• Pondaung Formation
• Fabricated Ancient Geography of Burma
• Purnavadana : Buddha's advice to Thera Punna
{poan~na. ma.htér}• Poannau-wa'da Sutta : Sixth Buddhist Council version in Pal-Myan
Update: 2020-06-13 01:08 AM -0400
AncGeog.htm
- Compiled and
Edited by U Kyaw Tun (UKT) (M.S., I.P.S.T., USA), Daw Khin Wutyi, Daw Zinthiri Han and staff of Tun Institute of Learning (TIL).
Not for sale. No copyright. Free for everyone.
Prepared for students and staff of TIL Research Station, Yangon,
MYANMAR
-
http://www.tuninst.net ,
www.romabama.blogspot.com
index.htm |
Top
TIL-PED-indx.htm
• Ancient Burma
• Pondaung Formation
• Fabricated Ancient Geography of Burma
• Purnavadana : Buddha's advice to Thera Punna
{poan~na. ma.htér}
• Poannau-wa'da Sutta : Sixth Buddhist Council version in Pal-Myan
See also Section 8: Myanmar: what the Earth has to say - earth-indx (link chk 200611)
Burma, now Myanmarpré, has been the Whipping boy of the East, first by the Poannars{poaN~Na:} who invaded the sub-continent of India which is geographically linked to Burma, at the turn of Bronze Age into Iron Age, and by the colonialists headed by the British and other Europeans: Dutch, French, Germans, Portuguese, Spanish, and now by the Americans.
Forget the ancient written records on stone, gold and silver sheets, and other writing materials - a lot of them based on the fertile imaginations of the authors - ancient and modern. I must now rely on the Mother Earth herself, and I must look into Cosmology, Geology, Geography and Paleoanthropology.
Who were our ancient ancestors, and how did they fared during geological changes from the days when the Earth was formed, continents drifted, new oceans come into being while old ones dried up and their floors raised to become high mountains? How did the changing geography shaped our ancestors, to make us what we are today? How did the land which we call our country come to have so many minerals and varied fauna and flora?
UKT 190508: While working on Pali and Sanskrit dictionaries, I got so sick of unseen entities such as gods & goddesses, devas and devis, and all the authoritative ancient texts on stone and on paper written by humans, that I have to turn to natural sciences now and then. I want to know about my birth country, Myanmarpré, not from human mouths, but from the Earth itself.
UKT 200608: When I first saw the title with the word Geography, in Ancient
Geography of Burma by Charles Duroiselle, Lecturer in Pali, Rangoon College
of the Calcutta University, 1906, I'd expected
to see what we generally mean by "geography". It is not so, but the article
is worth reading. The article is about a monk who went back to his native land
after receiving the Dharma
{Dam~ma.} from Gautama Buddha himself as told in a Sutta.
According to the Burmese sources, the protagonist of the Sutta
{poaN~Na. ma.htér} came to Burma, which the famed Pali scholar refutes. He does
not refutes the authenticity of the Sutta, but he refutes that his destination, Sunaparanta
{þu.na-pa.rûn~ta.}, was in Burma. He maintains that Sunaparanta
{þu.na-pa.rûn~ta.} was on the western coast of India: and that the Burmese
historians has fabricated the story.
Now,
I'll speculate that he was from Burma, and his name
{poaN~Na.} was probably
{poañ~ña.} spelled with the long-lost Bur-Myan phoneme Nya'major
{Ña.}/
{Ñ}. It is natural that the reverend monk went back to his native land after
receiving the gift of Dharma from the Buddha to spread it among his fellow
countrymen. The area was around the mountain-area
of Poandaung-Poannya
{poän-taún-poän-Ña} which was once under the ancient Tethys Ocean. This area was and is still feared by many in Burma, for
its ill-fame of being inhabited by sorcerers
{ka.wé}, witches
{soan:} and were-tigers
{þa.mûn:kya:}.
Lately this area, has become famous for being the area where fossils of pre-humans have been unearthed by geologists. Burma has belonged to Asia, whilst India had drifted after breaking apart from the African land mass during the Geologic Ages.
From: https://whc.unesco.org/fr/listesindicatives/6366/ 200608
The Pondaung Formation
is a geologic formation which consists of layers of red beds alternating with
grey sandstones sediments, dated to about 40 million years ago. Several of these
outcrops around Bahin village
{Ba.hín:rwa}, located in the Dry Zone of central Myanmar, contain fossils of the
oldest representatives of anthropoid primates, which correspond to the class
that includes monkeys, apes and humans. [UKT ¶]
Pix shows the green area and adjacent to the east, part of the yellow area, which are now the mainland of Burma. Burma had always belonged to the Asiatic mainland, whilst Indian subcontinent had drifted off from Africa. Two mighty rivers, the Proto-Chindwin and Proto-Irrawaddy had always flowed across the mainland of Burma. These river-basins had been under the Tethys Ocean because of which our motherland is rich in heavy metals like gold, silver, and copper, and other rare minerals.
Therefore, mankind’s earliest primate ancestors are documented from these Paleontological sites which are unique in Asia, and believed to be the oldest in the world. The significance of these sites lies in the fact that for many years it was generally considered by the scientific community that anthropoid primates originated in Africa. [UKT ¶]
But more than thirty years of international research has suggested that the earliest anthropoids arose in South East Asia and subsequently dispersed to Africa at about 40 million years ago during the Middle Eocene. The fossil specimens from the Pondaung Formation contain the oldest knowns anthropoids yet discovered anywhere in the world. [UKT ¶]
These fossil sites have delivered 6 distinct forms of these earliest anthropoids, distributed in two families, the Eosimiidae and the Amphipithecidae. Bahiniapondaungensis, a member of the family Eosimiidae, is the most primitive known anthropoid primate, universally considered as the ancestor of modern anthropoids.
These important fossils have been discovered in several outcrops clustered
around Bahin Village, Myaing Township
,
Magway Region
{ma.kwé:teín:} about 80 km from northwest of Bagan
{pu.gän}. [UKT ¶]
Nearly 100 incomplete primate fossil specimens and thousands of associated
mammal and other vertebrate fossils have been collected from these outcrops, and
stored in the National Museum of Naypyitaw, in Yangon at the Department of
Archaeology, and in the National Museums in Yangon and Mandalay. Although these
fossil sites are officially-gazetted protected sites designated by the
Department of Archaeology and National Museums, Ministry of Religious Affairs
and Culture, and clearly identified as protected site by on-site notification
boards, these outcrops are presently under huge pressure due to the intensive
economic development of agriculture in the surrounding area, which has
dramatically increased exposure, erosion, and weathering of the fossil deposits.
Fossiliferous outcrops are trampled by goats and cattle, and are also
progressively incorporated into cultivated fields by farmers unaware and
ignorant of their scientific value.
[UKT: more in the original article]
Professor Charles Duroiselle writes: "However the case may be, the Legend, as, it is understood
by them [Burmese], is interesting, in that it is a very clear example of the origin of the
artificial geography of Burma, in the fabrication of which some texts have been
flagrantly distorted and their sense deliberately misunderstood. Before going
into this question of fabrication, let me be allowed to give here the Burmese
legend which forms a kind of introduction to that of Punna
{poaN~Na.}." -- p004.
From: CDuroiselle-AncGeogBurma<Ô> / Bkp<Ô> (link chk 200605)
UKT 200609: Be careful of Duroiselle's spellings. He writes Atthakathā{ûT~HTa.ka.hta} - differentiating r3 (retroflex) aksharas from other aksharas by use of non-italics and italics.
Frequently used diacritics: ā ī ū ṁ ṇ ṛ ś ṣ ṭ
(p001) The
Punnovāda-sutta of the
Samyutta-nikāya is found, almost
word for word, in the Sanskrit version of
the celebrated Legend of Purna
{poaN~Na.}, as
translated by Burnouf from the Divyāvadāna
{di.bya-wa.da-na.}. (p001-fn1). The Pāli Sutta
does not give us any further information
concerning this interlocutor of the Buddha ;
but the commentaries or Atthakathā
{ûT~HTa.ka.hta} give, as a rule, the history of
the persons mentioned in the texts. (p001-fn2). [UKT ¶]
See : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atthakatha 200609
"Aṭṭhakathā (Pali for explanation, commentary) [1] refers to Pali-language Theravadin Buddhist commentaries to the canonical Theravadin Tipitaka."
... ... Two points seem to me to admit of no doubt : on the one hand, the story
existed before the evolution peculiar to Northern Buddhism [Mahayana], since the
Purnavaddna contains the Pāli sutta ; on the other, it had remained quite
popular amongst the Southern Buddhists [Theravada] up to the time of the
redaction of the Saññyuttatthakatha, for this commentary introduces the two
brothers in the story with the words "ete dve Bhātaro," without these "two
brothers" having yet been mentioned. This detail confirms me in the opinion that
the compilers whose intention was merely to recall that part of the story
relating to the country of Sunaparanta
{þu.na-pa.rûn~ta.}, have not judged necessary to reproduce in its (p001end-p002begin)
entirety a legend already well known and such probably, except a few unimportant
details, as we have it in the Divayvadana. [UKT ¶]
The fact is that the Divyavadana
{di.bya-wa.da-na.} is unknown in Burma, (p002-fn1), but in the "History of the
Foot-Print" (p002-fn2) we find another legend forming a kind of introduction to that
of the Sannyutta commentary, and from this we may infer that the Sanskrit
version has not been altogether unknown in Burma. [UKT ¶]
The Legend of Punna
contains, (p002end-p003begin),
according to the Burmese, the history of the two imprints of the Buddha's left
foot, which he, the Master -- after having, as it is written, spent one week in the
magnificent monastery built with red sandal wood -- left, one, on the bank of the 
{mûn:hkyaún:}
(Man : Khyon) ) (p003-fn1) stream, the other on the summit of the 
(Saccaban)
Hill, (p003-fn2) whose foot is washed by the said stream
{mûn:hkyaún:}. [UKT ¶]
This hill, consecrated by
the Buddha's presence, is situated near Saku
{sa.ku.}, in the Minbu
District, which is
itself comprised in the Province of Aparanta or Sunāparanta
{þu.na-pa.rûn~ta.}; for the Burmese
have appropriated to themselves this name at the expense of the Konkan and apply
it to the region which stretches, on the right bank of the Irrawaddy, behind and
above Pagan. [UKT ¶]
UKT 200610: - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aparanta 200610
"Aparanta, or Aparantaka (meaning "Western border") was a geographical region of ancient India. It corresponded to the northern part of the Konkan region on the western coast of India. English civil servant-turned-historian J. F. Fleet believed that the Aparanta region included Kathiawad, Kutch, and Sindh, beside Konkan. However, historical records make it clear that the extent of Aparanta was much smaller. [1]
"The Junagadh inscription of Rudradaman mentions that during Ashoka's reign, a Yonaraja (literally; Ionian, or Greek, King), Tushaspa was the governor of Aparanta. [2] [UKT ¶]
"A Buddhist text, the Mahavamsa{ma.ha-wän-þa.} states (xii.5) that at the conclusion of the Third Buddhist Council (c.250 BCE), a Yona (Greek) Thera (monk) Dhammarakkhita
{Dûm~ma.rak~hki.ta.} was sent here by the emperor Ashoka
{a-þau:ka.} (reign c.268 – c. 232 BCE) to preach Dhamma [3] and 37,000 people embraced Buddhism due to his effort (Mahavamsa, xii.34-6). According to Buddhist scholar A.K. Warder, the Dharmaguptaka sect originated here. [4]
"Aparanta is regarded as an umbrella term for Shurparakadesha for Konkan, to include in the North and Gomantaka in the south with the river Kundalika to serving as a dividing line in between the two. [5] "UKT 200611: Why was Duroiselle mixing up two regions with similar or same name? In the Burmese story the missionary went to Sunāparanta
They [Burmese] have not the least doubt that Sunāparanta (Sanskrit Çronāparānta) of the Saññuttatthakatha, is the very same as the Burmese Province called by that name. [UKT ¶]
The Legend is quoted in the Mahārājavan
{ma.ha-ra-za.wín} when recording the foundation of Prome [city]
{præÑ-mro.}
(p003-fn3) therein we are told that Vānijagāma
{wa-Ni.za.ga-ma.} is none else but the village called (Lê Kine) 
{lèý-keín:} by the Burmese and that it is situated in the Province of Sunāparanta.
(p003end-p004begin)
Now, the Paganrājavan
{pu.gän ra-za.wín} (p004-fn1) tells us that Lê Kine
{lèý-keín:} or Vānijagāma
{wa-Ni.za.ga-ma.} is in the
Province of Purantappa
{pu-rän-tûp~pa.}, This name, Pūrantappa, applies to the region already
mentioned in manuscripts, and is unknown to the majority of the Burmese, even to
those well educated. [UKT ¶]
However the case may be, the Legend, as, it is understood
by them, is interesting, in that it is a very clear example of the origin of the
artificial geography of Burma, in the fabrication of which some texts have been
flagrantly distorted and their sense deliberately misunderstood. Before going
into this question of fabrication, let me be allowed to give here the Burmese
legend which forms a kind of introduction to that of Punna
{poaN~Na.}.
UKT 200611: How unfortunate, a scholar like Duroiselle is accusing the Bur-Myan scholars as liars .
In olden times, there was, in the Island of (Hôn-kri :kyvan)
{heín:kri:kywûn:} (p004-fn2), a cultivator
who possessed a magnificent bull ; this bull, as strong as he was beautiful, was
savage and vicious ; no one but his master dared approach him : to do so would
have been to run to a certain death. He had become the terror of the village,
for he pursued and tore into pieces everything he found in his way, beasts and
men. He had already carried mourning and sorrow into many families, and the fear
of him had come to such a pitch that all work in the fields was at last
neglected. This state of things could not last much longer, for famine and ruin
were spreading their ravages in the neighbouring villages as well. The villagers
assembled and, after a short discussion, unanimously resolved to destroy the
ferocious animal. They apprized the owner of their intention, leaving him the
choice to go somewhere else and take his bull with (p004end-p005begin) him. The farmer, who was
attached to his fields, allowed them, after some demur, to do as they pleased.
[UKT ¶]
The villagers then: armed themselves with sticks, pitchforks, bows, etc., and, after a quasi-homeric fight, brought the bull to his death ; they cut up the carcase there and then, and distributed its flesh. The happy event of the bull's death was, on the evening of the very same day, celebrated by a great feast, of which the enormous animal's flesh formed one of the most delicate dishes. [UKT ¶]
Unfortunately, every violent act, however justifiable, has its retribution; in
consequence, all those who had taken part in the feast were born again in the
forests of Sunāparanta
{þu.na-pa.rûn~ta.}, in Upper Burma. Some became bisons, some deer,
rabbits, antelopes, wild-boars, etc., and the bull, their victim, became a
hunter whose humble dwelling was a hut on the slope of the Makula Hill (the
same which received, later on, the name of Saccabandha). (p005-fn1) This hill is now known
also as "the Hunter's Hill." ' His arrows never erred ; he roamed in the woods
and on
------
(i) (Mu-cho-ton), near Lê-kôn ( ), in the Minbu District.The legend has been perpetuated in the names of certain hills; fur Instance, the hill where he dried his skins is the "stretched-out-hides Hill Sā-re-krak-ton ; the one where he strung his bow is to-day: Lim,( = le= ) -tan-kun; the forest wherein he pursued the hare is known as: ,Yun-kran-to; and so forth, cf. the legend given by Sir George Scott {,Upper Burma Gazetteer, II, iii page 163). I do not know where Sir George has taken this story from; he has, I suppose, translated it from the Samôn won, for it is essentially the same ; but, surely, the dates mentioned are impossible. The Burmese always give the correct dates, as they are entered in the Mahārājavan, a work found everywhere in Burma ; they perhaps might make an error of some years, but never one of several centuries, as SirGeorge does, and the dates which he gives are not those c f the Samôn. He says that "in 248 B.E. (Burmese Era, that is to say, Caka, = 886 A D.) Alaung Sithu, king of Pagan, visited the Shwe-zet-taw," but Alaung Sithu became king only in 1085 A.D., according to Phayre. In Vol. II, part ii, 307, he writes: "The legend says that king Alaung Sithu, in 470 B.E. = 1108 A.D., left Minbu and went to Saku, then called Ramawadi;" the difference between the two dates given for one and the same reign is consequently 322 years! The date 1108 is not that given by the Samôn for the visit of this king to Minbu, but Caka 454 = l092 A.D. On the page already quoted, a few lines lower down (Vol. II, iii page 163), ha says: "In 427 B.E.= 1065 A.D. the king Patama (Pathama) Min Gaung made a dedication of lands to the Shwe-zet-taw. But Pathama Min Gaung ascended the throne only in 140X AD., and the Samôn tells us that, in Caka 763 (=1401 A.D.), this king visited the famous foot-prints; here, the difference is 336 years ! (p005end-p006begin)
-----
(p006begin)the hills, playing great havoc among
their wild inhabitants, whose flesh he sold to his customers.
It happened the One-thousand-eyed Cakra, looking down on the
earth, descried the hunter of Sunāparanta, whose bow had caused the useless
death of so many innocent creatures, and his heart was moved with pity. He also
perceived in the heart of the cruel hunter, as a fire mouldering under the
ashes, a disposition towards spirituality which would make of him a great saint
if he could be induced to embrace religious life. He, then, assumed the
appearance of a hunter, descended to Sunāpiranta and hid himself near a spot by
which the destroyer had to pass. This hill is well known as Sakrāpun-ton. The
Sunāparanta hunter appeared ,Cakra greetted him: "Friend, whither are you going
?'' " A hunting," replied the other,
"for I must provide venison for my customers," Cakra with his divine e'oquence,
shewed him the cruelty of thus killing innocent victims, and the terrible
torments which such a professi )n had in store for him in the course of his
future existences. " What !" exclaimed the astonished hunter,
''are not you yourself a hunter ? Do you not, too, make a living, in pursuing
the deer in the forests ?" What a fine sermon you are preaching me !
" " My friend," answered Cakra.
------
One would be inclined to think that Sir George Scott follows a local legend giving false dates; but such is not the case, for the legend of the Upper Burma Gazetteer is merely that of the Samôn abridged, and as the dates of the Samôn agree with those of the Chronicles, one cannot understand these glaring error in so serious a work. However, on the following page (II, iii page 164), under the heading Shwe-zi-gôn, he gives a date better in accordance with facts. There he writes :" It is said that the founder of the Shwe-zi-gon is Prince Saw-Lu, a son of Anawyata Min Zau (Anuruddha-maw-co), who visited Pindalè (now Minthale) in 421 B.E. (= 1059 A.D.).Phayre makes Saw-Lu die in in 1057 A.D. after a reign of five years, which is, according to the inscriptions, altogether wrong. Most of the dates given by Phayre {History of Burma) for the eleventh and twelfth centuries are inexact, and this part of his History must be read with great caution- As a matter of fact, the Chronicles themselves do not agree on those dates. For the beginning of Anorata's reign, the Mahārājavan gives 1017 A.D., and this is the date generally accepted; the old edition of the same work gives 967; the Svè Cun Kyo Tan ( ) 1002 A.D. the Pagan Rajāvan gives 999. Now, there is an inscription dated 984 A.D. erected by Anorata and speaking of a relic brought back from Thaton. All the other dates are viciated by this one. The date of his death, 1059, is confirmed by the inscriptions. The date of the fall of Thaton will perhaps have also to be corrected, although the Kalyani gives 1057. The Talaing Chronicle (p006end)
-----
(p007begins)
" my case is very different from yours. You kill all the animals you meet with,
even when you are no longer in need of meat. I, on the contrary, with this
infallible bow, scour the Himalayas in search of flying-deer, whose skin, sold
to kings, brings me an immense profit. I kill not for the sole pleasure of
killing. I came into these parts in pursuit of a certain flying-deer. Help me to
find it. Here, take this my unerring bow and give me yours, and, if you find the
deer, shoot it down." The hunter took Cakra's bow, and the latter disappeared
among the trees. The divine weapon looked like a toy ; but, what was not his
astonishment, when, despite all his efforts and his almost superhuman strength,
he did not succeed in bending it ! In vain did he groan, and sweat and swear.the
bow remained as rigid as the trunk of a tree centuries old. The time went
swiftly by and no animal was killed, and his customers were waiting for venison.
Tired, dispirited, he sat down, Cakra, still disguised as a hunter, appeared
again to him. " My bow is not easy to bend, is it ? Well! You will be able to
bend it as easily as your own on one condition. You must promise to kill only
deer one day, and the day after only does. On this trifling condition, you may
keep my bow, which is matchless; for it belongs to me, Crakra !" The hunter
agreed, hastily toolc
the bow and went about looking for deer ; but on that day, he
----
and incriptions, which I hope to be in a position to decipher before long, *will
doubtless throw a flood of light on these so important questions, as well
as on the question, no less interesting, of the relations of Cambodia with the
countries of the lrrawaddy Delta, relations absolutely ignored in Burmese
Annals.
* The Talaing or Mon language has not yet been studied scientifically in the
light of comparative philology ; there are gaps in the history of Burma and
Pegu (Rāmañña) that will be filled probably only when the Talaing chronicles
have been read and translated ; so, the affinities between the Môn and Khmer are
still to be philologically established—the author, in the course of his studies
of the Môn and Cambodian languages has been struck by the strong internal
evidence of their relationship ; the name " Môn-Annam "for this family of
languages will have to b -. abandoned, as the Annamese has, from internal
evidence, nothing in common with the Talaing and the Khmer.
The writer has now a Talaing Grammar and Chrestomaty nearly completed The
enlightened help of Government, would, in this matter, greatly facilitate the
prosecution of his studies and the early publication of their results. (p007ends)
-----
(p008begins)
found only does; on the morrow be looked for does, but perceived deer only. He
then understood ^akra's stratagem and, bound by a solemn promise which be dared
not break, he gave up hunting, became a hermit and retired to a hill. From that
day, he was known under the name of Thissa ban ( = sacca, promise, and
bandha,bound), and consequently the hill on which he lived received the same
name. But he did not know the true religion (viz..
Buddhism), and he preached in Sunāparanta a false doctrine, (fn1)thus causing
the people to be in danger of falling into hell. Near that spot, in the village
called Vānija, lived two brothers, merchants, Mahāpun and Cūlapun Here the Samôn
gives, more or less faithfully, the story in the Saññyuttatthakathā.(fn2)
If, now, we compare this bgend and the translation of the Pali text {cf. infra p
15), which is its sequel, with the story of the Divyāvadāna,
many points of resemblance and divergence become apparent. All the long story of
the two brothers up to the departure of the elder one to Sāvatthi is unknown to
the Samon and is not given by the commentators on the Punnovāda-sutta.
The only point of resemblance between the legend of the Samôn and that of the
Divyāvadana is the hunter who becomes a hermit and subsequently a saint {arhat);
and still, neither the manner nor the instrument
of his conversion is the same. But this slight resemblance is
enough to make one think that, at a certain time, the Sanskrit
version was not unknown in Burma. As is almost always the
case, the Pāli is more sobre of miraculous happenings than the
Sanskrit, and these happenings are precisely the very points
whereon the two versions differ. For instance, when, on the
invitation of Punna, Gotama goes to Vānijagāma, the 499 monks
accompanying him are carried through the sky in kiosques ; the Divyāvadāna makes them go there by means of wings, or riding on
fantastic animals, and even in pots and vases. Tue Saññyuttattha-kathā
speaks of only one nāga, but the Sanskrit, of five-hundred,
every one ol whom creates a river unto himself in order to go to
------
(1) Are we to see in this "false doctrine" a remembrance of that religion, a
medley of Mahāyānism, tantraism and Nāga-worship which prevailed in the
Irrawaddy Valley before the introduction of Hīnāyanist Buddhism into Pagan and
the priests ot which were the Arī? This religion disappeared only in the
fifteenth century, and has left very deep traces, not yet obliterated, in the
beliefs and customs of the Burmese.
(2) Vide infra, p. 15, the text and its translation.
-----
(p009begins)
Sūrpāraka, etc. Notwithstanding these differences, the story is, on the whole,
the same, and probably originated from the same source. The Sinhalese also have
this legend, but they seem to know both versions ; for in the fragments
translated by Hardy,(fn1) Sūrpāraka, unknown to the Pāli text, is mentioned, and
so is the river Narmadā (Nammadā), of which the Divyāvadāna does not speak. In
fine, the two imprints of the Buddha's foot, which appear to form the one
important point in the legend, are unknown to the compilers of the Sanskrit
work.
My intention is not to write a treatise on the ancient geography of Burma, but
merely to point out the arbitrary way in which some Indian place-names have been
transplanted in Burma, in spite even of explicit texts The Legend of Punna
furnishes a very clear example of this manner of fabricating ancient kingdoms
and of giving to relatively modern towns an air of hoary antiquity.
(p001-fn1) Samyutta or Saññyutta-nikāyā , ed. Feer, vol IV, p60; Divyā-vadāna, ed. Cowell and Neil, p24-55. Burnouf, Introduction, ed. 1844, p235-276; ed. 1876, p209-245. - p001-fn1b
(p001-fn2) Most of these commentaries have not yet been edited and are therefore unknown to scholars in Europe. - p001-fn2b
Frequently used diacritics: ā ī ū ṁ ṇ ṛ ś ṣ ṭ
(p002-fn1) We have
reasons to believe that Sanskrit was known in Burma
before Pali. [UKT ¶]
The Burmese of the 10th and 11th centuries dispels
all doubts on this point : for in the inscriptions
of that period are found words clearly derived from
Sanskrit, and not only technical terms, but words
which must have already been in popular use, such
as, for example,
¤ prassad, from Skt prāsāda,
(Pāli being pāsāda
{pa-þa-da.}),
¤ Sakrā = Skt
Cakra (Pāli sakka
{þak~ka.}).
After its introduction into Pagan, Pāli was
studied with great fervour, and the first outcome
of these studies, about one century after the fall
of Thatōn
{þa.htoän præÑ}, was the Sadda-nīti
{þûd~da-ni-ti.} a grammar of the Tripitaka
{tRi.pi.ta.ka.} and the most comprehensive in existence. [UKT ¶]
Forchhammer gives 1156 A.D. as the date of this work; but Aggavamsa, the author, himself says that it was completed in 1154 A.D. [UKT ¶]
See: Notes on The Early History and Geography of British Burma, by Em. Forchhammer, Govt. Archaeologist and Prof. of Pali at the Rangoon High School, 1883, in TIL HD-PDF and SD-PDF libraries
- EForchhammer-HistGeogBritBurma<Ô> / Bkp<Ô> (link chk 200611)
" I. The Shwe Dagon Pagoda: The early history of Burma, though hazy it be interesting more to the student of ancient and forgotten lore than to the historian in search for trustworthy data, discloses firmer outlines and more substantiality than at first apparent, when the collateral evidences of the histories of India, China, and Ceylon are brought to bear upon it. Already have the researches of Sir Arthur Phayre, Colonel Yule, and the Rev. Bishop Bigandet to a considerable extent redeemed the Native records from the discredit into which they had been brought by the sweeping condemnation of superficial writers. / The feature which in Burmese and Talaing records has been considered most detrimental to their claim to historical soundness is the tendency to connect the foundation of the principal cities and pagodas in Burma with events in the life of pre-historic Buddhas, of Gotama and his pupils. Instead of discarding such connections as entirely illusory we shall, in the following pages, have occasion to point out that they are at least no intentional prevarications of historical realities on the part of the authors, but that in many instances, they are based upon broad statements in the Tipitaka themselves and the old commentaries of Buddhaghosa and Dhammapala.
Now, Aggavamsa, in the second part of his grammar, the Dhātumālā or "Garland of Roots," gives here and there the equivalent Sanskrit forms. It is therefore plausible to suppose that Sanskrit existed at Pagan in the 11th century at least and was scientifically studied before Pali, for the first work in the latter [Pali] language written in Burma bases itself on Sanskrit grammar to explain a few Pali forms. Another proof is the use, in the dates of the 11th and the 12th centuries of the Hindu astronomical terminology; for instance, Asan = Acvini (1054 A.D.) ; Mrikkasō= Mrgaciras (1081 A.D.), etc The Siddhanta, then, must have been known in Pagan anterior to th-se dates. Moreover, certain names of places and rivers indicate a familiarity, very probably already secular in Anorata's time with Hindu mythology ; to give but one example : on the banks of the Irrawaddy (=Pâli, Erāvati= Sanskiit airūvati), the legend of the famous elephant airūvata is well known. Other proofs are less sure: thus Mr. Taw Sein Ko {Notes on the Kalyāni Inscriptions) speaks of bricks found at Tagoung and at Pagan itself, inscribed with legends in Sanskrit and older than the introduction of Southern Buddhism in Pagan ; but Phayre says [History of Burma, page 14) that the legends were in Pâli. As it is very difficult to procure any of these bricks, I cannot settle this question ; it is to be doubted whether e\en the Archaeological Museum in Rangoon possesses any ; at least, none of these short legends has ever yet been deciphered. No Sanskrit inscription has yet been found in Burma: Dr. Fiihrer, it is true, says {Notes on an Archceologlcal tour in Upper Burmj) th-st he discovered two at Tagoung: but nothing more was ever heard of these two lithic inscriptions, of such a paramount importance if they do really exist, which I doubt very much. - p002-fn1b
(p002-fn2) In Burmese :
(Rhve-cak-to-Samōn)
{shwé-sak-tau þa.meín:}. The principal temples and
pagodas each have their samōn
{þa.meín:} or "history" [hagiography]. These
histories, amid the overgrowth of marvellous tales,
contain very precious historical information, and give
dates, which are generally exact, of contemporary
events. Some of these samōn
{þa.meín:} have been utilized for the compilation of
the Mahārājavan
{ma.ha ra-za-wín}; but most of them are crumbling to
pieces in the dust of monasteries.
- p002-fn2b
(p003-fn1)
{mûn:hkyaún:} "Charmed-stream"; Man = manta
(Skt mantra) : it is the Nammāda of the legend. -
p003-fn1b
(p003-fn2)
{þíc~sa-pûn taún} Pron. Thissaban = Saccabandha : further on, we shall see the origin of this
name. - p003-fn2b
(p003-fn3) Mahārājavan
{ma.ha ra-za-wín}, vol. I, p167-168. Prome
{præÑ} is written Prañ, by the
Burmese and the Arakanese. The Burmese pronounce /
pyī/ and /
pyè/, the Arakanese,
/
pRi/.
[UKT ¶]
But the Môn (Talaings) write this word and pronounce it /
prôn/ and /
prawn/. It is
then in Talaing documents that we must look for the origin of this name, the
signification of which I do not know; * the Talaings I have consulted could not
give me any information on this point. [UKT ¶]
Some, however, told me that this word ought to be written, "Prôm" pronounced exactly as Prome); this word means "crushed, destroyed," and Criksetra has, they say, been so called since its destruction by the Môn (Talaings) some years before the foundation of Pagan. [UKT ¶]
But this etymology is not
worth stopping to consider. Namantā, in the Rājavan
{ra-za.wín} [ Is it
{ma.ha ra-za-wín} ?] is given as the name of the
stream, which is also sometimes called after the Nāga's name; but Namantā is but a corruption of Nammadā.
- p003-fn3b
* It has been urged that "Prome" is derived from "Brahma"; this may very well be. But it is remarkable that none of the nations that have known this old city, call it by a name derived, according to their phonetics, from "Brahma." It was better known to them as Criksetra, or its modified equivalents. [UKT ¶]
Phonetically, the Burmese and Arakanese Prañ
{pRæÑ}, cannot stand for "Brahma," and their pronunciation of it differs still more widely.
UKT 200611: It is unfortunate that Duroiselle is trying to use pronunciation
{a.þän} as basis for his arguments, without realizing that rhoticity is a problem in comparing rhotic Arakanese dialect to non-rhotic Burmese dialect. To solve this problem somewhat I've to define a rhoticity scale. Moreover, he did not know that Burmese Nya'major is a legitimate basic phoneme in itself and can stand the effect of Virama
{a.þût} : as
(contn. of note p003-fn3)
Moreover, the word Brahma is well known to the Burmese, and is of very frequent
occurrence in their sacred literature; it is always and rightly written :
(brahma)
{brah~ma.}; according to Burmese phonetics, might become (bram)
{brûm:}, but never, by
any rule,
{præÑ}. It is strange that, possessing already the name in its proper form (brahma
{brah~ma.}), they should have altered it to (prañ)
{præÑ} for the city's name and to (Mranmā)
{mrûn~ma} for their own national appellation.
The Talaing for " Brahma " is (Brom, pron. Prām), a word extensively used in
their literature, for they were under brahmanical influence fcr centuries;
but they too, rejecting the proper, ready-made and well-known appellation call
Criksetra by a name which, according to Talaing phonetics, cannot be a
derivation of "Brahma."
(p004-fn1)
{pu.gän ra-za.wín}: Page 37 of the manuscript in my possession (page 3 of the 2nd chap.).
- p004-fn1b
(p004-fn2)
{heín:kri:kywûn:}: One of the names by which Cape Negrais is known to the Burmese.
- p004-fn2b
Frequently used diacritics: ā ī ū ṁ ṇ ṛ ś ṣ ṭ
{poan~na. ma.htér}UKT 200607: After coming across the name of the sutta in Ancient Geography of Burma, I have searched online for this sutta. The following is from a MA thesis submitted to McMaster Univ., Canada.
From: JTaleman-Purnavadana<Ô> / Bkp<Ô> link chk 200607
Frequently used diacritics: ā ī ū ṁ ṇ ṛ ś ṣ ṭ
(roman04) Abstract: The avadāna
{a.wa.da-na.}-literature
is the largest corpus of Buddhist Sanskrit texts available to us. It is also one
of the more extensive bodies of ancient Indian story-literature. The avadānas
{a.wa.da-na.}
were widely disseminated and presented people with foci for piety and ritual,
educated them in the doctrine, provided models for personal conduct, depicted
paradigmatic forms of religious practice, served to authenticate local Dharma
traditions, celebrated important figures in the tradition, and, last but not
least, entertained.
(p001) I. The Sanskrit Avadānas as a Genre of Buddhist Literature : At least as far back as the origins of the Epics, Upaniṣads and Brāhmaṇas, the culture-heroes of the Indian tradition have been celebrated in stories. (fn.1). With the rise of Buddhism in the latter half of the sixth century B.C.E., Buddhists began to contribute their own genius to Indian literature. It would appear, in fact, that not only was Gautama, the Buddha a spiritual leader and dialectician of rare order, (fn.2), but a consummate story-teller, whose narratives, as the early Pāli dialogues amply demonstrate, (fn.3), accomplished the age-old and universal task of stories: to instruct and delight.
In this the Buddha was both characteristic of his time and place and typical of religious leaders of all times and all places. Moreover, just as his disciples, immediate and remote, preserved, developed and transmitted his religious and philosophical ideas, so they cherished, developed and bequeathed to posterity his modes of discourse, the tale (kathā) among them.
For the study of the Sanskrit avadāna-literature, it is appropriate to
consider an example from the Pali dialogues in which we find the Buddha
explaining a person's present situation in life by recourse to a narrative about
one of his past lives, since this framework is one of the defining features of
the avadāna genre. Our example here is taken from the Ambaṭṭha Sutta
of the Dīghanikāya .(fn.4).Here the Master instructs the young Brahman
Ambaṭṭha regarding the false notion of the innate superiority of the Brahman
class. His (p001end-p002begin) method is to tell a
story about one of Ambaṭṭha's previous births in which it is revealed that the
learned Brahman was the son of a slave-girl (fn.5). Such a disclosure is
anathema to Ambaṭṭha's fellow Brahmans, but when they begin to revile him, the
Buddha continues the narrative and recounts how the slave-girl's son won for his
wife one of the fairest among the Sakya maidens, for although lowly of birth, he
grew up rich in virtue and accomplishments. (fn.6) Thus, for the Brahmanical
notion of superiority by birth the Buddha substitutes the doctrine of karma and
its fruit, i.e., that we are, as it were, 'created', for good or ill, by our
deeds, and that this causality operates through many cycles of birth and death.
Here we see another feature that figures importantly in the much later
avadāna-literature, so much so that they are sometimes described as 'karma-tales'.
Thus we find prefigured in an early sutta both
the basic narrative structure and one of the major themes characteristic of the
avadānas. (fn.7)
(p005) In addition, there are four other anthologies of verses from the Pāli Khuddakanikāya that must be considered in a discussion of the Sanskrit avadānas as a genre of Buddhist literature. The Theratherīgāthā occurs as the eighth and ninth sections of the Khuddaka. It consists of autobiographical verses by male and female arhats , one hundred and eighty in total, (fn. 25), among which we find a poem of a single gāthā (stanza, verse) attributed to the same Pūrṇa (Pali, Puṇṇa) who is the protagonist of the Pūrṇāvadāna, the subject of this study. (fn.26)
(p009) The Avadānaśataka, mentioned above, is the oldest collection of avadānas extant in Sanskrit, dating, according to J.S. Speyer, (fn.43), its editor, to the second century C.E. The Divyavadāna, in which the Pūrṇāvadāna occurs as the second story, is perhaps one or even two centuries later. (fn.44). Yet, as with the Jātaka, Apadāna and other Khuddaka-texts, both likely contain much early material and in fact utilize or recapitulate doctrines and beliefs found in far earlier strata of Buddhist literature. (fn.45).
Go back Purnavadana-note-b
From: •
https://tipitaka.fandom.com/wiki/Punnovada_Sutta 200613
• Pali-Myan txt from Sixth Buddhist Council, Rangoon, Burma.
‘Punna,
the people of Sunaparanta are rough, if they scold and abuse you, what will you
do?’
Venerable sir, if the people of Sunaparanta scold and abuse me. It will occur to me, indeed the people of Sunaparanta are good, they do not hurt me with their hands.’
‘Punna,
if the people of Sunaparanta hurt you with their hands, what will you do?’
‘Venerable sir, if the people of Sunaparanta hurt me with their hands, it will occur to me, indeed the people of Sunaparanta are good, they do not hurt me with clods.’
‘Punna,
if the people of Sunaparanta hurt you with clods, what will you do?’
‘Venerable sir, if the people of Sunaparanta hurt me with clods, it will occur to me, indeed the people of Sunaparanta are good, they do not hurt me with a stick.’
Punna,
if the people of Sunaparanta hurt you with a stick, what will you do?’
‘Venerable sir, if the people of Sunaparanta hurt me with a stick, it will occur to me, indeed the people of Sunaparanta are good, they do not hurt me with a weapon’
‘Punna, if the people of Sunaparanta hurt you with a weapon, what will you do?’
‘Venerable sir, if the people of Sunaparanta hurt me with a weapon, it will occur to me, indeed the people of Sunaparanta are good, they do not end my life with a sharp weapon’
‘Punna,
if the people of Sunaparanta put an end to your life with a sharp weapon, what
will you do?’
‘Venerable sir, if the people of Sunaparanta would put an end to my life, it will occur to me thus. There are disciples of the Blessed One, who loathing the body and life search for an assassin. Here I have got an assassin even without a search."
‘Good! Punna, it is possible for you to abide in Sunaparanta endowed with that appeasement in the Teaching. You may do the fit now.’
