Indian Antiquary Vol 52

Author(s): Richard Carnac Temple, Stephen Meredyth Edwardes, Krishnaswami Aiyangar
Publisher: Swati Publications

Page 150

134
THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY
[JUNE, 1923
Scott. My own impression is that on a critical examination of all the authorities, they will turn out to be Shâns. The King of Pegu, whom the early Portuguese met, was by acquired nationality a Talaing, but by descent a Gwê Shân, which fact makes one think. Some have thought the Gueos to be Kachins, i.e., of Tibeto-Burman race. Others that they were Karens, others again, e.g., so great an authority as Sir George Scott, that they were Wâs, i.e., a branch of the Môn Race, as are the Talaings themselves, whereas Shâns and Siamese make up a race of their own. Then there are the Giaos or Giaochis, again a 'Chinese' Wild Tribe (Barbarians), as indeed to the Chinese were all the rest above mentioned. It is clear that this question wants much further examination before settlement than it has yet received.
But in these remarks I have been running on rather faster than Barbosa and must hark back to the "Heathen Kingdom of Burma," of which he knew little, as it did not then extend to the coast anywhere, and Dames is quite right as to the tangled history of the region when the early Portuguese voyagers saw it. The people they came across were the Talaings of Pegu and not the Burmese, and it is the Talaing language that is the source of many of the now familiar Further Eastern terms used by Europeans. I have often tried, e.g., in the Thirtyseven Nats and elsewhere, to disentangle the history of what we now call Burma at the time of the arrival of the Europeans in that region. It is not easy to obtain anything like a clear view of the ever-changing political situation of the time, but for practical purposes it may be stated that the ruling races of the period were Talaings in Pegu, mostly under kings of Shân origin from Martaban (1287-1540): Shâns in Ava (1364-1554), though the population was Burman: Maghs in Myauků (Myohaung, the Old Town) in Arakan (1426-1784): BurmanShans in Taungû (1470-1530). This last principality, under a great Taungû Burman-Shân ruler, Tabin Shwêdi, blossomed into a Talaing Empire, ruling under him and his successors from Pegu (1530-1599). Nevertheless, the several petty powers were always fighting and overturning each other temporarily. The king with whom the first Portuguese came in contact was Binya Rân, a ruler of Talaings who was of Shân origin (1481-1526). All through the hurly-burly of the centuries after the collapse (in 1298) of the Burmese Empire founded by Anawrata about 1010 and ruled from Pagan, Shâns of various tribal origin managed to rule in most places-Martaban, Pegu, Pinya, Myinzaing, Sagaing, Taungu, and again in Pegu-without reference to the nationality of the inhabitants. The last Talaing rulers in Pegu, overthrown in 1757 by Alompra (Alaungphayâ) the Burman, viz., Mintars Buddhakhêtî (17401746) and Binya Dala (1746-1757), were Gwê Shans, doubtless of the Gueo tribe mentioned by de Barros and others (see Barbosa II, 167 n.), and already alluded to. It is well worth while to bear such facts as the above in mind in examining the statements of the early Portuguese travellers and writers.
The fact that the last "Talaing" Dynasty has come down to us as Gwê Shans raises a rather interesting point. If we are to follow the identification given by Sir George Scott to Dames, and hold the Gueos, and therefore the Gwês, to mean the Wa tribes, then they are not Shans or Laos at all, but must belong to the Môn-Annam race and to the Wa-Palaung group thereof. So Dames' note (vol. II, p. 167) on the Gueos, though helpful, does not solve the question. If, however, the identification is right, it premises that the last Talaing Dynasty came fron a ranch of the same race as that to which the Talaings themselves belonged.
In talking of Burma, Barbosa makes a natural slip in stating that "There are no Moors therein, inasmuch as it has no seaport which they can use for their traffic." Muhammadans, under the names of Zairbâdî and Panthay or Pathê, have been in Burma proper from long