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142
THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY.
[MAY, 1896.
tank, "'13 stands midway between Sanskrit pushka- It is somewhat doubtful whether this request rini and PAli pokkharanf. The two names Datihad its foundation on Buddhistic or animistic and Nora have a foreign look. With the ideas; but it is probably to be referred to the termination of the masc. genitive Datia compare latter, as ordinary Burmese criminals, when Haganardia, Uggahiniya and Nandiya from the executed within the walls of a jail, are frequently Kushana inscriptions.14
anxious that, after death, their souls may be The dedication of a tank for the worship
allowed free egress beyond the Jail walls. In the of all snakes will cause no surprise to those
present case, there was, of course, no difficulty in acquainted with North-Western India, where, e.g.
assuring the condemned men that the warrants of in Kashmir, every big spring is called a ndga, and
transportation against them would be cancelled
after their deaths. every small one a nágin', and where every lake
II. has its tutelary ndga. For instance, the Vullar
A well-known Burmese Head Constable, named Lake or Ullola is considered to be the residence
Thankkyk, died recently at a place called Sale in of the Serpent Padma. In Kashmir there are also
the Myingyàn District, and shortly after his instances, in which artificial tanks or ponds were
death complaints began to be made by the con. dedicated to particular Nagas. Thus Bilhana says
stables at the police station there that his ghost in his Vikramdükadevacharita, XVIII. 70:
was causing them much annoyance by haunting "At a distance of one and a half Gaus from the place. They said that the only way in which Pravarapura lies a place with high-rising monu- this could be stopped was to put up a notice ments, called Jayavana, where the pool(kunda) of in the police station informing Thaukkyå that Takshaka, lord of snakes, filled with pure water, he was dismissed from the force, and so urgent resembles a war-disc, intended to cut the head of were their complaints that the European Kali who is bent on the destruction of Dharma." Assistant Superintendent of Police actually stuck
In 1876 the pool of Takshak was still known up a notice to this effect. at Zevan-Jayavana, though its round stone-wall When asked how they knew that Thaukkyå had disappeared. The close connexion of the was haunting the place, they replied that he consnake-worship with Buddhism is well known and stantly appeared to them in dreams. explains it how a Thera came to dedicate a tank As is well known, the Burmese have the usual or pond to this minor race of divine beings.
half-civilised ideas as to the actuality of dream
GEORGE BÜHLER. incidents and persons. Indeed, a constable at February 21st, 1896.
the police station at Singú, not far from Sale,
where a Buddhist priest wanted by the police bad NOTES ON BURMESE FOLK-LORE. lately committed suicide, was geen to jump up The following facts, which have recently come from his sleep, seize a sword and rush violently under my notice, will be of some interest to round the station house. He explained to a anthropologists :
European, who happened to be present, that the
deceased priest had just appeared to him, and as A famous dacoit chief, Bộ Chô, and his two
he had done so twice before he was determined sons, were recently tried and sentenced to death
not to stand the annoyance any longer. for murder, as well as to transportation for vari- The above incidents illustrate the origin of ous terms on different charges of dacoity. On the belief in ghosts from dreams. appeal to the Judicial Commissioner of Upper It appears also that the influence that Thauk. Burma, the sentences of death were confirmed,
ky& exerted during his life is believed to be posand by the special order of the Chief Commissioner, Bened by his ghost. At any rute, on a report of Burma, they were carried out publicly at a place a large theft of money, (Rs. 600), being lately made called Ngabayauk in the Myingyản District, to his successor, another Barman, the latter on (Upper Burma). The dying request of the con his way to the scene of the occurrence besought demned men, about which they were obviously Thaukkyå earnestly, (inmadan shikode), to shew very anxious, was that, after their death, the sen. him how to detect the case. As he was successful tences of transportation on them might be in getting back all the money and in proving the remitted.
case to be a false one, it is not unlikely that 15 Compare also the form pushkarant in the Matburs 16 Kashmir Report, p. 6. inscription of the time of Sodasa, Cunningham, Arch. 1 Since writing this I have heard, on excellent authority, Surv. Rep. III. PL. 18, No. 1.
of two very similar cases which occurred recently, one in 14 Epigraphia Indica, II. p. 197.
the Meiktila, and the other in the Tharrawaddy District.
I.
