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THE ALPHABET
Chakma Character
It may be worth mentioning that the Khmer character has been adopted for Chakma, a south-eastern dialect of Bengali (see p. 365), spoken by about 20,000 people in the Chittagong Hill Tracts, Bengal. According to Sir George A. Grierson, the Chakma dialect "has undergone so much
408
50.50
၂. ဘ၁ သည် သ 60 Hd. 00. tu dois
Fig. 186-Specimen of Chakma writing
transformation that it is almost worthy of the dignity of being classed as separate language."
The Chakma character is particularly cursive (Fig. 186). Another peculiarity of this script is that the vowel inherent in each consonant is not a short a, as in other Indian scripts, but a long a.
Burma
The new republic of Burma, having an area of over 260,000 sq. miles, and a population of about 15 millions, is a melting pot of numerous peoples belonging to different races and linguistic groups. Its languages and dialects, which are said to number about a hundred, are classified under the three important families, the Tibeto-Chinese, including Burmese, the Austro-Asiatic, including the MonKhmer languages, and the Malayo-Polynesian.
Burma is one of the richest countries of Indo-China in epigraphic material. The three principal centres are Pagan, Pegu and Prome. The earliest documents have been found in Prome; two of them are written in Pali and contain passages from the Buddhist canon; the others are very short and are written in Pyu.
Nearly 20 years ago, Charles Duroiselle discovered at Pagan many Buddhist terra-cotta votive tablets inscribed in Sanskrit, Pali, Pyu, Mon and Burmese. Some of the Sanskrit tablets are in Nagari character of the eleventh century A.D.
The Mons
Burmese true history begins about A.D. 1000. When the ancestors of the modern Burmans came to the Irrawaddy basin, they found the people whom they call Talaings well established in southern Burma, that is in the delta lands and along the coasts. The Talaings are generally known by their indigenous term Mon.
The Mons were the earliest civilized race of Burma. Their language belongs to the Mon-Khmer group (see above). In early times, their power extended from Prome in the north to Ligor and Johor in the south.
