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APRIL, 1894.]
MISCELLANEA.
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gious, and intellectual life to centre at the Bur people, the direct outcome of the ruthless and mese capital (at that time Pagàn), as is always the vandalic wars, to which their country was case in the East, and had accustomed Talaing spasmodicnlly subjected. priests, like Dhammavillea, from the maritime In common with other Talaing priests of the provinces to repair to it for the completion of
period, Ramadhipati, whose priestly name was their education. Until Dhammacheti came to
Dhammadhara, accompanied by his fellow-pupil. the throne in 1469 A. D., the mental energies of
Dhammañana, who was subsequently known as the lower country appear to have been spent in
Dhammapala, proceeded to Avà in his sixteenth squabbles and profitless religious controversies.
1 year (1492 A. D.) and received his instruction Hence there were no great writers or renowned
under Åriyadhajathéra, a learned priest of teachers in the Talaing Kingdom, at whose foet
Sagaing. scholars could receive their instruction.
A few years previous to this, consequent on the The literature cultivated at that period was not only that of Pali and Sanskrit, but
death of the great Talaing monarch, Y Azadarit
(Rajadhiraja), the kingdom of Pegu had been also that of the Burmese. The exquisite,
convulsed by civil wir's. The succession of Byin. highly refined, and inimitable poetry of Sila.
nya Dhanamarija, the eldest son of the deceased Vass and Ratthasara, the great epic poets
king, was disputed by his younger brothers, of Burma, who flourished in the latter half
Byinnyùyàn and Byinnyakaing, who sought the of the 15th century, and whose works are mentioned at page 66 of Forchhammer's Jardine
assistance of Dihàba (Bihasara), King of Ava. Prize Essay, does not appear to corroborate that
It was during the second expedition of this Bur. writer's statement made at page 28 of the same
mese King that Byinnyàyàn gave his sister, Shiu work:--"A critical study of the Burmese literature
Sòba, in marriage to him, as a pledge of his good evolves the fact that the Burmese idiom reached
faith. Shin soba, who was a widow and the stage of a translatory language at the close of
mother of three children, accompanied her the 15th century, and that of an independent lite.
husband to Avà (1495 A. D.), and there made rary tongue not much more than a century ago."
the acquaintance of Dhammadhara and Dham. This learned scholar was apparently misled by the mañana, whose intelligence and nationality statement of Native writers, who, in their biogra
induced her to become their supporter. After the phical notices of their literary countrymen, gene.
death of Dihabû, Shin Sòbd was not satisfied with rally accord the first places to the two great poets
her life in the palace. The intrigues, political named above. But the wealth of imagery and
convulsions, and rapid changes of kings, brought allusion, the pure diction, and the terse, logical,
about through the instrumentality of her rival, and masterly style of composition, evinced by the Sòbume, appear to have bewildered her and made works referred to, afford strong and unassail
her feel that her position was precarious in the able internal evidence as to the Burmese idiom
extreme. She, therefore, longed to be once more having passed beyond the "stage of a translatory
in her native land, and secured the assistance of language at the close of the 15th century."
the two Talaing priests, Dhammadhara and Dham. Besides, the Tet'nwègyaung Inscription at
mañApa, in the prosecution of her object. Amidst Pagàn, dated 804 B. E. (1442 A. D.), that is to
much danger and under great difficulties, the say, eleven years before the birth of Silavamsa,
party left Avà in a country boat and arrived safely affords corroborative evidence of the high literary
at Pegu in 1429 A. D., where Byinnyàyàn had culture of the Burmese vernacular, in that a por
become king under the title of Byinnyàyànk'aik. tion of it is written in faultless Burmese metre,
Twenty-six years later, in the absence of male which has served as the model of later writers.
heirs of Y&z&darit, Shin Soba became sovereign The list, mentioned in it, of works belonging
of Pegu by popular choice under the title of to the Buddhist Canon, of commentaries and
Byinnyà To. scholia, of medical, astrological, grammatical, and Dhammadhara and Dhammažana were well poetical works translated from Sanskrit, provided for, in token of the Queen's appreciation shews also the keen literary activity of the Bur. and gratitude for the services rendered by them mans of that period. The divergence between during her flight to Pegu. Subsequently the for. the actual fact and the statements of local writers mer, who was a native of Martaban, of obscure may be reconciled by ascribing the cause to the parentage, and was then known as the Lokunreliable historical memory of the Burmese pyingyaung-pongyi, but who had unfrocked
TA son and two daughters. The son, Byinnyà Tara, Byinnyaen, Governor of Bassein, and the younger to succeeded his unclo and adoptive father, Byinnykyan- Dhammachett. k'aik, in 1446 A.D. The elder daughter was married to
