The Cambridge History of India, Vol. IV: The Mughul Period v4.c23.s1.2

v4.c23.s1.2

The ease of sea communications renders it possible that Buddhism reached Arakan earlier than the interior of Burma, and, although unproved, the tradition which assigns the Mahamuni image to the reign of one Sandathuriya A.D. 146–98 is not incredible. But accessibility from the sea brought other things than Buddhism. Thus Brahmanism is indicated by the word Sanda (Chandra), which ends the name of every traditional king from 783 to 957, and by the fact that medallions ascribed to these kings bear Shiva's trident and Nāgarī script.¹ After the tenth century the country was professedly Buddhist, notwithstanding the spread of Islam, which by the thirteenth century had dotted the coast from Assam to Malaya with the curious mosques known as Buddermokan.² Doubtless it is Muslim influence which led to women being more secluded in Arakan than in Burma.