Indian Antiquary Vol 52

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

Page 372

352
THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY
[ DECEMBER, 1923
The inscriptions on the two stones are identical and most unfortunately faulty in the same place.
INSCRIPTION ON THE STONES.
Text.
1. Thathanidaw 2401 Gawza-thekkayit 1219 k'u B'awashin Min: taya: gyi: P'aya: 2. Nan: zan 6 hnit-myauk Mandalê: ayat-hnaik Shwê-myodawgy: gỗ pan : đông :
kanet saik
3. Hmat-yuê Shwê-nan: myodaw tilók sannêdaw mûya tanga: nidaw myoyo : le’wè 4. Ayat 3 k'an-dwin In : t'i-thwin: hmyôk-hnan thi kyauk-thitta.
Translation.
4. [This is] the stone coffer, in which the Charm is placed and encased [buried] about three cubits [from the ground]
3. In the wall on the left hand side of the Royal Red Gate of the Royal dwelling-place, [which was] founded and built as a Royal golden-Palace, marked out
2. And established' at the great Golden City at Mandalay, in the sixth year of the reign of
1. [Mindon Min] the Lord of the Great Law and Master of Life, in the Secular Year 1219 and the Canonical Year 2401 [both working out to A.D. 1857].
It will be observed that the lines of the translation are numbered in the inverse order of those of the text. This is in consequence of the Burmese way of thinking and speaking, which is in the inverse order of English thought and speech. The Englishman states the fact and then explains the circumstances:-" He-killed the-woman with-the-axe by-a-blow on-the-head." The Burman explains the circumstances and then states the fact:-" onthe-head by-a-blow with-the-axe the woman he-killed." In reading a Burmese petition it is safest to commence at the end and read backwards. This process has been applied to this inscription and it will be seen with success.
The stones were sent to the Phayre Museum at Rangoon in 1889, but the silver plate was kept back in order to get the charm read and explained, which was a difficult matter, as will be seen from the remarks which follow. It was therefore put aside, owing no doubt to the conditions obtaining in a country still in a state of war, or rather of armed disturb. ances such as are common after war, and then forgotten. At any rate it was deciphered and put away, and after 30 odd years I came across it among old papers and now hasten to publish it. It has at last been restored to the stone from which it came.
The charm is really in cipher, as the letters, or rather syllabary, of its words are laid out on a winged chess-board and can only be read by employing a particular order of "the Knight's Tour." Otherwise it is quite unintelligible in any language: vide Plates of "the Charm," explaining the successive moves by means of numerals. This is not an uncommon device of the Burmese. Anyone following the moves thus explained will find them complicated, and that, even when the key is known, they are not easy to follow and must always be difficult to concoct. It is a good cipher.
The decipherment shows the language to be the modern form of Pali in use among the Burmese and the general sense to be a prayer to the supernatural spirits (nats), which haunt the Burmese and the world they live in, to give the Palace every protection. The whole has, however, been given a Buddhist turn.
1 The reading here is obscure, owing to faults in both stones, but it is no doubt, pan: dông: kanet saik with the sense, 'planted deeply the pole of authority' (pan: dong :) i.c., established.' The term kanet is Talaing, meaning 'a peg' or 'plan,' corresponding to the Burmese panet. Talaing terms are often used in connection with the Burmese Palace, and this very phrase kanet saik hmat has been found in a Burmese diary of King Thibaw's time. Information from Prof. Duroiselle and Mr. Godfrey Harvey.