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378
THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY.
(DECEMBER, 1892.
There are now few persons, who can read and understand these manuscripts; but, whenever they shall have been interpreted by a trained scholar, they will throw a flood of light on Talaing history, and on the history of learned, religious, and comme cial relations between Ramaññadéśa, Ceylon, and Southern India. They will also solve certain questions connected with Papi and Sanskrit philology and literature.
Owing to want of time only two caves, namely, the Kògun and Pagat, could be visited. The former presents a splendid sight. Its precipitous side facing the Kògun village is completely covered by painted terra cotta tablets arranged symmetrically in the form of terraces and spires. Inside the cave are lying images of various sizes in different stages of decay and ruin. They are found to be made of the following substances : lead, brass, wood, stone, brick, and lacquerware. The majority of them bespeak their antiquity, as they differ from modern ones in the following particulars the head is surmounted by a spiral truncated cone cepresenting the Buddhist nimbus ; the bristles of the hair are represented; the ears do not touch the shoulders; the forehead is prominent, but remarkably narrow; the eyebrows, eyes, and lips are the most prominent features of the face; the body is short and stort and the head is disproportionately big; the limbs are full and large; the sole of the right foot is not displayed.
No history is known to exist about the caves of this neighbourhood ; nor is there any person, layman or priest, who can relate anything historically true about them. But, judging from the fact that Ramaññadesa was subject to Cambodian rule from the 6th to the 10th century A. D., and again to Siamese rale in the 14th century, it may be safely inferred that most of the images are of Cambodian or Siamese origin. The general architectural effect of the cave, and the resemblance of these images to those of Siam, favour this view. A closer examination in detail, however, might reveal the fact that some of the images were dedicated to Brahmanical worship, which was favoured by the ancient Kings of Cambodia, that others are of Sinhalese or Dravidian origin, and that there is some relationship, historical, religious, and architectural, between the caves in the Amherst district and the cave temples of Cambodia and India. I brought away three small wooden images with legends, now illegible, but conjectured to be in the Siamese characters inscribed on their pedestals. (See plate.)
The Pagàt Cave was next visited. It contains nothing of interest. It is now the home of bats, whose dung yields an annua. revenue of Rs. 600. It would appear that the contents of this cave have been made away with in order to make room for the more valuable dung!
Near this cave is a monastery, now occupied by a priest from Upper Burma. Since the annexation of that province to the British Crown, numbers of Buddhist priests from it have settled down in this district. Owing to their reputed learning and their conversational powers, they are highly esteemed and are abundantly supplied with the necessaries of life. The Talaing priests are, as a rule, somewhat lax in their observance of strict precepte : e. 9., they are possessed of boats and landed estates, drive about in bullock-carts, drink tes in the evenings, and smoke cigars in public! Such conduct is now being followed by the priests from Upper Burma, who appear to be imbued with the truth of the proverb: "At Rome, do as Rome does." The burden of supporting the priests, who do very little in return for their maintenance, and who idle away most of their time, because the educational work is better and more efficiently done by the lay schools, is in the Talaing Conntry indeed a heavy one. On an average about 100 houses support a kyaung, and every village that has any pretence to piety must have a loyaung of its own. The standard of material cozofort of the villagers,
this effect to His Siamese Majesty. The late Dr. Forchhammer succeeded in proouring number of ancient Talaing manuscripts from the caves in the neighbourhood of Pågåt. I understand some of them, if not all, are now lying in the Bernard Free Library. [The Chief Commissioner, Barmah, has addressed the British Constal at Bangkok on the subject.-ED.]
