Golden Pagoda in Yangon, Burma

WRITTEN BY LONDON SWAMINATHAN

Post No. 12,289

Date uploaded in London – –  17 July , 2023                  

Contact – swami_48@yahoo.com

Pictures are taken from various sources for spreading knowledge.

this is a non- commercial blog. Thanks for your great pictures.

tamilandvedas.com, swamiindology.blogspot.com

https://www.pustaka.co.in/home/author/london-swaminathan

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About thirty Sanskrit inscriptions are discovered so far in Myanmar/Burma. Three new inscriptions are found in Arkan area of  Burma. They are kept in Mrauk U Archaeological museum and the copies are in Paris Museum. I have compiled only details about some Sanskrit inscriptions . Full texts are available in the websites . Those inscriptions use pure Sanskrit words to describe matters of Buddhism.

Burma is Brahma desh in our scriptures.

Here are my compilations.

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Mrauk U

Ancient capital of the powerful Mrauk U empire

Mrauk U is a little known archaeological site in Western Burma. In the beautiful hilly landscape of the Rakhine state hundreds of ancient temples and pagodas, many of which are well preserved remain of the powerful empire that once flourished here.

The site used to be the capital of the Mrauk U Kingdom, a powerful empire that existed from 1430 until 1785.

A new Mrauk U museum is located near the palace site. It displays some old artifacts of Vesali. Launggret and Mrauk U periods. The bronze Buddha icons of Rakhine are equisetic in design. Various inscribed stone inscriptions in Sanskrit. Rakhine and Arabic are also displayed Votive tablets. Krishna Vishnu. Bodhisattvas. dvarapala. stone htis (stone umbrella of pagodas). lintels coins. musical instruments. ceramic-wares are also on display.

Mrauk U is an ancient city in the Rakhine State. which is situated in the western part of the Union of Myanmar. Mrauk-U is also a place where cultural heritages have flourished for many years. The Rakhine State is close to the Bay of Bengal and the coastal region is full of rocks and reefs and may be that is why so many stone-sculptures can be seen as ancient cultural crafts in the Rakhine region.

Moreover. the pieces of a stone Vishnu Image of 15th century in Mrauk U period can also be seen at the Museum. The Wetha Li coins from 4th to 8th century. the votive tablets and the motifs of stone-sculptures from Mrauk U period can also be seen at the museum. You can also find stone-sculptures such as God of Earth. Godness. Wathoundarei and Wathoundara at the museum. There is a replica of Ananda Sandra stone inscription carved in Danyawaddy alphabets from the 8th century. The inscription tells us about Watha Li King Ananda Sandra and his ancestors with 65 verses.

Moreover. the stone inscription of Purain Ah Song-Taung (AD-1430). Wara-Dhamma-Yar-Zar stone inscription (AD-1618) and An-Taw-Thein stone inscription (AD-1596) are also there to be studied

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Three New Sanskrit Inscriptions

Three More Sanskrit

Inscriptions of Arakan:New Perspectives on Its Name,Dynastic History, and

Buddhist Culture in the First Millennium

By Arlo Griffi ths

École française d’Extrême-Orient

The total number of Sanskrit inscriptions so far recorded for the fi rst millennium is about two dozen; among these less than a dozen constitute substantial

(non-formulaic) texts. Scholarship so far has assumed the

bulk of this small corpus to date to the sixth through eighth

centuries, with outliers as early as the third century and as

late as the eleventh century CE

I am so far aware of just four inscriptions wholly or partly composed

in Sanskrit found in other parts of Burma:

[1] the bilingual Sanskrit-Pyu

inscription engraved on the base of a stone Buddha sculpture at the

Śrīkṣetra Museum (Luce 1985/I: p. 65 with n. 22, p. 132; II: plates 16–7);

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[2] the fragments of a monolingual Sanskrit inscription said to have been

found at Śrīkṣetra but of which no trace is to be found there nowadays (see

Sircar 1976: 210–7, Gutman 2001: 109 n. 1; another fragment whose discovery was mentioned in the report of the Archaeological Survey of Burmafor 1960, p. 22 with fi g. 13, may well belong to this same inscription);

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[3] a ruined inscription held in a small shed near the Tharaba gate at Pagan

brought to my att ention by Tilman Frasch, who kindly shared photos of

an estampage revealing an almost entirely illegible inscription in a form of

script called Gauḍī that was current in eleventh-/twelfth-century Bengal;

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[4] the recently discovered Saw Lu inscription in Myitt ha, which at the top

of the side also bearing Pali and Pyu texts reveals the extremely damaged

remains of a Sanskrit one as well, again in such a Northeast Indian script.

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Details of Three New Sanskrit Inscriptions

Stone of Odein (A. 1)

Currently held in the Mrauk U Museum, Rakhine State,

under nr. 48, this stone was found by Kyaw Htun Aung on

December 2, 1986 in the water tank of the monastery of

Odein <auiḥ thinḥ> village (Rakhine State, Sitt we Division,

Mrauk U Township), about a half mile from the southern head

of the Lan Mwee Taung <laṅḥ mvī toṅ> hills, on the bank of

the Rann Chaung <ramḥ khyoṅḥ> river.

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Stela of Prine Cha Hill (A. 2)

Currently held at the State Archaeological Museum, Mrauk

U, Rakhine State, under nr. 39, this stone was found on

December 1, 1980 by Kyaw Htun Aung beside a hill outside

of Prine Cha <pruiṅḥ khya> village (Rakhine State, Sitt we

Division, Mrauk U Township), on the bank of the Rann

Khyaung <ramḥ khyoṅ>. This village lies opposite the village

Odein, where inscription A. 1 was found

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Stone Slab from Vesālī (A. 60)

Currently held in a cabinet in the bronze room at the State

Archaeological Museum, Mrauk U, Rakhine State, under nr.

393, this stone was found before 1969 “near the south-west

Veśālī moat” (Gutman 1976: 99). It represents only a fragment

(23 × 18 cm) of the original, which would have been taller, an

indeterminate number of lines having been lost.

At its library in Paris, the EFEO holds for this inscription

the estampage numbered n. 2172.

The above three are newly discovered ones

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Sanskrit inscription found in Śrīkṣetra several

decades ago and partly deciphered by D.C. Sircar.53 It refers

repeatedly to a “lord of Kalaśapura” (kalaśapureśvara) called

Śrī Parameśvara, and—judging from palaeography—is

roughly contemporary with our inscription. The second gives

some reason to favor the hypothesis that Kāmaraṅgeśvara in

the fi rst denoted the “lord of Kāmaraṅga,” i.e., that Kāmaraṅga

was a place name. (The author identified this place with the help of latest inscriptions).

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• Burma is an abbreviation of the Sanskrit name Brahmadesh, or the region of Brahma.

• The names of it’s rivers are Sanskrit names, such as Irrawati, Brahmaputra and Chindwin (from Chintanvan–a region of forests for meditative seclusion).

• It’s cities also have Sanskrit names, such as Rangoon, Prome, Mandalay, Meiktila (Mithila), and the ancient Pragan (city of exquisite temples) all remind one of Burma’s Vedic past.

• It’s head of state is also known as Adipadi, which is the Sanskrit Adhipati, referring to the chief executive.

• The kings also bore Sanskrit names. Plus, the people enjoy the annual Indian festival of Holi, and throwing colored water and dyes on one and all.

• Hindu temples which are left over in Burma have influence from South Indians. Nanpaya temple is one of them.

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The Sawlumin inscription (Burmese: စောလူးမင်း ကျောက်စာ [sɔ́lúmɪ́ɴ tɕaʊʔ sà]) is one of the oldest surviving stone inscriptions in Myanmar. The slabs were mainly inscribed in Burmese, Pyu, Mon and Pali, and a few lines in Sanskrit. According to an early analysis, the stele was founded in 1079 by King Saw Lu of Pagan (Bagan).

Discovery

Three broken slabs of the inscription were discovered in Myittha Township, Mandalay Region on 17 November 2013 and a fourth piece was found on 27 November 2013. A fifth piece is still missing. The found four pieces were rejoined and currently stands in Petaw monastery. The slab size is 1.75 metres (5.7 ft) in height, and 1.06 metres (3.5 ft) in breadth.

It belongs to 1053 CE.

What has been translated so far describes the donation of a monastery, Maha Anuruda Deva Rama, by King Saw Lu and his wife Manikanda

(More details are in Wikipedia)

To be continued………………….

 Tags- Burma, Sanskrit, Inscriptions, Myanmar