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FOLKLORE IN BURMA.
SEPTEMBER, 1889.]
Chakravartin Jayasimha (III.) (1. 13). And she has practised the religious observances prescribed by the rituals of Jina (1. 18), Baddha, Ananta (Vishnu), and Rudra ('Siva).
While she, the glorious Akkadevi, is governing the Kisukaḍ Seventy (1. 28) with the delight of pleasing conversations ;-(At) the Uttarayana-Samkranti (1. 31) of the Dundubhi samvatsara, which is the 944th (year in) the centuries of years that have gone by from the time of the Saka king (1. 29); and (at) a vyatipata (1. 31); on Sunday, in the absence of her elder brother the glorious Tribhuvanamalla-Vikramadityadeva (V.) (1. 32), she with reverence allotted the Pêrûr agrahara (1. 33) as a sarvanamasya-grant, and caused to be made there a hall of the Traipurushas (1. 34), the Five-hundred Elders23 of which, for the purpose of feeding and clothing students, gave (one) mattar of land, and two mattars out of the flower-garden, consisting of fifty (mattars), belonging to the five-hundred houses at Pêrür (1.35).
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The Four-hundred Mahajanas of Pêrûr (1. 38) shall preserve this grant, as long as the ocean and the mountains endure. And seeing, and honouring, the excellence of this pious act of the Five-hundred (1. 40), Manneya-Chatta, the ornament of the Pânḍuvamsa (1. 41), gave a manneya-grant, to endure as long as the sun.
The inscription ends with four of the customary Sanskrit, benedictive and imprecatory verses, in lines 42 to 51.
FOLKLORE IN BURMA.1
BY TAW SEIN KO.
No. 1.-Maung Pauk Kyaing, or the Dull Boy who became a King.
In former times at Tetkatho3 there were congregated, for their education, sons of Mins, Ponnas, Thatês and Thagywès, from all parts of Zabudeik. Among them was Maung Pauk Kyaing, a young man of obscure birth, who, despite his long residence at the schools, was found to have made no progress whatever in his studies. His restless energy, his superior physical strength, and his aversion to books, convinced those who came in contact with him that his sphere lay not in secluded cells and cloisters, but in the wide work-a-day world. His preceptor, therefore, taught him the following three formulae and enjoined on him to make good use of them as occasion required :
(1) Thud bá myá o hkayio yauk:-Distance is gained by travel;
(2) Mé bá myd 8 sagd: ya:-Information by inquiry;
(3) Ma eik ma né athet shé :-And long life by wakefulness.
Maung Pauk Kyaing bade his preceptor good-bye and started for his home. Arrived there he could find no congenial occupation for his restless spirit, so he resolved to leave his country and carve out a fortune for himself.
partkahamh; see the introductory remarks.
23 mani seems to be a corruption of the Sanskrit minya, respectable, venerable;' and the present meaning is doubtless to be given to it in also the Aihole inscription, ante, Vol. IX., p. 74, No. 63.
This passage seems to give the average size of the village at that time; and to indicate the proper meaning of such expressions as "the Sixty Cultivators," "the Ugura Three-hundred," and the Five-hundred-and-four," which occur, for instance, in Jour. Bo. Br. R. As. Soc. Vol. XII. pp. 21, 22, 23. The point, however, requires
further consideration.
The transliteration, or rather the method of rendering Burmese sounds,-for strict transliteration is impossible,adopted, is that usually used officially in Burma, so that those acquainted with the Burmese language may at once know how the words are spelt in the original. Pronounce ei as short e, aw as in awful; è as ai in air; th as in English, i. e., as in the or thing according to context. In aspirated consonants h is placed before the letter, thus ht, hp, hs, though it is pronounced after the consonant as usual; but in the case of aspirated semi-vowels and nasals, it is pronounced before the consonant, thus hi, hm, hn, and so on. Other sounds are pronounced as is usual in the Hunterian system. The heavy accent of Burmese is rendered here by a mark resembling the English colon, after the letter affected; and the light staccato ascent by under the letter affected.
3 Maung Pauk Kyaing is a well-known character in legendary Burmese history, as Thadonagansing. He was the ninth of the 2nd dynasty of Sakya Kings supposed to have reigned at Tagaung.
Tetkatho Takshasila (Skr.) Taxila (Greek), near Rawal Pindi in the Pañjab.
Mins, Ponnas, Thates, and Thagywès Kshatriyas, Brahmans, and Vaidyas: Thates and Thagywès being classed under the third caste. Observe the precedence accorded to the warrior-caste, to which Gautama Buddha belonged.
Zabudaik Jambudvipa, the southern continent in the cosmogony of the Buddhists.
