CORNELL UNIVERSITY LIBRARY Cornell University Library DS 485.B83T28 Notes on antiquities in Ramannadesa (the 3 1924 023 490 760 Cornell University Library The original of this book is in the Cornell University Library. There are no known copyright restrictions in the United States on the use of the text. http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924023490760 NOTES ON ANTIQUITIES IN RAMANNADESA (The Talaing Country of Burma). BY Major R. C. TEMPLE. Reprinted from the Indian Antiquary • iSomtiag: PEINTED AST THE EDUCATION SOCIETY'S STEAM PRESS, 1894. 11 NOTES ON ANTIQUITIES IN RAMANNADESA. NOTES ON ANTIQUITIES IN KAMANNADESA (The Talainc! Country of Buema), BY MAJOR E. C. TEMPLE. I. The Caves about Maulmain. IN company with Mr. P. 0, Oertel, I made, in Ajiril 1892, a short inspection of the caves referred to by Mr. Taw Sein Ko in his " Notes on an Archseologioal Tour in KamaSEadesa," ante, Voh XXI. pp. 377S. Attention was chiefly paid to the cave remains in the neighbourhood of Maulmain' and Thaton (l>at'6n). Those that were visited, and it may be said, that are so far known, were : — (1) the 'Farm' Caves, about 10 miles from Maalmain on the At'aran River; (2) the D'amm.aba Oaves, 18 miles from Maulmain on the Jain (Gyaing) River; (3) the P'agat Caves, on the Salween River, 26 miles from Maulmain; (4) the Kogun Oaves, on the Kogun Greek, near P'Agat, 28 miles from Maulmain; (5) the B'inji Oaves, on the DonSami River, 51 miles from Maulmain and 16 miles from Thaton. Maulmain being a great meeting point of navigable rivers, all these places can be visited from it by launches, and, except B'inji, are within an easy day's journey, there and back. But they are all, except the Farm Caves, out of the regular routes, and are, consequently, but little visited, ■ — indeed as regards the travelling public they are quite unknown, owing to the fact that it is necessary to engage a launch especially for the journey, a very expensive form of travelling, and not always available even on payment, except by special agreement. In addition to those to the Caves, short visits were paid to That6n and Martaba jL~the weather being at the former very unfavourable and fully bearing out the statement in the Kalyani Inscriptions at Pegu concerning "this very rainy co untry of R amanna.."^ It is extraordinarily diflBcult to obtain any information in Maulmain concerning the anti- quities of the surrounding country, From statements made to me it would appear that many caves exist along the At'aran River and along the upper reaches of the DonSami River; but until each story is verified it is most unsafe to rely upon anything stated locally. The British Burma Gazetteer states, Vol. II., page 37, that there are no less than 23 groups of caves in the Amherst District, each distinguished by its proper name. Among these may be the following, of which tolerably certain information was given me, locally, along the banks of the At'aran. All are said to be fl,lled with images and MSS. (1) In a hill opposite the 'Niddn Qua,rrie!S, 26 miles from Maulmain : (2) in a hill a mile and a half inland from, the Quarries ; here there is a climb over rough boulders and ladders for 400 ft., a narrow and low entrance, a large hall and deep cavity in the main cave, and several smaller caves in the neighbourhood : (3) at P'abaung, 36 miles up the river ; here is a cave with a hole in the ceiling leading to a chamber filled with books and old ivory, which was visited by Crawfurd (Embassy to Ava, page 355), and runs right through the rocks, like that at D'ammata : (4) at the Hot Springs (At'aran Tdbu), 41 miles up the River ; where there are said to be more caves .^ Col. Spearman, now Commissioner of the Tenasserim Division and formerly editor of the British Burm.a Gazetteer, has kindly collected for me, in addition to the information above given. 1 Called Maulmain or Konlmein by the English, MolSmyaing by the Burmans, Mutrnwelfm by the Talaiugs, and KAmapura in historical and epigraphic doomments. It seems to have been called Molamyaing and Maulaymyaing by the English at first, — miJe Crawfurd, Emhassy to Am, published 1829, pp. 282,355, et passim. In Wilson's Burmese War, 1827, the word appears as Moalmein, in a Oaz^tte notification of 1826, quoted at p. lii. Low calls it Malamein in his papers, 1833, As. Bes. Vol. xviii. p. 128 ff. : Miscell. Papers on Indo-China, Vol. i. p. 179 f. Mr. Oertel in his Note on a Tou/r in Burma in March and April 1892, pp. 18fE,, also mentions the journey herein described. " See ante, p. 36. ' Probably the same as those mentioned below as being off Kyondfljl Village. Low in 1833 was up the At'aran and gives a good account of the At'arEln T^bfl {Miscell. Papers on Indo-China, Vol. i. p. 196) and also notices (p. 197) the P'fibaung Cave, which he calls Phabaptaung. NOTES ON ANTIQUITIES IN RAMANNADESA. the following information, from native sources, as to the caves in the Kyaikk'aml or Amherst District. There are in the Jain-I^alwin (Gyne-Salween) Sub-division five caves, viz., the K'ay6n-S'addan (Farm : see post, p. 329 ff .) ia the K'ay on Hill, and the Nga up the At'arkn River : the D'ammaba, (see post, p. 33] ff ,) and the S'addan up the Jaia River. The first four are situated in the Tayana Circle, and the last in the Panpadaing Circle. The K'aydn Hill is a mile and a half from the K'ayon Village, and two and a half miles from the Za?5abyin Village (on the At'aran?). The usual routes are, by road to Nyanngbinzek, four miles, thence across the Ferry over the Nyaungbinzek Creek (= At'aran River), and thence by road to the Hill, four miles : or by boat or launch up the At'aran River to ZaSabyin Village (on the At'aran ?), 13 miles, and thence by cart to the Hill, 2| miles. The Nga Cave is two and a half miles distant in a separate hill. Only the K'ayon Cave, of the above, has any remains in it. The D'ammaba. Cave is reached by boat or launch up the Jain River, 19 miles, and contains about 1,000 images, of which 100 are in good order, and one chaitya.^ The S'addan Cave is two miles from Kos'enban Village, six miles from Naunglonji Village, and 18 miles north of ZaSabyin (on the Jain). The usual routes from Maulmain are by boat or launch up the Jain River to ZaSabyin, 13 miles, and thence by cart 18 miles : or by boat or launch to J>6naing Village, 28 miles, and thence by cart, 15 miles. This cave is said to be a mile long, and to contain a chaiiya and three images in bad order (two being broken) at the entrance. It is about 60 feet above ground level, and is reached by 100 masonry steps in practicable repair. In the KokarSk Sub-division there are eight caves, viz., the Sa, the three P'ata6k Caves, the P'abahun, the Taungbalwe and the YaJ?S-M6nt'i. The first six are in the Myapadaing Circle and the last two in the Myawadi, and all are reached from Kyondoji Village, which is 47 m. by boat or launch up the Jain River. The Sa Cave is in the little P'abok Hill, ten miles from Kyondoji. It contains five or six boxes of old MSS., but no images. These are said to be in good condition. The cave is 60 ft. above ground level, and is approached through old jungle paths. The three P'ata6k Caves are in the Great P'abok Hill and about 200 yards apart, nine miles from Kyondoji. Two of the caves contain images and chaityas in bad repair. The caves are from 30 feet to 60 feet above ground level, and are approached by old jungle paths. The P'abafiun Cave is eight miles from Kyondoji. It has no contents and is about 60 feet from the ground level. The approach is bad by diflBcult jangle paths. The Taungbalwe Cave is nine miles from Kyondoji. It is 22 feet above the ground level, approached by bad jungle paths, and has no images in it. The YatS and M6nt'i Caves are in the T'ino Hill, about fifteen miles from Myawadi Village, which is 45 miles by road from Kyondoji. They are about 60 yards apart and 1,000 feet from the ground level. The Tabe Cave contains chaityas, images and old MSS. in bad condition. These caves are very difficult of access through thick jungle and are rarely visited, or as the Burmese informant puts it : — "no one has ever been there !" In the P'agat Sub-division there are five caves, vix., the Kogun, the Yatebyan, the P'agat, the Webyan, and the TaunggalS. The Rrst three are in the B'in'laing Circle and the last two in the Myaingji Circle. To reach the first three, the usual route is by boat or launch up the Salween to P'agat, 27 miles (see post, p. 336), and thence by road. Each cave is close to a village of the same name, and the first two are each about three miles from P'agat by different cart roads, and about three miles from each other. For detailed descriptions of the P'agat and Kogun Caves, see post, p. 335 ff. In the Yatebyan Cave are images and chaityas. The usual route to the Webyan and Taunggale Caves is by launch to Shwegun "\^llage up the Salween 76 miles, and thence by boat. Webyan Village is about six miles beyond Shwegun, and the cave is some two miles inland. It contains chaityas and images, and is about 50 feet above ground level, but is easily approached by steps lately made to the entrance. The Taunggale Cave is similarly about two miles inland from Myaingji village, which is three miles beyond Shwegun. This cave is about 700 feet up the hill, approached by a bad road over hill and through jungle. It contains chaityas and images. This local statement is guesswork (see poet, p. 333). NOTES ON ANTIQUITIES IN RAMANNADESA. In the Thatdn Sub-diTision are two eaves, the Minlwin and the Winbdn, both in the D'anCiminlwin Circle. The usual route is by launch up the Salween and DonWamt Rivers, 70 miles, to (?) Duyinzek, and thence ten miles back to Winbon Village by boat. The Winbdn Cave is a mile from the village, but contains no images. The Minlwin Cave in about five miles inland and a mile from MAja Village, It is 400 feet above ground level, and contains no images, but above it is a Iftge marble slab (? inscribed), which is an object of fear and reverence. This information from That6n I look upon with some doubt. The description corresponds generally with that of the B'inji Cave given below at p. 338. It is probable that the Minlwin Cave is the same as the B'inji Cave, and that Winbon is the village I have called later on (p. 338) B'in'laing or Nyaungjan, and noted as being of doubtful nomenclature. If the Minlwin Cave is really the same as the B'inji Cave, it is quite erroneous to suppose that there are no images and chaityas in it. Near Maulmain there are ten caves in the Kyauktaldn Hill, which is situated in the Kinjaung Circle, about 14 miles from the town by cart road. Of these, four have images and chaityas, mostly in bad order. They are about a mile from Kyauktalon Village and about 20 to 30 yards apart. They are easily approached from the village. This information, and that I have independently gathered as to the remains, goes to shew that there are at least 40 eaves in the Amherst District alone, of which at least 21 contain antiquities of value. During the time at the disposal of Mr. Oertel and myself for exploration, viz., from the 11th to 15th April 1892, both days included, very little more than ascertaining the localities of the antiquities and the ways and means of reaching them, together with hurried visits, could be accomplished. But enough was seen to establish the archseological value of these eaves, and, as regards materials for tracing the evolution of Buddhistic art in Burma, their extreme importance. In this paper it is intended chiefly, by describing what was seen, to draw attention to these remarkable remains, in the hope that they may be explored, before is it too late, by some one who has the leisure and is properly equipped for the purpose. I may mention that Caves obviously of the same class as those herein described are to be found further East in the Laos States, vide Bock, Temples and Elephants, pp. 288 S., 301 ; Colquhoun, Amongst the Shans, p. 240 : in Cochin China, vide Crawfurd, Siam and Coehin- China, p. 286 f. : and in Siam, vide Bowring, Siam, I. p. 167. 2. The 'Farm' Caves. The 'Farm' Caves, situated about 10 miles from Maulmain, are favorite places for picnics and pleasure parties for the European population of the town, and also for the Native population, Burmese, Takings, and Hindu Natives of India,^ — who combine, however, religious worship with their outing. The Chettis (Madrasi Hindu money-lending class) of Maulmain have built themselves a rest-house outside one of the Caves, and there is, of course, also a Burmese rest-house or zayat. The name 'Farm' appears to be a corruption of the Shan name of the place, P'arum (Pharum). P'arum, as a place-name, is one of the many relics of the old Shiin occupation of this part of Burma, the syllable jj'a (precipitous rock) appearing in several place-names of the same class in the neighbourhood ; e. g., P'akat (Bur. P'agat), P'aan, P'abyauk, P'alat, P'anp'a, P'anun, P'aauk, P'arosin, P'Sbin, P'awun, etc. However, the name 'Farm Caves' is so firmly established, so far as concerns Europeans, that it may be safely regarded as the proper one. The Burmese name is K'aydn^ (spelt K'arun and pronounced K'ayun to the present writer) after the neighbouring village of that name. Another derivation of " Farm" is from the guano in these caves, which was and perhaps is still, farmed out to contractors. « Hindus all over Burma worship at the Buddhist shrines and pagodas. At the great Shwddagon Pagoda at Eangoon they may be seen at their deTotions in considerable numbers. The pagoda and shrine attendants in Lower Burma are usually also Hindus from India, who have taken the place of the old pagoda slaves. 6 For interchange of initial y and li in Burmese place-names, see ante, p. 19. NOTES ON ANTIQUITIES IN RAMANNADESA. The Farm Caves, like all those mentioned in this paper, are situated in isolated hills of limestone rock, which rise picturesquely and abruptly out of the surrounding alluvial plain, and were evidently excavated by the sea at no remote geological period. They are now full of stalactites and stalagmites, some being of large size. There are two distinct sets, one of which was formerly used for religious purposes and at one time richly ornamented. The other has always been left as nature made it. The former is the K'ayon Cave proper, the latter, which is about 600 yards distant southwards, is called theS'addAn Cave. There is a third unornamented cave called the Nga Cave in a hill about 2| miles distant. The first set consists of an entrance hall running parallel with the face of the rock, a long hall running into the rock at the south end, evidently meant for the " Chaitya Hall" of 'Fergu.sson's History of Indian Architecture (Chap. V.), and a subsidiary entrance and hall at the north end. This last apparently exists because of the form of the cave, and in front of it is the artificial tank, which invariably accompanies these remains. The following sketch plan will give a general idea of the construction. Jfffri-A ^.iatlde. Carttra^ JSkeCdv Flarh of the P'drampCcufdwj Cave/ The straight parallel lines represent brick and plaster platforms erected for images of all sorts ; of Gautama Buddha himself and of his worshippers or yahans (= rahAnl = Pali, araham = Skr. arhanta' = arhat). At the circular spots near the south entrance and in the Entrance HaU are small pagodas, and at a similar spot near the north entrance is a s'edi (= Pali chetiyam = Skr. chaitya) or t'iS,^ as the modern Burmese call it, of interesting construction. At ' This word is also preserved in modern Burmese as rahantS., pron. yahdndd. > On the platforms of pagodas such structures represent the old top-ornaments or umbrellas (i'Ss) of the pagoda, which when taken down to make way for new ones are bricked in by small chaitya-like structures, and thus preserved for ever. The word t'lS has become popularized as tee by Fergusson's Sistory of Indian Architecture, see p. 64, etc. NOTES ON ANTIQUITIES IN IIAMANNADESA. the point indicated in the plan there is a bamboo ladder leading np into darkness in the roof, most probably into a higher cave in the rock,. but this was evidently too much infested with bats to make exploration desirable at short notiee during the visit. The whole of the caves above described were clearly at one time crammed with images of all size^ma,terials and ages, just as the Kognn, B'inji and D'ammaba Caves still are. These have nearly all now been destroyed by iconoclasts, probably chiefly Natives of India, from Maulmain. The proximity of that town, its occupation by the British for nearly seventy years, the existence for many years of a large garrison there, and the callousness of the Burmese to this species of desecration, would easily account for the destruction of invaluable remains that has taken place. There remain, however, several huge recumbent figures of Gautama^ Bnddha, one measur- ing 45 feet in length and others not much less, sitting figures of various sizes, and small figures mostly mutilated. The conditionof the wood, of which some of these are made attest their antiquity.!" Some of the stalactites have been ornamented, but this has not been the rule, as it evidently was in some of the other caves, notably that at D'ammaba. All over the sides of the cave and its roof there are signs of former ornamentation with small images of plaster painted white and red, and made of terra- ootta stuck on with a cement. The best preserved of these particular remains are high np on the south wall at the deep end of the Chaitya Hall, where a number of plaster yahans are kneeling opposite one of the huge Shwe^dyaungs or recumbent Gautamas, and in the roof near tbe entrance. Here advantage has been taken of a small natural dome to picture the ' Church' (Jping'd = sang'a) ; i. e., a numerous circle of yahans praying round a central figure of Gautama under the Bo (=BocZ'i = Bur. i?oii) Tree. " Plate I. which is from a photograph taken from the entrance to the Chaitya Hall, looking along the Entrance Hall northwards, indicates tiiis ornamentation and shews the small pagoda above mentioned. The best way of visiting the Farm Caves is to take a hackney carriage (these are numerous, cheap and proportionately bad in Maulmain) to the Nyaungbinzek Ferry on the At'arani2 River, about four miles, then to cross in the E'erry, and thence proceed by bullock cart to the caves, another four miles or so. There is no difficulty in the journey, as it is constantly made and the people en rniUe consequently quite understand what is wanted. It is advisable, however, to give notice to the bullock drivers of the intended journey. The roads are now good all the way. 3. The D'ammaba Cave. The D'ammaba Cave is distant from Maulmain about eighteen miles and is situated near the banks of a side-stream behind an island in the Jain River. There is a village and a small bright gilt pagoda on a high precipitous rock jutting picturesquely, i^ as usual, into the River. (See Plate XIX.) Near the pagoda are hyaungs (monastic buildings) of the ordinary villao-e type. The Cave is in a range of limestone rooks of some height behind the village and distant about quarter of a mile, and there is no difliculty in procuring guides from the village. The peculiarity of this Cave is that it runs right through the rock, and so is better lighted than is usually the case. It contains a great number of stalactites and stalagmites, some very large, and 9 Skr. Gautama = Pali G6tania ^ Burmese Godam^ and God'am^ (= Anglo- Indian goddama, used for any Buddhistic image). i» Many of the figures are, however, quite modern, having been placed there hy worshippers of the present day. Local information places the number at 68, of which only 9 are now in good order. 11 This cave is much disfigured by scribbled names of visitors in many languages: English, French, German^ Hindustani, Hindi, Gujarati, Tamil, Telngu, Burmese and Chinese. 12 This word is Attaran in Crawfurd's Ava, 1829, and in Spearman's- (ra«eMeer ofBurmah, 18S0. It is Atharam in Wilson's Burmese War, 1827, p. Ixiii. It is at this point frequently called the Nyaungbinzek Creek. IS One of the most striking facts in Burma is the beautiful and picturesque situations of the pagodas and public buildings. They are comparable in this respect to the religious structures of the Lepchas in Sikkim. See Journals kept in Hyderabad, Kashmir, SihUm and Nepal, by Sir E. Temple and E. C. Temple, Yol. II. pp. 206-207. Sir K. Temple's Oriental Experience, pp. 73-74. See also post, p. 361 f. NOTES ON ANTIQUITIES IN RAMANNADESA. apparently all were originally ornamented. This may give a clue to the age of the orna- mentation on further investigation, by determining whether the unornamented stalactites and stalagmites are posterior to those covered with ornaments, and how long it must have taken them to form. Some of them again are now only partially ornamented, and it is possible that the unornamented parts may have been formed since the ornament was put on. The accompanying sketch plan gives an idea of this Cave. MhA' JEntrance/Jrvi •of apparently ^-dm^ &/ upper cewe- plan.k^-in/ ioce^ ui/CAc' roof Tngcru/ttoTi •€/fyey ASkeCc/iJ I'la/i' of ih^ D 'ammMbd/ Caj^ The general design in the interior seems to have been to build up a pagoda or chaitya at both the east and west entrances, and to fill in the centre of the hall or cave with images and smaller pagodas. These are raised on platforms. Along the sides is a great mass of images on platforms, such as are shewn in the sketch plan. A general idea of the style of ornamentation and design can be seen from the interior view of the B'inji Cave given on Plate II. The ornamentation of the roof, sides and stalactites consists of images of Gautama Buddha and Tahkns, of aU sizes, from four inches in height to about life-size. These images are of brick and coloured plaster, chiefly red {hin^a'pada}-^) , and of terra-cotta fastened on by a cement. There are also signs of glazed ware having been employed in places, and abundant signs of a general gildingi^ of the figures in days gone by. When new, and brightly colored and gilt, the effect of the ornamentation must have been very fine. (See Plates VI. and VII.) Great numbers of small earthen lamps, of the usual Indian chirdgh form, are to be found. These must have been used, as now, for illuminating the images on feast days. Much broken pottery also lies about ; the remains no doubt of water-pots and of pots for votive flowers, used on similar occasions. All the platforms, the pagodas, and the large images down the centre of the Cave, are of 1' This word is spelt hamsapdda = Skr. ' goose-foot,' arid ia the name of a mineral (red oxide of mercury) producing the pecnliar rich red used in Burma for ornamenting buildings. It is particularly well suited as a • ground for gold, black, white or gray ornament. w The gilding was not always of good quality, as in many instances the images that remain are now simply coTered with verdigris. NOTES ON ANTIQUITIES IN EAMANNADESA. brick and plaster, and now very much rained. There is a general idea among those who have visited this Cave, which is repeated in the British Burma Gazetteer, Vol. II. p. 138, that the rain has been caused by some enemy of the Talaings. However, unless direct histo- rical evidence is forthcoming to support that argument, it may be put forward, as the more likely theory, that ^e destruction now visible is that which is inevitable in Burma. When a pagoda or image is once built or made, and the Ml>o, (spelt kusol = Pali husalam,a, 'good work') or religious merit, gained thereby has accrued, no more interest is taken in its preservation ; and as every pagoda contains a treasure chamber of sorts, and as each, large image is supposed to have valuables buried somewhere inside it, they are sooner or later dug into in search for treasure. , This is sure to happen after any political disturbance, when anarchy, for a time at any rate, always supervenes. Plates IV. and V. shew pagodas thus treated in the K6gun Cave, and it may be said that, in the Cave remains in RamaniiadSsa generally, it is the rule for pagodas and large images to have suffered thus. This fact alone is sufficient to account for the ruin observable at D'ammal^a. The Eastern Pagoda is utterly ruined and is now a mere mass of bricks, plaster and broken images, some of which may still possess great archEeological value. Immediately above it there is a hole in the roof, now boarded-over. This leads to an upper chamber or cave, in which are still stored sadaiks, or book-coffers, containing Talaing MSS., no doubt of unique value, if still legible and fit to take to pieces. The British Burma Gazetteer, Vol. II., p. 37, suggests that there are such documents to be found in the other caves. It hardly needs argument to shew that they should be removed as soon as possible to places, where they can be preserved until they can be properly utilized.i^ Outside the eastern entrance there is a funnel leading upwards in the rook, but whether this ceases abruptly or leads to the boarded-in chamber could not be ascertained on th« spot. There is a very large number of images of all sizes and in all stages of preservation, lying in utter confusion about the floor and the sides of this Cave. Plate II. relating to the B'inji Cave, gives some idea of the state of the floor at D'ammaba. These images evidently belong to all dates, from that of the first use of' the Cave for religious purposes up to quite modern times. They are made of many materials: — wood, alabaster, limestone, plaster and terra-cotta, amongst others. The wooden images are probably the most valuable for antiquarian purposes. They are mostly now coated over with a black preparation which looks like Burmese resin (pron. ]fissi, spelt sanhahel = (saeh') )?it, wood, + (chef) si, oil). It is either the under-coating of former coloring or gilding, or was meant as such and never covered over. This coating has preserved the outer surface as originally designed, whereas the wood under it has utterly decayed in many instances. The state of the wood, which is apparently teak in all cases, combined with the outer form and ornamentation of the images will go a long way, on careful investigation, towards determining when they were deposited ; because teak under certain conditions may be assumed to take, not less than a certain number of centuries to reach a certain stage of decay. It may further be fairly argued that, when once the caves became established as recognized places for religious ceremonies, the great mass of images now found in them were deposited by successive generations of worshippers and pilgrims. The images and similar remains are generally of the same character in all the Caves, and are well worth study, for the reason that they explain the forms of many of the old and small images deposited about the greater Pagodas in Lower Burma still used by the populace as places of worship. (See Plates I., la, VI. and VII.) Exactly similar images are yet to be seen round the Kyaikb^nlan and the Kyaikpatan Pagodas at Maulmain, the Myat>Sndan Pagoda at Martaban, the ShwSzayan and Mulek (or l>ajap'aya) Pagodas at Thaton, the great ShwSdagon itself and the Sule Pagoda at Rangoon, theKyaikkank 15 The Talaing language, though still spoken to a considerable extent, is ceasing to he a literary medium very rapidly ; so much so that it is already extremely difSoult to find an educated Talaing able to read even modern documents in his native language, and the epigraphic and old palm- leaf documents in that tongue, which are of supreme value to the history of Lower Burma will even now have to await the labours of the expert student of the future. 8 NOTES ON ANTIQUITIES IN RAMANNADESA. Pagoda at Syriam, and in the far-renowned (in Bnrma) Kalyant I>eng (sima) at Pegn, and round the great Shwembd5 Pagoda at the same place.^'' Whether these images were originally made for the pagodas, or were taken from the Caves by the devont and there deposited, is a question to be settled hereafter. For it must be remembered that it is still a fortunate thing in Burma for a p'ayd (image of Gautama Buddha) ' to travel,' as the people put it. Careful search may unearth inscriptions of value in the D'ammat>& Cave. Some of the small terra-cotta figures, or, more strictly, tablets impressed with figures, that have become detached, are found to have sometimes, but not commonly, notes painted on the back. The only one, of two or three picked up in this Cave, which is sufiBciently complete for reading i.s that given below, full-size. TacsiTnJlt,, full »vze, «f fte uiscripUon/ orv ihe^ iadi' of wterra/ ooUkx^taUst impressed m front u^Ufvan, iTrva^e^ of &autcz}TvaylBit,ddhe^. Jroirv The characters of the inscription are Talaing and the language is Talaing, and itmeansr^s " Nge Leh offered to the pagoda curry stuffs from his ancestral fields, fish, and property. "i^ 1' Lately there has been printed by the local Government a perfunctory and well-nigh valueless production oai\ed List of Objects of Antiquarian and Archmological Interest in British Burma. It is confined mainly to the names of the principle pagodas in the country and the folk-history thereof. It is useless for any purpose, except to find the names of the pagodas, and ia not even then of use, if there is more than one pagoda in a place, as the actual situation of each is never indicated. w It must be borne in mind however, that in the present condition of scholarship as regards the Further Indian languages, every epigraphic reading should properly be regarded as tentative. 19 I fancy we must assume from this that the pious Nge Leh held a feast from the produce of his ancestral fields and offered property to the pagoda, and also let loose some fish as a good work : [jivita dlna : z-lwitd d&na. See Shwe Toe's The Burman, Tol. II. p. 40 ff.) NOTES ON ANTIQUITIES IN RAMANNADESA. 9 - ^_ _^ * Transcribed tlie inscription runs ttiiis : — nalah matav, he sane ha p'on halah=kyu(Tc). The pronounciation and meaning of each, word runs thus: Nge Leh metb nge sani led p'cin pale-kyaiW^ — "Nge Lelj parents' field carry-stufi fish property offer-(to)-pagoda." In addition to the above, there are traces of another inscription in modern documentary Burmese characters. These impressed tablets usually represent Gautama Buddha seated on a canopied throne, the canopy forming the back-ground of the tablet. Gautama Buddha is commonly thus re- presented in Burma in figures of all sizes and of all materials — vide Plates IV., V.. VI. and VII. In the D'ammabS, Cave a large full-sized seated figare has an inscription, white letters on a black ground, on the cauopy, above either shoulder. As it is on plaster which is fast peeling off, no impression can be taken of it, but it should not present any difiiculties in reading, if read before it is too far destroyed, as it is in the ordinary square lapidary Burmese character in vogue in the last and the beginning of the present Century {vide the P6 S u S daung Inscription near Prome, ante, p. 1 fE.) . About two and a half miles distant from the Cave just described there are hot springs and another Cave (so local information on the spot says).2i The hot springs are well known to the natives of the counti-y, and now also to immigrants from India, who repair to them annually to get rid of skin diseases. There are several sach places in the Amherst District, notably the At'aran Tebu (Hot-waters) on the At'arkn River, the medicinal qualities of which have been attested by Dr. Heifer. ^^ The way to reach D'ammaba is by special launch from Maulmain, in which case the journey takes about three hours each way, or by ferry launch to Za^abyin on the Salween, and thence by country boat to D'ammaba, a slow process. The -former method of approach is very expensive. 4. The P'agat and Kogun Caves. The P'agat Cave on the Salween^' River is distant from Maulmain 26 miles, and is situated in an isolated limestone rock by the river-bank. It is not now of much interest, as it is very dark, and so offensive, owing to the presence of an enormous number of bats,^* that it is practically not explorable. Seated Gautama Buddhas can, however, be made out in the darkness, and no doubt at one time the Cave was decorated and ornamented in the style of its neighbour at Kogun. Wilson, Burmese War (1827), quotes, p. Ixvi., a Government Gazette notification, dated 20th April 1826, of a journey up the Saluen (Salween), where P'agat' appears as Sagat, apparently by mistake. At that time the images were distinct and the ornamentation was evidently the same as that of Kogun. The bats are also mentioned. It is further noted that the ornamentation on the rock face, which is in the style of that already mentioned at D'ammaba, looks from the river like the letters of a huge inscription. This accounts for the persistence of a local idea that there is a large prominent inscription on the face of this Cave. As far as I can make out, the following description from Low's travels in these parts in 1833 {Asiatic Besearc.hes, Vol. xviii. p. 128 fi. ; Miscell. Papers on Indo-China, Vol. I. p. 197) refers to P'agat. " In rowing up the Sanlun (= Salween, by misreading the final n for the •dental n, instead of the guttural n) or main river, the first objects which attracted my attention were the Krfi.klataung rocks, being a continuation of the great lime formation. The river at one spot is hemmed in betwixt two rocks, and, being thus narrowed, rushes through with con- siderable impetuosity. The rock on the north-west bank overhangs its base, the latter being 20 Pale-ki;aik is a oompound meaningr ' to make an ofPering to a pagoda.' M This was not torne ovit, however, as regards the Cave, on further enquiries from local officers. 32 B. B. Gazetteer, Vol. II. p. 38 and note. The only reference, besides those quoted from the Gazetteer, I have yet found to the D'ammabS Cave is in that intelligent little book, Six Months in Burma, p. 41, by Mr. Christopher Winter, who visited it in 1858. It is there called Dhamathat, as it is usually still called by Europeans in Maulmain. This ia an instance of striving after a 'meaning, beoaase ' Dhammathat ' is a word well-known to most Anglo. Burmans, being the Burmese form of the name of a locally celebrated work, — the D/wrmasAsira. 2» Salween = Bur. spelling Samlwan, pron. balwin. 2* See ante. Vol. XXI. p. 378 : and Maloom, Travels, ii. 61. It is a. well established fact that it takes these hats 25 to 30 minutes to fly out of the Cave to their food every evening. 10 NOTES ON Antiquities in ramannadesa. washed by the river. On a sharp, and one should suppose almost inaccessible pinnacle, » small pagoda has been built, producing a pleasing effect to the eye of a distant observer. " The cliff I conjectured to be 250 feet high. On that front facing the river some niches have been cut in a pyramidal space, and in these stand many painted and gilt alabaster images of Buddha. A narrow opening leads into a magnificent cav6, -which has been dedicated to Buddha, since many large wooden and alabaster images of that deified mortal were found arranged in rows along the sides of it ; the wooden images were mostly decayed through age and had tumbled on the floor. The rook consists of a grey and hard limestone. The cave' bears no marks of having been a work of art. The Burm.an priests, who inhabit a village oq the opposite bank, could not afford me any information respecting it. No inscription was- discovered on the rock." P'agat can be reached by a ferry launch in about four or five hours from Manlmain, but the best way is to visit both P'agat and Kpgun at the same time by special launch, — an expensive journey as already explained. By a good fair-weather road from P'ftgat, though somewhat unpleasant withal, the Cave and Village of Kogun can be reached by bullock-cart, if desired. The distance is about two miles. The preferable way of getting there is to stop in a special launch at the mouth of the Kogun Creek, about a mile short of P'agat, and thence either reach the Kbgun Village by a country boat, if the tide serves, or by walking through th e outskirts of the village for about a mile. The Cave is situated, as usual, in an isolated limestone rock about a quarter of a mile to the west of the village. It runs under an over-hanging ledge of rock for about a- hundred feet from South to North and then dips Westwards into this rock for about the same distance at the North end. The following sketch plan gives an idea of it.^^ '1^(1 pa^da/' Pae Grating Shtc/v PI CUV oftAe Kocfun Cave ^ 2« Crawfurd visited Kogun on 27th January 1827 — Kide Bmhassy to Ava, p. 361 ff. ; Wilson's Documents of the Burmese War, Appx., pp. xlix., Ixvi. f. NOTES ON ANTIQUITIES IN RAMANNADESA. H The general plan of tliecave proper is evidently that of the D'ammaba Cave, but advantage has been taken of the over-hanging ledge and the rising ground in front of it to create a pro- f asely ornamented Entrance Hall. In front of this is a large artificial square brick tank kept in good repair, as the Gave is still a place for an annual festival at the Burmese New Year (about 15th April). In front of the tank is the pwe-gvoand, where Zat Pwes^* are performed on the occasions when^eople congregate here. There are the usual image platforms about the sides of both the Cave and the Entrance Hall, and also several down the centre of the Cave, as at D'ammatlJa. A goodly number of small brick and plaster pagodas and chaityas are scattered about both Cave and Entrance Hall, and the surroundings of the latter. The largest are noted on the sketch plan. There is also a remarkable ornamented stalagmite, see Plate VII., covered com. pletely over with small terra-cotta images, about four inches high, of Gautama Buddha enthroned in the style already explained, surmounted by a series of standing images in plaster work and much larger. On the top of all is a small pagoda or ohaitya of the usual modern form. The corresponding stalactite, not visible in the plate, is profusely ornamented with images of Buddha in every attitude,— standing, seated and recumbent. The peculiar position of the Entrance Hall under an over-hanging ledge of rock, sheltered from the rain brought by the prevailing south-west wind, has led no doubt to the profuse ornamentation of the surface of the rock to a considerable height, as shewn in Plates III., IV., v., VI. and VII. This ornamentation is the best sample of all of the type already noted as prevailing at D'ammaba and P'arum, viz., covering the rock with impressed terra-cotta and plaster tablets of all sizes, from four inches to several feet in height. The impressions are chiefly of Gautama Buddha enthroned, but they are nevertheless in great variety, and the Ping'd or Church is represented in several ways, as also are various scenes from the legendary life of the founder of the religion. On the many small ledges and recesses presented by the uneven surface of the rock are placed images in alabaster and brass. This is a special feature of the wall "decoration of this Cave, due to natural conditions. All about the Entrance Hall and the Cave itself, there is an astonishingly large deposit of figures of Gautama Buddha and yahans in every material and in every condition, besides a mass of remains of Buddhistic objects generally. Many are quite modern, but me are of a type not now met with in modern Burmese religious art, and are exceedingly interesting from an historical and antiquarian point of view, as connecting Burmese with Indian Buddhism They are well worth study, and probably from this Cave alone could be procured, with iudicious selection, a set of objects which would illustrate the entire history of Bud- dhism in Lower Burma, if not in Burma generally and the surrounding countries, especially Siam.2' The great mass of the images and remains are in a state of complete neglect, but, as the r is still in use for purposes of occasional worship, many of the figures are well looked after, d some of the larger exposed ones are protected from the weather by rough boarding. The r itself appears to wander indefinitely into the rock at the two deep holes marked in the plan, I that near the mined pagoda is partly filled up with a great mass of mutilated images and b'^oken objects, thrown together in an indescribable confusion. Every pagoda has been broken into f OT treasure in the manner shew n in Plates IV. and V. .. rr,. „o,^ mji,S f Anglo-Indian pooaj, orpoay) is Burmese, exactly corresponding to the English word ' play ' .6 The wordpw^ ^ «!_ pan jL used for j&taka. a Buddhist ' birth-story.' The Zat Pw6 is consequently a in its various senses, /^at — jtbii j . , modified Passion Play. , . , ^ . • t, 27 A move in this direction is being made by the Local Government in Burma. 12 NOTES ON ANTIQUITIES IN RAMANNADESA. 5. The Blnji Cave. The B'inji Cave is situated in some low hills about 3 miles east of a village called, appa- rently indifferently, B'in'laing^^ and Nyaung-jan, on the left bank of what is usually known to Europeans as the DonSami River, but is really the B'in'laing River. ^^ This village is about three miles below DtLjdnzSk, and about 51 from Maulmain and 11 from That6n. At the foot of the Cave is the village of B'inji, which is reached by bullock cart across jungle and rice-fields from B'in'laing Village. In front of the Cave is a pool of very hot water from which a sti-eam issues,^" and over this stream is a single-plank bridge. The Cave itself is not situated at the foot of the hill, and a climb of from 50 to 100 feet is necessary before reaching it. In the rains the country between B'in'laing and B'inji is flooded, B'in'laing can be reached from Maulmain by farry-launch to Duyinzek, 52 miles, and thence backwards three miles by country-boat. Bullock carts can, by arrangement, be procured at B'in'laing. A special launch from Maulmain could, of course, be moored at B'in'laing, which is a station for procuring fire- wood for the ferries. In any case more than one day is necessary for the expedition. Bad weather prevented the exploration of this Cave, which is much to be regretted, as it is necessarily but little visited. Old and now faded photographs, see Plate II., taken by the late Mr. R. Romanis, the Government Chemical Examiner at Rangoon, in the possession of Ml'. George Dawson, the present owner of the ferries along the rivers which join at Maulmain and of the little Railway from Diiyinzek to Thaton, however, fortunately shew that the Cave is of the ordinary RamaSnadesa type, though not so profusely ornamented as usual as to walls and roof. The plan has been to place a series of pagodas or chaityas down the centre and images on platforms along the sides. This Cave has, however, a pagoda just outside it, which is unusual; and it will be observed that this pagoda and those she »7n in the interior are not of ancient form. The B'inji Cave is deep and dark, requiring the use of special lights, but at the end of it ie a pool of water flush with the floor, and a pagoda, so situated as to be lighted from a hole in the roof, or more correctly in the hill side,^' after the fashion of the artificial lighting of the Ananda Pagoda at Pagan (spelt Pugam and Pugan = Pali Pugama), and of some Jain structures in India.'^ There is a fine reflection of the Cave, both roof and walls, in the pool. 6. Contents of the Caves. Plate la gives an idea of the great variety of images and objects to be found in the Caves above described. The plate itself is from a photograph taken on the spot at Kogun. The objects shewn in it were collected together for reproduction from the immediate neigh- bourhood of the ruined pagoda upon which they are placed. They are mostly of wood, but gome are of terra-cotta, plaster and stone. The modern Burmese seated figures of Gautama Buddha are usually dressed in the garb of a monk, or p'onji,^^ with curly hair drawn up into a knot on the top of the head, and the lobes of the ears touching the shoulder ; but sometimes the Buddha is still represented dressed as ZabtibadS, In these Cave representations there is, however, considerable « This place is locally identified as " the residence of B'in'laing or Binlaung, the last Talaing king.'' The tradition is, however, probably a confused refei-ence to the notable doings in these parts of Bayin Naung ( = Port. Branginooo [BayinjI Naungza], 'Bayin' being spelt ' E'uran ') in 1551—1581 A. D., and of Binya DSla, the last Talaing king, 1713—1757 A. D. 2» The DonSimt and the Chanksarit Rivers join at a few miles above Duyinzek, and form together the B'in'laing Biver, which, after ranning a.ome 30 miles, falls into the Sal ween, some 25 miles above Maulmain. »» Not mentioned in the list given in B. B. Gazetteer, Vol. II. p. 38, note. " There are several such holes in the P'arum Caves giving fine effects of light. There is a cave at Muang Pang in the Laos States where the same chance effect oocnrs. See Bock, Temples and Elephants, p. 289 f. S2 Yale, Mission to Ava, pp. 38-9 and note; Fergnason, History of Indian, Architecture, pp. 616 and 214. « Spelt i'unSJcrS and explained as the great glory [b'-uni), by the Burmese, but with doubtful accuracy to my mind. NOTES ON ANTIQUITIES IN RAMANNADESA. 13 # variety. When dressed as ZabilbadS, the ear lobes, though much enlarged, do not touch the shoulder, and the large holes in them are filled up with a roll much in the modern Burmese fashion, and from this roll there is occasionally something that hangs down to the shoulders (? a flower). The head-dress is in such cases a multiple crown, with, sometimes, appendages or wings hanging dowivbehind the shoulders. On both arms are large jewels, or perhaps short embroidered sleeves, and the trunk is clothed in an elaborate winged garment reaching apparently to the feet and richly embroidered. All this is much in the modern style. In many of the older figures of the Buddha as a monk, the top-knot, there being, of course, no crown, is much elongated so as to form a sort of crown. In others again the body appears to be bare to the waist. In several the sole of the right foot is not exposed, as in most, but not all, modern figures ; vide those in the Shan Tazaung at the Shwe Dagon Pagoda ; also round the Nyanngdauk and Padauk trees on the platform there. A good many thrones lie about the E6gun Cave with two images on them seated side by side, of which one is frequently much larger than the other and much more elaborately clad. Here the Buddha seems to be repre- sented both as Zabubade and as a monk. Often, however, the two images are identical in every respect, making the explanation more difficult. Zabtlbadd requires explanation. There is a story current and very popular in Burma, but not, so far as 1 know, yet traced to any Jdtaka, according to which Jamtaupati (== Bur. pron. Zabubade), Lord of the Earth, was a king exceedingly proud of dress and power. The Buddha, however, one day, to convince him of the valueless nature of his riches, assumed his form and clothing without effort. ' Thereupon Jambupati became a devoted follower. The figures of the Buddha dressed as Jambupati, and of Jambupati himself kneeling to the Buddha in acknow- ledgment of his superiority, have for centuries been popular in Burma. The serpent throne and canopy of Gautama Buddha is to be seen in Plate la in two instances, conventionally grotesqued in the style dear to the Bnrman. The material of most of the figures in the Plate is wood, but the present writer has in his possession a fine plaster head with conventional serpent canopy of much finer workmanship than the specimens in the Plate, and in the Ealyani Peng at Pegu^* are stored several specimens in plaster of Gautama lying upon a serpent throne with canopy. Modern figures of the Buddha and serpent combined seem to be rare, but a new one in alabaster was bought lately in Mandalay, which was explained to be a " Siamese Buddha (Yod'aya P'aya)." Also, among the treasures found at the palace at Mandalay, after the war in 1885, was a fine and well executed copper image of Buddha seated on a serpent of many coils, which was said to have been sent from Ceylon as a present to one of the kings of the Alompra Dynasty. Images of yaMns also abound in the caves, always in an attitude of reverence. Those in Plate la (see also Plates I., IV., YI. and VII.) are of a type quite unknown in the present day. Female figures seem to be very rarely met with, but there is one of characteristic Burmese type in Plate la. It belongs to a fallen impressed terra-cotta tablet and represents a favorite character of ' the Burmese sculptor: Mat 6ndayS (= Vasundbara), Protectress of the Earth during the present dispensation. It is obviously impossible with the materials at present at hand to do more than draw attention to this remarkable field for enquiry, but enough has already been said to shew how rich it is and how well worth study. 7. Bas-reljefs on glazed terra-cotta tablets. The importance of Thatdn^s as an ancient home of the Talaing race is, of course, well- known, and as it is now to be reached with ease from Maulmain by ferry-launch to Duyin. u Spelt Pfeg The Burmese tie theirs in a knot at the top, as is seen in the modem images of Gautama Buddha. A real TaungK'l (see a/nte. Vol. XXI. p. 379) still wears his hair as in the basrreliefs, and so do the Anamese and Cambodians- The Tamils and Telugus of South India frequently do the same alsp. I have in my possession a kneeling figure in Sagaing marble from Amarapura with the hair tied at the back. The Cambpdian influence visible in these tablets may help to fix the date (tf this Pagoda as between the 6th and 10th century A. D. See page 364 f., ^ott. «6 It is very easy, by the way, to mistake the vajra for the triHila in indistinct sculptures. " See ante. Vol. XXI. p. 381, p-nd Oertel's Tour in Purma, p. 11. There is a ptropg tendency in antiquaries in Burma to attribute all Hindu symbols to a pre-Buddhist Hinduisin. This ignores all T^ntrik influence on Buddhism in Burma, which, however distasteful to the modem Burman, is, I think, a dangerous thing to do. It certainly cannot be done in discussing any Buddhist remains in India, and there are many signs of T5,ntrik influence in the ideas of the Burman Buddhist of to-day. Phayre(I«.t. Num. Orient. Vol. III. Part I. p. 33j falls into the " Hinduism" mistake, and so describes what is a conventional Buddhist chaitya on a " Pegu Medal " as the trident {trii^la) of Siva, moralising accordingly. The latest work on sjich points, written in Burma, Gray's Buddhaghdsuppatti, 1892, sticks tightly to the Buddhaghdsa and pre-Buddhistio Hinduism theories. »' But see below No. 8. •» Mr. St. John has an ingenious explanation of this. In every Talaing house there is a room set apart for the girls to sleep in, and this has a hole in the floor. Lovers come under the house and put their hands through this hole. By a sign, or the feel of the hand, the girls know if the right man has come. If the wrong man comes, " Wee betide him." NOTES ON ANTIQUITIES IN EAMANNADESA. 17 —~~~-~. —_ — — Mr (9) ■ A king seated on a throne with, people kneeling before him. In the background is a man being " elbowed."^" (10) A man in a garden, or forest, has hold of an enormous serpent. A prince is seated on the ground with three princesses kneeling on his left, one behind the other. The head- dresses are all of^the well-known Naga type in Buddhist (Indian) sculptures. The dress otherwise is Burmese. (11) A king is seated on a throne, and an attendant kneeling is announcing the arrival of the queen. The queen, gorgeously apparelled and grave of countenance, is carried on a seat on the shoulders of four men. Behind are umbrellas, fans, swishes, &o. (12) A prince is standing on the back of a man stretched on the ground. A man in front has hold of the victim's hair with one hand and holds a sword in the other. Behind are two kneeling women. Around are elephants, buffaloes, pigs and other animals. The bas-reliefs at Amarapura are merely humorous grotesques, but tliose from Pegu (and (?) Syriam) had evidently a more serious meauiug. A great number represent, no doubt, what we should call "foreigners," who to the ancient and mediaeval mind were largely people endowed with terrible faculties, features and forms. An attempt has been made to depict these mythical peoples in detail, and we find them endowed with stout formidable bodies and the heads of every creature known to the artists. They are generally represented as being naked as to the body and legs, and clad only with a cloth round the loins, no doubt in the fashioia of the poorer classes of the time. The glazing of all the tablets is good and regular, and the colors prevalent are white, red, green, yellow, black and blue. The blue colour of some of the bodies represents perhaps the dark skin of the supposed foreigner. One of the tablets represents two female figures, naked from the waist upwards, and clad only with a short garment drawn up tightly between the legs after the fashion of the Malay sarwmjr, and of the lower orders of Siamese women, vide Crawfurd, Embassy to Siam, p. 115, illustration, which confirms the idea that these grotesque figures merely represent the people of a foreign nation. On some, however, of the Pegu tablets are representations of great personages of the time elaborately clad, crowned and jewelled. (See Plates IX., IXffl, XII. and XIII.) Only one, out of over a hundred found at Pegu,^! has a legible inscription on it, and this inscription is, so far, largely a puzzle, which is disappointing, as there is no special difficulty in reading the characters, since they are of the square lapidary type common in these parts up till quite lately. Plate IX. gives a reproduction of it, and below is a tracing from a photograph, on a scale of "7. rr? l(L3f |,dl LJ Id on r]_f oi I ) ^ The language may be either Talaing, Burmese or Shan. Assuming it to be Talaing, •• This is a punishment. The person to be punished is made to kneel down and bend forward. He is then struck violently between the shoulders and somewhat lower by the elbow of the punisher. The pain caused is great. "1 On very few is there any sign of a lost inscription. I have, however, since found a similar tablet in Bangoon, presumably taken from the same site, and having precisely the same inscription as that in the text, but in a more cursive form. It is shewn in Plate IXa. Low, see hido-China, Vol. I. p. 197f.i makes the, for him, very curious mistake of saying that there are no inscriptions in Lower Burma ! The opposite is the fact, and propor- tionately there are many more historical inscriptions in Burma than in India. NOTES ON ANTIQUITIES IN RAMANNADESA. as the characters (jj ^^^ ^ would lead one to suppose, it is apparently translateable. Transliterated it seems to run pretty clearly, thus : — Kwan p'rau md fa mat Iwat. By exercising considerable license in spelling, and in reading the letters, sense can be made in Talaing out of all the words, thus : — ■ Kon s. on preau I md I pa I mot I lawoi female I nom. case do 1 friends^^ ever Iwat dedicated = built wife or daughter But in order to get thus far we have to mis-spell Icon, which should be, transliterated, Jcaun and not Tcwan, and to read the akshara [ca as It!) , and the aJcsharas r^rfj as Pfrf)' This last reading, however, would be allowable. The last word can be variously read in Talaing as lilt, lamot, la-ngot, or lawot, according as the first akshara is read as ^^ > ^ » ^^ > or *-§ • ^ The meaning of the sentence thus read, which would be good Talaing so far as regards grammar, would be : — " the wife who is a friend for ever." I am very loth to accept such a reading, as it would be against epigraphic experience. Assuming the language to be partly Burmese or Shan, and partly Siamese,, for reasons given below, we get the following result by transliteration : — Kwanp'ra i MaMpanxM (the) noble | Mahitpamdt There is only one difficulty in this reading, and that is in reading the akshara \X as p'rdi there being no sign / in Burmese or Shan. The akshara y~l md on stone is constantly used for mahd. The indistinct akshara Cg in the last word would, if the language is Burmese, be read 'lut, and if Sbiln lot. Both words mean the same thing, i. e., primarily 'released,' secondarily 'consecrated,' 'dedicated,' 'built in honor of.' But whether the language is Burmese or Shan the first two words would be Siamese titles. Kwanp'ra (pron. kunp'rd) means 'a nobleman,'^* and such people in Siam often have a Pali name or personal title. The Mahapamat of the text is a legitimate form for such a name or title, standing for the Pali Mahapamata, either by shortening in the usual way, or in full. Because the altshara ry-i may be legitimately read as t, or as i + Pali suffixed open vowel, d or a or i or a or m. Siamese nobles did, we know, frequently visit RamanBadesa on pilgrimages and did erect buildings in consequence. This particular man may have done so and ordered an inscription to be cut in his honor locally, and the lapidary may have used his own language, which, however, at the time that the structures in the neigbourhood were built,^^ ^^g ^^^ likely to have been Burmese, though it might have been Shan. But the inscription may be purely Siamese. The character is what Taylor, The Alphabet, Vol. II., p. 346 and elsewhere, calls the " Kiousa character of Burma," meaning clearly thereby (p. 345) the Burmese word kyauksu (chauksd, lapidary script, epigraph). And although he is altogether wrong in his ideas as to its distribution in Burma, he shews that it was in use about Bangkok and in Siam generally. Such a sentence as that we have before us is, however, so far as I can ascertain, not good Siamese, '2 To be read ' friend' ; the word must be read mit. 53 X am much indebted to the Eev. Dr. Gushing, author of the STidm Dictionary and Grammar, etc., for kindly aid in this difBcult text. " In Siamese the title Imn may be prefixed to any other title of nobility, being the lowest. The titles are highest downwards, Chaup'aya, P'aya, P'rS, Mang, M^ung and Kun. A "royal" titled personage prefixes Krom to his other titles. «5 Assuming the neighbourhood whence the tablet came to be that of the Kyaikp'un Pagoda (see text, post, p. 354 f.) the date of the inscription can be only at present conjectured to be some time after the Siamese conquest of Cambodia in the 13th century A. D. See post, p. 355. NOTES ON ANTIQUITIES IN RAMANNADESA. 19 If then this stone commemorates the visit of a Siamese prince or noble to Pegu, it is of interest and some importance as historical eyidence. Until disproved I am inclined to accept the second reading as the correct one. Another possible conjecture as to the nationality of the person commemorated by the stone is that he was a Talaing uobleman with a Siamese title. This is historically reasonable. On the tablet, already mentioned {ante, p. 343), shewing two grotesque female figures is an inscribed monogram, of which he accompanying cut gives a full-sized tracing. The characters of this monogram hear a strong resemblance to the lapidary character of Burma. The Pegu tablets at the Phayre Museum are then clearly of two types — grotesques and portraits, and, although all are said locally to.be from the same place,, i. e^ Mr. Jackson's Garden, I believe that this is an error, and that the grotesques came from the garden, and the portraits from the neighbourhood of the four colossal figures of Gautama Buddha, about six miles distant, known as the Kyaikp'un Pagoda. If this belief is correct, the inscription just examined would tend to shew that the Siamese had a hand in its erection, and for external evidence of such a supposition may be consulted Fergusson's statements and plates in his- History of Indian AroMtecture, at page 663 S., and especially at page 680.^^ The grotesques divide themselves into four groups — figures marching armed, figures fighting, figures in fiight, and figures in attitudes of supplication. It may be, therefore, fairly guessed that they represent the march, battle and defeat of a foreign army, such as that of Hanum9.n in the Rdmdyana,, the story of which, by the way> is quite well known in Burma as the Ydmaydn&,, or popularly as the Ydmamtfi"^ 8. Images, and ' enamelled ' pagodas at Thatdn. Perhaps the most interesting thing yet unearthed at Thatdn is a stone image in bas- relief about three feet high, which was found quite lately, at 14 ft. below the surface, in digging a well in a garden near the Shanzu KyaungS. The owner has now set it up on a modern Burmese throne; or polM, beside a pipal tree on the neighhonring road-side, and has huilt a, tazaung (tans^aung; a building with terraced roofs and ' umbrella ' top) over it. The image is now entirely gilt, and the throne and tazaung ornamented with modern Burmese "^ glass ' and gold decoration. The money for the purpose is being collected from worshippers en the spot, and perhaps the owner will, in the end, make a small living out of it, as does the guardian of the curious P'op'o images.^* The image is that of a man standing upright, with long arms,, broad shoulders, large- lobed ears and curly hair. The right arm hangs down straight,, but the left is doubled up so that the tips of the fingers touch the top of th« shoulder. Under the arm-pit is a representation of a palm-leaf MS,, covered over with a cloth, in the style still in use. It bears a striking resemblance to the colossal Digambara Jain figures of Western India shewn, ante. Vol. II. p. SSSi and in Fergusson's History of Indian AroMtecture,. p. 268. It is not,, however, Haked.^' Bad weather prevented the taking of a photograph of this image, but it is well worth reproduction and study. 56 The point is, of course, at present very obscure. See post, p. 354 f., for further- argumemts as to it. 67 VoTzit see above, note 26. The pictures in Growse's BSanSnjana of Tulsi D&s may be usefully compared with these grotesques ; see Book VI., Lank^. 68 See ante, Vol. XXI. p. 381. He had started a box with a slot in it in April 1892 ! 59 The statue at Karkala [ante, Vol. II. p. 353) is dated Saka 1353 = A. D. 1432. 20 NOTES ON ANTIQUITIES IN RAMANNADESA. There is in the courtyard of the Shwlzayan Pagoda at Thatdn, and again at Martaban,""* near the point where the Government Telegraph cable crosses the Salween from Manlmain, a so- called enamelled pagoda, locally presumed to be of great age. The t'%%, as well as the upper rings of the pagoda spire itself, is covered with glazed ware in several colors. The pagoda at Martaban, which is quite small, has a peculiarly venerable appearance from having been split from the crest downwards by a young pvpal tree, which has taken root in the tH%, The enamelled appearance is produced by nailing on to the brick and plaster work small plates of lead covered over with a silica glaze in various colors ; brown, grey, yellow, gold and green. The antiquity of the work may be well doubted, as the plates at Martaban, at any rate, were fastened on with European nails,^i The Great Kyaikkauk Pagoda near Syriam is similarly "glazed." (B. B. Gazetteer, II. p. 283 f.) 9. Bemarks on Pagodas. The form of the MulSk Pagoda at That6n has been already commented on, being that of a Sinhalese dagaba.^^ xhat is, it consists of three square terraces surmounted by what was a stupa, and is now, after restoration, a modernized pagoda .with the usual conventional t'jS. These terraces represent the three procession paths found round all Sinhalese ddgdbasP The style is repeated at Borobudur in Java, but with five procession paths in place of three. That the Thaton sample was not an isolated instance in RamaiiBadesa has been already noted,** and that the mere form itself does not argue antiquity can be seen from the SiSbyd Pagoda at Myingun, which was built under B6d6p'aya in 1816 A. D., where precisely the same arrangement occurs. This leads to the reflection that form alone can never be relied on for estimating the age of a pagoda in Burma, because of the tendency to go back to the old types : e. g., the great Kaung'mudo*^ (royal work of merit) Pagoda near Sagaing,** the date of which is known to be about 1650 A. D.*' and which is a stiipa with stone railing after the Bhilsa type : e. g,, also, the great pagoda of Bodop'aya (1781 to 1823 A. D.) at Myingun, which, had it been finished, would have been a stupa raised upon a square base in most approved ancient form, as may be seen from the model still existing at Myingun.*^ In the village of Syriam, on the high road to the Kyaikkauk Pagoda, just facing what must have been the old east gate of the city walls, is a small ruined pagoda of the true stu-pa type. It is one of thirteen small pagodasy also mostly in ruins, but not of ancient form. To these I would add the remains of the Mahacheti Pagoda at Pegu, the date of which lies between 1551 A. C, and 1581, and the resemblance of which to a true stupa is most remarkable. That the elongated pagoda of Burma at the present day is the lineal descendant of the dagoba of Buddhist India there can be little doubt, but, owing to the recurrence of ancient types in modern, times, all that can be predicated of any particular sample from form alone is that the greatly elongated spiral form is not likely to date beyond a century or so ^ Portuguese, thronj!:li (?) Arabic, form of the Talaing M4ittama = Burmese Moktama (see also Crawfnrd, op. cit.) = P^i, Muttima. In Wilson's Burmese War, X827, it appears ^s Mautama. 61 A devout my 88k, or subordinate magistrate, caused the pagoda at Thaton to be white-washed in honor of new year's day, 1254 (B. E. = 14th April 1892). There is no greater destroyer of ancient monuments in the world than the devout Burmese " restorer" of sacred buildings. His doings at Bnddha GayS in 1876 caused the deputation thither of Rajendralala Mitra on behalf of the Bengal Government, and resulted in the now well 'known volume, Buddha Qay&, 82 Sinhalese visitors have recognized this. B. B. Gazetteer, Vol. II. p. 717. s' Fergusson, Ind. Archit. Ch. viii. and pp. 624, 643 ff. Anderson, Mandala/ij to Momien, 18 : Strettell, Picus Elastica, 4, 43 : Yule, Ava, 172. ** There is a minor instance at Martaban of obviously no great age in the S.-E. corner of the courtyard of the Myajj^ndan Pagoda. This dagoba, for one can hardly call it anything else, is a cylindrical structure ten feet high and ten feet in diameter, surmounted by the usual Burmese pagoda spire and t'tl. It rises out of three square terraces, which have been evidently superimposed on an old base. All the ornamentation is modern Burmese : four niches at the base of the cylinder, and four manusslhas at the corners of the uppermost terrace. 8' PAH names Chulamani, ESjachuISmani, Bajamanich'&Ia. '6 Spelt ChachkonS = pron. Sitkaing and Sagaing : Pali J^yapura. " There is an inscription of great historical importance in the courtyard — vide Tule, Ava, p. 66 and Appx. B. Of this I have lately procured a hand copy. •* See Tule, op. cit. p. 169. NOTES ON ANTIQUITIES IN RAMANNADESA. 21 — ^ — ■ ~- 9 back. The great sample of tlie elongated style is the Shw6dag6n at Rangoon, which is historically known to have been continually enlarged (i, e., to consist of a series of pagodas huilt over smaller ones), from the days of Binyawaru (1446 — 1460 A. D.) and Qneen Shinsobu (1453—1460 A. D.) of Pegu to those of S'inbyuyin (1763—1775 A. D.) of the Alompra Dynasty, under which last ruler it finally attained its present shape and height in 1768 A. D. I hope in due cCTurse to return to this important subject later on and to examine the pagoda forms of Burma in detail. 10. The SliwSSayaung at Pegu. The enormous recumbent figure of Gautama Buddha, the Sh-wSBayaung, as it is called (see Plate XYII.), in the Zainganaing Quarter of Pegu, has been noted by Mr. Taw Sein Ko (ante, Vol. XXI. p. 384). This evidently was one of the sights in days gone by of a part of the town that was set apart for the priests, for the Kalyagt P^ag is not far distant, the forgotten pagoda with its huge tank in Mr. Jackson's Garden (ante, p. 340) is close by, and the Mahacheti Pagoda is not far off. It had an enclosure of its own surrounded by a wall. It is now a very proBfiinent object of red brick on a platform of squared laterite blocks, but the restorers have begun on it and plastered the face already, and no doubt the efforts of the pious will, in time, result in the plastering of the whole body. To the antiquarian it is remarkable for having a lost history. It is probably about 400 years old, and yet there is no history at all attached to it ! What story there is about it is in fact an example of the utter extinction that at times overtakes an Oriental deltaic town upon conquest. Pegu was taken by Alanngp'aya in 1757 A. D., and utterly destroyed for a generation. So completely were the inhabitants dispersed that, when the city was repopulated under S'inbyuyin, who conciliated the Talaings, about 20 years after its destruction, all remembrance of this image, 181 ft. long and 46 ft. high at the shoulder, had disappeared! And this, though it was within a mile of the new- town and surrounded by monasteries ! The place on which it was situated had become dense jungle, and the image itself turned into what appeared to be a junglO'COvered hillock, or at best a tree-hidden ruin. In 1881 the Burma State Railway ran past Pegu, within half a mile of the image, and laterite was required for the permanent way. A local contractor, in searching for laterite in the neighbourhood, came across a quantity in the jungle, and on clearing the place uncovered the image, which has ever since been an object of veneration. A similar complete depopulation seems to have been effected at Bassein about*^ 1760 A. D. by Alanngp'aya-, for the British Burma Gazetteer accounts for the absence of native histories of Bassein by the utter destruotion of the town that then took place, 11. Some details of the Plates, Plate I. The small figures in part of a circle at the top of the drawing represent the Sangha, or Church, seated round the Buddha, who is not visible in bhe plate. I have a curious brown glazed brick from Wun^fi, which shews four figures seated in a tazaimg or zayat. It is inscribed with the words, in clear Burmese characters, "Tatiya Sanghdyandtah han" which in Burmese wquld be read Tatiyd, Ping'dyandtin han, and may be translated, " the picture of the Third Convocation hearing the precepts of the Buddha." Yand, to the modern Burman, is one of the early convocations of the Buddhist Church rehearsing the teachings of the Buddha : yandtin is the holding of such a convocation: han means "having the appearance of." It is reoia verb.^* A careful comparison of the figures shewn in this Plate with those described in the next will shew that the figures of the Parm Cave are identical with those of the K6gun Cave in point of age and character. / " ^ / . *' See ante, p. 18. There is a recumbent Buddha at Peohabwri in £^iam 145 ft. long ; see Bowridg's Siam, I. 167 : and one in Bangkok, 166 ft. long, op. dt., I. 418. '0 This ' Third Convoeation ' is a great landmark iji Burmese ecclesiastical history. The Burmans mean by it Ji^oka's Third Council, which, aocordiugto them, was held in the Tear of Religion 235-236 = 307 B. C. Also, accord- ing to them, it was as a result of this Convosatipn that they adopted the Buddhist faith. See Bigandet, Life ar,d Legend oj Gaudp,ina, II. 139 ; ante, p. 16. NOTES ON ANTIQUITIES IN RAMANNADESA. Plate la. ImDEX PLflT£ OP PukTE I a NOTES ON ANTIQUITIES IN RAMANNADESA. 23 Explanation of Index Plate la. Figures (1) and (2) are two figures on one throne {palinf^"). Fig. (1) is the Buddha in priestly eostume. Fig. (2) is the Buddha as ZabUbadS. In this case the sole of the right foot is not exposed. The material is wood. Fig. (3) is a " Shan Buddha," Priestly Costume 5 the sole lof the right foot is not exposed ! material, wood. The same is to be said of figs. (4), (9), (11), (12), (13), and (14), all carved in a series of thrones or niches in the same piece of wood ; also of figs. (33), (34), (40), (41), (43). Pig. (35) shews the same in stone. Figures (5) and (6) are priestly disoiples in the attitude of adoration : material, wood. Bo is fig. (7) : material, stone. Figure (10) is very interesting as being a " Cambodian tower '' in wood, exhibiting the four Buddhas of this dispensation, Kakusandha, Kdnagamana, Kasapa, Gdtama. FigAre (8) is Zabtlbadd in the attitude of submission to the Buddha after his con- version ; material, wood, Figures (15), (16), (17) and (18) shew the Buddha seated in the coils of the serpent Ananta, as on a throne. The serpent is three»headed : the three heads being grotesqued and conventionalized in true Burmese fashion. In both these instances the Buddha has both soles exposed : material, wood. Figures (19) and (23) shew what is known in Burma as a " Siamese Buddha" (Tod'aycl P'ayd). It is winged after the fashion of Indian and Sinhalese Buddhas : material terra-cotta. Fig. (36) exhibits the same in stone. Figures (20) and (37) shew the Buddha as ZabtlbadS : material, wood. Fig. (24) exhibits the same in terra-ootta : and figf. (39) in stone. So does fig. (42) in stone. Both soles are exposed, probably, in each case. Figures (21) and (22) are two figures of the Buddha as ZabubadS on one throne. In this case the sole of the right foot is not exposed : material, wood. Figures (26) and (28) exhibits the Buddha in priestly costume, both soles exposed ; but the type is antique. Figure (26) exhibits the head of the Buddha of the Shan type in plaster. Figure (27) is the backgroand in wood of a throne and had originally an image fixed on to it. It is chiefly interesting as shewing symbols of the sun and moon (?), one above the other. Figures (29) and (30) shew the janitors of a shrine, much in the fashion common on doorways in Ceylon and in Cambodia. Material, wood. Compare Plates IV. fig. 1, X. fig. 3, XIV. fig. 16, of Forchhammer's Report on the Antiquities of Arakan for similar figures. Figure (31) is an image of Ma]?6ndayS in terra-eotta. Figure (38) shews two images of the " Shan Buddha" seated on the same throne : material, wood. It will be perceived that the pagoda, at the foot of whicb the images have been placed, has been broken into for treasure. This pagoda is that shewn again in Plate V. Plate III. This plate shews the elevation of the Entrance Hall of the Kbgnn Cave, which is alluded to in p. 336, ante, where a sketch plan of it is given. An examination of the plate through a magnifier will shew the extent to which the rock has been ornamented by lines of terra-cotta tablets, stuck on by cement and faced for the most with representations of the Baddha seated " Spelt pdJtonS = PS[i paHoJiio. 24 NOTES ON ANTIQUITIES IN RAMANNADESA. iD priestly costume, or as Zabubade. See Plates XVI. and XVIo, and also ante, p. 334, wkere a full-sized representation of the back of one of these tablets is given. Plate ir. Index Plate 0/ Plate IV, NOTES ON ANTIQUITIES IN RAMANNADBSA. 25 Explanation of Index Plate IV. This Plate shews the mural decoration of the Kbgnn Cave to consist mainly of terra-cotta tablets, faced with representations of the Buddha, seated as already described. But a few facts are brought prominently to notice in it. Figure (1) is the recumbent Buddha of not an unusual type. Eigure (2) is a seated image of the type explained below, p. 354,. Plate Vll. Figures (3), (6) and (13) are representations of the Buddha preaching, a form which is very rare in modern figures, but which must have been common enough when these caves were decorated. I have photographs of a fine set of very ancient type in wood, now at the Shinbinkuji Pagoda in Talokmyo, which were taken thither from the l>itsaban Hill at Legaing, the ancient Vanij]'agiima in the Minbu District, one of the oldest sites in Upper Bnrmah.'^ On& of these is now set up (restored) at the Sule Pagoda in Rangoon. Figure (13) has been accidentally cut out of the Plate, but is in the original photograph. Figure (7) represents the Buddha with his I>al}3k, or begging bowl. Figures (8), (9), (10) and (12) are interesting as shewing images of the Buddha (Shan type) with one sole only exposed. Fig. (11) shews him as Zabubade with a septuple tiara on his head. Figure (4) also shews the great hexagonal ornamented stalagmite, which is to be better seen on Plate VII. Figure (5) exhibits the damage, almost universal in pagodas found in or near the Caves, and done in order to get at the contents of the treasure chamber. See ante, p. 333. The day when this Cave was visited happened to be that of the annual new year's feast, and a couple of boys, worn out with the fatigues of the festival, are to be seen asleep in the foreground. The human figures in the photograph are useful to shew the proportions of tha various objects shewn. Figure (14) is an inscription in modern Burmese characters on plaster, which has partly peeled off. The figures 2157 can be made out on the original photograph through a magnifier. Given that this refers to " the Year of Religion," or Anno Buddhse, it yields the date 1613 A. D. At any rate the inscription is worth looking into, for there should be no difficulty in reading it. Its situation is marked in the sketch plan, ante, p. 336. Plate V. This shews a pagoda which has been twice dug into in search for treasure." Of the mural decoration the objects of chief interest are a prominent figure of the Buddha preaching, and the small alabaster figures placed in hollows and on l^ges in the upper part of the rook. The boys in the foreground are some of those, who had come to be present at the new year festival noted in describing the last plate. Plate VI. This plate gives a view, shewing the way into the Main Hall from the Entrance Hall, and shews that the decoration of roof and walls by means of plastering them with terra-cotta tablets extends even to the recesses of the Main Hall. It also shews usefully the extraordinary richness of the remains and the confusion into which they have now fallen. '3 See ante. Vol. XXI. p. 121; Vol. XXII. p. 6. 's This is the pagoda which appears in Plate la. Alexander, Travels, 1827, p. 18, says that about Bangoon a good deal of this kind of damage was due to the European troops in the First War. 26 NOTES ON ANTIQUITIES IN RAMANNADESA. TLe main features of interest in the plate are those noted in tlie Index Plate. /'■■^-vX '- Index Plate to Plate VI. NOTES ON ANTIQUITIES IN RAMANNADESA. 27 In many samples in this Plate, notably in figs. (1), (5), (7) and (9), it will be observed that the right sole is not exposed : and this in instances where the figares have obviously been built up of brick and plaster. Figures (2) and (3) represent devotees in- an attitude of prayer, and so does fig. (6), giving the back view of a favorite attitude. Figure (4) is* sample of a "Tod'aya P'aya." Figure (7) is especially interesting as being that of the Buddha enthroned in the jaws of a gigantic three-headed serpent, figs. (8), (8), (8). Each head has been conventionalized in the manner already described. I possess a fine example from Amarapura in wood of the Buddha seated on a throne, canopied by a seven-headed serpent, but the example in the Plate is, so far as I am yet aware, unique. Plate TIL, Plate Vlll.fig. 2, Plate IX., Plate IXa, Plate XIL, Plate XIII., Plate XV. fig. 1. Plate XV. fig. 1 exhibits what is known as the Kyaikp'i Kyaikp'un, or simply as the Kyaikp'un, Pagoda near Pegu. The remaining plates exhibit glazed bricks found in its neighbourhood, or in Mr. Jackson's, Garden in the Zainganaing Quarter of Pegu, or presumed to have come from these two spots. I think an examination of the Kyaikp'un Pagoda may throw light on the probable origin and date of these peculiar bricks, which I take to be conventional portraits and commemo- rative of devotees. Now the Kyaikp'un Pagoda, a huge mass of brick 90 ft. high,^* shews, I think, the influence of the Cambodian style of architecture. That is, it is a solid square brick tower, on each face of which sits a huge figure of one of the four Buddhas of this dispensation, viz., Kakusandha, Konagamana, Kassapa, and Gotama. Compare this plate with those given in Fergusson's Indian Architecture, fig. 378, p. 680, and I hardly think that there can be much doubt about it. I have also a carious series of coarse chromolithographs by M. Jammes of his visit to Angkor Thorn, which confirms this view. The extension of Cambodian, and later of Siamese, power, for a time, as far west as Pega can, I think, be shewn historically.^^ The Siamese influence seems to have been strongest in the latter part of the 13th and early part of the 14th centuries: in the 15th century we find the native Talaing Dynasty firmly established. The Cambodians were overthrown by the Siamese in the 1 4th century, and their inflaence was not apparently felt in RamannadSsa after the 10th century. So that, if the Cambodians had a hand in the design of this tower, it must date back at least to the 10th century, and to "its being a well-known structure in Talaing times in the 15th centnry we have the testimony of the Kalyani Inscriptions, in which it appears as the Mahabuddharupa near a ferry over the Yoga, or Pegu, River.'* Plate XIII. goes to further shew the influence of Cambodian art in this region. The glazed brick shewn here is from the Zainganaing Quarter of Pegu and the costume of the fio-ures is strongly Cambodian.'' Plates IX. and IXa exhibit two couples of figures of the portrait class, both, I believe, from Zainganaing. They also shew two versions of the inscription described ante, p. 343 f. Plate IX. shews the inscription as described, and Plate IXa shews it in a more cursive form, which is interesting on that account. Apart from the testimony of the inscription the costume " See ante. Vol. XXI. p. 383. There is in the Phayre Museum a small stoiie object (broken) with the four Buddhas Beated back to back. It was taken from the neighbourhood of the Kyaip'un Pagoda, and may well have been a votive model of it. In Buchanan-Hamilton's " Account of the Eeligion and Literature of the Barmas " in Asiatic Researches, vi., 265, the Four Buddhas turn up as Ohauohasam, Gonagom, Gaspa, and Godama ! In Malcolm, Travels, Vol. ii. p. 284, they are Kaukathan, Gaunag6n, Kathapa and Gaudama, and in Siamese, Kakasan, Konagon, Kasap and Kodom. "> See Phayre, History of Burma, pp. 63-66 : ante. Vol. XXI. p. 3V7. '" Ante, p. 46. " But see ante, p. 344 f., as to a possible Siamese origin for these figures. 28 NOTES ON ANTIQUITIES IN RAMANNADESA. of tlie figures is Siamese or Cambodian, as also are the costnmes of similar figures in Plates ^ III. fig. 2, IX., IXa, and XII. from the same place. The figui-es are not clothed in Burmese fashion. 1 would draw attention to the head-dress of these figures, because if compared with that of the " Shiln Buddhas" and many non-Burmese figures shewn in Plates la, IV., VI. and \ II., as found in the caves about Maulmain, it will be seen that they ai-e identical, and give us a clue as to -when they must have been, deposited. In Plate VII., at the point indicated in the index plate below, is a remarkable seated figure of the Cambodian type, as shewn in Plate XIII. Index to Plate VII. Close to the Kyaikp'un Pagoda is a large metal image of the Buddha overgrown now by the roots of a huge pipaZ tree. In the illustration of this in Plate VIII. fig. 2 are to be seen specimens of glazed bricks, shewing precisely the class of 'portraits' above described. The inference is that whatever the date of the Kyaikp'un Pagoda itself may be, that is also the date of the bricks seen in the Plate. The structures in the Zainganaing Quarter, whence these figures came, can be most safely attributed to a time before Dhammachfiti (the middle of the ]5th century), ^^ j^j,^ jf ^|^g " The great Mah-lcheti Pagoda in Zainganaing was, however, not built till the 16th century, and the Kalyani Pong was built by Dhammachrtl. NOTES ON ANTIQUITIES IN RAMANNADESA. 29 date of the Kyaikp'un Pagoda is to, be placed earlier than the 13tL century, we get a date for these glazed portrait bricks, OTZ., at. the latest the 10th century A. D., and by analogy a similar date for the deposit of similar votive offerings iu the caves. Assuming the. remains to be of Cambodian origin, then, as the Cambodian power lasted in these parts from the 6th to the 10th centuries, the period between them would be that in which the bulk of the older deposits must have been made.* To sum up the evidence so far available, it may be said that the older cave remains, if Cambodian, date between the 6tli and 10th centuries A. D. : if Siamese, the date must be put forward to the 13th or 14th century. Plate VIII. fig, 1, and Plates X, and XL Index to Plate VIII. fig. 1. Plate VIII. fig. 1 shews selected specimens from the collection of glazed bricks from Pegu (see ante, p. 340) in the Phayre Museum, Rangoon. Some are said to have come from Syriam, but I cannot say which. They are sufficient in number and variety to shew the point of the remark already made that the whole set must have represented the march, battle, flight and defeat of an ogre army. The march of armed ogres is depicted in figs. (13), (14), (16), (16), and (17) : the battle in figs. (1), (2), (7), (8), (9), (10), (11) and (12): the flight in figa. (6) and (18) : the defeat, as shewn in attitudes of supplication, in (3), (4), (5), and (19). Plates X. and XI. shew some similar figures to those in this instructive Plate, in greater detail. In Plate X. two couples of the army marching are shewn, and one, fig. (3). of the flight. Figure (4) represents the prisoners, two Women in the tight, fitting dravers^ or girded skii^t, of the lower orders of the Malays and Siamese. The trunk ajid legs, as amongst these women etill, are bare, Plate XL exhibits the ba,ttle in figs. (§), (6) ^nd (7),, whUe fig-- (8) represents the flight. 30 NOTES ON ANTIQUITIES IN RAMANNADESA. The figures are further extremely instructive in the matter of costlime, and how instructive in the matter of arms, the accompanying drawing, taken by Mr, D. M. Gordon of the Burma Secretariat from the original bricks, will shew. The d'ds or knives are shewn in figs. (1), (4), (6), (9), (10) : an adze in fig. (2) : daggers in figs, (5), (8): spears in figs. (3), (7), (8), (11), (13) ; round embossed shields (? of leather) ifl figs. (1), (2), (5), (fig. (5) has a peculiarly Indian attitude and appearance), (6), (14) : square shields (? of bamboo) in figs. (9), (10), (13) : a Malay Ttris in fig. (14) : a wooden mallet in fig. (15) ; an Indian composite bow, with arrow in fig. (12) (the arrow appears to have palm-leaf 'feathers') i a Kachin cross-bow and arrow in fig. (14) : and a quoit in fig. (7). NOTES ON ANTIQUITIES IN EAMANNADBSA. 31 _•_ From Plate XI. fig. 8, I extract two more varieties of armament : an axe and a, pestle.^' The two axes and the drum below are taken by myself from bricks in the Phayre Museum, which are not shewn on the Plates, Matiy more forms could, 1 think, be made out from a careful examination of the whole 110 bricks in the Museum, but enough have been given to shew the value of these bricks historically. I wouldj however, warn antiquaries that it is quite possible that these bricks represent the Ydmazdt, which is the Rdmdyaria in disguisCj and that it is not, therefore, to be assumed from them that such foreign articles as the composite bow and the round embossed shield exhibit anything more than what the artists had seen' in piotures< Flates XlIJa, XIV. and XIFa. These represent sculptured stoHes from IThatdli. One wotild say that they were unique in Burma, were it not for the description of Paglin in Yule's Ava, p. 54, and in Crawfiird's Aiia, p. 691®" They are prima facie Hindu, and VaiSlinava Ot SaiVa in type, according to the reading of the symbols Carved on them.^i But 1 think Rajendralala Mitra's remarks in Buddhd Oayd, p. 138 f., are instructive in this connection, as shewing how much Taatrik Hinduism and Buddhism are mixed up in Buddhist sculpture in Gaya itself. He also shews that a Burmese inscription was found at the foot of an image of 'Siva and Pflrbati ! (page 227). The head-dresses of the figures are remarkable, presuming them to precede the figures in the Cave remains. It will be seen that they are practically the same as those attributed to '9 One of the " elephants " in Plate X. fig. 2, has a distinct axe it. his hand. " Crawfurd's remarks, page 70, in explanation, I think, hit the right nail on the head. Tn his Siam, p. 150, Oraufurd makes the following statement, which may prove of use in this connection. " Some questions put to our visitor upon the present occasion, respecting the origin of the Hindu images we saw in the temple, elucidated A, point of some consequence in the history of Hindu emigration. They stated that the images in question were brought to Siam from Western India in the year 765 of the vulgar era of the Siamese, which corresponds with the year 1406 of our time. This fact, if correct, proves that an intercourse subsisted between Western India and Siam a full century before Europeans had foaud their way to the latter country." « See ante, Vol. XXI. p. 381. 32 NOTES ON ANTIQUITIES IN EAMANNADESA. Cambodian origin, ante, p. 354, and, for the matter of that, approach very closely to those noted in BicddJia Gayd, Plates XIII., XXI. and XXV. Given that these stones represent Buddhist sculptures, they would shew that the Tantrik or Korthern Buddhism was once prevalent in the neighbourhood of That6n,s3 a view confirmed by the remarks made ante Vol. XXI. p. 381, concernipg the "Hindu" nature of the glazed tablets round the Pajilp'aya, and further by the presence of the image of Mabondaye in the Caves. MabdndayS, respresents the Earth Goddess, Vasundhara, who is the Vasudhara of Cunningham's Mahdbodhi and the Prithivi D6vi of Rajendralala Mitra.^' She is Vajra- varahl and Vajra-kaiika, mother of the Buddha, according to the Northern belief. Her image is, at Buddha G-aya, often distinctly Hindu in type, with 4, 6, and even 8 arms.^* As Mabondaye she is to be seen in Burmese sculptures in. many places, notably at the Mahamuni Pagoda at Mandalay, and I am, as at present advised, strongly inclined to hold that the four- armed female (?) figure in Plate Xllla is simply Vasudhai'ii.^^ It should also be noted that RajendralAla Mitra points out, at p. 6 of his Huddha Gai/d, that her colt appeared very early in Buddhism. The presence of Tantrik Buddhism in Burma is a point of more importance than it would at first appear. The usual belief, based on local tradition, is that the Burmans got their Buddhism through Pali from Ceylon, This belief does not, however, stand historical criticism as clearly as it should to be undeniably correct,^^ and if it can be shewn that the sculptural remains all over the country are of Tantrik origin, the opposite theory, based on criticism, that the Burmans really got their culture and religion overland, or by sea, from the North, will gain overwhelming support. Here, at any rate, is a pretty bit of evidenoe of the early presence of Northern Buddhism in That6n from a native writer of much learning on the points of which he treats Sarat Chandra Das, in his Indian Pandits in the Land of Snow, p. 50 f., gives a short life of Dipankara Srijnana, Atisa, and says that he "was born A, D. 980 in the royal family of Gaur at Vikramaijipur in Bangilla, a country lying to the East of Vajrasana (Buddha Gaya)," His name was ChEindragarbha and he was educated by "the sage Jltiiri, an avadhut adept." " He acquired proficiency in the three pitakas oi the four classes of the Hinayana 'Sravakas, in the Vaiseshika philosophy, in the three pilahas of the Mahayana doctrine, the high metaphysics of the MAdhyamika and Togacharya schools, and the four olaases of Tantras, Having acquired the reputation of being a great panqlit in the Sastras of the Tirthikas he defeated a learned Brahman in disputation. Then preferring the practice of religion' to the ease and pleasures of this world, he commenced the study of the meditative science of the Buddhists, which consists of the trisiJishd of the three studies — morality, meditation and divine learning — , and for this purpose he went to the vihdra of Krishnagiri to receive his lessons from Rahula Gupta. Here he was given the secret name of GuhyajBana Vajra, and initiated into the mysteries of esoteric Buddhism. At the age of nineteen he took the sacred vows from 'Sila Rakshita, the Mahasatjgika Acharya of Odantapuri, who gave him the name of Dipafikara '2 Cunniugham, op. cit. p. 55, shews that it had completely gained ascend^Boy at Buddl^a GayS before the JMCusalm^n conquest in 3201 A. D. 8= Buddha GayS,, p. 139. ** For a thoroughly Tantrik conception of VivsundharA see Forohhammer, Rejiort on Ant. in Araha/n, p. 19 where he translates an inscription j— " May Ti),aundhara, whose extent measures ?40,000 ydjanas, raise an acola,' raation of ' e&dhu, s^idhu,' as a witness to this gogd work of mine." But I must say that I cannot clearly follow the passage, or the name, in the text given. 85 Compare BuMk-i Gay&, Plates XXI. fig. 2, and SX. fig. 4, Oldfield's remarks on the Nepalese representa, tions of Dharmx, Sketches from Nipal, Vol. II. p. 160 ff., may be rea,d with much instruction in this connection. See, also, his illustration at Vol. II. p. 157 of the Triratna,. SB Vide Mr. Ffonlkes' article on Buddhaghosg,, ante, Vol. SIX. p. 105 ff., and Mr. T^w Seiu-Ko's article cm Sanskrit words in the Burmese language, ante, Vol, X-^I. p. 94 ff., an^ ante, p. 162 ff. NOTES ON ANTIQUITIES IN RAMANNADESA. 33 BrijBana. At the age of thirty-one he was ordained in the highest order of Bhikshn, and also given tlie vows of a B6dliisattva by Dharma Rakshita. He received lessons in metaphysics from several eminent Buddhist philosophers of Magadha." He was in short a typical Northern teacher of the time. Now Sarat ChaflHra Das goes on to tell ns that Dipankara " on account of these divers attainments, which moved his mind variously in different directions, resolved to go to Achftrya Chandrakirtti, the High Priest of Suvarjiadvipa. Accordingly, in the company of some merchants, he embarked for Suvarnadvipa in a large vessel. The voyage was long and tedious, extending over several months, during which the travellers were overtaken by terrible storms. At this time Suvarnadvipa was the headquarters of Buddhism in the East, and its High Priest was considered the greatest scholar of his age. Dipankara resided there for a period of twelve years, in order to completely master the pare teachings of the Buddha, of which the key was possessed by the High Priest alone." On his return he took up his residence at the shrine of the Mahiibodhi at Vajrasana (Buddha Gaya). Sarat Chandra Das also remarks, and he seems to be right in so doing, that Suvarnadvipa was That6n. Also, I cannot help quoting a note by Dr. Rost to p. 234 of Vol. I, of his edition of Mis- cellaneous Papers relating to Indo-Ghina in which, after describing Prof, Kern's work in con- nection with the Sanskrit inscriptions in the peninsula of Malacca, he says: — "These inscriptions confirm in a remarkable manner the conclusions to which the recent (1886) decipherments by Barth, Bergaigne, Senart and Kern, of the Cambodian inscriptions inevitably tend — viz., that Buddhism came to the peninsula and Camboja, not from Ceylon, but from regions on the coasts of India, where the so-called Northern type of that religion was current." That the great mediaeval revival of Buddhism in Burma was supported by Southern influ- ence is unquestionable, but it is far from proved as yet that the original Buddhism of the country was not directly Indian in origin, or that mediseval Northern Buddhism did not greatly affect the ideas of the people. As regards the educated, Tantrik worship anji philosophy would seem to have disappeared, bat, under cover of wflf-(spirit)worship, it would seem to still largely survive among the people. In any case, any such images as those under consideration are worth study, wherever found in order to settle the fundamental point now raised, To put the matter fairly before the student, it is right to add here the views that a capable Hindu scholar takes of the figures shewn on Plates Xllla, XIV., and XlVa, and so I give here verbatim an opinion kindly expressed for me by Paridit Hari Mohan VidyabhHshan, who has no doubt as to the Vaishiiava nature of the stones. He writes : — "Plates XIV. and XlVa illustrate the Ananta.sagya of Narayana (Vishnu), i. e., Vishnu is represented in human form slambering on the serpent Sesha, and floating on the waters before the creation of the world, or during the periods of temporary annihilation of the universe. The figure at the bottom of the- Plates is that of Narayana with four arms. He is floating on the waters reclining on the serpent SSsha. In Plate XlVa the hood of the serpent is visible. Two of the most common names of Vishnu are Chatur-bhuja (four-armed), and Ananta-sayana (he who sleeps on the serpent Ananta). From the lotus of his navel spring the three gods of the Hindu triad, — Brahma, Vishnu and MahSsvara. The three stalks of the lotus are very clear in Plate XIV. The figure on the right of the triad is Brahma with four Leads, whence his names Chaturunana (four-faced), Nabhija (navel born), and Abja-y6ni (lotus born). The figure in the middle with four arms represents Vishnu, the sanfc/ifl', or coQch, in his hand (in Plate XIV.) being visible. The figure on the left is Mahgsvara, the irisiUa in his hand being quite plain in Plate XIV. One of his names is Trisuli. ■34 NOTES ON AJSTTIQUITIES IN RAMANNADESA. " Plate Xllla represents Vishnu with fonr arms. With one of his left hands he is raising his gadd, or club called Tiaumodaki. The figure on his left is not quite clear, but seems to be an attendant." It will be observed that there are the remains of an inscription oil Plate Xlllct by the right arms of the large figure. I tried to make it out on the stone and failed, but from a plaster cast I had taken enough could be seen of it to determine the characters to be Burmese of the Kyauks^ type. Plate XV. fig. 2, This plate represents the tablet found in Pegu by Mr. Taw Sein-Ko (ante, Vol. XXt. p. 385), In the Phayre Museum there are three more such tablets : one from Pegu and two from Pagan.^' There is a number of such tablets in the British Museum and in the South Kensington Museum, brought thither from Buddha Gaya itself. They seem to be intended to taemo< rialize in a small space the life of the Buddha, after the fashion, on a much larger scale, of the stone slabs pictured by Oldfield, Sketches from Nipal, Vol. II. p. 56, and quite lately in Part II, of the Jonrnal of the Buddhist Text Society. The inscription on this particular tablet, which is in mediaeval Northern Indian characters, proves beyond all doubt, irrespective of its general form, that it is a specimen of a distinct claas of votive objects found in great numbers at Buddha Gaya. In Plate XXIV. of his MahabSdhi, Sir A. Cnnningham figures several of the tablets he found and calls them "terra- cotta seals," and I think the best explanation of them is that given ante, in Vol. XXI. p. 385, footnote, viz,, that there was a factory of Such objects at Gaya for the pilgrims, who took them thence all over the Buddhist world of the time as keepsakes and relics, and presented them to their own places of worship on their return home, The tablet figured in the plate is almost identical with the much finer specimen figured by Cunningham as fig, E, Plate XXIV. The only special remark I would make about it is that the serpentine objects towards the top of the tablet (see figure below) are not serpent heads, but the leaves of the Iddhi tree, known to the Burmese as nyaungywet. The institutiori of formal pilgrimages to Gaya froni Burma is ptovfed by tte iftscrlptioiiS there, dated in the llth century A. D., and it may be fairly argued that the presence of theete tablets in l^&gkix and tegu is due to the pilgrimages made from the former place in the llth century and from the latter, under the auspiceis oi the great revivalist king Dhammach^t), in the 15th centtiry. DhammachSti is well known to have sent a largd pilgrimage to Gayd. 8' See also Crawfutd's Avd, p. 69, In Porohliammer's Report on the KyauhTcu Temple at PagaUi similar tablets are shewn on Plates VIIj and VIII. Nos. 15, 16 and 17, but not described. Phayre, Hist of Burma, p. 14 f., seem* fco refer to these tablets > and so dees Clement Williamsj Thfougti BUrrhah to Chind, p. B7. NOTES ON ANTIQUITIES IN RAMANNADESA. ^6 Plates Xri. and XVId. As the figures in these two Plates have unfortunately not been mlmbered, it is necessaiy to give index numbers here, thus !-^ « Plate XVL 1 2 3 5 4 6 ? 8 Plate XVIa> 2 1 3 5 4 6 In Plate XVI. all the figures represent terfa-cotta tablets from D'ammal^a and KogUn, Figures (1), (4), (5) and (8) represent the Buddha as Zabubade, and l^igs. (2), (6) and (7) shew Lini dressed in priestly costume. Figure (7) is interesting as shewing in the original bad gilding, proved by the figure being now covered with verdigris. Figure (3) shews one of three small tablets found in the Kogun Cave. I cannot explain it further than by pointing out that it shews a king seated on a throne with, a standing female figure on either Mde of him and three seated Buddhas, or perhaps Buddha, Sangha and Dharma, over his head. In Plate XVIa -we have Fig. (1) the Buddha as ZabflbadS and in Fig. (3) ZablibadS him- self kneeling to the Buddha after his defeat. In Fig. (4) we see a specimen of a " Shau Buddha," with the right sole not exposed. All these are from Kbgun. Figure (2) exhibits a fine plaster head of the Buddha canopied by the grotesqued head of Ananta. This is from, the Farm Cave. In Figs. (6) and (6) are compared two images in wood, gilt, of priests or disciples praying to the Buddha. Pigare (5) is one of a modern set from Prome of the " eight attitudes of prayer." Figure (6) is from K6gun and is clearly ancient in form. Flates XVIII. and XIX. The fine situations of many pagodas and religious buildings in Burma has been, often remarked. The same may be said of many of the cities of the Burmese : — Rangoon, Maulmain, Prome, Pagan, Mandalay, Sagaing, Ava, Amarapura, are all placed in exceptionally fine situations. Even fiat Pegu looks well from the river. 'The site of the great, but abortive, pagoda at Myingun, opposite Mandalay^ is most striking. Another prominent feature in pagoda building is the habit the Burmese have, 'owing to the increased merit gained thereby, of erecting them in diflleult situations. The greater the difficulty, the greater the merit (Jcu]>o). This is common to all Burma, and it may be said that most difficult and naturally inaccessible hills have pagodas on the top, access to which is often only to be had by climbing rickety bamboo ladders up dangerous precipices and over deep clefts in tlie rock.* In Plate XVIII. is given a well-known Specimen of one of many similar pagodas in the Shwegyin District, i. e., in the heart of RamaSnadesa, It is only possible to reach it by •means of ladders. "8 This has been noticed by Clement Williams, Through Burmah to China, p. 64 j Maloom, Travels, 1839, il. 60, 36 NOTES ON ANTIQUITIES IN RAMANNADESA- Plate XIX. shews the approach to the D'ainmat>a Cave on the Jain River. This plate exhibits all the peculiarities above mentioned. It shews the very fine situation of the village of D'ammalJa, the small gilt pagoda on the summit of the hill overlooking the river, and the monastic buildings around it. The hill in the . distance is that in which the great eave i& situated and on its difficult summit are situated no less than three small pagodas. The Original PJwtographs. I desire to record fully the origin of the Plates, which has only been partially noted on the Plates themselves. Mr. P. Klier of Rangoon took Plates I., VI., VII., XVII., XVIII., and XIX. Mr. P. O. Cartel took Plates la, III., IV., V., VIII. Fig. 1, during the journey herein described. The late Mr. E. Eomanis took Plate II. many years ago. Messrs. Watts and Skeen of Rangoon took Plates VIII. Fig. 2, XV. Fig. 1, and at my special i-eqnest Plates IX., X., XI., XII., XIII., Xlllti, XIV., XlVa, XV. Pig. 2, XVI., XVIa. Mr. W. Eotoinson of the Oxford Museum took Plate IXa, also at my special request. 12. — Additional Notes.89 The Sculptures from TliatCm. There is a passage in Anderson's Mandalay to Momien, p. 216, which is extremely valuable for the purposes of the present discussions, for it seems [to settle the Northern Buddhistic nature of the remains from That6n. " In the khijoung [monastery] which formed our residence [at Momien], there was a figure of Puang-ku [i. e.. Pan Ku] the Creator, seated on a bed of leaves resembling those of the sacred •p-adma or lotus. This remarkable four-armed figure was lifesize and naked, save for garlands of leaves round the neck and loins. He was seated cross-legged like Buddha, the two uppermost arms stretched out, forming each a right- angle. The right hand held a white disc and the left a red one. The two lower arms were in the attitude of carving, the right hand holding a mallet and the left a chisel." Compare this description with Plate XIII., and there can be little doubt that the twG> representations are meant for the same mythological personage. As to Pan Ku, I gather from Mayer's Chinese Header's HandbooJt, pp. 173 (under Pan Ku), 201 (under Sze-ma Ts'ien), and 376 (Sung Dynasty), that this primordial being of the Chinese was unknown in 85 B. C, and is not heard of before 420 A. D. Now, according to Eitel, Buddhism,, p. 22fE., Buddhistic images and ideas first became popularized in China between G2 and 75 A. D under the Emperor Ming Ti of the Eastern Han Dynasty, and at once became allied with Tauism, which had at that time already descended to the level of the indigenous and popular aminism.'* Further, Pan Ku would also appear to be the counterpart, representative, or successor in art and sculpture, as well as iu association, of the Buddhist Dharma as conceived by the Northern sohoois.** In this connection, I may as well note here, as a proof of the survival of Tantrik notions among the modern Burmese, that I have been f or • some time collecting all the vernacuilar literature I can lay hands on about the "Thirty-seven IsTats," or chief spirits. I have amongst other documents four complete sets of drawings of the Thirty-seven Nilts. The drawings do not agree in numbering or nomenclature, but they all agree in giving two of theJIats four to six arms each.'^ I have already had occasion to remark that it is easy to mix up Buddhist and Hindu sculpture, and to mistake the former for the latter. Writing, as I now am, in the hope of 83 From information proonred since the pages of this article were set up. 9« See also Beal, Buddhist Records, Vol. i. p. x. 9i See Eitel, Op. cit., pp. 91-95ff.. '■i The stories of the Nats all purport to be historical and to state who they were in life. They seem to .-•iproach very closely to the "saints " of the Indian Musalm^ns, to the BhOtas of Southern India, and in some respects to the canonized caints of Kurope. Bowling shows, Siam, I. 291, that something very like AMt-worship is t'.om'^on in Sl.'.m. NOTES ON ANTIQUITIES IN RAMANNADE8A. 37 rousing students in Burma to a deep examination of the splendid antiquities about them, and observing, as indeed one cannot help doing, the unanimity with which they hold that Burmese Buddhism has always been what it is now, and their tendency to refer everything Vaishnava or Saiva in form to a supposed pre-Buddhistic Hinduism, I would draw prominent attention to some remarks ma^Je by Brian Hodgson nearly 70 years ago. The caution he inculcates is to my mind as important now as it was in those early days of Buddhistic research. Writing in 1827 and 1828, he^^ says : " It is the purpose of the following paper to furnish to those, who have means and inclination to follow them out, a few hints relative to the extreme resemblance that prevails between many of the symbols of Buddhism and Saivism. Having myself resided some few years in a Bauddha country [N6pal], I have had ample opportu- nity of noting this resemblance, and a perusal of the works of Crawfurd,''' of Raffles, and of the Bombay Literary Society, has satisfied me that this curious similitude is not peculiar to the country wherein I abide. I observe that my countrymen, to whom any degree of identity between faiths, in general so opposite to each other as Saivism and Buddhism, never seems to have occurred, have, in their examination of the monuments of India and its islands, proceeded on an assumption of the absolute incommunity between the types of the two religions, as well as between the things typified. This assumption has puzzled them not a little, so often as the evidence of their examination has forced upon them the observation of images in the closest juxtaposition, which their previous ideas, nevertheless, obliged them to sunder as far apart as Brahmanism and Buddhism. " When, in this country in which I reside, I observed images the most apparently Saiva placed in the precincts of Saugata [Buddhist] temples, I was at first inclined to consider the circumstance as an incongruity, arising out of ignorant confusion of the two creeds by the people of this country. But, upon multiplying my observations, such a resolution gave me no satisfaction. These images often occupied the very penetralia of Saugata temples, and in the sequel I obtained sufiGlcient access to the conversation and books of the Bauddhas to convince me that the cause of the difficulty lay deeper than I had supposed. The best informed of the Bauddhas contemptuously rejected the notion of the images in question being Saiva, and in the books of their own faith they pointed out the Bauddha legends, justifying and explaining their use of such, to me, doubtful symbols. Besides, my access feo the Euro" pean works, of which I have already spoken, exhibited to me the very same apparent anomaly existing in regions the most remote from one another and from that wherein I dwell. Indeed, whencesoever Bauddha monuments, sculptural or architectural, had been drawn by European curiosity, the same dubious symbols were exhibited ; nor conld my curiosity be at all appeased by the assumption which I found employed to explain them, I showed these monuments to a well informed old Bauddha, and asked him what he thought of them, particularly the famous Trimurti image of the Cave Temple of the west. He recognized it as a genuine Bauddha image ! As he did many others, declared by our writers to be Saiva ! The purpose of my paper is to show that very many symbols, the most apparently Saiva, are, notwithstand- ing, strictly and purely Bauddha ; and that, therefore, in the examination of the antiquities of India and its islands, we need not vex ourselves, because on the sites of old Saugata temples we find the very genius loci arrayed with many of the apparent attitudes of a Saiva god. Far less need we infer, from the presence, on such sites, of seemingly Saiva images and types, the presence of actual Saivism Upon the whole, therefore, I deem it certain, as " " On the extreme reaemlDlanoe that prevails between many of the symbols of Buddhism and Saivism." Oriental Quarterly Magazine, vii. 218ff. viii. 252fif. ; Languages, etc., of N^p&l, 133ff. 8' Q. Crawfurd, Sketches of the Hindus, 179^, or perhaps J. Crawfurd, History of the Indian Archipelago. In the former work, Vol. ii. p. H7fE., is an aooQUnt of the '' affinity between the religion of Siam, China, Japan, and Thibet, and that of Hindustan," the author remarking in a footnote to p. 117, " with the religion of Arraoan and Pegu we are not much acquainted ; but, as tar as I had been able to learn, it is almost the same with that of Siam." In 1786, Plouest, the traveller, sent home a long account of the " Eeligions des Peguans et dea Bramas " (T'oung Pao, ii. 7ff.), but it seems to have been official a,nd to have never been published till 18&1. 38 NOTES ON ANTIQUITIES IN RAMANNADESA. well that the types of Saivism and Buddhism are very frequently the same, as that the things typified are, always more or less, and generally radically, different." Pegu Jars. Anderson, English Intercourse with Siam in the Seventeenth Centtiry, page 95, giyes » reference to the Pegu jar, which is a valuable contributioii on the subject, to prove the spread of the article at that time. He quotes "a memorandum of 1664 preserved in the Public Resord Office, London, and entitled, 'The Trade of India as 'tis now managed by the English Company of Merchants trading in some parts of it is very invallid in comparison of what is now drove by our neighbour nation the Dutch.' " It states that "many sorts of clothing are sent into Pegu, a Port in y' Bay [ Bangala ] which returnes rubies and readie money, the coine or currant money of the place, allsoe Martanans Jarres. " Yule gives the quotation from Pyrard de Laval, already referred to, from the French edition of 1679 (i. 179), thus: — " Des iarres les plus belles, les mieux vernis et les mieux fa^onnees que j'aye veu ailleurs. II y en a qui tiennent aatant qu'vne pippe et plus. Elles se font au Royaume de Martabane, d'ou on les apporte, et d'ou elles prennent leur nom par toute rinde.'' Commenting on this passage in his edition of Pyrard (i. 259), Gray remarks,^* "Mr. Bell (Report on the Maldives, 18S0) saw some large earthenware jars at Male, some about two feet high, called rumba, and others large and barrel shaped, called mataban. The name seems to survive also on the Madras coast; e. g., we find in Mr. P. Brown's Zillah Dictionary, 1852, ' Martaban, name of a place in Pegu : a black jar in which rice is imported from (sie) thence.' " In Brovfu's Bietionary of the Mixed Dialects and Foreign Words used in Telvgti, 1854, I find, page 88 : "Martaban, a black Pegu jar; so called because imported from Martaban," Perhaps the neatest unconscious reference of all to the Pegu jar is in Hunter's Account of Pegu, 1785, which tells us (page 65) that "a foreigner may marry one of the natives, on which occasion he pays a stipulated snm to her parents ; but, if he leaves the country, he is not per- mitted to carry his wife along with him. So strict is the law in this particular, and so impossible it is to obtain a dispensation from it, that some men, who have had a great affection for their wives, have been obliged, on their departure, to carry them away secretly in jars which were supposed to be filled with water." I may as well summarize here, in tabular form, the history and wanderings of the Pegu Jar from the evidence alluded to above and ante, page 340f., including the statements made in Tule, Hobson-Jobson, s. v. Martaban. Date. Place. Name. Author. c. 748 Burma Parker. c. 832 Burma Parker. 1350 India Martaban Ibn Batata. c. U50 France Martabani "1,001 Jours." 1516 Pegu Martaban Barbosa. 1598 Do Martauana ... ' ... Linschoten. 1609 Philippines and Japan Tiber • ... De Morga. 1610 Maldives Martabane Pyrard de Laval. 1615 Poi'tiigal Martabania Du Jarric. ^ Pyrard was wrecked in the Maldive Islands on the 2Ba Jnly 1602. and was a captive there till February 1607 aod ,t w^ durmg b.s cap mty that be remarked on the Martaban jars, which he saw in the ships from Mogor (= the coast of Sindh and Gujarat), Arabia, and Persia. ^ NOTES ON ANTIQUITIES IN RAM-ANNADESA. 39 ■ Date. Place. Name. Author. 166-t Eiig]and Martanan... .„ Anderson. 1673 Frano^ ,, Merdebani , „. Galland. 1673 Western India Mortivan .., ,„ i.. Fryer. 1688 India < Montaban <.. Dampier. 1690 Moluccas Martavana ..< Bumpbi'Js. 1711 Pegu Mortivan ... .<. Locfcyer. 1726 India Martavaan Valentijn. 1727 Pegu MartaVaa Alex. Hamilton. 17' to India Pegu Jar ... .« Wbeeler. 1820 Arabia and Persia Martaban Fraser. 1833 Peg-tt , Pegu Jar ... ... Low. 1850 Borneo Gusib Boyle. 1851 alcutta and Maul Main Pegii-Jar ,. 1 Bxhibition Catalogue, 1851. 1852 North Madras ,. Martabin ,, Brown, 1880 Maldives ,. Mataban ^ Rumba) Bell, Some Forgotten Ancient Sites, The whole of Eastern Ramannadesa, now comprised in the Maulmein, or Amherst [Kyaikk'ami], District of Barma, having for centuries been the battle- ground between Burman, Talaing, Shan, Eare-n, Taung^u, SiaBoese, and Cambodian, — the cockpit, in, fact, of, Lower Burma, — is alive with historic memories and full of old. his'toric sites, which, perhaps patience and careful study, both of the surface of the country, and of the old MS. chronicles and records preserved in many parts of it, may yet recover to the student. Many of these places are now practically unknown even to the local residents, and certainly so to the world of orientalists in general. But, in one of the wildest pamphlets about Burma that it has been my lot to peruse, Ooryton'g Letter to the Liverpool Ohamber of Commerce on the prospects of a direct Trade Route to China through Moulmein, 1870,'^ at page 12, is preserved a paragraph from a Forest Report of 1848, which has a notice, worth following up, of some ruined sites along the I>aungjin river, forming part of the boundary between Burma and Siaim : — •' Before the occupation of these Provinces by the Burmese, the valley of the Thonngyeen was divided into four counties or jurisdictions, extending from Donaw to the Toungnyo range, and supported a considerable Talien [Talaing] population. The chief cities, the ruins of which may still be traced, were Meerawadie, Doungnney (now Wiensaw), Donnggryyeen (now Ekalaik), and Dong Thoungyeen. These were all situated on the now British bank of the Thoungyeen, whilst their rice cultivation lay on the other side of the river, now possessed by the Shans subject to Siam." For these town names read Mydwadi, Bongnwe, Winsb, DSngjhjin, T)6ng\>a'U,ngjin. All appear to be unknown to any fame, except Myawadi, which is mentioned in the British Burma Gazetteer, II. 797, and again at page 428. This time without any kind of mention as to its being a place of ancient historical interest. Mason, Natural Productions of Bitrma, page iii. of the 1850 Ed., gives a story of another site of similar name, Longyin, under the name Dongyang, in his own pecnliar romantic style ; and this story is partly repeated in the British Burma Gazetteer, II. 141, s.u. Doonreng : so difBcult is it in the present state of 96 The author was Recorder of Maulmain ; and for astonishing discursiveness and, to the Anglo-Burman, for amusing eomments on current local politics, I recommend this production. One gathers that he lived in per- petual hot water with the Grovernment, and one does not wondei. 40 NOTES ON ANTIQUITIES IN RAMANNADESA. Burmese transliteration to identify place names. Dongyin appears to be a Karen name according to Mason, who takes tte opportunity, as usual, to record the local folk-etymology thereof as the true one ! The Kogun Cave. The American Missionary, Malcom, travelled about the rivers which centre at Moulmein in 1835 with Judson, and gives an account, somewhat confused in its outlines, of the caves visited by myself. He says that he went to "the three most remarkable -— one on the Dah Gyieng and two on the Salween." I gather from his description tbat these were respectively the D'ammal)d on the Jain and the P'dgHt and Kbgun on the Salween. Of the last he gives an account in his Travels, Vol. II. p. 61f., which is sufficiently graphic to be worth repeating. " The entrance is at the bottom of a perpendicular, but uneven, face of the mountain, inclosed in a strong brick wall, which forms a large vestibule. The entrance to this enclosure is by a path, winding along the foot of the mountain, and nothing remarkable strikes the eye, till one passes the gate, where the attention is at once powerfully arrested. Not only is the space within the wall filled with images of Gaudama of every size, but the whole face of the mountain, to the height of 80 or 90 (? 50) feet, is covered with thenj. On every jutting crag stands some marble image covered with gold, and spreading its uncouth proportions to the setting (? rising) sun. Every recess is converted into shrines for others. The smooth surfaces are covered by small flat images of burnt clay and set in stucco. Of these last thgre are literally thousands. In some places they have fallen ofE with the plaster in which they were set, and left spots of naked rock, against which bees have built their hives undisturbed. Nowhere in the country have I seen such a display of wealth, ingenuity, and industry. But imposing as is this spectacle, it shrinks to insignificance, compared to the scene which opens on entering the cavern itself, It is of vast size, chiefly ip one apartment, which needs no human art to render it sublime, The eye is confused, and the heart appalled, at the prodigious exhibition of infa- tuation and fplly {seil., religions zeal of a different kind to the writer's). Everywhere on the floor, overhead, in the jutting pojnts, p-nd on the stajactite festoops op thp roof, are crowded together images of Gaudama, the offerings of sppcessive agps. Some are perfectly gilded, others iucrusted with calcareous piatter, gome fallen, yet sound, others mouldered, others just erected, Some of tjiese are of stupendous si?e, some not larger than one's finger, and some of all the intermediate sizes ; marble, ptone, wood, brick, and clay. Sopie, even of piavble, are so timcTWorn, though sheltered of coprse from changes of temperature, that the face and fingers are obliterated. In gome dark recpssps, bats wpre heard, and seemed nupierous, bpt could not be seen. Here and there are models of temples, kyoangs, &c., some not larger than half a bushel, and some 10 or 15 feet square, absolutely filled with small idols, heaped promiscuously one on the other. As we followed the paths which wound among the group of figures and models, every new aspect of the cave presented new multitudes of images. A ship of 500 tons could not carry away the half of them." •v^] . s 4 ^ 1 ■^ 1 i V O • U > O C (U o o C A \' '■mi:. tULI T! .^ ^14. «:S'.; «r ':"> r t^^i- .r^v ,^^^' ^^ *^f' ■-U "*»■, K-,s^?.*>l f#'" L'-^ F. Klier, riofo. VII. — The Great Stalagmite, Koguii Cave. Fig. I. Grotesque Figures from Pegu and Syriam. VIII. — Bas-reliefs on Glazed Terra-cotta Bricks. Fig. 2. Image of Buddha, with glazed terra-cotta bricks in situ, near the Kyaikpun Pagoda, Pegu. .w KS, ^4> "^^ *'-?\-**, p. I Watts ^ Skeen, Photo. IX. — Bas-relief on Glazed Terra-cotta Brick. Inscribed Tablet from Pegu. W. Robinwn, Oirfoi d Musetim, Photo IX«.-Bas-relief on Glazed Terra-cotta Brick. Inscribed Tablet from Pegu. I. Watts (^ SJceen, Fhoto. X. — Bas-reliefs on Glazed Terra-cotta Bricks from Pegu. Scale -17. 5- Waits S; Sheen, Photo. XI. — Bas-reliefs on Glazed Terra-cotta Bricks from Pegu. Scale -17. lO. II. Waits (S; Sheen, Photo. 12. XII.- — Bas-reliefs on Glazed Terra-cotta Bricks from Pegu. Scale -17. Watts S( Sheen, Photo. XIII. — Bas-relief on Glazed Terra-cotta Bricks from Pegu. Scale -26. '..^r JTii ■ Sf Skeen, Photo Xllla. — Bas-relief on Stone from Thaton. Scale about 'lo. XIV. — Bas-relief on Stone from Thaton. Scale -26. ''^t'U^'^ '^.^'^-^■i^^ < '/' Waits cf" iikeen, Photo. XlVfl. — Bas-relief on Stone from Thiton. •'-.4ig'»'i5 be ■ C3 3 H > o > 3 be OJ P-i Oj X XVI. — Figures and Votive Tablets from the Caves of the Amherst District. XVI«. — Figures and Votive Tablets from the Caves of the Amherst District. 3 ^ 2- "* t^4 XVIII.— The Kyaiktiyo Pagoda near Shwegyin. > u ni g s Q (U u ni O Vi a, a, < u H >< >< Date Due AU6-4 PRINTED IN (Of NO. 23233