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SEPTEMBER, 1894.]
MISCELLANEA.
257
the first century after Christ, when the latter was To convert the present Sakkarij into years a seaport, and that Indian influence was predo. A. D., it is simply necessary to add 638; thus minant in the Irrawaddy Valley.
1255 + 638 = 1893. The year 1893 A. D. = the But the Burmese and Indo-Chinese gene
year 1255 B E. (Burmese Era). According to rally reckon, and have for centuries reckoned,
the Burmans the number 1255 is arrived at
thus:the Sakkaraj from 838 A.D., adding, as they say, 622+560 to the Anno Buddha to arrive at
1255 years Sakkarij. it. That is, to convert a year Anno Buddhæ into
560 years Dodôrasa. a year Sakkaraj, the numbers 622 and 560 must be
622 years A. B. added to the former. How the number 622 was
2+37 the present year A. B. arrived at, we have already seen, and the next
Subtract 1893 (years A. D.) from 2437 (years A.B.), puzzle is to find out why 500 has also to be
and 544 B. O. is arrived at as the commencement added.
of the Era of Religion. Bosides the name Sakkaraj, or Detkayit,
It will, however, be perceived that there the name Khachhapancha is applied to the is nothing Indian about the Sakkarai of the Ers which commences with 638 A. D., and modern Burmese, except its name and the the Burmese records are, so far as I know, silent traditions connected with it. as to the reasons for its introduction. For the
(10) Anuruddha or Andrat'Azd. matter of that they are silent as to the causes that led to the adoption of the Saka era of 78
Anuruddha and its Burmanized forms, And. A. D.
rat'a and Andrat'Azd, are the names of the
hero-king who reigned at Pagàn about the But there is evidence to show that the new
beginning of the eleventh century A. D. Sakkaraj, or Era of 838 A.D., is of Chinese
His conquest of Thaton in 1067 A. D., is origin. Forbes, Languages of Further India,
thus described by Phayre, History of Burma, p. 26 f., talks of the "singular fact that all the
page 37:-"The king now desired to possess the nations of Ultra-India, although deriving their
Buddhist Scriptures, the Tripitaka. He knew that religion, their civilization and their literature
those precious volumes existed at Thahtun from India, have not adopted any of the Indian
(Thatôn). He sent an ambassador of high rank Eras, but have borrowed from China." He then
to Manula, the king of that city, to ask for a goes on to quote from Garnier:
copy of the holy books. The king answered "Les relations établies par les Thang avec les haughtily that he would give nothing. Anoacontrées du midi avaient propagé sans aucun doute rahta (Anòrata), with a sudden fierceness, alto. les connaisances astronomiques et le calendrier gether opposed to the spirit of the religion which Chinois, et c'est là peut-être l'origine de l'ère qui est he had embraced, determined to punish what he aujourd'hui la seule employée à Siam (Cambodge), meeded an affront. He collected a large army au Laos, et en Birmanie, et qui commence à l'an and went down the Iri wadi. The king of Thah638. Cassini a démontré en effet que le point de tun had no means of meeting the invader in the départ de cette ère était purement astronomique. field, but the city was well defended by a wall. Le 21 Mars 638 la nouvelle lune coïncida avec After a long siege the citizens were reduced by l'entrée du soleil dans le premier signe du zodi- famine and the city was surrendered. King aque et produisit une eclipse importante."
Manuha, his wives and children, were carried As to the travels of the Era from China to
away captive to Pugân. The city was utterly Burma, they can be accounted for thug. The
destroyed. Nobles ind artificers, holy relics and Annamese, who became subject to China as sacred books, golden images and treasures of all long ago as the year 221 B. C. under the Emperor
kinds were carried off; and from that time the Hwangti, passed it on to their neighbours, the
country of Pegu became for more than two Cambodians, whose empire extended in the
centuries subject to Burma. As a fit sequence carly centuries of the Christian era, prior to their
to such a war the unhappy Manuha, his whole conquest by the Siamese (1351-1374 A. D.), as far family, and the high-born captives were thrust as the shores of the Gulf of Martaban. Traces down to the lowest depth of woe by being made of their influence and civilization are still to be pagoda slaves." found in the painting, sculpture and architecture During the three centuries that preceded the of Burma.
accession of Anòrat'a, Buddhism was expelled [But noo ante, Vol. XXII. p. 358 f., to the travels of Dipankara in Lower Burma in the tenth century A. D. -- ED.)
