Indian Antiquary Vol 21

SR No.: 032513
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Richard Carnac Temple
Publisher: Swati Publications
Publication Year: 1984
Total Pages: 430
Language: English
Classification: Book_English
File Size: 17 MB

Page 413

DECEMBER, 1892.) ARCHÆOLOGICAL TOUR THROUGH RAMANNADESA. 385
city, were brought away from Taikkula. The resemblance between them and the figure of Avalokitesvara" is very striking, and suggests the idea that they have probably been modified from an Indian original to suit new surroundings.
Near this image was picked up a small terra cotta tablet bearing a Sanskrit legend which, with other old images lying about the place, was apparently obtained by ransacking the relic-chambers of ancient pagodas. This tablet, now in the British Museum, is of peculiar interest. Some years ago half dozen similar tablets were presented to that museum, which were found at Buddha Gayâ; and the probable history of the specimen found at Pegu is that it was brought from Gays as part of the collection of relics procured by the Mission sent thither by king Dhammachoti in the latter half of the 15th Century, A. D., and deposited in the relic-chamber of some pagoda erected after their return. The legend is said to be the formula of the three refuges." The general character of the tablet, independently of the inscription on it, is distinctly Indian."
The eastern face of Pegu was visited on the 5th January. The Shwêmòdò Pagoda, said to contain two bairs of Gautama Buddha enshrined by Mahâsâla and Chůļasala, sons of Pindakamabûsêtthi of Zaungta, was being re-gilt under the supervision of its trustees. The Pagoda was last repaired by Böddp'aya, about a hundred years ago, and a broken inscription recording this meritorious act is lying on the Pagoda platform. There is also an ancient brass bell said to have been presented by Byinnyâ Dalà after his conquest of Avå in 1752 A. D."
Like the Shwedagôn Pagoda at Rangoon, the Shwêmddd is a Buddhist shrine of great sanctity. Successive kings of Burma and Pegu lavished their treasures on it in repairing and enlarging it. When originally built, it was only 75 feet high, but as it now stands, it is about 288 feet high, and about 1,350 feet in circumference at the base.
A little to the north-east of the Shwêmddd is a small hill, fabled to have been the resting. place of two hansa birds, when the region about Pega was under the sea. At the foot of this hill are two octagonal pillars of fine granite. The length of one is about 11 feet and that of the other is about 5. They bear no inscriptions, but a tradition is current that they were erected by kula, i. e., foreign or Indian, merchants, who subsequently claimed the country as their own by virtue of pre-occupation, and that they were driven out by a Talaing prince. However, the true history of the pillars appears to be that, like a similar granite pillar in the ancient town of Tenasserim (Tanindayt) in the Mergai District, they were erected when Råmaññadêsa was subject to Siamese rule, to mark the centre of the ancient city of Hamsavati, and that most probably human beings were buried alive below the pillars, in the belief that the spirits of the deceased would keep an unremitting watch over the city.
A good panoramic view of Pega and its suburbs is obtained from the Shwdaungyo Pagoda, which is situated at the south-east corner of the city walls. At about 700 yards from the southern face is Jetovati, the encampment of Alompra, who beleaguered Pega in 1757 A. D. Within the walls are visible the sites of the palaces of the great kings of Hamsavati, such as
• Plate LV. of The Cave Temples of India, by Fergusson and Burgess
*1 [The legend of the Pega specimen is by itself mostly illegible, but a nearly identical specimen from Gay at the British Museum the inscription is legible enough. It probably is some well-known formula, but it is not that of the " three refuges." There must either have been some reciprocity in the production of those votive tablets between Gayl and other places whence pilgrima oame, or the pilgrims must have induced the looal artists to copy inscriptions on their particular gifts in their own various tongues, because among the British Museum specimens is one which has what appear to be imitations of the Kyaukad characters of Burma, much resembling those of the Tenerim medals figured by Phayre in the International Numismata Orientalia, Vol. III., Plates III. and IV., and another bus illegible imitation characters on it of some tongue unknown to the artist who made it. Sir Alexander Cunningham hus figured some of these tablete, which, he calls sals, in his new book, Mahabodhi, Plate XXIV. These are apparently from his own collection of finds at Buddha Gay, and there are other good samples at the South Kensington Museum, Indian Section, which are wrongly labelled there for the most part.-ED.)
" It is said that the Shwedagon was raised to its present height in the last century by the Burmese in order to overtop the Shwemddd of the Talnings.