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DECEMBER, 1892.]
ARCHEOLOGICAL TOUR THROUGH RAMANNADESA. 389
The Kêlêsa Hill abounds in plants used in Burmese medicine. The plant, called maukk'adò, is employed as an antidote against snake-poison, and another, called 'wégaungzawet, is used in curing hydrophobia.
On the same day, the village of Ayetbèmè, which is four miles off, was visited. It is the ancient Taikkula and the Gólamattikanagara of the Kalyani Inscriptions. Dr. Forchhammer in his Notes on the Early History and Geography of British Burma, II. page 7, says: "Though the seashore is now about twelve miles"" to the west, this place was still an impor tant seaport in the 16th and 17th centuries; it is marked on the map of Professor Lassen as Takkala, but erroneously placed a few miles north of Tavoy. Cables, ropes, and other vestiges of sea-going vessels are still frequently dug up about Taikkula."""
As to Gôlamattikanagara (for Gôla read Skr. Gauda), if the evidence afforded by the Kalyani Inscriptions can be relied on, the settlement in Suvannabhumi was apparently colonized from Bengal during one of the struggles for supremacy between Buddhism and Brahmanism and possibly Jainism also." At the conclusion of the third Buddhist Council it was remembered by the mother-country, and missionaries were sent to it in order to re-establish community of faith.
There used to be a Talaing inscription near Ayetbèmà, but it was removed to the Phayre Museum at Rangoon about eight years ago. Traces of a wall and moat still exist, and fragments of pottery and of glazed tiles are found in the neighbourhood.
Pegu was reached on the night of the 3rd January. Extensive ruins are extant on the east and west face of the town. The ruins at Zaingganaing, on the west side, comprise those of Kalyanisima, Mahachêti, Yabêmyo, Kyaikpun," and Shwêgügyi. There are ten inscriptions at Kalyanisima, one at Yabêmyo and twenty-two at Shwêgügyi. Between Kalyanîsimâ and Mahâchêtî is an enormous image of Gautama Buddha in a recumbent posture, measuring about 181 feet in length. Treasure-hunters have been hard at work among these ruins, and I am told that their acts of vandalism are countenanced both by the pongyis and the native officials, who expect a share in the "finds." Most of the stone inscriptions have been broken by treasure-hunters, or by pagoda slaves, who were anxious to obliterate the record of their origin. In some cases, the names of persons dedicated as pagoda slaves have been carefully chiselled out.""
Pegu is the Thebaid of Ramaññadėsa, as Pagan is of Burma Proper, and its ruins have great claim to a detailed archeological survey. The Kalyanisima is the most interesting of all. (See plate No. 1.) It is an ancient Hall of Ordination, to which Buddhist priests from all parts of Barma, and even from Ceylon and Siam, used to flock to receive their upasampadá ordination. Close by are ten stone-slabs covered with inscriptions on both sides. All of them are more or less broken, but the fragments, which are lying scattered about are
Of late, the sea has been encroaching on the land. At the time of my visit, the sites of many villages, which derived their wealth and prosperity from the rice trade, were under water.
The subject of the identification of this place with the Takôla of Ptolemy and the Kalah of Arabian Geographers is discussed, op. cit., at pages 12-16, and at pages 198 and 199 of McCrindle's Ancient India described by Ptolemy.
35 The Kalyan! Inscriptions (1476 A. D), obverse of first stone, say "this town is called to this day Goļamatikanagara, because it contains many mud and wattle houses resembling those of the Gôla people."
Four colossal images of Buddha sitting cross-legged, back to back, and facing the cardinal points. The height of each image is about 90 feet; the thumb measures 8 feet, the arm from the inner elbow-joint to the tip of the middle finger 33 feet, the distance from knee to knee 62 feet. The images represent the four Buddhas, who have appeared in this Kalpa, namely, Kakusandha, Konagamana, Kassapa, and Gautama. Similar images are found at Pagan, the prototype being probably those of Angkor Thom. [These peculiar images are clearly Cambodian, and form a tower of the ordinary Cambodian type. Terra cotta tablets, much mutilated unfortunately, found in the neighbourhood clearly represent Cambodian figures, such as are common in Pnom-Penh.-ED.]
[A common and unfortunate practice all over Burma.-ED.]
