MYANMAR

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Door Taw Sein Ko (First published in Myanmar between 1883-1913)

* FROM Buddhist writings preserved at Ceylon and elsewhere there can be no doubt that the Talaings first obtained their knowledge of the Buddhist religion through two missionaries (as described in a previous chapter); and owing to their being on the seaboard, received it at a much earlier period than the Burmese. But as to when, and by what means, the Burmese first obtained their knowledge of it, no authentic record exists. Sir Arthur Phayre is of the opinion that they were converted by Buddhist missionaries from Gangetic India who reached Upper Myanmar through Bengal and Manipur. Others, amongst whom is Rhys Davids, supposed that Buddhism was introduced from China. It is not unlikely, however, that the Burmese obtained both their religion and their alphabet through the Talaings. The Burmese alphabet is almost the same as the Talaing, and the circular form of both strongly indicates the influence of the Singalese, or the Tamulic type of letter."Fytche's Myanmar Past and Present, Vol. II, page 171.

The history of the Buddhist Church in Ramanna or the country of the Talaings begins with the third Buddhist Council convened by Asoka in 309 B.C (According to Burmese Chronology, the Buddha's Nirvana took place in 544 B.C., and the Third Buddhist Council was held 235 years after that event, i.e., in 309 B.C). At the conclusion of this Council, missionaries were sent forth to various countries to propagate the Religion. Mahinda was despatched to Ceylon, and Sona and Uttara were sent to Suvannabhumi, which land both Talaing and Burmese writers agree in identifying with Thaton, the Talaing kingdom conquered by Anawrata in 1057 A.D. An account of the despatch of these missionaries, and of the miraculous conversion of the countries visited by them is given in Chapter XII of the Mahavamsa (Turnour's Mahavamsa, edited by Wijesinha, pages 46-49) a history compiled in Ceylon by Mahanama, a Buddhist Monk, in the fifth century A.D. Doubts have been expressed by European scholars as to the authenticity of this account, and there is an inclination to treat the whole tale as a monkish legend. In the inscriptions of Asoka, Ceylon is referred to only twice and no mention is made either of Suvannabhumi, or of the mission of Asoka's son Mahinda, or of his daughter Sanghamitta (Colquhoun's Across Chryse, Preface, pages vi and vii). Nor have any inscriptions in the Asoka character been found at Thaton or Pagan, whither it is supposed the Burmese conquerors removed their spoils of war.

As regards Suvannabhumi, Yule and Subhuti ( Vide S. V. Suvanna at page 492, Childers' Pali Dictionary) agree in identifying it with the Indo-Chinese Peninsula while Alberuni, who wrote his work on India about 1030 A.D., mentions Suvannabhumi as one of the countries situated to the north-east of India. (Sachau's Alberuni's India, Vol. 1, page 303) He also mentions that the Islands between China and India are the Islands of the Zabaj, called by the Hindus, Suvarnadvipa, "because you obtained much gold as deposit if you wash only a little of the earth of that country." (Sachau's Alberuni's India, Vol. II, page 106)

The conversion of a country to a foreign religion is necessarily the result of a long and continued intercourse, and of sustained and strenuous missionary effort; and the statement in the Mahavamsa that, on the arrival of Sona and Uttara in Suvannabhumi, 6o,ooo people suddenly embraced the new faith, that 2,500 men and 1,500 women were admitted into the Order (Turnour's Mahavamsa, edited by Wijesinha, page 49) may be summarily dismissed as beyond the range of credibility. Judging, however, by the splendid ruins of Cambodia, and the numerous Sanskrit Inscriptions found there it seems to be highly probable that that Kingdom was the chief radiating centre of Buddhism in Indo-China, and that the expansion of its power to Thaton and Malaya was accompanied by the spread of Buddhist influences. Cambodian supremacy in the Salween valley lasted till the eleventh century and Cambodian influences in the valleys of the Salween and Irrawaddy ceased with the foundation of the kingdom of Siam in 1350 A. D. It may, therefore, be safely assumed that the religious traditions of the Cambodians, regarding especially the introduction of Buddhism, were inherited by the Siamese as well as the Talaings, by whom they were passed on to the Burmese.

At the same time, Burmese writers are not willing to acknowledge their indebtedness to the Talaings, whom they had conquered, for their knowledge of Buddhism. They say that Sunaparánta, the classic name of their country, should be identified with Aparántaka; that the Buddha himself visited Sunaparánta during his life-time, and there established his Religion; and that, at the end of the Third Council, missionaries were sent to Aparántaka to propagate the Faith. They add that, as early as 443 B.C., Buddhism was established at Prome as attested by the ancient Pagodas still in existence, and that, if they are at all beholden to the Talaings, the revival of the faith is certainly due to the Buddhist scriptures brought from Thaton to Pagan in the 11th century A. D. The establishment of Buddhism at Prome in the 5th century B. C., cannot as yet be proved or disproved, because the ruins of that ancient capital have not been systematically explored; nor can Myanmar's claim to be identified with Aparántaka be admitted. Fergusson and Burgess in the "Cave Temples of India" (page 17), say that Aparantaka is the Konkan of the present day.

"Aparántaka" means the " Western Country" and cannot, by any stretch of imagination, be identified with Myanmar, whose relative position towards India prima facie vitiates the identification.

If, before the foundation of Pagan in the second century A. D., Buddhism prevailed at Prome, it appears to have been of the Southern School, which was probably corrupted [i.e. altered], later on, by the tenets of the Northern School as well as by Saivaism and Vaishnavaism. Burmese history relates that, "on the accession of Thaiktaing, the 13th King of Pagan, who began his reign in 513 A.D., the Naga-worship, with the Aris as its priests, arose at Pagan. It lasted for over five centuries, till it was finally suppressed by Anawrata [i.e. Anuruddha]." There is not much information available about the Aris or the system of faith taught by them. About the same period, i.e., 6th century A. D., in Northern India, Buddhism had lost its vigour of expansion,⁽¹⁾ and Indian Buddhists had migrated to China and neighbouring countries.

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