Indian Antiquary Vol 55

SR No.: 032547
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Richard Carnac Temple, Stephen Meredyth Edwardes, Krishnaswami Aiyangar
Publisher: Swati Publications
Publication Year: 1985
Total Pages: 370
Language: English
Classification: Book_English
File Size: 16 MB

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THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY
[ OCTOBER, 1926
authority on such matters, sends us some very interesting information on the point raised in these columns some time since as to the weight of the great bell. The notes, he says, were prepared for quite another purpose originally. At any rate they serve to show where Forbes and Shway Yoe got their information. That the old priests of Burma intended to calculate weights in the old familiar Indian style of pala and tula, whatever weights they meant by these denominations, is clear from the statement in the Kalyani Inscriptions that King Dhammacheti presented to the chetiya at Tirumpanagara, that is, to the Shwe Dagon Pagoda at Rangoon, a large bell made of brass, weighing 3,000 tulas.' Taking the tula at about 145 ounces troy, that is, about ten pounds avoirdupois, we get the weight of this bell to be about 11-2/5 tons :-a weight, it may be said, more than doubled by the Mahaghanta, or Great Bell, of the same Pagoda, cast by King Tharawadi in 1842 and usually said to weigh over 25 tons; while King Bodawphaya's (1781-1819) bell at Myingun weighs about eighty tons (Phayre, History of Burma, p. 219).
"King Dhammacheti's bell, the Trustees of the Shwe Dagon Pagoda say, never reached, the Pagoda, having been dropped in the stream near Rangoon, known as the Pazundaung creek. It may, however, be there nevertheless, as the second large bell in the North East corner of the Pagoda platform was the great bell of the war of 1824 and was then estimated to weigh 18,000 lbs. or about eight tons. (See Lawrie, Second Burmese War, p. 126).
"There is a valuable note on the two great bells in Bigandet's Life of Gaudamu, Oriental Series Edition, volume I, p. 74. The Bishop makes the weight of the Mahaghanta to be 94,682 pounds plus 25 per cent. to be added for copper, gold and silver thrown into the mould by the devout during the process of casting. This gives us two weights of about 42 tons and 50 tons respectively. The Bishop also says that the Myingun bell is supposed to exceed 200,000 lbs. in weight, i.e., more than 89 tons. The measurements he gives of the two bells [at Rangoon] show that his statement of 42 tons for the weight of the Mahaghanta must be nearer the truth than the usual 25 tons. Other references to the subject will be found in Yule's Ava, p. 171; Strettell's Ficus Elastica, p. 48; Malcolm's Travels, II, 247."
Our correspondent, commenting on the hopelessness of collecting local historical information accurately, says: "I may mention that my attempts at finding out the history of the lost bell above-mentioned have resulted in these astounding statements: In 1468 Dhammacheti had the bell cast at the Pagoda itself, but before he could put it up, Maung Zinga (Philippe de Brito) removed it in a steamer (sic) when it got lost in the Pazundaung Creek.' But Dhammacheti flourished 1460-1491 A.D. and Maung Zinga was in Burma 1600-1613
A.D."