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180
THE INDIAN ANTIQUABY.
[AUGUST, 1905.
ASOKA'S ALLEGED MISSION TO PEGU (SUVANNABHUMI).
. BY VINCENT A. SMITE, M.A., 1.0.8. (RITD.). Ix recent publication I ventared to express doubts concerning the reality of the Buddhist Mission alleged to have been despetohed by Aboka to Pegu (Suvannabhami), which had been accepted by me without question some years ago. I desire to explain the reasons for scepticism on the subject in this article more fully than was possible in the work alluded to I assume that Colonel Gerini, who has made a special study of Indo-Chinese and Malay geography, is right in identifying Savannabhami with the shores of the Gulf of Martaban;' that is to say, with territory which may be described as that surrounding the towns of Pegu and Moulmein, or as comprehending the deltas and lower courses of the Irrawaddy, Sittang, and Salween. This identification is supported by the Kalykşi inscriptions, as well as by Burmese tradition, and is accepted by Sir R. Temple and Mr. Taw Sein-Ko.
The belief, current universally in Burma, and held by many European authorities on Buddhism, that the religion of Gautama in its southern, or nearly primitive, form was introduced into Suvaņņabhůmi daring the third century B. O. by Asoka's missionaries, rests primarily on the authority of the Dipavashsa, a Ceylonese chronicle, probably compiled during the fourth centary A. D.,) and is consequently of respectable antiquity. It will be convenient to repeat the list of foreign missions as given by the obroniolers :Country
Missionaries. 1. Kasmir and Gandhira (Yusufzł) ... ... Majjhantika, 2. Mahisamagdala (Maisar) ... ... ... Mahadera. 3. Vanavisi (North Kannara) ...
.. Rakkhita. 4. Aparantaka (const north of Bombay) Yöna-Dhammarakkbita. 5. Maharagha (West Central India) ... Mahadhammarakkhita. 6. Yona region (N.-W. Frontier). ... ... Mabarakkhita. 7. Himaranta (the Himalayan region) ... Majjhima Kasteps, be. 8. Suvannabhomi (Pega and Moulmein) ... Bons and Uttara. 9. Lanka (Ceylon) ... ... ... ... Mahinda (Mahendra), &c.
The credibility of this list, which at first sight looks suspicious, does not rest solely upon the authority of the island chronioles. The fact of Mahinda's mission to Ceylon is firmly established by the concurrent testimony of northern and southern tradition, which is adequately supported by that of .be Ceylonese monuments. Whether the princely missioner was a son or
brother of Abôks, is a detail which does not affect the main fact. The reality of the conversion of Kasmir by Majjhantiks is attested by Tibetan tradition as recorded in the Dulva ; * and, as is wellknown, the inscriptions on the SAñchi caskets expressly affirm that Majjhima was the apostle of the Himalayan region, and mention contemporary named Kassapa, who may be assumed fairly to be the collongue of Majjhima named by the Ceylonese writers.
1 Asoka (1901). p. 55: Early History of India (1904), p. 168.
J.R.A.B., 1904, p. 217. Buvappabbami inoluded the towns of Pegu and Thaton, the latter of which lies about forty miles nearly due north from Moulmein and corresponded approximately with the ancient Talaing kingdom of Ramafitadela (ante, Vol. XXL (1892), pp. 880, 888). Prof. Rhys Davids seems to give ar undue extension to the name when he ways that "perhaps the Malay Peninsula ia mennt, whioh the olacoal geographers (tosto Lanson, IL. 949) call the Golden. More probably the whole count from Rangoon to Singapore, which is still so called in Ceylon" (Buddhism, 8. P. C. K., latest ed., p. 27 note).
The whole of the Mahdvanhaa, which repeats the tale, soome to be considerably later in data. • Rookbill, Life of the Buddha, p. 107.
Cunningham, BMiles Topos, PP. 287, 289, 317.
