Indian Antiquary Vol 42

Author(s): Richard Carnac Temple, Devadatta Ramkrishna Bhandarkar
Publisher: Swati Publications

Page 42

38
THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY
THE PEREGRINATIONS OF INDIAN BUDDHISTS IN BURMA AND IN THE SUNDA ISLANDS.
[FEBRUARY, 1913,
BY PROFESSOR DOCTOR E. MULLER-HESS OF BERN. Translated from the German by
G. K. NARIMAN, RANGOON,
THE sources, which are at our command for the ancient history of Burma, are the holy scriptures of southern Buddhists composed in Pali. These were written in India and touch on the history of further India and Burma only cursorily and as a disgression. Besides they cannot claim implicit reliance; but implicit reliance cannot at all be placed in Oriental annalists since a simple straight narrative without ornamentation of their own imagining has been always foreign to them.
According to the concordant testimony of all the histories, the Burmans came from the Ganges Valley and their kings were relatives to the Princes of Kosala and Kapilavastu. Of this tradition only this much is true, namely, that the Burmans emigrated no doubt, from the north and possibly in the course of their migration touched the valley of the Ganges. But there can be no possibility about their being related to the Aryans of India: that would be in conflict with their racial peculiarities as well as their language, which, no doubt, belongs to the monosyllabic grap. The whole theory of the descent of the Burmans from India was first invented, after the co.version of the country to Buddhism, by court historians, who thereby flattered the reigning kings, inventing for them a kinship with the clan from which the Buddha had sprung.
In another instance the Burmese tradition comes in contact with the history of India, namely, as regards prince Dasaratha. He, too, was a descendant of the Sakya dynasty of Kapilavastu to which Gotama belonged, and wandered after renouncing the throne eastwards to Burma, where he founded the so called second Tagaung Dynasty.
From these repeated attempts of the historians to connect the history of Burma with that of India and especially with Kapilavastu, it follows that at an early date a regular intercourse must have been established between the two countries. Thus, we read in the sacred books of merchants from Ukkalâ or Suvarnabhumi (these are the ancient names of Burma) who carried on business in Central India. Two of these merchants came in direct contact with the Buddha himself, as is reported to us in one of the oldest texts. (Mahdvagga, Book 1, Chapter 4.) The account is naturally somewhat fantastically embellished, still I assume with certainty that a historical kernel underlies it. It is stated there that the Tathagatas was seated at the foot of the Rajayatana tree sunk in deep meditation, when there came up to him two men named Tapussa and Bhallika from Ukkala bringing to the Buddha rice cakes and honey, offering the same to him as a present from themselves. The Buddha thought that "the Tathagata do not take any food in their hands; how then shall I receive these rice cakes and honey?" Upon this the four Mahârâjas of the four directions produced before him four stone utensils, in which the Buddha received the offered rice cakes and honey. These two merchants thus became the first lay disciples of the Buddha. This account in the Mahdvagga is confirmed by the inscription on the Shwe Dagon Pagoda at Rangoon, which dates from the year 1485 during the reign of king Dhammacheti. This king sent out eleven monks to Ceylon to enable them to receive their Upasampadû consecration at the celebrated Mahâvihara, since their own ordination had become null, as they had not observed the prescriptions of the Vinaya. The pagoda of Shwe Dagon itself is said to have been built in the life time of Gotams; though, of course, this is mere legend. The inscription repeats the account as given in the Mahdvagga and adds that both the merchants received eight hairs from Gotama, which they took back to their country and enshrined in their pagoda on the summit of the Tamagatta Mount, east of the city of Asitanjanagara.