Buddhist Law in Burma: a History of Dhammasattha Texts and Jurisprudence, 1250–1850 D
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University of Hawai'i Manoa Kahualike UH Press Book Previews University of Hawai`i Press Fall 8-31-2018 Buddhist Law in Burma: A History of Dhammasattha Texts and Jurisprudence, 1250–1850 D. Christian Lammerts Follow this and additional works at: https://kahualike.manoa.hawaii.edu/uhpbr Part of the Asian History Commons, Buddhist Studies Commons, and the History of Religions of Eastern Origins Commons Recommended Citation Lammerts, D. Christian, "Buddhist Law in Burma: A History of Dhammasattha Texts and Jurisprudence, 1250–1850" (2018). UH Press Book Previews. 10. https://kahualike.manoa.hawaii.edu/uhpbr/10 This Book is brought to you for free and open access by the University of Hawai`i Press at Kahualike. It has been accepted for inclusion in UH Press Book Previews by an authorized administrator of Kahualike. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Buddhist Law in Burma Buddhist Law in Burma A HISTORY OF DHAMMASATTHA TEXTS AND JURISPRUDENCE, 1250–1850 D. Christian Lammerts University of Hawai‘i Press Honolulu © 2018 University of Hawai‘i Press All rights reserved Printed in the United States of America 22 21 20 19 18 6 5 4 3 2 1 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Names: Lammerts, Dietrich Christian, author. Title: Buddhist law in Burma : a history of dhammasattha texts and jurisprudence, 1250–1850 / D. Christian Lammerts. Description: Honolulu : University of Hawai‘i Press, [2018] | Includes bibliographical references and index. Identifiers: LCCN 2018019170 | ISBN 9780824872601 (cloth ; alk. paper) Subjects: LCSH: Burmese Buddhist law—Sources. | Law—Burma—Buddhist Influences—History—Sources. Classification: LCC KNL133 .L36 2018 | DDC 349.59109/03dc23 LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2018019170 Cover art: (front) Painted mural register depicting the legal judgment of the bodhisatta Candakumāra in the Khaṇḍahāla jātaka. Zeditaw temple complex, Aneint, late eighteenth century (photograph by Than Zaw). Detail of manuscript folios of the Manusāradhammasattha and Manu raṅḥ nissaya dhammasat (NL Taṅ 10 f. gū recto and UCL 8000 f. jau verso, respectively). (back) Terracotta plaque depicting the bodhisatta as the boar-king and judge Mahātuṇḍila in the Tuṇḍila jātaka. East Hpetleik temple, Pagan, eleventh century (photograph by Than Zaw). University of Hawai‘i Press books are printed on acid-free paper and meet the guidelines for permanence and durability of the Council on Library Resources. Designed by Wanda China For Chie Contents Acknowledgments ix Note on Transliteration and Translation xi 1 Buddhist Law in Burma 1 Part I. Sources 2 Before the Law: Traces of Dhammasattha in Buddhist Legal and Textual Culture, c. 1250–1600 21 3 Dhammavilāsa: Legal Text and Cosmology in the Early Seventeenth Century 46 4 Manusāra: History, Jurisdiction, Authorship 89 Part II. Revisions and Reasons 5 Dhammasattha and Its Discontents, 1681–c. 1850 137 6 Conclusion: Sakka’s Thunderbolt 179 Appendix. Four Dhammasattha Bibliographies (1768–c. 1818) 195 Notes 205 Bibliography 253 Index 281 Acknowledgments I owe my deepest professional and personal debt to Chie Ikeya, not least for her support with multiple aspects of this book since its initial conception. This project began with my research in the Department of Asian Studies at Cornell University, and I am grateful to Anne Blackburn, Tamara Loos, Larry McCrea, and Chris Minkowski, for their direction and encouragement; and also to the other exemplary faculty, students, and administrators of the department and of the Cornell Southeast Asia Program. Anne deserves special tribute as a consummate mentor, critic, and advocate. For support of my training, research, and writing, I acknowl- edge the assistance of the American Council of Learned Societies, the Center for Southeast Asian Studies (Kyoto University), the Institute of Southeast Asian Studies (Singapore), the Fulbright-Hays Program, the Blakemore Foundation, the Cornell Southeast Asia Program, the Rutgers University Faculty Research Council, and the Department of Religion, Rutgers University. Sections of the book have been presented at the Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, the Asia Research Institute, Harvard University, Mahidol University, Leiden University, Cornell University, Princeton University, Kyoto University, the University of Toronto, the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, and the University of Yangon, and I appreciate the willingness of these institutions to pro- vide a forum. ix x Acknowledgments Conversations with Alexey Kirichenko over the past decade have yielded precious illuminations, and I thank him for his continued gen- erosity and collaborative spirit. A number of colleagues have been particularly helpful in offering criticism of various iterations of chap- ters and aspects of argument: Arlo Griffiths, Lilian Handlin, Thibaut d’Hubert, Andrew Huxley, Petra Kieffer-Pülz, Kyaw Minn Htin, Jacques Leider, Myo Myint, and Peter Skilling. Other teachers, colleagues, col- laborators, and friends who have given assistance at various stages of the project include: Ven. Ācāra, Andrea Acri, Ven. Ādiccavaṃsa, Barbara Andaya, Antika Preeyanon, Arthid Sheravanichkul, Aung Soe Min, Aung Win Naing, Chris Baker, Olivier de Bernon, Bo Bo Lansin, Dan Boucher, Erik Braun, Yigal Bronner, John Buchanan, Ven. Can- damukha, Jake Carbine, Charlie Carstens, Chat Aksornsawad, Clau- dio Cicuzza, Helen Creese, Don Davis, Dragomir Dimitrov, Christoph Emmrich, Tilman Frasch, Rebecca French, Charlie Hallisey, Ko Heavy, Oskar von Hinüber, Hlaing Hlaing Gyi, Htay Win Maung, Htun Yee, Masao Imamura, Berthe Jansen, Doug Kammen, Ven. Kesara, Takahiro Kojima, Ven. Kuṇḍala, François Lagirarde, Victor Lieberman, Michel Lorrillard, Tim Lubin, Mar Lay, Patrick McCormick, Justin McDaniel, Mya Oo, Mark Nathan, Ni Tut, Peter Nyunt, Nyunt Maung, John Okell, Ryuji Okudaira, Patrick Olivelle, Ven. Paṇḍavaṃsa, Ven. Paṇḍita, Nai Pan Hla, Tom Patton, Anne Peters, John Phan, Phyu Phyu Win, Pat Pranke, Bill Pruitt, Jan van der Putten, Pyone Pyone Aye, Ronit Ricci, Aleix Ruiz-Falqués, San San Hnin Tun, San San May, San Shwe, Windhu Sancaya, Saw Tun, Jörg Schendel, Ben Schonthal, Tansen Sen, Jonathan Silk, Soe Kyaw Thu, Ven. Sumana, Ven. Sutālaṅkāra, Eric Tagliacozzo, Ven. Tejaniya, Than Zaw, Thant Thaw Kaung, Thara- phi Than, Thaw Kaung, Thu Nandar, Tin Htway, Tin Tin Win, Ali- cia Turner, Ven. Vicittañāṇa, Geoff Wade, Win Tint, Margaret Wong, David Wyatt, and Zaw Lynn Aung. I sincerely thank my parents on both sides for their continued kindness and care throughout the gestation of this project: Suzanne Lammerts Lyon and David Lyon, and Mya Kay Thee and Osamu Ikeya. No words can express my gratitude to Mio Lammerts-Ikeya. For editorial and publication support, I am grateful to Pamela Kelley, Debra Tang, and Grace Wen at University of Hawai‘i Press, Lys Weiss of Post Hoc Academic Publishing Services, and the anonymous reviewers of the manuscript for the University of Hawai‘i Press. Note on Transliteration and Translation Burmese, Pali, and Sanskrit texts written in the Burmese script are transliterated according to the conventions outlined in the accompa- nying table. For a discussion of the rationale behind this transliteration schema, see my review of Anne Peters’s Birmanische Handschriften, Teil 8 (Lammerts 2015d). Common personal and place names are generally transcribed according to conventional Romanizations (thus Alaungmintaya not Aloṅḥ Maṅḥ Tarāḥ). Important though less well-known names and titles are transliterated upon their initial occurrence. Transliterations are diplomatic and privilege forms attested in a majority of manuscript witnesses, unless otherwise noted. In my trans- lations of Pali texts I closely adhere to readings and interpretations suggested by premodern vernacular nissaya glosses wherever such resources are available for consultation. In translations and transliterations, I enclose in square brackets [ . ] editorial supplements to the text, whereas I use braces (curly brackets) { . } to enclose either reconstructed forms or variants. xi CHAPTER 1 Buddhist Law in Burma t is commonplace to read that, unlike Hinduism or Islam, Buddhism gave rise to no law aside from the vinaya, whose jurisdiction, we are ledI to believe, is limited to the monastic community. Standard text- books and reference works on comparative law that present detailed discussions of traditions of Hindu law, Islamic law, and Chinese law neglect Buddhist law entirely.1 Surveys of Buddhist history and litera- ture do not refer to the deep genealogies of Buddhist law in Southeast Asia, nor do they note the striking fact that only in this region did an elaborate legal literature directed toward both monks and the Bud- dhist laity arise. Called dhammasattha, or “treatise on law,”2 this genre and its law played a vital role in monastic and lay Buddhist intellec- tual, socio-legal, and textual practice for centuries—another fact that is invariably overlooked in studies of premodern and early modern Buddhist culture in Southeast Asia. In this book, I offer an account of the history and dynamic juris- prudence of the dhammasattha genre and demonstrate the centrality of law as a sphere of Buddhist knowledge and literary production in Burma between the thirteenth and nineteenth centuries CE. Through a careful study of hitherto neglected dhammasattha manuscripts in the Burmese, Arakanese, and Pali languages, as well as donative inscrip- tions, court case records, monastic epistles, legal responsa, chronicles, and scriptural commentaries, I argue