Indian Epigraphy c14.s3: 3. Burma, Siam (Thailand) and Malay Peninsula

Indian Epigraphy c14.s3

Language: English

3. Burma, Siam (Thailand) and Malay Peninsula

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Among the early inscriptions of Burma, there are epigraphs in Sanskrit and in Pali, records in the latter being mostly Buddhist tracts. The simple Sanskrit inscriptions in verse, belonging to the Candras of Arakan and assignable to the 6th century A.D., resemble in style the records of king Mūlavarman of Borneo. It is interesting to note that, unlike Mūlavarman’s inscriptions, the alphabet of these records is the Late Brāhmī of Eastern India, while the said style seems to have been borrowed from South Indian epigraphs like those of the Early Kadambas of Banavāsi in the Kannaḍa-speaking region. Ānandacandra’s inscription (8th century A. D.) from the same region of Burma is a rare instance of a Sanskrit epigraph of the praśasti type found in that country, elaborate eulogies in Sanskrit verse written in ornate kāvya style being common in the other lands of Indochina and Indonesia. The inscription of Ānandacandra is written in the Siddhamātṛkā alphabet of Eastern India.⁴

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⁴ See *Ep. Ind.*, Vol. XXXII, pp. 103 ff.; *Sel. Ins.*, pp. 462 ff.

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Most of the early inscriptions found elsewhere in Burma are however written in the Late Brāhmī alphabet of West and South India. There is also evidence to prove the contact of Tamil-speaking merchants with Burma during the early medieval period. But South-East Burma seems to have closer ties with the people of East India. The Śaka era was not popular in Burmese epigraphy as it is in the inscriptions of the other regions of South-East Asia.

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The earliest inscriptions in the language of the Mons (Talaings), who lived in the Irawady basin with Hanthawady (Haṃsāvatī, i.e. Pegu) and Thaton (Sudharmapura) as their chief cities, were found on a stone slab discovered at Lopburi in Siam.¹ They are written in characters of about the 6th or 7th century A.D. and point to the cultural contact between the two countries. A large number of Pyu inscriptions assignable to dates between the 6th and 8th centuries A. D. were found at Hmawsa (Prome) and Halin in the Shwebo District.² The Myazedi (Myinkaba, Pagan) inscription of the 12th century A.D. contains 4 different versions, viz. Pali, Burmese, Mon and Pyu.³ A Pagan inscription of about the 13th century A.D. is written partly in the Sanskrit language and Grantha characters and partly in the Tamil language and alphabet and records the grant of certain gifts by a Vaiṣṇava devotee of Cranganore in Malabar in favour of a Viṣṇu temple at Pagan.⁴

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¹ Rep. Dir. Arch. Surv., Burma, 1956, pp. 19 ff.

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² Cf. Ep. Ind., Vol. XII, pp. 127 ff.; ASI, A.R., 1911-12, p. 142; 1926-27, p. 172; 1927-28, p. 145; 1929-30, p. 182; ASB, A.R., 1942, p. 22.

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³ Ep. Birm., Vol. I, pp. 1 ff.

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⁴ Ep. Ind., Vol. V, pp. 101 ff.; Vol. VII, pp. 197-98.

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An early Sanskrit epigraph discovered in Siam is the Ban Bungke inscription (886 A. D.) of king Indravarman of Cambodia.⁵ The Sukhotai (Sukhodaya) inscriptions (Śaka 1214) of king Rām kham-heng of Siam are written in the Siamese language and early Siamese characters.⁶

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⁵ BEFEO, Vol. XXII, p. 63.

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⁶ D. Diringer, The Alphabet, p. 416.

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The earliest inscriptions discovered in the Malay Peninsula are Buddhistic in nature.¹ A prose endorsement in one of them, besides the Buddhist creed, speaks of *Mahānāvika* (i.e. ‘the great sailor’) Buddhagupta of Raktamṛttikā which was a locality near modern Murshidabad in South-West Bengal.² The alphabet of these records is however the Late Brāhmī of West and South India assignable to the 5th or 6th century A.D.