evidently great, for the usual reason — he was was acquired by new religious foundations. learned in the Vedasatthas. The usual mild When Mahāpavaradhammarājalokādhipati reproach follows — he was ‘weak’ in the came to the throne in 1651 he built some knowledge of the sacred texts.243 Nevertheless, monasteries, according to the custom of his his system of Abhidhamma teaching was predecessors, and presented them to recommended to the Order by the king. distinguished theras. The most eminent among Devacakkobhasa made his pupils study and these was the Aggadhammālaṃkāra, already recite the Paṭṭhāna (we suppose in Paḷi). Not mentioned, who translated several Paḷi texts only the monks of Burma but those of Pegu into the vernacular. were made to study the Paṭṭhāna. By the king’s He first paid the usual homage to order great religious festivals were held, and Kaccāyana, but by writing a Burmese the people were called upon to honour the translation instead of a Paḷi commentary; Order in every way. afterwards he translated the We have now reached the year 1698, and Abhidhammatthasangaha, and then, as if can pause to glance at those features of the continually seeking heavier and heavier tasks, 239 the patient scholar toiled through translations Sās., p. 112; Piṭakatthamain, p. 220. 240 of the Mātikā (of the Dhammasanganī), the Mahāsihasūradhammarāja. 238 241 Dhātukathā, the Yamaka, and the Paṭṭhāna. Sās., p. 115. 242 A.D. 1672. 243 237 Sās., p. 117. The Sāsanavaṃsa tells us by the way that the well- Sās., p. 116; see Forchhammer’s List, p. xxvi, and Fausböll, Cat. known Burmese method of preparing and decorating palm-leaf MSS. Mand. MSS., p. 35; Piṭakatthamain, pp. 39, 40. was first put into practice in this reign. See Symes, Account of an 238 Sās., p. 111. Embassy to the kingdom of Ava, p. 339. Paḷi-Burmese literature which have come into and prescriptions (āṇādesanā), the Sutta that clear relief during the seventeenth century. of the current practice or experience of men Our attention is arrested by a new tendency. (vohāradesanā), the Abhidhamma that of the The zeal for Paḷi grammar seems to be fainter highest or absolute truth (paramatthadesanā). than in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries; Let us see how these three collections have a more abstract study, the Abhidhamma, is fared in Burmese Buddhism. occupying the learned among the monks, or at The Paḷi Vinaya took root quickly and least those of whom we hear, those whom we profoundly in Burma. All students of the may call the official scholars, the theras who subject are agreed on the constancy with have the title rājaguru (king’s preceptor) and which later Vinaya literature reflects the work in monasteries endowed by the kings. ancient form and spirit. Buddhism has a We do not know much of the lives of these lengthy and minute code for the Mendicant teachers, but their choice of subjects throws a Order. That code has been prodigiously certain light on what was demanded of them, commented and glossed in the course of even by the less learned among their students, centuries, but the novice learns the discipline or, at least, what they, the most influential from his preceptor in the monastery by scholars of their time, insisted that their example and habit, rather than from books, students should attempt. We have seen how and by everyday practice the observance of the the several books of the Abhidhamma were rules becomes second nature without much interpreted and paraphrased in Burmese during mental effort. Of course, some book-study is the seventeenth century, and we cannot doubt required, but the essential knowledge is easy that the disciples living near their venerable for the young monk to master even in Paḷi. masters in the monasteries by the Irrawaddy And then there is that old and kindly persevered in studying the third Piṭaka. And institution ‘The Smaller Vinayas’,245 that tradition of the seventeenth century has containing the essential precepts and formulas come down to later generations, as the most of the Discipline. casual survey of modern Burmese literature Controversial works have been written from will show. time to time on matters of discipline, but to Everyone who has seen a collection of know them is not a fundamental part of Vinaya Buddhist manuscripts from Burma must have study. Occasionally disputes on questions of noticed the numerous copies of Abhidhamma discipline arose in the Burmese Sangha at texts with vernacular interpretations. The times when the word of the Buddha was, it descriptions we read of Burmese life and seems, not very well known to most of the character might lead us to expect a preference monks; and we read that the king intervened in for something less arid, more picturesque, such cases to command research in the ancient more human, more adapted to the native texts, or appoint teachers whose decision was genius. But there is not really an anomaly here. to be final. The king’s privilege, however, was In this particular case the Burmese remember particular; the attitude of the Burmese laity in what was said in old days about the general towards the Order and its discipline Buddhavacanam, the word of the Buddha. has been one of unquestioning reverence. The The classic fifth century commentaries, for Vinaya itself, being a code of prohibitions instance the Atthasālinī,244 make an interesting concerning the monastic life, has not of course distinction between the three great divisions of had a great influence on culture. Not that it has the Buddhavacanam—the Vinaya, Sutta, and remained altogether without its bearing on the Abhidhamma. The Vinaya, they say, contains lay life, for there is a Vinaya element in the the teaching of rules of conduct, prohibitions, Burmese law codes. This we might expect, as

244 245 Atthasālinī, E. Müller’s edition (Pali Text Society), p. 21. See above, p. 6, Chap. I. religion and law are inseparable in Oriental who thought in Sanskrit, and from whom polity. But when we look for the influence of sprang the great champions of the Mahāyāna Pali literature on Burmese culture it is in the svstem—Aśvaghosa, Asanga, and. Śāntideva. Sutta that we find it. The greater number of Burmese students of Through the immense variety of discourses, metaphysics have depended from early times verses, and legends that make up the Sutta on compendiums and manuals. The most piṭaka the path of the saint is traced for us in successful of these, after the canonical every stage, from the first moment of religious Dhammasanganī,247 has been the twelfth- effort to the summit of achievement— century textbook Abhidhammatthasangaha248 arahatship. And the Sutta piṭaka has This little treatise is a summary of Buddhist abundance of human nature in it. So in theories on mental processes, on existence and widening and widening circles it has sent a annihilation. It is a mass of technical terms moral impulse through the life of the whole needing an extensive commentary. Burmese people. To give two instances: the Commentators, of course, were forthcoming. Paritta246 is a common treasury of good words The Siñhalese theras Vimalabuddhi and to ward off the evils of everyday life and keep Sumangala both composed ṭīkās, and the the great maxims of religion in memory, and second, the Abhidhammatthavibhavanī, is part the Jātaka has found its way everywhere, from of the usual course of (Abhidhamma) study in law codes and chronicles to popular plays. The Burma.249 Two ancient and authoritative Burmese child grows up steeped in beliefs, treatises from Ceylon, the practices, and notions of ‘merit’ and ‘demerit’ Abhidhammāvatāra250 by Buddhadatta and the drawn from the Sutta. He has nothing new to Saccasamkhepa251 by Culladhammapāla, were learn about this part of his faith when he studied more in the early period of Burmese forsakes the world and enters on the monastic scholarship than in later times. life. What the earnest novice from generation Probably no Paḷi work on the Abhidhamma to generation has set himself to study in the has been more often translated and calm of the vihāra is the paramatthadhamma, paraphrased than the ‘the highest’ of the Master’s teaching, the Abhidhammatthasangaha, of which the Abhidhamma. Piṭikatthamain alone mentions twenty-three If the Burmese student is cheerfully at different Burmese nissayas. All the most noted home in the Sutta he approaches the theras of the seventeenth century took it in Abhidhamma with awed respect, like his hand, and it has been carefully edited by brother Buddhist in Siam and Cambodia. The modern hsayās. A close analysis of the Buddhist of Indo-China is by no means principal translations of this single little text enamoured, as the Indian Buddhists were, of would be an explanation, incomplete of speculation for its own sake. He reads in course, but very interesting and instructive, of Buddhaghosa that, there is an exalted religious the true Burmese view of Abhidhamma joy to be found in only considering the theories, such as we find in the vastness of the Paṭṭhāna. The mind of the Dhammasanganī, also a manual,252 and we believer, launched upon that ocean, may allow 247 itself to be rocked to a contemplative calm. Edited in JPTS., 1884, with introduction by Rhys Davids. See Fausböll, Cat. Mand. MSS., pp. 38, 46, 48; Forchhammer, List, p. xvii. The virtue of this passive reception of the 248 Edited by E. Müller, trans. by C. A. F. Rhys Davids. buddhavacana can never have been doubted in 249 See Fausböll, Cat. Mand. MSS., pp. 38, 48; Forchhammer, List, ease-loving Burma. The Burmese p. xvii; Gandhavaṃsa, pp. 62, 72. 250 ‘Abhidhammikā’ Buddhists had little in See Fausböll, Cat. Mand. MSS., pp. 35, 37; Forchhammer, List, p. xvii; GV., pp. 59, 62, 69; Sās., p. 34. common with the keen disputants of the north 251 See Fausböll, Cat. Mand. MSS., pp. 35-7; Forchhammer, List, p. xvii ; GV., pp. 60, 70; Sās., p. 34. 252 See the learned introduction of Mrs. Rhys Davids to her 246 See above, p. 3, Chap. I. translation of the Dhammasanganī. must not forget that these theories are as much It would be interesting to know something a part of the Buddhism of Burma as the human about the numerical strength of the Order at and touching spirit of the Sutta. different times during that period. It probably Some curious elements have straggled in diminished greatly when even monasteries under the accommodating title Paramattha, and were insecure, and the young men of the sometimes in research we may think we have population were more likely to be fighting come on a metaphysical dissertation and find a than forsaking the world.255 Those were not guide to Buddhist cosmogony.253 Such times for study to prosper. And, as the productions, however, are not characteristic Sāsanavaṃsa says, ‘religion was dimmed’ enough of the Paḷi literature to need more than from time to time. But the Burmese kings were 254 a mention. sufficiently good Buddhists to build vihāras To return to the seventeenth century. We and encourage learning, and the great theras have seen that some of the most eminent were indefatigable workers. It is told of scholars spent their time making Burmese Tipitakālaṃkāra that he once said in jest to versions of Paḷi texts. Either there was a much Aggadhammālaṃkāra, ‘When I am dead you wider public, as we should now say, for will be the only learned man left in the world.’ religious works at that period than in earlier And perhaps the scholarly tradition did at one times, or Paḷi scholarship was at a low ebb in time seem likely to perish out of Burma. But the Order. There is some ground for this last there were always workers to keep it alive, supposition. Burma had been in an almost some of whom we shall only find, in the local continual state of change and disturbance since chronicles (thamain) of temples and vihāras, the Shān element had become first and in the eighteenth century, when another troublesome and then powerful; and Lower national crisis had come and passed, a literary Burma annexed, separated, and annexed again, revival began under Alaungpayā and his suffered no less. descendants.

253 An example is the Paḷi-Burmese Paramatthamanjusa, described by M. l’Abbé Chevrillon in the list of Burmese MSS. in the Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris. 254 I do not mean to imply that these matters are included in Abhidhamma literature without an antique and scriptural warrant for their presence. Mrs. Rhys Davids has pointed out that the last book of 255 the Vibhaṅga, ‘suggesting by its fine title, the Heart of the Dhamma, In Ukkaṃsika’s reign a very curious situation was brought more than it contains, gives a number of summaries and a good deal of about. The king, who had fled from the capital in consequence of a affirmation, much of it mythological, about the conditions of life in conspiracy headed by one of his sons, took refuge in a monastery, this and other spheres—in human beings and other beings’ where the Bhikkhus formed themselves into an armed guard to protect (Introduction to the Vibhaṅga, ed. C. A. F. Rhys Davids; p. xix). him. See Sās., p. 108. CHAPTER V PALI LITERATURE IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY — THE PĀRUPANA-EKAṂSIKA CONTROVERSY — FOUNDATION OF AMARAPURA — BODŌPAYĀ’S EULOGIST — THE RĀJĀDHIRĀJAVILĀSINĪ — THE JĀTAKA IN BURMA If we turn to the Sāsanavaṃsa, we come As the eighteenth century opens, the straightway upon a picture already familiar. religious life of the country seems to have The long, inglorious reign of Hsin-hpyu- passed under a cloud, and we may be fairly shin259 (in Paḷi, Setibhinda) has begun; the certain that there was no intellectual advance inner history of the Order seems to be quietly in the Order. Perhaps there was even some repeating itself. In a monastery at Ava, built by reaction; if we can judge from the a high military official, the learned monk uninteresting controversy that drags through Ukkaṃsamāla is finishing the second of his nearly a hundred years in the chronicle.256 treatises Vaṇṇabodhana and Likhananaya260 Even without studying in detail the (dealing, as the titles show, with the Paḷi literature of the time, we notice the absence of language). The chronicle says of him that he work such as Tipiṭakālaṃkāra, Ariyālaṃkāra, was versed in the texts, the commentaries, the and Aggadhammālaṃkāra had produced in ṭīkās, and the ‘other books’ (gandkantarā); by Upper Burma. In Rāmañña the Order lacked which is meant works not strictly doctrinal but 261 support. Since the removal of the capital to necessary to a complete Buddhist education. Ava in 1634 the south had gradually sunk into Ukkaṃsamāla, fortunately for him, was misery and ruin.257 Towards the middle of the peacefully occupied with words and not with century, as we shall see, a revolt against practices, but we cannot separate the history of Burma was successful for a time, but the final Paḷi literature in the eighteenth century from a result was that a later conqueror, Alaungpayā, controversy which went on, with only a few broke down the Talaing nationality completely intervals of forced truce, for nearly a century and finally. Thus, though Alaungpayā was between the sects known as the Pārupanas and really a better Buddhist than his milder Ekaṃsikas. Their differences were on matters predecessors, the fortune of war went against of monastic discipline, but certainly affected scholarship in the ancient home of Buddhism studies. from the end of the seventeenth century till the The Sāsanavaṃsa, in which we find a fairly time when the Burmese conqueror’s power full account,262 tells us that a monk named was firmly established. Guṇābhilaṃkara in or about the year 1698 And at the moment when, leaving the A.D. introduced, and the followers who seventeenth century, we have our next glimpse gathered round him quickly adopted, the of literary history, there was not only a state of custom of wearing the mendicant’s upper robe gloom and listlessness in Pegu but in Burma over one shoulder only, leaving the other bare. also. The country was no longer ruled by kings But, according to the rules for dress laid down of the energetic and aggressive type,258 who in the Paḷi Vinaya, both shoulders should be were usually active benefactors of religion and draped, except when the right was uncovered therefore of Paḷi literature. as a mark of respect in addressing a superior; and here at once was a doubtful and

256 See Sās., pp. 118 ff., and Introduction, p. 37. 259 257 A.D. 1714-433 (Phayre, History of Burma, p. 286). In Sās., See Phayre, History of Burma, pp. 141, 142. 258 1074 Kaliyuga (=1712 A.D.). Phayre says of this period, ‘Though the monarchy suffered no 260 Sās., p. 120. great disaster its powers gradually declined.’ The raids of the Chinese 261 in the previous century had been followed by an invasion from e.g., the Piṭakatthamain (p. 52) gives under the heading Manipur, and some territory in the north was lost (Phayre, History of gandhantarā the Mahāvaṃsa, Dīpavaṃsa, and their ṭīkās. 262 Burma, pp. 140 ff.). Sās., pp. 117 ff. ostentatious change which put the simpler, more exactly, spiritual adviser). Ñāṇavara was old-school Pārupanas (or ‘clothed’ sect as they originally of Pagan. When he came to the were named) up in arms. This was not all. The capital he threw himself zealously into the Ekaṃsika (‘one-shoulder’) party carried fans work of teaching, and the first of his works when making their begging-rounds in the mentioned in the chronicle266was composed villages. These and one or two other for the benefit of his many hearers. innovations, which may seem to outsiders a Mindful of their difficulties in the study of small matter, roused very strong feeling in the the Abhidhammatthasaṅgaha, probably then, Order. as later, the text most in use, he prepared a Guṇābhilaṃkara and his following were not gaṇṭhipadattha or gloss on the difficult words considered strong in the sacred texts, and their in that famous work. Ñāṇavara then glossed opponents of the strict school defied them to the ancient commentary Atthasālinī (of bring forward a canonical text, commentary, or Buddhaghosa) in the same way. He also ṭīkā that authorized their practices. Here was composed a work entitled Surāvinicchaya, a their difficulty, and the Sāsanavaṃsa assures name suggesting Vinaya rather than us that they were put to the miserable Abhidhamma,267 and another work for Vinaya expedient of producing a work forged for them students entitled Pātimokkhalekhana.268 by a ‘lay disciple of immoral life who had Afterwards, at the king’s request, as we are quitted the Order’.263 They maintained that told, the ācariya continued the work his they held the views of the orthodox thera predecessors had began in the seventeenth Saddhammacari of Ceylon. The severe century, and translated the language of the Sāsanavaṃsa would lead us to Adhidhānappadīpikā269 into the vernacular. think that some moral laxity, unworthy of true His contemporary Sāradassi, also of Pagan, is ‘sons of the Sakya’,264 went with these mentioned as the author of a affectations of dress and habits in the new Dhātukathāyojana,270 either a grammatical party. At all events, the question whether any commentary or a translation of the Dhātukathā given monk was a Pārupana or Ekaṃsika was, of the Abhidhammapiṭaka. for long years, the one by which his fellow- Ñāṇavara’s next work, the monks would judge him. It is interesting to see Rājādhirājanāmattappakāsinī, seems to have the part played by the temporal power in all been written not so much to instruct the this. The hierarchy of the Buddhist Church unlearned as to please a royal patron. Its was not so firmly established that the subject, ‘the naming of kings,’ with the Saṅgharājā or Supreme Head could impose his reigning king’s name as an example, was not will on the fraternity without the king’s important to the students in the monasteries. support, and we shall see that when the The purpose of the book was served, so far as struggle became very acute the sect that was we can see, when it had shown Ñāṇavara’s losing ground usually tried to bring the matter scholarship and interested Mahārājādhipati directly before the king. himself. There is a sort of unconscious irony in In 1733 Mahārājādhipati came to the the thera’s essay when we see, as the gentle throne.265 He was an ineffectual king and, as monk did not see, the approaching fate of the events showed, a very poor arbiter in religious 266 matters. The Sāsanavaṃsa records only one of Sās., p. 121. 267 his acts with approval; this was the appointing See above, p. 46, and Sās., p. 81. The title is perplexing here, as it recalls Mahāparakkama’s Decisions concerning Intoxicant, written of the thera Ñāṇavara as his ācariya (tutor or, at Taungu in the sixteenth century. 268 P.TH., p. 43. The Pātimokkha, it will be remembered, is the fundamental code of rules, the whole duty of the monastic life, in a 263 Sās., p. 119. concise form. The ceremony of the uposatha days is a solemn 264 A stock phrase of the ancient Vinaya, where unseemly conduct undertaking of this rule of life by the assembled Sangha. 269 of monks and novices is described as asakyaputtiya. See Oldenberg, Paḷi MSS. in the India Office Library, p. 105. 265 270 Phayre, History of Bnrma, p. 140. Sās., 1095 K.Y. P.TH., p. 41. ‘Lord of Kings’, and know how ill he Binya Dala, a brave soldier and able leader, succeeded not only as king but as supporter of was solemnly consecrated at Pegu city the faith. A ruler of quite different mettle was (Haṃsāvati) in 1746. needed even to deal with the affairs of the From this time till the end of the eventful Sangha now in a state of acute disaccord. campaign that followed there is no literary Mahārājādhipati made mistake upon mistake. history to record. A life-and-death struggle had When his tutor Ñāṇavara, who held to the begun between Talaing and Burman, and for Pārupana practice, and the thera Pasaṃsa, of some time the Order disappears from view in the Ekaṃsika sect, were engaged in vigorous the people. controversy, the king set an incompetent At first the Talaings were successful, and monk, a favourite of his own, over both the the Burmese lost their capital and their king. learned doctors. This monk is described as But the fall of Ava in 1752 was a turning- ignorant and incapable, ‘knowing only enough point. With the first attempt to exact general to turn a plough’s head to the east or the west,’ submission to the new rulers and payment of yet the king, as the chronicle says, ‘not taxes there arose an obscure captain knowing that this man was thus and so,’ determined to resist, a man with indomitable trusted him to regulate all matters of religion. faith in himself and his countrymen. This man The favourite proved unable to judge which of was the future king of Burma, Alaungpayā. the two opposed views was false and which Our subject does not lead us far into the was true. ‘He was,’ says the chronicler, history of the national hero and his astonishing growing more and more indignant, ‘like a success, from the moment he collected his first buffalo, who knows no difference between the little army till the day when, anointed king of music of a celestial lute played by a Burma, he triumphantly gave his southern Gandharva271 and the striking of a bamboo capital the name Rangoon (in commemoration stick by a village lad.’ The situation was of the war). Here we may be permitted to beyond Mahārājādhipati’s own powers of follow the Sāsanavaṃsa, which sums up arbitrating. He wished for peace, and sought Alaungpayā’s campaigns and victories in a for a compromise which might perchance last few words of homely imagery: ‘he drove the during his own lifetime. A royal decree was armies of the King of Pegu forth from Burma therefore issued, the substance of which was as one might a famished bird from a field of 273 that every bhikkhu was to observe whatever grain.’ practices be wished. Only one result could be For our chronicler the great feature of expected. As the chronicler drily observes, Alaungpayā’s reign was the religious revival. ‘their dispute did not subside then.’ Monks and laymen rejoiced in peace and But this was a time for graver safety under a king who was popularly preoccupations. The old discontent and hatred believed to be the Bodhisat.274 Alaungpayā of Burma, that had been seething in Pegu for was active in pious works, and determined that many years, had gradually mounted to the all his family, ministers, and nobles should point of rebellion, while the Burmese were follow his example. Great companies of the harassed by Manipuri invaders. In 1740 a king brethren were invited to the palace every was elected in Pegu and the revolt became uposatha day, and the members of the royal serious.272 Prome was taken by the Talaings, household had even opportunities for study. and though their first king abdicated, another,

271 The Gandharvas (Paḷi, Gandhabba) are demigods attendant on Dhatarattha, one of the four ‘guardian gods’ of the earth. The expression ‘playing a lute near a buffalo’ is quoted among the 273 ‘Burmese Proverbs, aphorisms, and quaint sayings’ in Judson & Sās., p. 123; these events came about in the year 1113 of the Stevenson’s excellent Burmese Dictionary, Appendix, p. 3. Kaliyuga (=1751 A.D.) and the two years following. 272 274 See Phayre, History of Burma, pp. 142 ff. A future Buddha. Whether zealous or not for Paḷi learning, they sentence. So sure was he of the fate awaiting 275 probably found it expedient to be studious. him that he put off his monastic habit before In this prosperous state of religion the the encounter, with the magnanimous wish to Pārupana-Ekaṃsika controversy revived, and lighten, in some sense, the guilt of the man the Ekaṃsika school now had a good chance who would shed his blood. The courageous of making their practice prevail in the whole monk’s life was spared, but what happened to community. For the king’s ācariya, Atula him we do not know. All that the chronicle Yasadhamma, whose influence with adds to this strange incident is the fact that Alaungpayā was great, was opposed to the when Alaungpayā left for his last campaign in stricter sect. The Sāsanavaṃsa assures us that Siam Munindaghosa was in prison. Alaungpayā wished to go into the question Alaungpayā never found the leisure from thoroughly for himself, but, being too much state affairs that would allow him to master absorbed in state affairs, he put off hearing the Vinaya questions. Disease was already two parties till graver matters were dispatched. undermining his wonderful vigour when he In the meantime he decreed that the whole reached his forty-sixth year, and his Order should follow the ruling of his own unsuccessful attempt to conquer Siam in 1760 ācariya. was the last undertaking of his life. When the This command put the Pārupanas in a Burmese army returned from the expedition difficulty. They must either renounce what they bore with them the dead body of their they held to be the only practice warranted by hero. the scriptures or resist the king’s authority. Alaungpayā was succeeded by his eldest Most of them submitted, but a few stood firm. son, Siripavaramahādhammarājā277 who The most notable of the resisters was the then rebuilt Sagaing278 (Paḷi, Jeyyapura), while the Munindaghosa of Pagan,276 who not only old capital, Ava, was occupied by a rebel continued to observe the stricter rule but had a force. During this king’s short reign an attempt large following. was made by the Pārupana sect to convince the He is said to have declared in a full king that right was on their side. They had assembly of senior brethren that he was hoped much from the fact that Ñāṇa, or willing to die rather than forsake the precepts Ñāṇalaṃkāra, the royal preceptor,279 was a of his master. Alaungpayā was too much the Pārupana. But the astute Atula280 was still Oriental despot to bear insubordination even leading the Ekaṃsika party, and his counter- from a mahāthera, and Munindaghosa was tactics were successful enough to prevent banished, as far as possible, from the region unsettled points of discipline from being where his influence was felt. Quite undaunted discussed before the king. he continued his teaching, and again a group In the meantime Ñāṇa, who seems to have of followers gathered round him. But in his had little taste for controversy, won a banishment he was ready to turn from reputation for profound knowledge. We are controversy and instruct his pupils in more told, as a testimony to his untiring diligence; abstract matters, for it was at this time that he that he was capable of mastering or teaching translated the Abhidhammatthasaṅgaha into nine or ten chapters281 of Paḷi in a day. He had Burmese. He seems to have gone on for awhile unmolested, but was afterwards summoned to 277 Naung-doa-gyī, 1760-3. Phayre, History of Burma, p. 184. (Sās., Alaungpayā’s presence to answer for his the year 1122 K.Y.) 278 defiance, a summons which he obeyed with a Sās. p. 127. 279 full expectation of receiving the death The king had brought this learned thera from Taungdwin to the capital (Sās., p. 127). 280 Atula had been appointed head of the Order by Alaungpayā. See 275 Daung Inscription’, by Taw Sein ׃U ׃Alaungpayā is remembered, in the secular chronicles as a patron ‘A Preliminary Study of the Po of literature. See J. Gray’s Dynasty of Alaungprā, p. 13. Ko (Ind. Ant, vol. xxii, p. 8). 276 281 Sās, p. 125. Literally, bhānavara section for recitation; see Sās., p. 127. been a passionate student from his youth up. In Sanskrit Grammar,286 and contains, besides, the first year of his monastic life he composed works on astrology, palmistry, medicine, and 287 a grammatical work called the Padavibhāga. It erotics. was followed by a series of commentaries, in In 1776 Mahādhammarājadhirājā Burmese, on the Nyāsa282 and two (otherwise Sing-gu-sā),288 the nineteen-year- Abhidhamma texts, the Yamaka and old son of Hsin-hpyu-shin, succeeded and Mahāpaṭṭhāna (or Paṭṭhāna). reigned for a few years. He had but little time In 1763 Naung-doa-gyī died and was or peace for religious works, but it happened succeeded by his brother, who is usually that, coming under the influence of 283 known as Hsin-hpyu-shin (Paḷi, Setibhinda). Nandamāla, a monk of great learning and His accession gave promise of better times; authority on monastic questions, he became among other auspicious changes for the Order deeply interested in the Pārupana-Ekaṃsika was the rebuilding of Ava (Ratanapura), which dispute. The chronicle tells us that the young was reoccupied as the capital in 1766. king dreamed a strange dream. The great god The Sāsanavaṃsa passes over this reign Sakra, clothed in white and adorned with white very briefly, and we must look to other sources blossoms, came to him and told him how, on for mention of the literary work done. The the bank of the ‘Nammada River in the king’s tutor, Jambudīpa-Anantadhaja, is Aparanta Country’,289 the sacred footprints of merely named, and we may guess from this the Buddha were concealed by the wild growth that he was either of the Ekaṃsika sect or took of the jungle, ‘root bound up with root, trunk no interest in establishing the Pārupana with trunk, and leaf with leaf.’ Former kings in practices. He was the author of a grammatical their ignorance had left the place overgrown commentary (composed in 1768) on the and neglected, but on him whom the god had Vinayavinicchaya.284 Either Setibbinda or his enlightened fell the duty of clearing it. The ācariya (the wording of the chronicle leaves it dream was explained to the king by a monk, in doubt which of the two) did nevertheless who no doubt told him of Nandamā1a, the take strong measures against some doctrinal eminent teacher. The king at once sent for heresy which began to spread in Burma about Nandamāla and thenceforth kept the thera near this time. The heretics were summoned before him. Nandamāla seized the opportunity of the head of the Sangha and ‘made to accept’ explaining the Pārupana-Ekarpsika 285 the true doctrine—how, we are not told. controversy, and convinced Hsin-hpyu-shin is said to have been a Mahādhammarājadhirājā that only the generous patron of literature, and, though a Pārupanas had the authority of the sacred texts good Buddhist, he showed a certain on their side. The king summoned both parties enthusiasm for Brahmanic learning and had a to hold a debate before him, in which the number of Sanskrit works translated into Ekaṃsikas were hopelessly defeated, and a Burmese. The list of these books, according to royal decree was issued imposing the Pārupana Forchhammer, begins with Vopadeva’ s discipline on the whole Order. Nandamāla was

282 See above, pp. 20, 21. 283 286 Sās., p. 128; Kaliyuga 1125 (the date is given incorrectly in the The Mugdhabodha, written in the thirteenth century; see A. printed text kaliyuge pañcavassādhike dvisate sahasse sampatte); Weber, Indische Literaturgeschichte, 2nd ed., p. 243. 287 Phayre, History of Burma, p. 186. See also Taw Sein Ko, ‘A See Forchhammer in Jardine’s Notes on Buddhist Law, part iv, ,Daung Inscription’ (Ind. Ant, vol xxii, Introductory Remarks, pp. ix, xiv; also J. Gray, Dynasty of Alaungprā ׃U ׃Preliminary Study of the Po .Daung inscription, engraved in a cave near p. 24, and Niti Literature of Burma, pp. 6 and 134 ׃U ׃pp. 1 ff.). The Po 288 Prome, is interesting as commemorating the consolidation of the Phayre, history of Burma, p. 209. Burmese power in Further India at this period. 289 284 See C. Duroiselle’s Notes sur la geographie apocryphe de la There is, I believe, a MS. of this work in the Neville Collection Birmanie apropos de la Légende de Pûrṇa, BEFEO., tome v, pp. 146 at the British Museum. The Vinayavinicchaya was by Buddhadatta of ff. A cetiya had been built in the seventeenth century to mark the place Ceylon. Sās., p. 33; P.TH., p. 43; GV., p. 59. of these footprints, first rediscovered by the saintly ācariya of Salvan- 285 Sās., p. 128. min-tara (1629-48). 290 appointed Supreme Head. It was probably at Bodōpayā’s own time, both paint the king in this time that he wrote the Sāsanasuddhidīpikā colours through which we can see but a dim (expounding “the purity of religion”, or outline of the truth. Bodōpayā’s personality “religious reform”). has not lacked describers, and surely has never When a young man, shortly after his had one more indulgent than the good ordination, he had translated some ancient and Saṅgharjā, to whom was given the task of authoritative Paḷi works, the commemorating the king’s abhiseka Vinayavinicchaya,291 Suttasaṅgaha,292 and (consecration, literally anointing) in his new Mahāvaggaṭṭhakathā,293 into Burmese. capital, Amarapura.296 Ñāṇa, or Nandamā1a’s name is not associated with any Ñāṇabhivaṃsa, had only been ordained seven work on the Abhidhamma. Perhaps his years when he was summoned to live near the preference for Vinaya studies294 influenced his king and officiate as rājaguru. Naturally he pupils, and had the effect of bringing under soon had a royal commission to fulfill, and his discussion questions which had been less learning was brought to bear on the subject of prominent in the last reign. We might suppose, the consecration ceremony. He translated a too, that his authority would have sufficed for treatise on the subject, the Rājābhisekagandha, a settlement of the Pārupana-Ekaṃsika into Burmese.297 He was probably not the dispute, but this, as we shall see, was yet to be author of the original work, but revised it after delayed awhile. consulting ancient authorities. We can now go on to the reign of the The thera then received the sonorous name famous Bodōpayā,295 concerning ourselves Ñāṇabhisāsanadhajamahādhammarājaguru as a chiefly, as the Sāsanavaṃsa does, with its further token of the royal favour. religious events, and passing over its sinister In a few years he became the leading beginning, in the midst of conspiracy and personage in the Burmese fraternity. Bodōpayā murder. Alaungpayā’s fifth son was soon bestowed monasteries, built by different established firmly on the throne. The opening members of his family, upon several theras years of his reign showed the peculiarities that renowned for learning, gave to four aged and were to distinguish it to the end—reckless eminent theras the title saṅgharājā (sometimes shedding of blood and lavish building of translated ‘bishop’), and afterwards appointed pagodas. His benefactions to the Order—those four others with the same title to help them in of the royal family and nobles are recorded in their charge. Ñāṇabhivaṃsa was then placed at the chronicle as coming from him—were the head of all, and entrusted with the enormous. The chronicler writing in the reforming (or, to use the chronicler’s nineteenth century and the learned Ñāṇa, who expression, the ‘purifying’) of the religious held the post of Supreme Head of the Order in world. This was a decisive moment for the controversy that had so long divided the Order. 290 His official name thenceforth was As we have seen in other reigns, the views of arindābhidhajamahādhammarājādhirājaguru. 291 the king’s chief ācariya were most important See above, p. 36. 292 in those vexed questions which were usually, See Oldenberg, Paḷi MSS in the India Office Library, p. 80. The Suttasaṅgaha is an anthology from the Suttas, Vimānavatthus (legends settled by the king, and which, under a ruler of of the celestial abodes), etc. 293 Bodōpayā’s temperament would certainly be Probably Buddhaghosa’s commentary on the Mahāvagga section of the Dīghanikāya. The text of the Mahāvagga had been settled without much discussion. And now the interpreted by Ariyālaṃkāra; see Oldenberg, Paḷi MSS. in the India Ekaṃsikas saw that they had not much to hope Office Library, p. 69. The Mahāvagga mentioned may, however, be the section of the Vinaya called by that name. 294 The Piṭakatthamain (p. 43) mentions a commentary on the 296 Vinayasaṅgaha written by the ācariya of King Sin-gu at Ratanapura Amarapura, about 6 miles from Ava, was occupied as the capital (Ava). The Vinayasaṅgaha was one of the famous treatises consulted in 1783 (Phayre, History of Burma, p. 211; Sās., p. 132). 297 by Dhammaceti, see above, p. 38, and of Sās., pp. 33, 43. Sās., p. 131. Ñāṇa is said to have ‘purified’ the 295 Bodōpayā came to the throne in 1782: Phayre, History of Rājābhisekagandha. The Paḷi word used (parisodhetvā) applied to a Burma, p. 209; Sās., p. 130 (1143 Kaliyuga). text means correcting and clearing away interpolations. from their old leader Atula. He had been Cūḷagaṇṭhipada we find the words ‘thus says passed over by Bodōpayā after holding the the Vajirabuddhiṭīkā, the Sāratthadīpanī, thus post of king’s ācariya since the reign of says the Vimativinodanī’? Another pitiable Alaungpayā. But before Ñāṇa arrived at the defeat for the champion of the Ekaṃsikas. As height of his honours and dignities Atula made the Pārupanas said, the text he had chosen as another determined attempt to win the king his refuge had proved to be a peril, and the over. He wrote a memoir to show that the quaint story of the singer Pāṭali is told to 302 practices of the Ekaṃsika sect had been taught illustrate the case. by no less an authority than the great This was the end of the Pārupana-Ekaṃsika Moggallāna,298 who, he maintained, had controversy. The partisans of the composed a text called the Cūḷagaṇṭhipada. Cūḷagaṇṭhipada might perhaps have made How might all this be known, Atula’s another stand, but Bodōpayā was in no mind opponents inquired. It was explained, he for long debates. He promptly issued a decree replied, in a text known as the that the Pārupana practices were to be Piṭakattayalakkhaṇagandha, brought to Burma considered orthodox and observed by the from Ceylon by Buddhaghosa. But the whole Order; and he was obeyed. Pārupana theras had only waited long enough Bodōpayā had a good share of his father’s to let their adversary involve himself thus far energy, but a cruelty and inhumanity, on to this point, and in a few words they which all accounts agree,303 outweighed in him denounced the fraud to the assembly. The text the qualities that make a leader of men. His on which the Ekaṃsikas depended, said they, belief in his own greatness amounted almost to 299 was a treatise called Vinayagaṇṭhipada, of mania, yet he could not inspire others with that the twelfth century, written in Ceylon by a belief as Alaungpayā had done. His attempts at thera Moggallāna living in the reign of foreign conquest and schemes for religious Parakkamabāhu,300 therefore centuries later monuments, such as the world had never seen, than the time of Buddhaghosa, not to speak of failed, partly from the deep hostility and the ancient days of the Arahat Moggallāna. discontent his cruelty had aroused among his The story of the debate is brief, except in subjects. A few complacent scholars covered the description of the dramatic moment when his name with eulogies during his lifetime, but the feeble fraud was brought home to Atula. the Order; as a body, refused to recognize his He was, says the chronicler, like a wild animal claim to be the future Buddha, and in this was caught in the hunter’s trap. But the Pārupanas consistent with the old tradition of monastic pressed him with more questions: was the independence. Cūḷagaṇṭhipada mentioned in the three great The story of Bodōpayā’s unfortunate, Vinaya ṭīkās (the Vajirabuddhiṭīkā, the campaign in Siam in the years 1785 and 1786 Sāratthadīpanī, and the Vimativinodanī)?301 does not much concern us. An interval of The unwary Atula replied that it was. How peace followed. Towards the end of the comes it then, said his opponents, that in your eighteenth century the oppressions of the government brought about a revolt in Arakan, 298 The Arahat Moggallāna, one of the Buddha’s chief disciples; see Sās., p. 136. 302 299 Pitali (Naṭapitali), excited by drink after a successful There is a Vinayagaṇṭhipada in Forchhammer’s List, p. v. The performance, was swept away by the current of the Ganges while author given is the Siñbalese priest Joti. attempting to cross. His wife, certainly with unusual presence of mind, 300 The Parakkamabāhu mentioned is probably the Saṃghabodhi- cried out to him from the river-bank to teach her a song before he Parākramabahu, 1153-84, who summoned a council at Anurādhapura; should perish, as she must needs earn her own living thenceforth. The see Kern, Man. Ind. Buddh., p. 132. luckless actor, whose lute, as it filled with water, was rapidly 301 For these three works see Sās., pp. 33, 34 GV., pp. 60, 61; weighing him down, had only time for a few words of lament—that P.TH., pp. 28, 29. The Sāratthadīpanī, according to Siñhalese and which was the refuge of the sick and afflicted, the water of Gaṅga, Burmese tradition, was written by Sāriputta at the request of must,, alas! be his death. (The story of Patali occurs in the Parakkamabāhu. Vajirabuddhi and Kassapa, the author of commentary on the Jātaka. See Fausböll’s edition of the Jātaka, vol. Vimativinodanī, also represent Ceylon tradition, so greatly venerated iii, p. 507.) 303 in Burma. Phayre, History of Burma, pp. 230, 231. and this led indirectly to the King of Burma’s several works, in some of which we see the first relations with British India, the Burmese teacher and guardian of the doctrine, in others general having pursued the leaders of the the royal preceptor, whose duties included rebellion into British territory.304 One result of writing edifying books at the king’s request. the Arakan rebellion was the awakening of a Examples of Ñāṇa’s more strictly religious new ambition in Bodōpayā, namely, to annex works are (1) a ṭīkā entitled Peṭālaṃkāra309 on that part of Eastern Bengal which had once the Nettipakaraṇa310 and (2) a ṭīkā entitled belonged to Arakan.305 He needed a pretext to Sadhujjanavilāsinī311 on the Dīghanikāya. At send secret envoys to some of the native the request of the king he undertook a princes of India, and in his character of patron Burmese translation of the Paḷi commentary on of literature he was able to make his the Jātaka (the Jātakātthakathā). He is also the negotiations with these possible allies appear author of some short Paḷi works of the Jātaka to be missions to procure Sanskrit books. type, narratives containing religious and moral Literature, at all events, gained by these teaching, the Catusāmaṇeravatthu, the schemes, for a considerable number of Rājovādavatthu, the Sanskrit works were brought to the capital and Chaddantanāgarājuppattikathā, and the 306 312 some were translated. Tigumbhathomana. Last on the list comes In the latter part of Bodōpayā’s reign there the Rājādhirājavilāsinī, which deserves a few was active intercourse between the Sanghas of words of description. In the case of this Ceylon and Burma. Probably no ecclesiastic in particular work the king himself supplied the Ceylon was more respected by the strictly subject and some of the materials, and the orthodox Siñhalese monks than royal command to put these into becoming Ñāṇabhivaṃsa, the Saṅgharājā of Burma. He shape was conveyed by an important official is said to have been a ‘great benefactor’ to the to the Saṅgharājā’s monastery. The Brethren, group known as the ‘Amarapura sect’ or as the rule or etiquette of the Order demanded, school, and the Amarapura school did in fact laid the charge on their Principal, who convey to Ceyon a number of Paḷi texts either forthwith carried it out. How far Bodōpayā’s of Burmese authorship or better known to the eulogists flattered him is a question for Burmese fraternity than to the Siñhalese.307 A impartial chroniclers of events to answer. In large number of these imported treatises deal literary history the Rājādhirājavilāsinī is with Abbidhamma subjects. Ñāṇabhivaṃsa precious as a specimen of the ‘elegant himself was very active in Vinaya teaching. scholarship’ of the time. This curious little Paḷi He lived in turn at each of the several work, written, as explained above, on the monasteries bestowed on him by the king, occasion of Bodōpayā’s consecration, is in directing the studies of the Order in ‘the two prose, the prose of the school that had Vibhaṅgas’ (the Bhikkhu- and forgotten Buddhaghosa’s lessons, or was Bhikkhunivibhaṅga, sections of the ancient determined to better them. It staggers under a Vinaya text treating in detail the code for weight of adjectives that seem meant to monks and nuns).308 He was the author of bewilder the reader with the display of the author’s resources as each sentence brings its 304 Phayre, pp. 220 ff. load along. An Indian model has been copied, 305 The King of Arakan extended his territory to Dacca about 1620, and copied faithfully, except that there is little ‘profiting by the confusion which then existed in the Mogul Empire. Phayre, History of Burma, p. 177. 306 309 Phayre, History of Burma, p. 224. Sās., p. 134; P.TH, p. 36. 307 310 This is the case with many of the texts found in Ceylon and See above, pp. 5, 8. 311 described by Mr. Nevill with the aid of Siñhalese scholars. Sās., p. 134; P.TH., p. 33. 308 312 Ñāṇa himself gave the example of the stricter rule of life, The Lit. ‘Praise of the Tigumbha’ (Sās., p. 135). The Tikumbha or Sāsanavaṃsa tells us that he continually observed at least one of the Tigumbha cetiya is the great Shwe Dagon Pagoda in Rangoon See thirteen rules (technically called dhutaṅga) particular to the more Forchhammer, Notes on the Early History and Geography of British ascetic among the recluses. Burma, part i, p. 17. of the true Indian fantasy in all the decoration, in the forests of Pegu, named Nibbānapaccaya, while allusions to Buddhist legends are and conveyed afterwards with great pomp to brought in with a curious sober carefulness, as the capital, where, if we judge from the precedents might be cited in a legal document. Rājādhirājavilāsinī, it was the real hero of the Royal heroes of old days are called in as abhiseka festival. examples; Mahāsammata, the first king and Bodōpayā’s eulogist, obliged to say at least the ancestor of the Sakya race, comes first, and as much about the elephant as about the king, after him a series of dim, mythical figures, attacks the task with courage. He brings whose presence in the prologue is the forward the traditional elephant lore embodied indispensable compliment to the rājādhirājā in the Hatthisntta316 to show that every kingly enthroned in Amarapura. With Aśoka begin quality and auspicious mark was possessed by historical allusions, and then come quotations Nibbānapaccaya. Perhaps we have no right to from the Suttas, from the commentaries, from judge it all from our own point of view, but as the ṭīkās, from the Mahāvaṃsa, from the we read we cannot but picture Ñāṇabhivaṃsa, Rājāsikkkāpada,313 even a definition from the after the sumptuous festival, sighing over his Saddanīti,314 to bring forward all that weary task. traditional learning might have to say on the For us the interest of the Rājādhirājavilāsinī anointing (abhiseka) ceremony and its is rather in the literary references than the sacramental virtue. Launched upon this theme matter or style, which are both tiresome. The the author finds occasion to speak of author is very careful to show that he has not everything that could shed glory on the neglected secular any more than religious ‘righteous king’ as a benefactor of his people authorities on his subject. He draws from the and of religion. Ancient maxims are cited from literature of various periods and from many Jātakas (for example, the Saṅkicca and branches of learning. We pass from the ancient Tesakuṇa Jātakas, in which the hero of the suttas to the fifth-century commentaries and to story, the future Buddha, discourses on the the later ṭīkās, from these to twelfth-century duties of kings). In the matter of religion grammar, from the famous Elephant-book to Bodōpayā’s achievements are all recorded: he the royal chronicle of Ceylon, from the Jātaka had settled the Pārupana-Ekaṃsika dispute, glossary, Jātakābhidhāna, to Sanskrit instituted reforms in all parts of his etymology and Brahmanic astrology and dominions,315 he had received and returned a chiromancy.317 But the author’s favourite mission to Ceylon, he had brought images of source is the Paḷi Jātaka itself. His work is the Buddha from conquered Arakan to his adorned with verses and passages of the capital and received others from China, he had commentary on certain tales of this famous built cetiyas and celebrated great festivals of collection. In the tales selected the hero is adoration. He had, indeed, done everything almost invariably a righteous king or an that befitted a monarch who aspired to be the elephant perfect in all points; among them the Aśoka or the Duṭṭhagamini of Burma. Alīnacitta,318 the Sīlavanāga,319 and To this man, of all men, the symbols of Vessantara320 Jātakas occur most frequently. power and the external show of magnificence The Tesakuṇajātaka,321 the Dummedha,322 were important, and it so happened that he had 316 acquired an auspicious possession that exalted Lit. elephant-suttas (aphorisms), a well-known manual for his more than normal self-satisfaction beyond elephant-trainers. 317 The Sanskrit Brihajjātaka and Sāmudrikalakşana are quoted. measure. This was a white elephant, captured 318 See Jātaka, Fausböll’s edition, vol. i, pp. 21 ff. 319 Jātaka (Nidāna, p. 45), vol. 1, p. 319. 313 320 Obvioudy a well-known manual of the duties of kings. Jātaka, vol. vi, p. 479. 314 321 See above, pp. 16, 17. Jātaka, vol v, p. 109. In this charming tale the king’s duties are 315 The ‘five regions’ Rāmañña, Kasmīra, Yonaka, Yavana, and expounded to him by the three birds he has adopted as his children. 322 Rakkhaṅga are mentioned. Jātaka, vol. i, p. 444. Culapaduma,323 and Ummagga324Jātakas also existences either as a man or a god.326 Their art provide illustrations. is the old art of the Oriental tale-teller, with its In this respect the Rājādhirājavilāsinī is a mingling of unbridled fantasy and minute typical piece of Burmese literature, and realism; their wisdom is the wisdom of old charms us, in the end, for all its tediousness. proverbs and maxims of the Indian people; For the Jātakas are a possession common to their lesson the praise of the Teacher, the the religious community and the lay-world, the supremely gifted among men, the Bodhisat, learned and the unlettered. From the days playing many parts. The author of the when they were rudely pictured on Taruk-pye- Rājādhirājavilāsinī might be thought (by min’s temple walls at Pagan325 to the date of Bodōpayā) to be pointing to the virtues of the the latest editions we find in the British king who founded Amarapura, but Government’s Official List of Publications, the Ñāṇabhivaṃsa knew that his readers would Jātakas have been a Bible to the Burmese. This see in all a homage to the Lord Buddha. What comparison applies most aptly to the Jātakas these edifying legends are to the Burmese to- of the Mahānipāta or Great Section (the last) day they were when Ñāṇabhivaṃsa wrote, and of the Jātaka book, containing the longest to many generations before his. To understand narratives of the Bodhisat, and relating his the literature, ‘serious’ or popular, of Burma deeds and golden sayings in his later we cannot know the Paḷi Jātaka too well.

323 Jātaka, vol. ii, p. 115. 324 326 Jātaka, vol. vi, p. 329. In passing we may mention the titles most familiar to every 325 1248-79 A.D. See A. Grünwedel, Buddhistische Studien. Burmese Buddhist from his childhood onward—the Temi, the Janaka, Veröffentlichungen aus dem königl. Museum für Völkerkunde, 1897, Suvaṇṇasama, Nimi, Mahosadha, Bhūridatta, Candakumāra, Nārada, Band v, pp. 128-31. Vidhura, and Vessantara Jātakas. CHAPTER VI

THE PALI LAW-TEXTS OF BURMA — PALI LITERATURE IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY — MIN- DON-MIN AND THE FIFTH COUNCIL — THE ERA OF THE PRINTING-PRESS — CONCLUSION

Alaungpayā’s conquest of the Talaings had The intimate connection, religious and been more than a feat of arms and establishing literary, between Ceylon and Burma from the of military supremacy. He had set himself to eleventh century onwards needs no further crush the Talaing language and nationality. If illustration. Though the Buddhists of Indo- the consequent inequality in culture between China have attempted to appropriate Upper and Lower Burma was, after all, less Buddhaghosa, they have always, in all their than we should expect,327 the reason is to be literary chronicles, done ample and sought in the past religious history of both painstaking justice to Siñhalese scholarship provinces. The equalizing and unifying and honoured Siñhalese names. Siñhalese element in the states so often at war or in influence is seen at its strongest in the earlier rivalry was, and had always been, the Buddhist periods. When we come to the end of the religion and the Paḷi language. The kings who eighteenth century we find that a branch of had ruled over the widest territory—Anorata, Paḷi literature has developed in Burma owing Dhammaceti, Bayin Naung, Ukkaṃsika, nothing or very little to Ceylon and bearing Alaungpayā, Hsin-hpyu-shin, Bodōpayā— deep traces of a purely Indian origin. We each in his turn and in his own way, had lent come, that is, to the period of redaction of Paḷi his power to the service of religion and Dhammasatthas (Sanskrit dharmaśāstra) or encouraged scholarship. And even in the worst law-codes, of which some were first drawn up times of disorder and change there had been after Alaungpayā’s conquest of Pegu and centres of learning where the Order could be during the reorganization of the greatly comparatively at peace; there were always extended kingdom of Burma. Others, as we remote or protected monasteries here and there shall see, were more ancient and had been the where old texts could be copied and new patrimony of the Talaings. commentaries and treatises composed. The These ancient codes of Burma, and, with stream of learning flowed wherever a channel certain differences, the Paḷi law-texts of later offered itself; and, whether in the north or the times, are based on Hindu dharmaśāstra, south, was often reinforced from Ceylon. Manu,328 and others. This has become clear We have seen how the rigour and influence from the researches of various scholars whose of the school named, after the place of its opinions are given by Sir John Jardine, origin, the Sāhaḷasaṅgha, continued in Burma formerly chief Judicial Commissioner for from generation to generation. On the other Burma, in his Notes on Buddhist Law, where hand, the abundant vitality of the schools of he adds much precious material from his own Further India at the time of the eighteenth- stores of learning and experience of Indian and century revival reacted on Ceylon, where the Burmese law.329 Burmese school known as the Amarapura sect introduced a number of texts either new to the

Siñhalese brethren or long fallen out of mind. 328 See The Laws of Manu, translation by G. Bühler with introduction, SBE., vol. xxv, and J. Jolly, Recht und Sitte, Grundriss, ii, 8. 329 The Burmese ‘Dhammathats’ are the base of Buddhist law as 327 It must he admitted that the last Census Report judges Upper now administered in Burma. ‘The Paḷi scholar,’ says Sir John Jardine, Burma decidedly superior to Lower Burma in the matter of ‘literacy’, ‘ought to have preceded the judge.’ Sir John Jardine himself called the and mentions the Upper Burman pongyi for his ‘share in the labours of Paḷi scholar to the judge’s aid, most fortunately for those interested in the past’ (E. Lowin, Report on the Census of Burma, 1901, p. 65). the Paḷi literature. His collaborator, Dr. Forchhammer, came essential part of Brahmanic law. But the to the conclusion that the Talaing States Buddhist lawgivers ignored the sacramental became political dependencies of powerful view of marriages and based their theory of Hindu colonies existing in Pegu before the punishment on the doctrine of karma, which, eleventh century, and adopted Hindu codes as will be remembered, takes the past and from them.330 We cannot venture here to do future existences of the individual into more than record the Burmese tradition. account. With this doctrine in mind they The vexed question of ancient origins is a thought out a system of legislation to defend subject for a more elaborate study and more the social order without inflicting what must competent treatment than is possible in the be, according to their theory, unjustified, present essay. We will now touch very briefly useless, illogical penalties. Their system is on the main points in the history of the Paḷi described as a civil code punishing every law-texts of Burma, as traced by the two crime or offence with fines, demanding learned authors mentioned. ‘compensation which is proportionate to the We have already spoken331 of the ancient amount of damage occasioned by one person Dhammavilāsa compiled in Paḷi by the Talaing to another’. ‘Morally no punishment can be monk Sāriputta of Patīppajeyya near Dala332 inflicted,’ says Forchhammer, ‘because in the about the year 1174 A.D., when Narapati-si- Buddhist’s belief every deed will with thu reigned at Pagan. unerring certainty bring its own definite We come next to the Wagaru reward or punishment, which cannot be Dhammasattha,333 compiled by the king of that increased or diminished by the appreciation or name reigning at Martaban in 1280. It is condemnation of other beings.’336 typical and important. Forchhammer in his Forchhammer’s study of the Wagaru led him learned study of this text makes a careful to believe that the Talaing law-code, Indian in comparison between the Wagaru and the origin, reflects the social and religious Hindu Manu and other ancient codes, chiefly conditions of ancient India during the Yājñava1kya334 and Nārada.335 The supremacy of Buddhism,337 and can claim to comparison brings out clearly the pervading belong to a Buddhist Mānava school earlier Indian element in the code; at the same time than the well-known Brahmanic recension of the translator finds material for some very Manu.338 The translator of the Wagaru, interesting observations on the radical unhappily, did not live to follow up the difference between the Buddhistic law, of researches he had begun, and by which he which this is the first noteworthy document, might have found a firm foundation for this and the Brahmanic law, from which the theory. It remains an interesting conjecture. Talaing code takes its form and most of its We must leave it for the present where he left provisions. This difference is in the spirit. The it, to trace the stages of development through Vedic, sacerdotal element has vanished from which the Paḷi and Burmese Dhammasatthas the Wagaru. For instance, sacraments (such as passed, from the predominance of the Hindu marriage), the efficacy of sacrifice, the Institutes preserved, by the Talaings to the possibility of expiation by penance, are all an victory of the Buddhist tradition embodied in the later codes, where the Vinaya- and

330 Suttapiṭakas are the authority and the Jātaka Jardine Prize Essay, pp. 38, 62, 63. 331 See above, p. 33. supplies precedents and examples. 332 Opposite Rangoon. See J. Jardine’s Notes on Buddhist Law, pt. iv, Introductory Preface by E. Forchhammer, p. 5; and Notes, pt. vii, Preface by J. Jardine, p. 1. 333 336 Translated by E. Forchhammer as part of the Jardine Prize See Jardine Prize Essay, pp. 61, 62. 337 Essay in 1885; Rangoon, Government Printing Press. For a description of these conditions see Rhys Davids’ Buddhist 334 A. Weber, Indische Literaturgeschichte, 2nd ed., pp. 267, 299. India (‘Story of the Nations’ series), 1903. 335 338 A. Weber, op. cit, p. 296. See Jardine Prize Essay, p. 38. The Wagaru was translated into Paḷi in the belongs to Paḷi literature by the fact that it is sixteenth century by a Talaing jurist with the largely grounded on canonical Paḷi texts, auspicious name of Buddhaghosa.339 ‘With namely, Jātakas (the Mahosadha and Vidhura him,’ Forchhammer says, ‘begins the and other extracts from the Suttapiṭaka), the authenticated history of Burmese Milindapañha, the Samantapāsādikā Dhammathats.’ Buddhaghosa’s Manusāra is a (Buddhaghosa’s commentary on the Vinaya), Paḷi translation of the Wagara Dhammasattha, the Kaṅkhāvitaraṇi (commentary on the till then only known in the Talaing Pātimokkha), the Visuddhimagga, and the 340 346 language. Sāratthadīpanīṭīkā. By the time Burmese In the seventeenth century another code, the law is crystallized into this famous code and Manu-Yin,341 was compiled in verse. It is in the hardly less famous Manuvaṇṇanā,347 we substance the Wagaru Dhammasattha, but can see how the spirit of Buddhist ethics has contains additional matter from the hpyatton or permeated the Dhammasatthas and supplied ‘decisions’, that is, Burmese ancient the place of those religious sanctions which we customary law, purely Buddhistic and founded can hardly imagine absent from an Indian legal chiefly on certain Jātakas.342 A seventeenth- text. The Manu-Kyay professes a respect for century version of the Dhammavilāsa learning; only such men, it says, should be Dhammasattha, dated 1650343 and drawn up by made judges who are acquainted with the 348 a second Dhammavilāsa, is also called a Manu Piṭakas and the Vedas. Dhammasattha; very characteristic of the later Hsin-hpya-shin followed the example of his period is the introduction of a Buddhist father, and by his order several law-books element, absent in the Talaing original, for were written between 1766 and 1774; among instance, quotations from the Dhammapada. these were the Manusāra-shwe-myin, the The next stage in the history of the law- Manuvaṇṇanā,349 and the Vinicchayapakāsanī. texts is one of marked change and The author, Vanna-kyaw-din, was a pupil of development. Alaungpayā had proved himself the Saṅgharājā Jambudīpa-Anantadhaja. He is a pitiless destroyer, but he proposed to build said to have been still a member of the Order up a sound administration for his new when he wrote the first-named work. A kingdom. Some law-codes were compiled at poetical version of the Manu-Yin mentioned his command, a Manu-Yin in 1756, the above, known as the Manuyinlaṅkā, is important Manu-Kyay in l758-60,344 and a ascribed to him. The aid of theras learned in third, the Darajjavitāraṇī. The Manu-Kyay the Tripiṭaka was thought necessary by this exists only in the Burmese version,345 but time, and we are told that the monks Tejosara, Chandapanna, and Toungdwin Kyaw assisted

339 Needless to say, the Buddhaghosa of commentary fame profits by the coincidence. The Talaing tradition makes the indefatigable sage the hearer of Hindu law-books to Rāmañña in the fifth century (Notes, pt. iii, p. x). 340 See Notes on Buddhist Law, pt. viii, p. 2. 346 341 Ṭīkā on the Vinaya, by Sāriputtara, written in the reign of Manoo Reng. See Notes on Buddhist Law, Introd. Remarks, p. Narapati-si-thu. P.TH., p. 38; Forchhammer, List, p. iv. See also xii. Notes, pt. iii, Introd. Remarks, P. 12, and pt. iv, Introd. Preface, pp. 4 342 The Vidhura and Mahosadha Jātakas are examples of Jātakas and 5. 347 dear to the Buddhist lawgiver. See, for the Burmese version of the The Mauuvaṇṇanā Dhammasattha was published in 1898 by famous Vidhura Jātaka, the translation by Mr. R. F. St. Andrew St. Colonel Horace Brown. See Notes on Buddhist Law, pt. ii, p. 1. John in JRAS., 1896. 348 343 Notes; pt. iv, Introd. Preface, p. 7; on the Vedas, see above, pp. Notes, pt. iv, p. 5, and pt. vii, p. 2. 50, 51. 344 349 See Notes on Buddhist Law, pt. iv, Introd. Preface,. p. 4. The There is a rather significant difference between the Burmese and author was Bhummajeyya Mahāsiri Uttarnajeyya. Sir John Jardine Paḷi versions of the Manuvaṇṇanā. In the former there are frequent points out resemblances between the law of marriage and divorce in allusions to the Vyākaraṇas and other works translated by the king’s the Manu-Kyay and the Hindu code, Vyavaharamayukha, in force in command from the Sanskrit (on astrology, palmistry, medicine, and the Dekkhan (Notes, pt; iv, p. 10). erotics). These references are absent from the Paḷi version, which, 345 Published at Moulmein and translated into English by Dr. composed by a monk, shows the influence of the author’s monastic Richardson in 1847. traditions. the council of jurists called together at Ava by Paḷi law-texts are full of other interesting Hsin-hpyu-shin.350 matter. The few above mentioned could not be An example of a modern law-text is the left out of an account, however summary, of Mohavicchedanī.351 written in the year 1832 the Paḷi books of the Burmese. The place due by Rājabala-kyaw-din. It is composed in Paḷi to them has of necessity been curtailed in this verses (gāthā). Forchhammer has an sketch. In leaving them, however, to pass on to interesting note on this work, in which he says: the religious literature of the nineteenth ‘It differs in one important point from all other century the writer dares to hope that this Burmese law-books. Manu the Rishi [i.e. sage] branch of Oriental history and its problems has entirely disappeared. Rājabala-kyaw-din, will attract scholars again as they fortunately aware probably of the incongruity of placing did some years ago, with the results only too Manu in the Buddhist pantheon, as had been briefly indicated above. done by the jurists of the Alompraic period, We must now return to the history of and not finding any reference in the Buddhist monastic scholarship in Burma. scriptures that could support Manu in the Bodōpayā died in 1819. He was succeeded dignity of a lawgiver to a Buddhist by his grandson Hpa-gyī-doa.352 ‘He community, broke with the past traditional commenced his reign well,’ says Phayre.353 history of the law-books of his country; he ‘He remitted some taxes for three years, and in says in the introduction that, obedient to the a speech to his courtiers promised to rule justly request of his king, he proceeds to unfold the and to follow the precepts of religion.’ The law, as it was preached by the all-wise Buddha Sāsanavaṃsa is at pains to show that he in his great compassion for the ignorance of consulted learned monks and ministers on men and recorded originally in the Magadha various questions concerning the king’s duty language, the first of all languages, the mother to the fraternity, the perpetuity of grants of of all other tongues (mūlabhāsā)…The text of land for religious purposes, and so forth. These the Mohavicchedanī is the somewhat discussions led to much research in ancient rearranged but otherwise identical material of texts. On one of those occasions a minister, the Manu Dhammathats.’ who was an authority on the Vinaya, laid Paḷi has never become to any great degree down the principle that lands granted by kings the language of things secular; its destiny in former times, for the building of cetiyas and seems to be to return to the service of religion. vihāras, should be perpetually reserved to the In the legal texts we notice the use of the Paḷi Order. He fearlessly sought a precedent as far language (1) to preserve a Hindu tradition back as the time of the Buddha Sujāta, and the derived from the Talaings, (2) to consecrate king was entirely satisfied.354 Burmese customary law which could, we may Hpa-gyī-doa was a respecter of tradition. suppose, be codified equally well in the Under his auspices the modern Rājavaṃsa Burmese idiom. The classic literary language, (chronicle of the kings) was compiled at naturally chosen in such cases as the attribute Pagan.355 His preceptor Paññsīha356was of awe and majesty befitting the written code, appointed Supreme Head of the Order. There is here also the reminder of the debt that is no mention in the Sāsanavaṃsa of any Burmese custom and law owe to Buddhism. books written by him. An excellent example of Buddhist influence is the change in the wife’s legal position. But the 352 Sivitribharanādityapavarapaṇḍitamahādhammarājā. Sās., p. 142. 353 350 History of Burma, p. 232. At this council was prepared the Laṅkasāra (the collective name 354 by which the Manuvaṇṇanā and Mannsāra are known). See Notes on Sās., p. 145. 355 Buddhist Law, pt. iv, Introd. Preface, p. 5. In 1830. It was printed in the reign of Min-dōn-min. See E. 351 See Notes on Buddhist Law, pt. vi, P. 1. Note by Forchhammer Huber, BEFEO., tome iv, pp. 494 seq. 356 and translation by Maung Theka Phyoo of the Law of Inheritance Of Salin-myo, afterwards according to the Mohavicchedanī Dhammathat. Munindābhisirisaddhammadhajamahādhammarājādhirāja-guru. Hpa-gyī-doa’s time, either as a patron of Tharāwadi-min’s son and successor, Pagan- the Order or as ‘lord of kings’, was very short. min,360 only appears in the Sāsanavaṃsa to In 1824 war was formally declared by the mark the date of some eminent scholars of the British Government against Burma, and two time, among whom Ñeyyadhammābhivaṃsa is years of desperate fighting followed. The mentioned as the author of a Burmese death of his general Mahābandula broke the translation of the Saddhammavilāsinī,361 the Burmese king’s courage. The queen and other commentary on Paṭisambhidāmagga (of the partisans of war had perhaps inspired him till Khuddakanikāya). Ñeyyadhammābhivaṃsa ‘s then with some hopes of victory, but the chief pupil, Paññāsāmi, a young monk of five British occupation of Rangoon, Pegu City, and years’ standing, began his scholarly career at Arakan dealt these hopes a mortal blow. In this time. His work as a chronicler (he was the 1826 the Burmese submitted, and the treaty of author of the Sāsanavaṃsa) is of special Yandabō was signed. interest for us. His first essay was a translation Hpa-gyī-doa saw his kingdom reduced and into Burmese of a commentary on difficult his power crippled. Something in this man passages (Gaṇṭhipadatthavaṇṇanā) of the failed then, where his forerunners Alaungpayā venerable grammatical work and Bodōpayā would have risen up in another Saddatthabhedacintā.362 Ten years later, after effort. He sank into listless melancholy and much labour and comparison of texts, he inefficiency, and in 1837 was deposed by his produced a revised edition of the commentary 357 363 younger brother Tharāwadi-min. on the Abhidhānappadīpikā and translated it Tharāwadi-min, who died insane, showed into Burmese. in his earlier days great respect for the Order. Paññāsāmi succeeded his master as His first preceptor, Suriyavaṃsa, was Saṅgharājā in the following reign. It is rather proclaimed Supreme Head by a royal decree. curious that not a single Paḷi composition is When this thera died he received, the mentioned by him as belonging to this decade. Sāsanavaṃsa tells us, extraordinary funeral His colleagues were nevertheless very active, honours. His pupil Ñeyyadhamma was then especially in translating from the Paḷi. The appointed Saṅgharājā; it was he who received Aṅguttara-, Saṃyutta-, and Dīghanikāyas were at Amarapura an important Siñhalese mission, translated with their commentaries. The including the learned Paññātissa and some authors of these translations were respectively others. Ñeyyadhamma’s pupils were Paññājotābhidaja, numerous, and he was an enthusiastic teacher. Maṇijotasaddhammālaṃkāra, and 358 364 As the chronicler says, ‘in order that Medhābhivaṃpsa. religion might long endure and that his hearers We now come to the closing scene of the might easily arrive at full comprehension, he, old Order in Burma. The last of the pious and with the aid of various books, revised the text zealous Burmese kings, perhaps the most of the Saddhammapajotikā, commentary on sincere of all and the most single-minded in the Mahāniddesa, and made a translation his support of religion, came to the throne. 359 thereof into Burmese.’ This was Min-dōn-min, whose reign, lasting The Sāsanavaṃsa does not mention any from 1852 to 1877, was a period of peace, other scholars of this reign. good government, and general content, while

360 Siripavarādityavijayānantayasamahādhammarājādhirājā., 1846, Sās., p. 148. He is described briefly but so drastically by Yule, in the 357 Mission to the Court of Ava, that we can hardly be surprised at the Siripavarādityalokādhipati, 1837. Phayre, History of Burma, p. silence of the Sāsanavaṃsa. 287; Sās., p. 146. 361 358 By Mahānāma of Ceylon. Sās., p. 33. Sās., p. 148. 362 359 See above, pp. 20, 22. The commentary on the Mahāniddesa (the eleventh book of the 363 Khuddakanikāya) was composed in Ceylon by Upasena. Sās., p. 33; See above, p. 27. 364 GV., p. 70. Sās., p. 148. religion, we are told, was practised with a new entitled Sīlakathā and Upāyakathā, evidently enthusiasm not only in the monasteries but in of an ethical character. At the request of the every rank of the laity. The king’s command king’s tutor (a layman) he then wrote the and example, as of old, were all-powerful; and Akkharavisodhanī, a treatise on Paḷi Min-dōn-min was not like Bodōpayā. His tutor orthography, and the Āpattivinicchaya, on and eulogist, the author of the Sāsanavaṃsa, morality. Paññāsāmi’s own preceptor, the says less of cetiyas and monasteries presented Saṅgharājā, urged him, he tells us, to compose to the Sangha than of the vigour with which the Nāgarājuppattikathā above mentioned, the religious studies were carried on and the Vohāratthabheda and Vividavinicchaya precepts of the Buddha observed. dealing with monastic discipline. For the These were golden days, if they are rightly edification of certain ministers, the reflected in the verses quoted by Paññāsāmi lekhakāmacca and ārocanalekhakāmacca,368 from his own poem, the he wrote the Rājasevakadīpanī (on serving the Nāgarājuppattikathā,365 written to king). Another work, the commemorate the founding of the new capital Nirayakathādīpaka,369 was undertaken to Mandalay (Paḷi: Ratanapuṇṇa).366 Paññāsāmi’s please another high official. A distinguished Nāgarājuppatti has rather more artistic layman requested him to write on the uposatha pretensions than the Rājādhirājavilāisinī, being rules, and the monk composed the composed in couplets (ślokas) throughout, Uposathavinicchaya. Lastly, at the request of whereas Ñāṇābhivaṃsa ventures into verse at ‘many of his hearers’, he wrote a Paḷi the beginning and end of his work merely to commentary on the first Paḷi work that had give a few specimens of metres. The tone of brought honour to Burmese scholarship, the the two works, however, is the same Saddanīti. conventional eulogy, with quotations from the Thus the nineteenth century is linked with Jātaka and references to legendary and historic the twelfth, the history of Paḷi literature in kings, Mahāsudassana, Mandhātu, Aśoka. Burma repeats itself. Perhaps the desire of Needless to say; this was an auspicious time these modern theras was before all to revive for scholarship. Paññāsāmi, himself a prolific the ancient tradition as faithfully as possible. writer, mentions the work of some of his That certainly was Min-dōn-min’s own contemporaries.367 The Saṅgharājā ambition, and when he had gained for himself Ñeyyadhamma composed ‘at the king’s the title ‘Convener of the Fifth Council’ he request’ a work entitled Surājamaggadīpanī. treasured it thenceforth beyond all others. Meanwhile the old traditional learning was not In 1868-71370 a great assembly of learned neglected. The Saṅgharājā had been monks and teachers was summoned together at expounding the commentary on the the capital, where, the king presiding, they Majjhimanikāya to his pupils. Under his read or recited the sacred texts to restore the direction a Burmese translation of the best readings. By the royal order a complete commentary was prepared, embodying his text of the Tripiṭaka was then engraved on interpretation of the text. stone tablets and placed in shrines. This The original text of the Jātaka tales was traditional act duly recorded, we come to also translated at this time by the thera another of an importance perhaps little Medhābhivaṃpsa. suspected by Min-dōn-min’s counsellors—the Finally, we have a list of Paññāsāmi’s own inauguration of the first printing-press in works with their dedications. ‘At the request of Upper Burma. the Queen-Consort’ he composed two works 368 Secretaries and officials charged with drafting and issuing royal 365 Sās., pp. 149, 153. decrees. 366 369 Founded in 1857. Edifying stories of punishments in hell. 367 370 Sās., p. 514. Upper Burma Gazetteer, vol. i, p. 66; Buddhism, 1905, p. 425. In 1885 Min-dōn-min’s successor lost his Namakara, and Ratanapañjara, the last two of 373 throne and the British Army occupied which are devotional poems. Mandalay. The palace and even the monastery Then we come to vocabularies, works of libraries paid their tribute to the conquerors, grammar and rhetoric, among which should be who, fortunately, were careful (like Anorata) noticed the Kāvyasāratthasaṅgaha (1872), by a to bear their treasure to safe places, house it learned and prolific author, Chakkindābhisiri, with honour, and keep it within the reach of and the Alaṅkāranissaya, of the Yaw-mya-sā inquiring scholars. Atwin-wun (written in 1880). This latter is an Of the changes brought about in Burma by example of that care to preserve the old the annexation we have no occasion to speak traditions of scholarship which we have here. They affected the Buddhist religion and already noticed, and which is still the Order very little. The author of A People at characteristic of the Burmese Paḷists. The School371 points out that the monks of Burma Alaṅkāranissaya is an edition of 374 have ceased of late years to exert that direct Saṅgharakkhita’s Subodhālaṅkāra, with a influence in the affairs of the community commentary. which they are known to have used for good In 1882 appeared the Lokanīti of while Buddhist kings ruled, and that they have Chakkindābhisiri, an ethical poem in Paḷi, withdrawn more strictly into the cloistered published with a Burmese version. A religious life. But their spiritual authority with characteristic little work of the same date is the the people is by no means lessened, and of Upāsakavinicchaya, a collection of Paḷi their literary activity we have abundant quotations on the religious duties of laymen. evidence in the multitude of modern Paḷi and The collection was translated and commented Burmese works now printed in Burma. The in Burmese by a monk of Prome, Paññāraṃsi. elaborate official lists of publications in Burma A work bearing the Paḷi title issued by the Indian Government are also Kammavinicchaya, but written in Burmese, instructive and interesting from this point of may be mentioned here, as, fortunately for us, view. it has been studied and expounded in English We cannot conclude our brief survey by a Burmese scholar, Shwe Zan Aung.375 The without a glance at this latest period, the era of author’s name is Sāgaravaṃsābhidhaja. the printing-press. Modern works dealing with that standard We must begin with Lower Burma, where, work of metaphysic, the in consequence of the British occupation, Abhidhammatthasaṅgaha, are very numerous. printing was introduced earlier than in To take an example, a summary of this Mandalay. Here we find works by modern important text, with commentary by U Tin, Burmese authors and reprints of ancient was published at Maulmein in 1883 under the classics published in increasing numbers from title Sarūpatthadīpanī; the 1870 onwards. Abhidhammatthasaṅgahaparitta, by Maung There is little to be said about these works. Tun Aung, in 1897; the We notice a number of new editions of short Abhidhammatthasaṅgahagaṇṭhithit in 1898 (by texts that have become household words with U Tissa and U Janinda); and several issues of the laity, such as the Paritta and the famous the text itself at various times. Maṅgalasutta,372 Burmese translations of these Jagarabhidhaja is a modern author who has and popular works such as the Lokanīti, written both grammatical and religious treatises. His works include the Dhammapāna-

373 These poems reappear in several modern collections, such as the Hyauk saung twè, Hsay saung twè, etc. 371 374 See Fielding Hall, A People at School, pp. 255, 257. On rhetoric (v. JPTS., 1882, p. 55). 372 375 See above, pp. 3, 4. Buddhism, October, 1905, vol ii, No. 1, pp. 58 ff. shu-bwè (moral and philosophical stanzas in Buddhist scriptures; on the four kinds of Paḷi with Burmese interpretation, published in Acinteyya or incomprehensibles; on the names 1894), the Upāsakovāda (edifying discourses of the Pañcavaggi or the first five disciples of to the laity, 1894), the Ovādakathā, the Buddha’; and other matters. Navaniyamadīpanī (254 aphorisms on Paḷi Treatises on nirvāna, arahatship, and the grammar), and the Saddamedhanī (an essay on practice of meditation in its various stages various terms of Paḷi grammar). The same leading to these ends, are numerous, for author edited later (1903) the Pārājika and example: (1) the Visuddhimaggadīpanī-kyan Pācittiya sections of the Vinaya, with Burmese (on the nature of religious meditation and interpretation. It is interesting to see that methods of practising it, e.g. the Jagarabhidhaja edited a passage from the Samathakammaṭṭhāna, Bhāvanākammaṭṭhā, Sanskrit Lalitavistara called the and Vipassanākammaṭṭhāna. 1900); (2) the Kāmādinakathā. Asaṅkhatadhammapakāsani-kyan, by U Pyin- A rather curious specimen of a modern nya-thika. 1899, on the nature of nirvāṇa and work in another branch of Paḷi-Burmese the upasamānussati form of meditation leading literature is the Atthasālinigaṇṭhi (or thereto; (3) Sati we-bōn-la-shu-bwè, which Atthasālinigaṇṭhi-thit), published in Rangoon explains the thee kinds of death— in 1900. This work, described as ‘Notes on khaṇikamaraṇa or the ‘momentary death’, difficult points in Buddhist philosophy’, is which consists in the continual wearng away briefly analyzed as follows for the guidance of of the body and soul, samutimaraṇa or ‘so- readers: ‘A book of expositions on various called death’, the visible death to which all subjects, namely, on the grammatical beings are subject, and the samucchedamaraṇa construction of the Tipiṭaka or the Buddhist or ‘cessation of existence’, said of the death of scriptures; on the account of Kathāvatthu or Buddhas, Pacceka-Buddhas, and arahats. book of controverted points; on the thirty We turn back with relief to the less events which always take place on the perplexing points treated by the authors who conception of an embryo Buddha; on the confine themselves to Vinaya and grammar. threefold divisions of the religion; on the six The learned Visuddhācāra is an example. kinds of divine effulgence; on the relative Among his works are the heights of the Bodhi-tree and Buddha’s throne; Kaccāyanavaṇṇanācakka-kyan, a treatise on the thirty-two signs manifested on the birth under six heads upon the introductory stanzas of embryo Buddha and on the promulgation of to Kaccāyana’s grammar (published in 1896); his law; on the solicitation of a divine the Dhātvatthasaṅgaha, an alphabetical digest communication of the hermit Sumedha at the of Paḷi roots and their meanings, in verse, with hands of Dipankara Buddha regarding his a Burmese translation; the Chandomañjari, a future Buddhahood; on the principal causes of Paḷi treatise on metre, followed by a nissaya in existence; on the derivation of the names of Burmese (1897); and, departing to another Sāriputtarā and Moggallāna; on the four kinds subject, the Visuṃgāmasīmāvinicchaya, a of lions; on the six Paññattis or manifestations; treatise on the determination of village on the ten Pāramis or virtues; on the boundaries (1899). Catuparisuddhisīlam or four precepts of purity; Scholarship in the twentieth century on the four castes of the Brahmins, on the followed the lines first traced as long ago as attributes of Buddhist Trinity; on the list of the twelfth century in Burma. Let us take as an Rahans who convened the Buddhist councils; example a learned monk of the most recent on the law of abstruseness; on the times, the venerable Ledi Hsaya-daw, and numerousness of existences; on the three kinds observe the subjects treated by him in various of Pahānas or getting rid of one’s lust; on evil works published in Rangoon in 1905 and acts; on the three methods of teaching 1906. The list of the Ledi Hsaya-daw’s works is long: Niruttidīpanī (a Paḷi grammar, and influence of India on Further India, we should afterwards a Burmese nissaya on the same not pass over the fact that a store of Sanskrit work), Nibbānadīpanī (a discourse on learning by no means negligible has existed nirvāṇa), Rūpadīpanī (a treatise on Form), from time immemorial in that outlying Bodhipakkhiyadīpanī, Ānāpānadīpanī, and country. This store was always held strictly in Ovāda (the Way to Arahatship, treatise on Brahmanic keeping. The kings of Burma were Meditation, and Book of Instruction), generally not only the nominal but real and Pāramidīpanī (on Virtue), Saddasaṅkhepa (a energetic patrons of learning, and the manual of Paḷi grammar), Brahmans, at all times counsellors and Pabbājaniyakammavācā (Paḷi stanzas for soothsayers in the royal palaces, had an recitation as charms), Dhammadīpanī indirect influence on culture. Forchhammer (exposition of the Law), Maggaṅgadīpanī (the encountered an extreme reserve in the Hindu ‘Eightfold Path’ explained), guardians of Brahmanic lore which baffled Paṭiccasamuppādadīpanī (reflections on the even his determination and patience as an causes of transmigration), Paramatthasaṅkhepa inquirer. But his conclusion was that ‘there (manual of Abhidhamma), Saccatthadīpanī exists a real Sanskrit literature in Burma (the Four Sublime Truths explained), written on paper like in India, with Nagari and Vijjāmaggadīpanī, Lakkhaṇadīpanī (the Way Bengali characters. These records are in the to Enlightenment, the Three Characteristics), hands of the descendants of Hindu colonists, Ārāiradīpanī, Sīlavinicchaya (on Food and the who at different periods, some even before the Precepts of Morality), Anattadīpanī (on spread of Buddhism in Burma, settled in this Mutability), Dānadīpanī (on Charity), and country’. He adds: ‘Burma deserves to be Dhammadesanā (religious teaching). drawn within the circle of those countries These works represent fairly well the fields where researches of Sanskrit records ought to where Paḷi flourishes to-day—dissertations on be made.’377 And an eminent epigraphist has points of doctrine, homilies and exhortations, said very lately, ‘we are beginning to obtain verses which may be called either charms or valuable records in Burma.’378 Ancient links prayers, decisions on points of discipline, connect India with Burma; we can only hope manuals of metaphysic, treatises on Paḷi to restore them gradually, and there are many grammar. To abundance of new works of this questions which, with all its wealth of legend kind, modern scholars now add a pious and and chronicle, the Paḷi literature does not 379 most useful contribution, careful editions of answer fully. the Tipiṭaka texts and commentaries. The great historical service of the Paḷi A group of writings very insignificant in literature is to show the peculiarly Buddhistic size, but interesting, or rather curious, from the character of Burmese civilization. History in mere fact of the Paḷi language being found in the modern and critical sense we cannot such a connection, is the class of little works demand of it any more than we demand headed ‘science’in the Paḷi-Burmese lists. The philology or biology treated with European sciences in question are chiefly astrology and methods. We need not consider here the cosmography,376 but medical treatises occur 377 here and there. And this reminds us again of a Forchhammer, Report on Literary Work, l879-80, p. 13. 378 field in Burma which merits diligent J. F. Fleet in Indian Epigraphy, p. 63: The Imperial Gazetteer of India: The Indian Empire; Oxford, 1907. 379 exploration. While the Paḷi literature To take one instance: the chronicles hand on an ancient tradition represents vastly more than any other the that a royal Kşatriya tribe came from India at a very early period and founded an Indian dynasty in Upper Burma. European scholars cautiously admit that there was an Indian immigration by the northern route, but at what date and for what reason we do not know. See 376 Examples are the Itthipurisa-aṅgavijjā-pakiṇṇaka-kyan, a Phayre, History of Burma, p. 3. Phayre points out that in Lassen’s handbook of divination on the formation of the hands and other parts opinion the legend of an Indian dynasty is not quite without of the body, and a ṭīkā on the Makarandaveda, a handbook of foundation. See Forchhammer, ‘On the ancient Mahāmuni Pagoda in astrology. Arakan’: Report on Arakan, p. 1. possibility of adapting the Paḷi language to Burma has suffered nothing parallel to the modern knowledge or critical discussion. The Mohammedan invasion of India, but the true Paḷi literature is traditional. We may read history of Further India has been tempestuous now, as in old days, of differences of doctrine enough. When we follow in the chronicles the or opposed schools in the Southern Buddhist struggle of those neighbour states, we must community.380 But these seem, from our far- needs wonder at the Law that never failed, in off point of observation, to be a hardly the end, to dominate barbarism, to make perceptible eddy here and there in the calm customs milder and laws more just, to do away main stream of Buddhist belief, as we see it in with barriers by raising men above them. Of the religious and scholarly literature of Burma. that ‘Righteous Law’ as a social and Having followed that stream back to its intellectual influence the Paḷi literature is an mediaeval sources, and yet further to its almost complete embodiment. Thus, to use the remote Indian origin, we cannot but feel ancient metaphor, India conquered Burma. Of impressed by the continuity of its progress, the all the conquests in history none has been force of its unbroken tradition. Buddhism in more enduring or more beneficent.

380 Differences in the sects are ‘largely academic’. See Burma, vol. 1, p. 41: Imperial Gazetteer of India, Provincial Series, Calcutta, 1908. APPENDIX TO CHAPTER III AN INSCRIPTION OF A.D. 1442

The inscription mentioned on p. 50 is notes are added, but there is obviously room among those collected by Forchhammer at for many more suggestions and conjectures. Pagan.381 It is dated B.E. 804 (1442 A.D.), and commemorates the bestowal of various gifts List copied from the Inscription. on the Order by the Governor of Taungdwin and his wife. Together with a monastery, 1. Pārājikakaṇḍa 383 garden, paddy-lands, and slaves, the pious 2. Pācittiyā donors offered a collection of texts, of which a 3. Bhikkhunīvibhaṅga. list is given. The following list, copied from 4. Vinayamahāvagga the inscription, is extremely interesting for 5. Vinayacūḷavagga more than one reason. Besides helping to fix 6. Vinayaparivāra the chronology of many Paḷi works and giving 7. Pārājikakaṇḍa-aṭṭhakathā some indication of their importance, it gives us 8. Pācittiyādi-aṭṭhakathā another clue well worth following up. We 9. Pārājikakaṇḍa-ṭīkā notice here a number of titles of Sanskrit 10. Terasakaṇḍa- ṭīkā works, sometimes greatly disguised in the 11. Vinayasangraha-aṭṭhakathā (the Burmese transcription, but still recognizable. greater) These will aid us to form some notion of the 12. Vinayasangraha-aṭṭhakathā (the less) point reached by the Sanskrit scholars in 13. Kaṇkhāvitaraṇi-aṭṭhakathā Burma in the fifteenth century. We are not 14. Khuddasikkhā-ṭīkā (ancient). obliged to believe that each monastery 15. Khuddasikkhā-ṭīkā (new) contained students of Sanskrit, but we have at 16. Kaṅkhā-ṭīkā (new) least some ground for supposing that certain 17. Vinayagaṇṭhipada famous works on grammar, prosody, medicine, 18. Vinaya-uttarasiñcaya-aṭṭhakathā 384 and so forth were treasured in Upper Burma. 19. Vinayasiñcaya-ṭīkā (later) The discovery that the ‘Vedas’ found in 20. Vinayakandhaniddesa Burmese, Talaing, and Siamese versions ‘do 21. Dhammasaṅganī 385 not contain a trace of Vedic texts’ inclined 22. Vibhaṅga Forchhammer382 to some scepticism as to the 23. Dhātukathā contents of palm-leaf MSS. bearing the titles 24. Puggalapaññatti of famous old treatises (e.g. the Suśruta). I think, however, that he is speaking of MSS. of a later date. I do not see any reason to doubt 383 Nos. 1-20 are works belonging to or commenting that the gift recorded in the Pagan inscription on the Vinaya. (Edited by Hermann Oldenberg. Vinayapiṭakam, 5 vols., 1879, etc. Khuddasikkhā and was a collection really containing the works Mūlasikkhā. See edition of E. Mülller, JPTS., 1883.) mentioned and not their titles only. 384 Sic text of inscription. Read sañcaya, anthology or References to Forchhammer’s List indicate collection. that MS. copies of the works in question are in 385 Abhidhammna (Nos. 21-37). See Dhammasaṅganī, the Bernard Free Library at Rangoon. A few ed. E. Mülller, Paḷi Text Society, 1885; Vibbaṅga, ed. Caroline F. Rhys Davids, PTS., 1904; Dhātukathā, ed. Edmund Gooneratne, PTS., 1892 (with comm.); 381 Inscriptions of Pagan, Pinya, and Ava. Deciphered from the ink Puggalapaññatti, ed. Richard Morris, PTS., 1883; impressions found among Forchhammer’s papers. Printed at Rangoon, Dukapaṭṭhāna and Tikapaṭṭhāna, ed. Caroline F. Rhys 1902. Translated with notes by Tun Nyein, Government Printing Press, Rangoon, 1899. The inscription containing the list is mentioned Davids, PTS., 1906; Kathāvatthu, ed. Arnold Taylor, by M. Pelliot in article Deux itinéraires’ BEFEO., vol. v, p. 183. PTS., 1894-7, 2 vols.; Atthasālinī (comm. on 382 Report, 1879-80, p. 11. Dhammasaṅganī), ed. E. Mülller, PTS., 1897. 25. Kathāvatthu 64. Saḷāyatanavaggasaṃyutta-aṭṭhakathā 26. Mūlayamaka 65. Mahāvaggasaṃyutta 27. Indriyayamaka 66. Ekadukatika-aṅguttara 390 28. Tikapaṭṭhāna 67. Catukanipāta-aṅguttara 29. Dukatikapaṭṭhāna 68. Pañcanipāta-aṅguttara 30. Dukapaṭṭhāna 69. Cha-sattanipāta-aṅguttara 31. Atthasālinī-aṭṭhakathā 70. Aṭṭha-navanipāta-aṅguttara 32. Sammohavinodanī-aṭṭhakathā 71. Dasa-ekādasanipāta-aṅguttara 33. Pañcapakarana-aṭṭhakathā 72. Ekanipāta-aṅguttara-aṭṭhakathā 34. Abhidhamma-anutṭīkā 386 73. Dukatikacatukanipāta-aṅguttara- 35. Abhidhammatthasaṅgaha-aṭṭhakathā aṭṭhakathā 36. Abhidhammatthasaṅgaha-ṭīkā 74. Pañcādi-aṅguttara-aṭṭhakathā 37. Abhidhammatthavibhāvanī-ṭīkā 75. Aṅguttara-ṭīkā [1] 38. Sīlakkhandha 76. Aṅguttara-ṭīkā [2] 39. Mahāvagga 77. Khuddakapāṭha text and aṭṭhakathā 391 40. Pātheyya 387 78. Dhammapada text and aṭṭhakathā 41. Sīlakkhandha-aṭṭhakathā 79. Udāna text and aṭṭhakathā 42. Mahāvagga -aṭṭhakathā 80. Itivuttaka text and aṭṭhakathā 43. Pātheyya-aṭṭhakathā 81. Suttanipāta text and aṭṭhakathā 44. Sīlakkhandha-ṭīkā 82. Vimānavatthu text and aṭṭhakathā 45. Mahāvagga-ṭīkā 83. Petavatthu text and aṭṭhakathā 46. Pātheyya-ṭīkā 84. Thera(gāthā) text and aṭṭhakathā 47. Mūlapaṇṇāsa 85. Therī(gāthā) text and aṭṭhakathā 48. Mūlapaṇṇāsa-aṭṭhakathā 86 Pāṭhacariya 392 49. Mūlapaṇṇāsa-ṭīkā 87 Ekanipātajātaka-aṭṭhakathā 50. Majjhimapaṇṇāsa 388 88 Dukanipātajātaka-aṭṭhakathā 51. Majjhimapaṇṇāsa-aṭṭhakathā 89. Tikanipātajātaka-aṭṭhakathā 52. Majjhimapaṇṇāsa-ṭīkā 90. Catuka-pañca-chanipātajātaka- 53. Uparipaṇṇāsa aṭṭhakathā 54. Uparipaṇṇāsa-aṭṭhakathā 91. Satta-aṭṭha-navanipātajātaka-aṭṭhakathā 55. Uparipaṇṇāsaṭīkā 92. Dasa-ekādasanipātajātaka-aṭṭhakathā 56. Sāgāthāvaggasaṃyutta 389

57. Sāgāthāvaggasaṃyutta-aṭṭhakathā 390 58. Sāgāthāvaggasaṃyutta-ṭīkā See Aṅguttaranikāya (Nos. 66-76), ed. H. Morris (vols. i and ii) and Edmund Hardy (vols. iii-v), PTS., 59. Nidānavaggasaṃyutta 1885-1900. 60. Nidānavaggasaṃyutta-aṭṭhakathā 391 See Khuddakanikāya and commentaries (Nos. 77- 61. Khandhavaggasaṃyutta 110); Khuddakapāṭha, ed. R. C. Childers, JRAS., 1870; 62. Khandhavaggasaṃyutta-ṭīkā Dhammapada, ed. V. Fausböll (1st ed., 1855; 2nd ed., 63. Saḷāyatanavaggasaṃyutta 1900); Buddhavaṃsa and Cariyāpiṭaka, ed. R. Morris, PTS., 1882; Udāna, ed. Paul Steinthal, PTS., 1885; Itivuttaka, ed. E. Windisch, PTS., 1889; Suttanipāta, ed. 386 By Dhammapala of Ceylon. Sās., p. 33. V. Fausböll, PTS., 1884; Vimānavatthu, ed. E. K. 387 (38, 39 &40) See Dīghanikāya (Nos. 38-46), ed. Gooneratne, PTS., 1886; Vimānavatthu-aṭṭhakathā ed. Rhys Davids and Estlin Carpenter, PTS., 1889, etc., 3 E. Hardy, PTS., 1901; Petavatthu, ed. J. P. Minayeff, vols PTS., 1889; Petavatthu-aṭṭhakathā, ed. E. Hardy, PTS., 388 (47 & 50) See Majjhimanikāya (Nos. 47-55), ed. V. 1894; The Theragāthā and Therīgāthā, ed. H. Oldenberg Trenckner (vol. 1) and Robert Chalmers (vols. ii and & R. Pischel, PTS., 1883; Therīgāthā-aṭṭhakathā, ed. E. iii), PTS., 1888-1902. Müller, PTS., 1893; Jātaka and aṭṭhakathā, ed. V. 389 See Saṃyuttanikāya (Nos. 56-65), ed. Léon Feer. 5 Fausböll, 7 vols. Other texts are in course of publication vols. Vol. vi indices. By Mrs. Rhys Davids. PTS., 1884- by the Paḷi Text Society. 98 392 Text of Cariyāpiṭaka (?). 93. Dvādasa-terasa-pakiṇṇaka- 122. Sīhaḷavatthu 400 nipātajātaka-aṭṭhakathā 123. Peṭakopadesa 94. Vīsati jātaka-aṭṭhakathā 124. Tathāgatuppatti 401 95. Jātattakī-sotattakī-nidāna-aṭṭhakathā 393 125. Dhammacakka [? pavattanasutta]. 96. Cūḷaniddesa 126. Dhammacakka-ṭīkā 97. Cūḷaniddesa-aṭṭhakathā 127. Dāṭhādhātuvaṃsa 98. Mahāniddesa 394 128. Dāṭhādhātuvaṃsa-ṭīkā 99. Mahāniddesa-aṭṭhakathā 129. Cūlavaṃsa 100. Jātaka-ṭīkā 130. Dīpavaṃsa 101. Dumajātaka-aṭṭhakathā 131. Thūpavaṃsa 102. Apadāna 132. Anāgatavaṃsa 103. Apadāna-aṭṭhakathā 133. Bodhivaṃsa 104. Paṭisambhidāmagga 395 134. Mahāvaṃsa 105. Paṭisambhidāmagga-aṭṭhakathā 135. Mahāvaṃsa-ṭīkā 402 106. Paṭisambhidāmagga-gaṇṭipada 136. Dhammadāna [? in text dhammandan] 107. Visuddhimagga-aṭṭhakathā 403 108. Visuddhimagga-ṭīkā 137. Mahākaccāyana 109. Buddhavaṃsa-aṭṭhakathā 138. Nyāsa 110. Cariyāpiṭaka-aṭṭhakathā 139. Than-byin-ṭīkā 404 111. Nāmarūpa-ṭīkā (new) 396 140. Mahāthera-ṭīkā 405 112. Paramatthavinicchaya (new) 397 141. Rūpasiddhi-aṭṭhakathā 113. Mohavicchedanī 142. Rūpasiddhi-ṭīkā 114. Lokapaññatti 398 143. Bālāvatāra 406 115. Mohanayana 144. Vuttimoggallāna 407 116. Lokuppatti 145. Pañcika-Moggallāna 117. Aruṇavati 146. Pañcika-Moggallāna-ṭīkā 118. Chagatidīpanī 399 147. Kārikā 408 119. Sahassaraṃsimālinī

120. Dasavatthu 400 (119, 120, 121 & 122) Sahassaramsī, mentioned in 121. Sahassavatthu P.TH., p. 55, is a ṭīkā on the Mahābodhivaṃsa. It was written at Pagan in the reign of Narapati, A.D. 1174 393 A Sotatthakī, written in Ceylon, is mentioned in the (B.E. 536). Dasavatthu, Sahassavatthu, and Piṭakatthamain, p. 58. Sīhaḷavatthu were composed in Ceylon. The authors are 394 (96 & 98) Mahāniddesa, a part of the unknown to the P.TH. (p. 57). On Peṭakopadesa see Khuddakanikāya, ‘being an exposition by Sāriputta of Dissertation, by Rudolf Fuchs, Berlin, 1908. sixteen suttas which compose the fourth book or 401 By Ñāṇagambhira (?). Forchhammer, List, p. xxv; Atthakavagga of the Suttanipāta’ (see Catalogue of P.TH., p. 60 Pali-Burmese MSS. in the British Museum). The 402 (127, 129, 130, 131, 132, 133 & 134) Written in Cūḷaniddesa is the second part of the Niddesa. Ceylon. P.TH, pp. 53, 55-7. 395 Ed. Arnold Taylor, PTS. (1905-1907). 403 Probably dealing with the Dhammadānānisaṃsa, 396 Nāmarūpapariccheda[ppakaraṇa] is ‘a treatise the advantage or merit of preaching the law to others. belonging to the literature on the Abhidhamma, being 404 (138 & 139) See above, p. 21. an exposition of the Buddhistic philosophical term 405 Rūpasiddhi, the well-known Paḷi grammar “Nāmarūpam”, or Name and Form, by composed in Ceylon by Dīpaṅkara, otherwise Anuruddhācariya’ (B.M. Paḷi and Burmese Catalogue). Buddhapiya. The terms ‘new’ (or modern) and ‘old’ (ancient) are 406 By Dhammakitti or Saddhammakitti. translated here from Burmese thit and houng. Forchhammer, List, p. xxiii. A Pali grammar of the 397 On the Abhidhamnaa. This work (by Anuruddha) is Kaccāyana school. in Forchhammer’s List, p. xviii. 407 The Moggallānavyākaraṇa is accompanied with the 398 By Saddhammaghosa of Thatōn. vuttti or explanation. See Devamitta’s edition, 399 By Saddhammaghosa of Thatōn. See Colombo, 1890. Forchhammer, List, p. xxvi. 408 See above, p. 16. 148. Kārikā-ṭīkā 176. Cetiddhīnemiparigāthā [sic] [?] 149. Liṅgatthavivaraṇa 409 177. Samāsataddhitadīpanī 423 150. Liṅgatthavivaraṇa-ṭīkā 178. Bījakkhyam 424 151. Mukhamattasāra 410 179. Kaccāyanasāra 425 152. Mukhamattasāra-ṭīkā 180. Bālappabodhana 426 153. Mahāgaṇa 181. Atthsālinī 154. Cūḷagaṇa. 182. Atthsālinī-nissaya 155. Abhidhāna 411 183. Kaccāyana-nissaya 156. Abhidhāna-ṭīkā 184. Rūpasiddhi-nissaya 157. Saddanīti 412 185. Jātaka-nissaya 158. Cūḷanirutti 413 186. Jātakagaṇṭhi 159. Cūḷasandhivisodhana. 187. Dhammapadagaṇṭhi-nissaya 160. Saddatthabhedacintā 414 188. Kammavācā 427 161. Saddatthabhedacintā-ṭīkā 189. Dhammasatta 428 162. Padasodhana 415 190. Kalāpapañcikā [Kalāpapañjikā] 429 163. Sambandhacintā-ṭīkā 416 191. Kalāpapañcikā-ṭīkā 164. Rūpāvatāra 417 192. Kalāpasuttapratiññāsaku 165. Saddāvatāra. [?Kalāpasuttapratiññāpaka] ṭīkā. 166. Saddhammadīpaka 193. Priṇḍo-ṭīkā 430 167. Sotamālinī 418 194. Rattamālā 431 168. Sambandhamālinī 419 195. Rattamālā-ṭīkā 169. Padāvahāmahācakka [Padāvatāra?] 196. Roganidāna 432 170. Nvādi [Moggallāna] 420 197. Dabraguṇa 433 171. Katacā [Kṛt-cakra?] 172. Mahākā[Mahākappa or 423 On compounds and suffixes. Mahākaccāyana?] 424 Bījakkhyam, on algebra (?). 173. Bālattajana [Bālāvatāraṇa?] 425 See above, pp. 36, 37. 174. Suttāvali 421 426 Written at Vijayapura (Panyā), author not known. 175. Akkharasammohacchedanī 422 P.TH., p. 72. 427 See above, pp. 6, 7. 428 Dharmaçāstra (Law code). See above, pp. 33, 84. 409 See above, p. 22. 429 Commentary on the Kātantra grammar (see above, 410 See above, p. 25. p. 26); Forchhammer, Report, 1879-80, p. 12 (‘The 411 Abhidhāna, the Abhidhānappadīpikā of Kātantra seems to have been the most influential of Moggallāna, about 1153 A.D., ‘the only dictionary of these later grammars [not belonging to the Pāṇinean synonyms in the Pali language’ (Subhūti). The text was system], having served as a model for the standard Pali edited in 1883 by the thera Subhūti and a complete grammar of Kaccāyana and for the native grammars of index (Abhidhānappadīpakāsūci) in 1893. the Tibetans and Dravidians’); A. A. Macdonell, article 412 See above, pp. 16, 17. Sanskrit Literature in the Imperial Gazetteer of India 413 Cūḷanirutti, a grammar of the Kaccāyana school. (The Indian Empire, vol. ii, p. 251); see also Weber, 414 See above, pp. 20, 22. Ind. Literaturgeschichte, 2nd ed., pp. 243, 336; also the 415 Padasādhana (?). The Padasādhana is a Pali text Kātantra of Śarvavarman with the commentary of grammar composed in Ceylon Durgasiṃha, ed. J. Eggeling, Bibl. Indica, vol. lxxxi. 416 See above, p. 22, and P.TH., p. 67. 430 Probably Vṛnda, the medical treatise by the author 417 A treatise on inflection (?). of that name. See Jolly, Medicin, pp. 4 and 6 418 Sotabbamālinī (?). The work of that name is a (Grundriss, iii, 10). collection of edifying tales. 431 Perhaps Ratnamāla. Possibly the famous dictionary 419 A treatise on syntactical relation (?). Abhidhānaratnamāla, of Hālāyudha, about the middle of 420 Nvādi Moggallāna, a treatise on gender by the tenth century. See Zachariae, Die Indischen Saṅgharakkhita based on Moggallāna. Wörterbücher (Grundriss, i, 33), p. 5, and Ludwig 421 Suttāvali = Sūtras of Kaccāyana. Heller’s Halāyudka’s Kavirahasya (Göttingen, 1894). 422 On analysis of words or correct division of 432 Medicine, possibly the Mādhavanidāna or a work syllables. based on that Hauptwerk. See Jolly, Medicin, p. 7. 198. Dabraguṇa-ṭīkā 219. Trakkabhāsā 444[Tarkabhāṣā] 199. Chandoviciti 434 220. Saddakārikā 200. Candaprutti [Cāndra-vṛtti] 221. Kāsikāpruttipa1ini 445 201. Candrapañcikara 435 [Candrapañjikā] 222. Saddhammadīpaka 202. Kāmandakī 436 223. Satyatatvavabodha [?] 203. Dhammapaññāpakaraṇa 224. Bālappabodhana-pruttikaraṇa 204. Mahosaṭṭhi [Mahosadha?] 437 225. Atthabyākhyam 205. Subodhālaṃkāra 438 226. Cūḷaniruttimañjūsa 206. Subodhālaṃkāra-ṭīkā 227. Mañjūsāṭīkābyākhyam 446 207. Tanogabuddhi [?] 228. Anuṭīkābyākhyam 208. Taṇḍi [Daṇḍin ?] 439 229. Pakiṇṇakanikāya 209. Taṇḍi-ṭīkā 230. Catthapayoga [?] 210. Caṅkadāsa 440 231. Matthapayoga [?] 211. Ariyasaccāvātara 232. Rogayātrā [on medicine?] 212. Vicitragandha 233. Rogayātrā-ṭīkā 213. Saddhammupāya 441 234. Satthekavipasvaprakāsa [?] 214. Sārasaṅgaha 442 235. Rājamattanta 447 215. Sārapiṇḍa 236. Parāsava 448 216. Paṭipattisaṅgaha 237. Koladdhaja 449 217. Sūlachāraka 443 238. Brihajjātaka 450 218. Pālatakka [bālatarka?, logic for 239. Brihajjātaka-ṭīkā beginners ?] 240. Dāṭhādhātuvaṃsa and ṭīkā 451 241. Patigaviveka-ṭīkā [?] 242. Alaṃkāra ṭīkā[on Subodhālaṃkāra ?] 433 Dravyaguṇasaṃgraha (pharmacology). See Jolly, 243. Calindapañcikā [commentary on C?] Medicin, p. 6; Forchhammer, List, p. xxxv. 452 434 Explanation of metres. 244. Vedavidhinimittaniruttivaṇṇanā 435 (200 & 201) On the Cāndra grammar and its 245. Niruttibyākhyam relation to the Paḷi grammar of Moggallāna see articles 246. Vuttodaya 453 by O. Franke, JPTS., 1902-3; also A. C. Burnell, on The Aindra School of Sanskrit Grammarians, Mangalore, 1875. 444 The Tarkabhāṣā, on logic, of Keçavamiçra (?). 436 For Kāmandakī’s Nīṭisāra (elements of Polity) see 445 A commentary on the Kāçikāvṛtti of Jayaditya and the edition of S. Venkatarama Sāstry, Madras, 1895, and Vāmana, on Pāṇini (?). See Zwei Kapitel der Kāçikā studies by Carlo Formichi, Giornale della Società übersetzt und mit einer Einleitung verschen, von Bruno Asiatica, Florence, 1887. Liebich, Breslau, 1892. 437 See the Mahā-ummagga Jātaka (in which 446 (225, 226 & 227) Grammatical commentaries or Mahosadha is the Bodhisatta). Fausböll, Jātaka, vol vi, glosses. pp. 329-478. 447 Cf. Forchhammer, List, pp. xxxvii and xxxviii, 438 Subodhālaṃkāra on rhetoric was composed in Rājamattam and Rājamattanissayo. Probably the Ceylon by Saṅgharakkhita. P.TH., p. 75. See edition of (astrological) Rājamartaṇḍa. G. E. Fryer (under title Paḷi Studies, 1875). 448 Laghupārāçaryam (on astrology) (?). 439 The work inscribed is probably Daṇḍin’s 449 This may be the Goḷādhyāya of the astronomical Kāvyādarça. treatise Siddhānta Çiromaiṇi, by Bhāskarācarya, A.D. 440 Evidently Caṅgadāsa, author of the Caṅgakārikā, 1114. See Macdonell, Sanskrit Literature, p. 435; other aphorisms on grammar (Kātantra school). See edition of references see Duff, Chronology of India, p. 13.9. Jagannadhasvāmiy, Vizagapatam, 1896. 450 The Brijjātaka of Varāhamihira, a well-known 441 Saddhammopāyana by Ānanda, ed. Richard work on astrology. See above, p. 108. Cf. Morris, JPTS., 1887. Forchhammer, List, p. xxxvii. 442 Sārasaṅgaha, ‘a compilation of important points in 451 P.TH., p. 55. Buddhism’ (so described in the British Museum 452 An exposition of rules of divination (?). Catalogue of Paḷi MSS.). 453 The Vuttodaya, a standard Paḷi work on prosody, 443 Presumably an abridged version of the famous was written in Ceylon in the twelfth century by medical work Cāraka-saṃhitā. See Jolly, Medicin, p. 11. Saṅgharakkhita. See edition of Major Fryer, JASB., 247. Vuttodaya-ṭīkā 278. Nyāyabindu-ṭīkā 248. Milindapañha [in text Malinapañña] 279. Hetubindu 461 249. Sāratthasaṅgaha 454 280. Hetubindu-ṭīkā 250. Amarakosanissaya 281. Rikkaṇiyayātrā [?] 251. Piṇḍonissaya 282. Rikkaṇiyayātrā-ṭīkā 252. Kalāpanissaya 283. Barittaratākara [Vṛttaratnākara?] 462 253. Roganidānabyākhyam 284. Shyārāmitikabya [?] 254. Dabbragaṇa-ṭīkā 285. Yuttisaṅgaha 255. Amarakosa 286. Yuttisaṅgaha-ṭīkā 256. Daṇḍi-ṭīkā 287. Sārasaṅgaha-nissaya 257. Daṇḍi-ṭīkā 288. Rogayātrā-nissaya 258. Daṇḍi-ṭīkā 289. Roganidāna-nissaya 259. Koladhvaja-ṭīkā 290. Saddatthabhedacintānissaya 260. Alaṃkāra 291. Pārānissaya 261. Alaṃkāra-ṭīkā 292. Shyārāmitikabya nissaya [?] 262. Bhesajjamañjūsā 455 293. Brihajjātaka-nissaya 263. Yuddhajeyya [Yuddhādhyāya ?] 294. Rattamālā 264. Yatanaprabhā-ṭīkā [Ratana ?] 456 295. Narayuttisaṅgaha 266. Viragdha 457 266. Viragdha-ṭīkā 267. Cūḷamaṇisāra 268. Rājamattanta-ṭīkā 458 269. Mṛtyuvañcana 270. Mahākālacakka 271. Mahākālacakka-ṭīkā 459 272. Paraviveka [commentary on Parahita?] 273. Kaccāyana-rūpāvatāra 274. Pumbharasārī [or Pumkarasārī in text] [?] 275. Taktāvatāra [Tattvāvatāra?] 276. Taktāvatāra-tika 277. Nyāyabindu 460

1877. See in Mr. Tin Do Oung’s Paḷi grammar (published 1902) the section on metrics. 454 A medical work so called was written by Buddhadāsa, king of Ceylon, in the fourth century (Jolly, Medicin, p. 15). 455 On medicine. 456 A medical work called Ratnaprabhā is mentioned by R. Hoernle in JRAS., 1906, p. 289 (Studies in Ancient Indian Medicine). 457 Probably a copyist’s mistake for Vidagdha (= Vidagdhamukhamaṇḍana on riddles), by Dharmadāsa. See above, p. 28. 458 Cf. Forchhammer, List, pp. xxxv ff., section v, the medical, astronomical, astrological works, etc.; and Report, 1879-80, pp. 10 ff. Dharmottara’s Nyāyabinduṭīkā, Calcutta, 1889 459 (269, 270 & 271) Çaiva works ? (Bibliotheca Indica). 460 The ancient collection of Sūtras on logic called 461 On logic (?). Nyāyabindu. See Peterson’s preface to his edition of 462 The Vṛittaratnākara (on metres), by Kedara Bhaṭṭa. INDEX (To find a term—locate word in list and then search with Acrobat)

A Anuruddhācariya Abhaya (grammarian) anuṭīkā (supplementary commentary, gloss) Abhidhamma Anutikābyākhyam Abhidhamma-anuṭīkā Apadāna Abhidhammapaññarasatthāna Apadāna-aṭṭhakathā Abhidhamma-piṭaka Apattivinicchaya Ahhidhammatthasaṅgaha Apheggupāṭha Abhidhammatthasaṅgaha-aṭṭhakathā Apheggusāra Abhidhammatthasaṅgahagaṇṭhi-thit Apheggusāradīpanī Abhidhammatthasangahaparitta Arahanta (thera) Abhidhammatthasangahaṭīkā Arahantagaṇa Abhidhammatthavibhāvanī Aree Abhidhammāvatāra Ariyālaṃkāra (of Ava) or (the younger) Abhidhammika Ariyasaccāvatara Abhidhānappadīpikā Ariyavaṃsa (thera) Aggadhammā1aṃkāra ārocanalekhakāmacca (official charged with Aggapaṇḍita issuing royal decrees) Aggavaṃsa Aruṇavati Ahāradīpanī Asaṅkhata Dhamma Pakāsanī-Kyan Aindra school (of grammarians) Aśoka Akkharasammohacchedanī Atharvaveda Akkharavisodhanī Atthabyākhyam Alaṃkāra Aṭṭha-Navanipāta- Aṅguttara Alaungpayā Atthasālinī Alīnacittajātaka Atthasālinī-aṭṭhakathā Alomprā Atthasālinīgaṇṭhi-thit Amarakośa Atthasālinī-nissaya Amarakośanissaya Atthasālinī-ṭīkā Amarapura (sect) atthayojanā (interpretation) Amarasiṃha Atula Yasadhamma āṇādesanā (prohibitions) Anāgatavaṃsa B Ānanda (commentator) Bālappabodhana Ānanda of Haṃsāvatī Bālappabodhana pruttikaraṇa Ānanda of the Sīhaḷasaṅgha Bālattajjana Ānanda temple Bālāvatāra Ānāpānadīpanī Bālāvatāraṇa Anattadīpanī Barittaratākara Anawrata Bayin Naung Aṅguttaranikāya Bhaddā (queen) Aṅguttara-ṭīkā Bhāskarācārya Anorata Bhesajjamañjūsa Anurādhapura Bhikkhunīpātimokkha Anuruddha Bhikkhunīvibhaṅga Bhikkhupātimokkha Chandomañjari Bhikkhuvibhaṅga Chandosāratthavikāsinī Bhummajeyya (jurist) Chandoviciti Bhūridattajātaka Chandrakirtti Bījakkhyam Chapaccayadīpaniī Bingâ-û Chapaṭa Binya Dala (king of Pegu) Cha-sattanipāta-aṅguttara Bodhipakkhiyadīpanī Chattaguhinda Bodōpayā Chronicles Brahmajāla suttanta Commentators Brahmanic texts Cūḷagaṇa Brahmans Cūḷagaṇṭhipada Branginoco Cūḷamaṇisāra Brihaja Cūḷaniddesa Brihajjātaka Cūḷanirutti Brihajjātaka-nissaya Cūḷaniruttimañjūsā Brihajjātaka-ṭīkā Cūḷasandhivisodhana Buddhadāsa (king) Cūḷavaṃsa Buddhadatta (commentator) Cullabuddhaghosa Buddhaghosa (commentator) or (Talaing Cullavimalabuddhi jurist) Buddhālaṃkāra, 43. D Buddhapiya Dabbragaṇa buddhavacanam (the word of the Buddha) Dakkhiṇavana vihāra Buddhavaṃsa (thera) Dānadīpanī Buddhavaṃsa-aṭṭhakathā Daṇḍin Daṇḍīppakaraṇa C Daṇḍi-ṭīkā Calinda pañcikā Darajjavitāraṇi Candapajjota Dasa-ekādasanipāta-aṅguttara Candaprutti Dasa-ekādasanipāta-jātaka-aṭṭhakathā Candrapañcikara Dasagaṇṭhivaṇṇanā Caṅgakārikā Dasavatthu Caṅkadāsa Dāṭhādhātuvaṃsa Cāraka-samhitā Dāthānāga Cariyā Piṭaka Devacakkobhāsa (thera) Cariyā Piṭaka-aṭṭhakathā Devānampiyatissa (king) Catthapayoga Dhammacakka (pavattanasutta) Catukanipāta-Aṅguttara Dhammacakkaṭīkā Catuka-pañca-chanipāta-jātaka-aṭṭhakathā Dhammacāri caturaṅgabalāmacca (officer of state) Dhammaceti (king) Catusāmaṇeravatthu Dhammadāna Cetiddhinemi parigāthā Dhammadassi Ceylon Dhammadesanā Chaddantanāgarājuppattikathā Dhammadīpanī Chagatidīpanī Dhammakitti Chakkindābhisiri Dhammanīti Chandapanna Dhammapada Dhammapada, oatthakath~, 103. H Dhammapāla (Culla), (commentator) Halāyudha Dhammapāna-shu-bwè Hatthipālajātaka Dhammapaññā pakaraṇa Hatthisutta Dhammasaṅganī Hetubindu Dhammasatta (Skt. dharmaçāstra) Hitopadeśa Dhammasenāpati houng (ancient Burmese) Dhammavilāsa Hpa-gyī-doa Dharmadāsa hpyat-ton (Burm. decisions) Dhataraṭṭha hsayā (Burm. Teacher) Dhātakathā Hsay-saung-twè Dhātumālā (of the Saddanīti) Hsin-hpyu-shin (king, at Pegu) Dhātupaccayavibhāga (analysis of parts of Hyauk-saung-twè speech) Dhātuvatthasaṅgaha I Dīghanikāya, Indriyayamaka Dīpaṅkara Itivuttaka Dīpavaṃsa Disapāmokkha J Dravyaguṇa Jāgara (thera) Dukanipātajātaka Jagarābhidhaja Dukapaṭṭhāna Jālinī Dukatikacatukanipāta Jamubudhāja Dukatikapaṭṭhāna Jambudīpa-Anantadhaja (ācariya) Dumajātaka Jambudīpika (belonging to India or Burma) Dutiya-min-khaung Jātaka, 3, 4, 60, 78 if., 92, 93. Dvādasa-terasa-pakiṇṇakanipāta Jātakābhidāna Dvemātikā Jātaka-gaṇṭhi Jātaka-nissaya E Jātakaṭīkā Ekadukatika-aṅguttara Jitakavisodhana, Ekakkharakosa Jatattaki-sotattaki-nidāna Ekaṃsika (name of a sect) Jayāditya Ekanipāta Jetavana (thera) Etimāsamidīpanī Jeyyasinkha (kiag) Joti (thera of Ceylon) G Gandhābharaṇa K gandhantarā (books other than doctrinal) Kaccāyana, disciple of the Buddha Gandhatthi Kaccāyanabheda Gandhavaṃsa Kaccāyanasāra Gandhisāra or Gaṇṭhisira Kaccāyanavaṇṇanā gaṇṭhipadattha (gloss) Kaccāyanayoga Goḷadhyāya Kalāpa Gūḷhatthadīpanī Kalāpanissaya Guṇābhilaṃkāra Kalāpapañcikā Guṇasāgata Kalāpasuttapratiññsaku Kalyāṇi inscriptions Kāmādinakathā Lokuppatti Kāmandakī Lokuppattipakāsanī Kāmaśāstra Kammākammavinicchaya M Kammavācā Mādhavanidāna Kammavinicchaya Madhusāratthadīpanī Kaṅkhāvitaraṇī Māgadhabhāsā (the idiom of Magadha) Kārikā Maggaṇgadīpanī Kārikāṭīkā Mahābodhivaṃsa Kāsikāpruttipālini Mahādhammarājā (grandson of Bayin Naung) Kasmīra Mahādhammarājādhirājā (Sing-gu-sā) Kassapa (commentator, of Damilaraṭṭha, of Mahāgaṇa Ceylon, of Pagan) Mahākā Katacā Mahākaccāyana Kātantra Mahākālacakka Kathāvatthu Mahākassapa Kaung-hmu-daw pagoda Mahānāga Kāvyasāratthasaṅgaha Mahāniddesa Kāyaviratigāthā Mahānissara Keçavamiçra Mahāpakaraṇa Khandhavaggasaṃyutta Mahāparakkama Khaṇṭakakhipa Mahāparinibbāna Suttanta Khuddakanikāya Mahāparittam Khuddakapāṭha Mahāpavaradhammarājalokādhipati Khuddasikkhā Mahārājādhipati Kittisīhasūra (king) Mahārūpasiddhi Kittitara Mahāsammata (king) Koladdhaja Mahāsatipaṭṭhāna suttanta Kublai Khan Mahāsirijeyyasūra (king) Kumāraceti pagoda Mahāsuvaṇṇadīpa Kyansitthā (king) Mahāthera-ṭīkā Kyaswa (king) Mahāṭīkā Mahāvagga L Mahāvaggasaṃyutta Laghugraha Mahāvaggaṭṭhakathā Laghupārāçaryam Mahāvaṃsa Lakkhaṇadīpanī Mahāvihāra Lalitavistara Mahāyāna Law Mahāyasa Ledi Hsaya-daw Mahinda lekhakāmacca (secretary) Mahosadhajātaka Likhananaya Mahosaṭṭhi Līnatthappakāsanī Majjhimanikāya Līnatthavisodhanī Majjhimapaṇṇāsa Lingatthavivaraṇa Malayadeśa Lokadīpasāra Malayadīpa Lokanīti Manavulu-Sandesaya Lokapaññatti Maṅgala (grammarian) Maṅgaladīpanī Ñāṇābhivaṃsa (ācariya) Maṅgalasutta Ñāṇagambhira (commentator of Pagan) Maṇildīpā Ñāṇālaṃkāra Maṇijotasaddhammālaṃkāra Ñāṇasāgara Maṇikuṇḍalavatthu Ñāṇavara Maṇiratana Ñāṇavilāsa Maṇisāramañjūsā Nandamāla Mañljūsāṭīkābyākhyam Nārada Manohāra Narapati (king) Manohari (king) Narapatisithu (king) Manooreng Naravara Manu Narayuttisaṅgaha Manukyay Navaniyamadīpanī Manusāra Navavimalabuddhi Manusāra-shwe-myin Nettipakaraṇa Manuvaṇṇanā Ñeyyadhamma Manuyin Ñeyyadhammābhivaṃsa Manuyinlaṅkā Nibbānadīpanī Mātikatthadīpanī Nidānavaggasaṃyutta Matthapayoga Nirayakathādīpaka, 93. Maung Daung sa Niruttibyākhyam, 108. Maung Tun Aung Niruttidīpanī Maunggun Niruttipiṭaka Medhābhivaṃsa Niruttisāramañjūsā Medhaṃkāra Ṇvādi Milindapañha Nyāsa Min-dōn-Min Nyāsappadīpa Moggallāna Nyāsappadīpaṭīkā Mohanayana Nyaung Ram Min Mohavicchedanī Nyāyabindu Mōn (Talaing) Mrammasaṃgha O Mṛityuvañcana Ovāda Mugdhabodha Ovādakathiā Mukhamattadīpanī Mukhamattasāra P Mūlabhāsā (‘the original language’) Pabbājaniyakammavācā Mūlapaṇṇāsa Pācittiya Mūlasikkhā Padasodhana Mūlayamaka Padāvahāmahācakka Munindaghosa Padavibhāga Pakiṇṇakanikāya N Pālatakka Nāgarājuppattikathā Pali Nāgita Pañcādi Nāmacāradīpanī Pañcanipāta Namakara Pañcapakaraṇa Nāmarūpam (name and form) Pañcika-moggallāna Paninean system R Paññājotābhidhaja Rāhula Paññāraṃsi Rājabala-kyaw-din Paññāsāmi Rājābhisekagandha Paññātissa Rājādhirājanāmattappakāsinī Pārājika Rājādhirājavilāsinī Pārājikakaṇḍa Rājamaṇicūla (cetiya) Parakkamabāhu Rājamattam Parākramabāhu I Rājamattanisseyo Paramatthabindu Rājamattanta paramatthadesanā, teaching concerning the Rājanītī highest truth Rājasevakadīpaniī Paramatthamañjūsā Rājasikkhāpada Paramatthasaṅkhepa Rājavaṃsa Paramatthavinicchaya Rājavaṃasankhepa Pāramīdīpanī Rājindarājābhidheyyadīpanī Pārānissaya Rajjaggāhāmacca (a revenue officer) Parāsava Rājovādavatthu Paraviveka Ratanākara Parāyanavatthu Ratanapañjara Paritta Ratnamālā pariyattipaṭipatti (sacred doctrine and practice) Ratnaprabbā Pārupana (name of a sect) Rattamālā Pāsādika (thera) Raṭṭhasāra Pasaṃsa Revata Pāṭali Rikkaṇyayātrā Pāṭhacariya Roganidāna Pātheyya Rogayātrā Paṭiccasamuppādadīpanī Rūpabhedapakāsanī Patigaviveka Rūpadīpanī Pātimokkha Rūpasiddhi Paṭipattisangaha Rūpāvatāra Paṭisambhidāmagga Paṭṭhāna S Peṭakopadesa Saccasaṅkhepa Peṭālaṃkāra, 78. Saccatthadīpaniī Petavatthu Saddakārikā Philip de Brito Saddamedhanī Piṇḍonissaya Saddanīti piṭakas Saddasaṅkhepa Piṭakatthamain Saddasāratthajālinī Poems (recitation of, against the religious rule) Saddatthabhedacintā porāṇā(old-time chroniclers) Saddāvatāra Priṇḍo Saddavutti Puggalapaññati Saddavuttivivaraṇa Pumbhasārī Saddhammacakkasāmi Puññacetiya Saddhammacari Saddhammadīpaka Saddhammaghosa Sarūpatthadīpanī Saddhammaguru Sarvajñanyāyadīpanī Saddhammajotipāla Śarvavarman Saddhammakitti Sāsanālaṃkāra Saddhammālaṃkāra Sāsanasuddhidīpikā Saddhammanandi Sāsanavaṃsa Saddhammapajotikā. Sativa Saddhammapāla Sati-we-bōn-1a-shu-bwè Saddhammasiri Satta-aṭṭha-navanipāta-jātaka Saddhammavilāsa Sattarājadhammavatthu Saddhammavilāsinī Satthekavipasvaprakāsa Saddhammupāya Satyatatvāvabodha Sadhujjanavilāsini Sawlahan (king) Sāgara Setibhinda Sāgarābhivaṃsadhaja Shin-san-his (queen) Sāgāthāvaggasaṃyutta Shwe Dagon pagoda Sahassaraṃsī Shyārāmitikabya Sahassaraṃsimālinī Sīhaḷasaṅgha Sahassavatthu Sīhaḷavatthu Śakra Sīlakathā Salāyatanavaggasaṃyutta Sīlakkhandha Salvan-min-tara (king, 1629) Sīlavaṃsa Sāmaññaphala suttanta Sīlavanāgajātaka Samantapāsādikā Sīlavinicchaya Samāsataddhitadīpanī Sīmābandhanīṭīkā Sambandhacintā Sīmālaṃkāra Sambandhamālinī Sirimaṅgala Sammohavināsinī Sirinandadhammarājā Sammohavinodanī Siripavaramahādhammarājā Sāmudrikalakṣana Sirisaddhammakittimahāphussadeva Saṃvaṇṇanānayadīpanī Sirisudhammarājādhipati Saṃvarajātaka Sirisudhammarājamahādhipati Saṃyuttanikāya Sirisumaṅgala, Sandhikappa Sirivicittālaṃkāra Saṅgharakkhita Sīvali (thera) Sankhepavaṇṇanā Sīvalī (queen) Saṅkhyapakāsaka Soṇa (thera, missionary) Saṅkiccajātaka Sotamālinī Sanskrit Sotatthakī śānti Subhūtacandana Saradassi Subodhālaṃkāra Sāramañjūsā Sujāta (Buddha) Sārapiṇḍa Sūlachāraka Sārasaṅgaha Sumangala Sāratthadīpanī Sumedha Sāratthasaṅgaha Sumedhakathā Sāratthavikāsinī Surājamaggadīpanī Sāriputta Surakitti (king) Surāvinicchaya Suriyavaṃsa U Sūryasiddhānta U Janinda Suttaniddesa U Pyin-nya-thika Suttanipāta U Tin Suttapiṭaka U Tissa Suttasaṅgaha Udāna Suttāivali Ukkaṃsamāla Ukkaṃsika (king) T Uparipaṇṇāsa Ta-bin-shwe-hti (king) Upāsakavinicchaya Taktāvatāra Upāsakovāda Talaing Upasena Tāmalinda (thera) Upāyakathā Taṇḍi Uposathavinicchaya Tanogabuddhi uposathika (under temporary vows) Thruk-pye-min Uppātasanti Tathāgatuppatti Uttama Tejodipa (thera) Uttara (thera) Tejosara Uttarājīva Terasakaṇḍa Tesakuṇa jātaka V Thadodhammarājā Vācakopadesa Thado-min-byi Vacanatthajotikā Thagya (pagoda) Vācavācaka thamain (Burmese record) Vaccavācakadīpanī thanbyin (Burmese revenue officer) Vaccavācakaṭīkā Than-byin-ṭīkā Vaccavācakavaṇṇanā Tharāwadi-min (1837) Vācissara (thera) Theragāthā vācīviññatti Theravādin Vajirabuddhi Therīgāthā Vāmana thit Vaṇṇabodhana Thohanbwā Vanna-kyaw-din thugyī (Burmese title, revenue officer) Varābhisaṃghanātha Thūpavaṃsa Varāha-Mihira Tigumbhathomana Vedas Ṭīkā-Kyaw vedasattha Tikanipātajātaka Vedavidhinimittaniruttivaṇṇanā Tikapaṭṭhāna Vepullabuddhi Tilokaguru Vessantarajātaka Tilokālaṃkāra Vibhaṅga Tipiṭaka Tipiṭakālaṃkāra Vibhatyattha Tiriyapabbata Vidadhimukhamaṇḍana Toungdwin Kyaw Vidagdhamukhamaṇḍana Trakkabhāōṣā Vidhurajataka Tripiṭaka Vijayabāhu (king) Vijitāvī Visuṃgāmasīmāvinicchaya Vijjāmaggadīpanī Vivādavinicchaya Vimalabuddhi Vohāradesanā Vimānavatthu Vohārathabheda Vimativinodanī Vopadeva Vinaya (monastic code) Vṛnda Vinayacūḷavagga Vuttimoggallāna Vinayagaṇṭhi Vuttodaya Vinayagūḷhatthadīpanī vyākaraṇa (exposition) Vinayakandhaniddesa Vyavaharamayukha Vinayālaṃkāra Vinaya-mahāvagga W Vinaya-parivāra Wagaru (king) Vinayapiṭaka Vinayasamuṭṭhānadīpanī Y Vinayasaṅgaha Yajñavalkya Vinayasangraha Yamaka Vinayasiñcaya Yasa Vinaya-uttarasiñcaya Yasavaḍḍhanavatthu Vinayavinicchaya Yatanaprabha Vinicchayapakāsanī Yaw-mya-sā Atwin-wun Viragdha Ye-din Vīsatijātaka Yuddhajeyya Visuddhācāra Yuttisaṅgaha Visuddhimagga

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