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MAY, 1808.)
CUBRENOY AND OOIKAGJ AXONG THE BURMESA.
117
First, we read on the obverse face of the second stone (ante, Vol. XXII. p. 40) that Dhammacheti gave the Holy Tooth Relio at Kandy in Ceylon: -
(1) A stone alms-bowl - having for its cover & pyramidal covering made of gold,
weighing 50 phalas. (2) An alma-bowl with stand and over complete made of gold, weighing
30 phalas. (3) A duodeoagonal betel-box made of gold, weighing 80 phalas.
(4) A gold relic-receptacle, weighing 88 phalas. Further on (p. 41) we read :-“The following articles were prepared for presentation to King Bhuvan@kabahu, King of Sthaladfpa: "
(5) Two sapphires valued at 200 phalas of silver.
(6) Two rubios valued at 480 phalas. Again (p. 41): "200 phalas of gold* were given to the emissaries for the purpose of providing the 22 thêras and their disciples with the four requisites," should any mishap, such as scarcity of food, arise."
Clearly, then, the phala was a Troy weight at that period in the estimation of the Burmese monks.
Later on, again, on the reverse face of the same stone (p. 45) we read about the gift of Dhammachêti to the Shwedagôn Pagoda at Bangoon of "& large bell made of br. weighing 8,000 tulas."37 Here we have an Avoirdupois weight.
Lastly, the return gift (p. 45) of the Siühalese King "included a religious gift in the shape of an image of the Holy Tooth Relic, embellished with a topaz and a diamond, valued at 100 phalas."
The difficulty of course is to get at direct evidence of the weight of the phala and tuld of that period. The only evidence from Burmese documents that I have come across so far, though it indicates the sources from which such information should be forthcoming, is Taw Sein Ko's Ed. of the Mahajanaka Jataka, 1889, p. 92, where occurs the following passage:" And lastly he boliloqdised on the gold salver out of which he ate lead dhani satabalanh kamasah, meaning, “This my gold salver, from which I eat my soft and solid food, is made of pure gold, and it weighs 100 pos" and so on.
Now, this edition of the Mahájanaka Jataka is taken from the Burmese translation thereof by U Awbathe (Obhasa), the head of the Minbu Monasteries in 1785,28 and to the above passage that learned monk appends a note, thus rendered by Taw Sein Ko: - "The po is of four different kinds : it may weigh 8, 26, 30 or 100 tickals.30 Of these four, the second weight, viz., 25 might be adopted, judging from the term of life extending to 10,000 years, allotted to the persons of the story."
We have here, at any rate, the views of a Barmese authority of the last Century on the po, i. e., the bo(1) or phala, and its value.
At p. 116 we come across this salver again :-There you exchanged your costly garments and your golden salver weighing 100 pos for this poor ascetic garb and this poor earthenware alms-bowl."
Value about £2,190, according to the ealoulations made later on. * There misprinted tólar,
* Bigandet, Gaudama, Ed. 1880, Vol. II. pp. 167-76, gives an abstract of this Jataka under the name of Dra. necka, but unfortunately says nothing in it about the salver.
The Burmese monk had even Indian authority for such a statement, wide Colebrooke's Emaye, Yol. II. p. 681, who mys" nishka, synonymous with pala, consists of five suvarno. According to some authorities, it is also denomination for the quantity of 150 nwarnan," Colebrooke also says. loc. cit., "108 varias or tolakas of gold constitute an urubhushana, pala or dinara."
