The royal chronicles of Myanmar ( my, မြန်မာ ရာဇဝင် ကျမ်းများ ; also known as Burmese chronicles) are detailed and continuous chronicles of the
monarchy
A monarchy is a form of government in which a person, the monarch, is head of state for life or until abdication. The political legitimacy and authority of the monarch may vary from restricted and largely symbolic (constitutional monarchy) ...
of
Myanmar
Myanmar, ; UK pronunciations: US pronunciations incl. . Note: Wikipedia's IPA conventions require indicating /r/ even in British English although only some British English speakers pronounce r at the end of syllables. As John C. Wells, Joh ...
(Burma). The chronicles were written on different media such as
parabaik
Folding-book manuscripts are a type of writing material historically used in Mainland Southeast Asia, particularly in the areas of present-day Myanmar, Thailand, Laos and Cambodia. They are known as ''parabaik'' in Burmese,; . ''samut thai'' in Tha ...
paper,
palm leaf, and stone; they were composed in different literary styles such as
prose
Prose is a form of written or spoken language that follows the natural flow of speech, uses a language's ordinary grammatical structures, or follows the conventions of formal academic writing. It differs from most traditional poetry, where the f ...
,
verse, and
chronogram
A chronogram is a sentence or inscription in which specific letters, interpreted as numerals (such as Roman numerals), stand for a particular date when rearranged. The word, meaning "time writing", derives from the Greek words ''chronos'' (χ ...
s. Palm-leaf manuscripts written in prose are those that are commonly referred to as the chronicles. Other royal records include administrative treatises and precedents, legal treatises and precedents, and censuses.
[
The chronicle tradition was maintained in the country's four historical polities: ]Upper Burma
Upper Myanmar ( my, အထက်မြန်မာပြည်, also called Upper Burma) is a geographic region of Myanmar, traditionally encompassing Mandalay and its periphery (modern Mandalay, Sagaing, Magway Regions), or more broadly speak ...
, Lower Burma
Lower Myanmar ( my, အောက်မြန်မာပြည်, also called Lower Burma) is a geographic region of Myanmar and includes the low-lying Irrawaddy Delta (Ayeyarwady Region, Ayeyarwady, Bago Region, Bago and Yangon Regions), as we ...
, Arakan
Arakan ( or ) is a historic coastal region in Southeast Asia. Its borders faced the Bay of Bengal to its west, the Indian subcontinent to its north and Burma proper to its east. The Arakan Mountains isolated the region and made it accessi ...
and the Shan states
The Shan States (1885–1948) were a collection of minor Shan kingdoms called ''muang'' whose rulers bore the title ''saopha'' in British Burma. They were analogous to the princely states of British India.
The term "Shan States" was firs ...
. The majority of the chronicles did not survive the country's numerous wars as well as the test of time.[ The most complete extant chronicles are those of Upper Burma-based dynasties, with the earliest extant chronicle dating from the 1280s and the first standard national chronicle from the 1720s.
The subject matter of the chronicles is mainly about the monarchs, and the chronicles provide little information about the general situation of the kingdom. Nor were they written solely from a secular history perspective but rather at times to provide "legitimation according to religious criteria" of the monarchy.][ Nevertheless, the chronicles' "great record of substantially accurate dates" goes back at least to the 11th century.][ Latest research shows that even the pre-11th century narratives, dominated by legends, do provide a substantially accurate record of "social memory", going back over three millennia.][
Myanmar possesses the most extensive historical source material in ]Southeast Asia
Southeast Asia, also spelled South East Asia and South-East Asia, and also known as Southeastern Asia, South-eastern Asia or SEA, is the geographical United Nations geoscheme for Asia#South-eastern Asia, south-eastern region of Asia, consistin ...
, and the Burmese chronicles are the most detailed historical records in the region.[ Yet much of the extant Burmese records have not been properly maintained,][ and many of the less well-known chronicles are yet to be studied systematically.][Aung-Thwin 1996: 895–896][Goh 2009: 115]
Overview
The Burmese royal chronicles are "detailed and continuous registers of events in chronological order", revolving "chiefly around the Burmese kings". The chronicles by themselves offer little or no commentary on the situation of the kingdom of the regular people inside or outside the capital unless the king happened to be involved in the event. Other royal records such as legal treatises and precedents ('' dhammathats'' ()) and censuses (''sittans'' ()) and the chronicles of regional courts as well as temple histories (''thamaings'' ()) need to be consulted to get a glimpse of the life outside the palace.[Hla Pe 1985: 37]
The royal records were written on different media and in different literary styles. They can be inscription
Epigraphy () is the study of inscriptions, or epigraphs, as writing; it is the science of identifying graphemes, clarifying their meanings, classifying their uses according to dates and cultural contexts, and drawing conclusions about the wr ...
s on stone () and bells (), or more commonly, they were written on palm-leaf manuscripts
Palm-leaf manuscripts are manuscripts made out of dried palm leaves. Palm leaves were used as writing materials in the Indian subcontinent and in Southeast Asia reportedly dating back to the 5th century BCE. Their use began in South Asia and sp ...
() and on special thick sheets of paper called ''parabaik
Folding-book manuscripts are a type of writing material historically used in Mainland Southeast Asia, particularly in the areas of present-day Myanmar, Thailand, Laos and Cambodia. They are known as ''parabaik'' in Burmese,; . ''samut thai'' in Tha ...
s'' ().[(Raghavan 1979: 6): Parabaiks are thick sheets of paper that are blackened, glued and folded together. In general, ''parabaiks'' contain non-religious matter such as medicine, mathematics, astronomy, astrology, history, social and economic matters, poetry, etc., and are much more important to the study of Burmese history.] They also came in different literary styles: in prose
Prose is a form of written or spoken language that follows the natural flow of speech, uses a language's ordinary grammatical structures, or follows the conventions of formal academic writing. It differs from most traditional poetry, where the f ...
(''yazawins'' ( and ''ayedawbons'' (); in verse (''eigyins'' () and ''mawguns'' ()); and as chronogram
A chronogram is a sentence or inscription in which specific letters, interpreted as numerals (such as Roman numerals), stand for a particular date when rearranged. The word, meaning "time writing", derives from the Greek words ''chronos'' (χ ...
s (''yazawin thanbauk'' ()).[
The prose versions are those most commonly referred to as the chronicles. In general, ''Yazawins'' ("chronicle of kings" from ]Pali
Pali () is a Middle Indo-Aryan liturgical language native to the Indian subcontinent. It is widely studied because it is the language of the Buddhist ''Pāli Canon'' or ''Tipiṭaka'' as well as the sacred language of ''Theravāda'' Buddhism ...
''rāja-vaṃsa'')[Hla Pe 1985: 45] are a record of events in chronological order of kings organised by dynasties whereas ''ayedawbons'' ("memoirs of royal events/struggles") are more detailed records of more celebrated kings.[Hla Pe 1985: 42][Thaw Kaung 2010: 14–17] These definitions are loose generalisations: some ''ayedawbons'' are full-fledged chronicles of several kings (e.g., ''Razadarit Ayedawbon
''Razadarit Ayedawbon'' ( my, ရာဇာဓိရာဇ် အရေးတော်ပုံ) is a Burmese chronicle covering the history of Ramanya from 1287 to 1421. The chronicle consists of accounts of court intrigues, rebellions, diplomat ...
'')[ or even dynasties (e.g., '' Dhanyawaddy Ayedawbon'')][ while some ''yazawins'' such as '']Zatadawbon Yazawin
''Zatadawbon Yazawin'' ( my, ဇာတာတော်ပုံ ရာဇဝင်, ; also spelled ''Zatatawpon''; ) is the earliest extant chronicle of Burma. The chronicle mainly covers the regnal dates of kings as well as horoscopes of select ...
'' and ''Yazawin Kyaw
''Maha Thanmada Wuntha'' ( my, မဟာသမ္မတဝံသ, ; pi, Mahā Sammata Vaṃsa) or more commonly known as ''Yazawin Kyaw'' ( my, ရာဇဝင် ကျော်, ; the Celebrated Chronicle) is an early 16th-century chronicle of ...
'' have narrower scopes.[(Aung-Thwin 2005: 121–124): ''Zatadawbon'' covers regnal dates of kings from Pagan to Konbaung periods while ''Yazawin Kyaw'' covers religious history.]
Inscriptions
Inscriptions, most of which were set up by the kings, the royal families and their court officials as well as wealthy families, are the earliest surviving royal records. Most surviving inscriptions are from religious dedications, and contain valuable historical material; indeed, they represent the primary extant historical record down to the 16th century.[Hla Pe 1985: 36–37]
Inscriptions are considered most accurate of all Burmese historiographic material because they are less susceptible to copying errors due to their longevity. A typical stone inscription lasts many centuries while the average life of a palm leaf record is only 100 to 150 years.[ Though some stone inscriptions too were recast, and some copying errors (mostly in spelling) have been identified,][Sein Myint 2007: 30–34] they do not show the same degree of copying errors of palm-leaf records, many of which were recopied many times over. The oldest extant inscriptions in Burma are dated to the 3rd and 2nd centuries BCE
Common Era (CE) and Before the Common Era (BCE) are year notations for the Gregorian calendar (and its predecessor, the Julian calendar), the world's most widely used calendar era. Common Era and Before the Common Era are alternatives to the or ...
in Pyu city-states
, conventional_long_name = Pyu city-states
, common_name = Pyu City States
, era = Classical antiquity
, status = City
, event_start = Earliest Pyu presence in Upper Burma
, year_start = c. 2nd century BCE
, date_start =
, event_en ...
.[Aung-Thwin 2005: 35–36] Inscriptions were still "rare in the 5th to the 10th centuries but from the 11th, there is literally a deluge of them".[Harvey 1925: xvi] The earliest original inscription in Burmese is dated 1035 CE; an 18th-century recast stone inscription points to 984 CE.[Aung-Thwin 2005: 172, 185]
Inscriptions have been invaluable in verifying the events described in the chronicles written centuries later. The Myazedi inscription
Myazedi inscription ( my, မြစေတီ ကျောက်စာ ; also Yazakumar Inscription or the Gubyaukgyi Inscription), inscribed in 1113, is the oldest surviving stone inscription of the Burmese language. "Myazedi" means "emerald stupa" ...
(1112), for example, confirmed the reign dates of kings Anawrahta
Anawrahta Minsaw ( my, အနော်ရထာ မင်းစော, ; 11 May 1014 – 11 April 1077) was the founder of the Pagan Empire. Considered the father of the Burmese nation, Anawrahta turned a small principality in the dry zone ...
to Kyansittha
Kyansittha ( my, ကျန်စစ်သား, ; also spelt as Kyanzittha or Hti-Hlaing Shin; 1030 – 1112/13) was king of Pagan dynasty of Burma (Myanmar) from 1084 to 1112/13, and is considered one of the greatest Burmese monarchs. He cont ...
given in ''Zatadawbon Yazawin'' while disproving ''Hmannan's'' dates for those. (Myazedi, inscribed in four scripts, is the Rosetta Stone
The Rosetta Stone is a stele composed of granodiorite inscribed with three versions of a Rosetta Stone decree, decree issued in Memphis, Egypt, in 196 BC during the Ptolemaic dynasty on behalf of King Ptolemy V Epiphanes. The top and middle te ...
that helped unlock the Pyu language.) Likewise, King Bayinnaung
, image = File:Bayinnaung.JPG
, caption = Statue of Bayinnaung in front of the National Museum of Myanmar
, reign = 30 April 1550 – 10 October 1581
, coronation = 11 January 1551 at Toung ...
's Shwezigon Pagoda Bell Inscription
The ''Shwezigon Pagoda Bell Inscription'' ( my, ရွှေစည်းခုံဘုရား ခေါင်းလောင်းစာ) is a multi-language inscription found on the Shwezigon Pagoda Bell, donated by King Bayinnaung of Toung ...
(1557) provides the exact dates of 17 key events of his first six years in power, enabling modern historians to check the chronicles.[Thaw Kaung 2010: 106–109] However, not all inscriptions are reliable records of secular events. The famous Kalyani Inscriptions
The ''Kalyani Inscriptions'' ( my, ကလျာဏီကျောက်စာ), located in Bago, Burma (Myanmar), are the stone inscriptions erected by King Dhammazedi of Hanthawaddy Pegu between 1476 and 1479. Located at the Kalyani Ordinatio ...
(1479), for example, make claims of legitimacy of the Hanthawaddy monarchy on religious grounds.[
Myanmar possesses the largest number of historical stone inscriptions as well as most complete historical records in all of ]Southeast Asia
Southeast Asia, also spelled South East Asia and South-East Asia, and also known as Southeastern Asia, South-eastern Asia or SEA, is the geographical United Nations geoscheme for Asia#South-eastern Asia, south-eastern region of Asia, consistin ...
.[Hall 1968: 909–910][Harvey 1925: xix] The first systematic effort to preserve the inscriptions was launched by King Bodawpaya
Bodawpaya ( my, ဘိုးတော်ဘုရား, ; th, ปดุง; 11 March 1745 – 5 June 1819) was the sixth king of the Konbaung dynasty of Burma. Born Maung Shwe Waing and later Badon Min, he was the fourth son of Alaungpaya, fou ...
per the royal order dated 23 July 1783 to check then existing chronicles with inscriptional evidence. By 1793, over 600 inscriptions from throughout the country were copied (recast), and kept at the capital Amarapura.[ European scholars in the British colonial period greatly expanded the collection effort, with a 1921 edition of ''Epigraphia Birmanica'' by ]Charles Duroiselle
Charles Duroiselle (1871 - 1951) was a French-born Burmese historian and archaeologist. He was a noted Pali scholar and epigrapher, and published monographs on Mandalay Palace and other related Burmese subjects. Throughout his career, excavated o ...
listing some 1500 inscriptions in original spelling and a large photograph of each text. The most complete set of inscriptions, called ''She-haung Myanma Kyauksa Mya'' (; lit. "Ancient Inscriptions of Myanmar") was only recently published by Yangon University
'')
, mottoeng = There's no friend like wisdom.
, established =
, type = Public
, rector = Dr. Tin Mg Tun
, undergrad = 4194
, postgrad = 5748
, city = Kamayut 11041, Yangon
, state = Yangon Regio ...
's Department of Archaeology in five volumes from 1972 to 1987.[Aung-Thwin 1996: 900] Aside from over 500 Pagan period inscriptions, most of the other stone inscriptions have not been studied systematically.[
]
Early chronicles
Early chronicles on palm-leaf manuscripts are those written prior to the 18th century when national chronicles first emerged. Of the earliest chronicles, those of Pagan and early Ava (to early 15th century), whose names have been mentioned in inscriptions and later chronicles, only two supplementary chronicles from the late 13th and early 15th centuries survived. The rest of early chronicles date only from the 16th century.[(Aung-Thwin 2005: 121–124, 358): ''Zatadawbon'' is the earliest surviving chronicle, whose first portions may have been written circa 1285. The next extant chronicle is ''Yazawin Kyaw'' (1502 and 1520). (Harvey 1925: xvi-xvii): the rest of them do not date before the 16th century.]
Many of the early chronicles did not survive for a number of reasons. First, the earliest manuscripts prior to the 15th century were rare and extremely costly. (A 1273 Pagan manuscript of ''Tripiṭaka
''Tipiṭaka'' () or ''Tripiṭaka'' () or ''තිපිටක'' (), meaning "Triple Basket", is the traditional term for ancient collections of Buddhist sacred scriptures.
The Pāli Canon maintained by the Theravāda tradition in ...
'' cost 3000 ''kyat
The kyat (, or ; my, ကျပ် ; ISO 4217 code MMK) is the currency of Myanmar (Burma). The typical notation for the kyat is "K" (singular) and "Ks." (plural), placed before the numerals followed by " /-"
The term ''kyat'' derives from th ...
s'' of silver, which could buy over 2000 hectares of paddy fields.[Lieberman 2003: 118]) The cost of producing manuscripts (creating as well as recopying) did come down in the Ava period as literacy rates improved, and the Burmese literature "grew more voluminous and diverse".[Lieberman 2003: 131] Even then, most did not survive warfare, the main factor in destruction of historical records in Burmese history.[Harvey 1925: xvi–xvii] Burmese history is littered with instances of conquering forces destroying the conquered's records: Pagan records in 1287 during the Mongol invasions
The Mongol invasions and conquests took place during the 13th and 14th centuries, creating history's largest contiguous empire: the Mongol Empire ( 1206- 1368), which by 1300 covered large parts of Eurasia. Historians regard the Mongol devastati ...
; Ava records in 1525 and in 1527 by the armies of Confederation of Shan States
The Shan States (1885–1948) were a collection of minor Shan kingdoms called '' muang'' whose rulers bore the title ''saopha'' in British Burma. They were analogous to the princely states of British India.
The term "Shan States" was firs ...
; Hanthawaddy records in 1565 by a rebellion; Toungoo records in 1600 by Mrauk-U forces; more Toungoo records in 1754 by Restored Hanthawaddy; remaining Hanthawaddy records in 1757 by Konbaung forces; Arakanese records in 1785 by Konbaung; Konbaung records in 1885 by the British. Perhaps not surprisingly, the most complete surviving chronicles are those of Upper Burma-based dynasties, which often were the victors of the wars. Even for those that survived the wars, "there were no record-room methods; mildew, ants, the accident of fire prevented many manuscripts reaching a great age".[ Those that survived did so only because private individuals outside the capital had painstakingly copied the original palm leaf manuscripts.][See (Thaw Kaung 2010: 13–37) on the chronicle writers and copiers, many of whom were monks and hailed from outside Ava (the capital). Copying the manuscripts was a painstaking and at times error-prone process. See (Pan Hla 1968: 3–4) and (Sein Myint 2007: 30–34) on copying errors. For a more detailed analysis on how chronicles were changed or altered, see (Aung-Thwin 2005: 121–153) which covers all the standard chronicles and all known Mon chronicles.] The survival of the manuscripts was also facilitated by the increasing literacy rates in the Irrawaddy valley. In the 15th century, when the literacy rate was still low, the scribal work was chiefly handled by monks, but by the late 18th century, it was routinely handled by commoners as adult male literacy exceeded 50 percent.[See (Lieberman 2003: 188–190) on the literacy rates of pre-colonial Burma. The first British censuses find that adult male literacy, defined as the ability to read and write simple materials, exceeded 50 percent. The 1891 census, conducted five years after the last Anglo-Burmese War, finds 62.5% of all adult males (age 25 and over) in Upper Burma were literate. Excluding non-Burmans would have raised this figure even higher. Female literacy was very low. A mere 1.5% of girls over age five were in school compared to 53.2% of boys who were. A 1901 census finds only 5.5% of the females in all of Burma were literate although the rate for Burman women was higher. (Steinberg 2009: 23–24): According to early British observers, "Burma was the most literate state between Suez and Japan", and one early 19th-century British observer "believed that Burmese women had a higher percentage of literacy than British women."]
As a result, the earliest surviving "chronicles" were not even the full official chronicles of their own era. The earliest extant chronicle, ''Zatadawbon Yazawin
''Zatadawbon Yazawin'' ( my, ဇာတာတော်ပုံ ရာဇဝင်, ; also spelled ''Zatatawpon''; ) is the earliest extant chronicle of Burma. The chronicle mainly covers the regnal dates of kings as well as horoscopes of select ...
'' ("The Royal Horoscopes Chronicle") first written in the late 13th century by court astrologers was primarily a record of regnal dates of Upper Burma's kings.[Aung-Thwin 2005: 121–123][Htin Aung 1970: 41] Likewise, the next surviving chronicle, the ''Yazawin Kyaw
''Maha Thanmada Wuntha'' ( my, မဟာသမ္မတဝံသ, ; pi, Mahā Sammata Vaṃsa) or more commonly known as ''Yazawin Kyaw'' ( my, ရာဇဝင် ကျော်, ; the Celebrated Chronicle) is an early 16th-century chronicle of ...
'' ("The Celebrated Chronicle"), written in 1502, was mainly a religious document; only one-seventh of the treatise concerned the affairs of Burmese kings down to 1496. Indeed, it was not even meant to be an authoritative chronicle as its author stated there was already an existing chronicle of the Ava court.[
In general, the early chronicles can be categorised as (1) histories of the rival kingdoms of 14th to 16th centuries, (2) ancient histories of kingdoms of previous eras (pre-14th century), and (3) biographies of famous kings.][Aung-Thwin 2005: 137]
Many of the early chronicles ''in some form'' had survived at least to the early 18th century since they were referenced by ''Maha Yazawin
The ''Maha Yazawin'', fully the ''Maha Yazawindawgyi'' ( my, မဟာ ရာဇဝင်တော်ကြီး, ) and formerly romanized as the ,. is the first national chronicle of Burma/Myanmar. Completed in 1724 by U Kala, a historian at t ...
''. An analysis of the passages of the chronicles directly quoted in ''Maha Yazawin'' shows that the referenced chronicles were most probably 16th century copies of the original chronicles, judging by their use of language, and most likely incomplete and partial copies, judging by their lack of specific dates, prior to the Toungoo period.[
]
National chronicles
The first comprehensive national chronicle emerged only in 1724. Subsequent chronicles were heavily influenced by the first chronicle.
Maha Yazawin
The ''Maha Yazawin
The ''Maha Yazawin'', fully the ''Maha Yazawindawgyi'' ( my, မဟာ ရာဇဝင်တော်ကြီး, ) and formerly romanized as the ,. is the first national chronicle of Burma/Myanmar. Completed in 1724 by U Kala, a historian at t ...
'' (''Great Chronicle''), completed in 1724[Wade 2012: 125] with a minor update in 1729,[Lieberman 1986: 236] was composed by U Kala, an official at the Toungoo court. It was the first major chronicle in Burma
Myanmar, ; UK pronunciations: US pronunciations incl. . Note: Wikipedia's IPA conventions require indicating /r/ even in British English although only some British English speakers pronounce r at the end of syllables. As John Wells explai ...
to synthesize all the ancient, regional, foreign and biographic histories to which he had access. Kala weaved all the regional Burmese chronicles as well as foreign ('' Mahavamsa'' and the '' Ayutthaya Chronicle'') together to form a consistent national narrative.[(Aung-Thwin 2005: 136–139): Kala also referenced ''Zinme Yazawin'' (Chiang Mai Chronicle). It would not have been considered a foreign chronicle because at that time, Chiang Mai or Lan Na was another Burmese Shan State, albeit the largest and most important one.] Kala wrote three versions by length: ''Maha Yazawin Gyi'' (full version, 21 volumes), ''Yazawin Lat'' (medium version, 10 volumes), ''Yazawin Gyok'' (abridged version, 1 volume).[Kala Vol. 1 2006: 30–31; in Preface by Kyaw Nyein, Director of the Universities History Research] Since it was written in the late Toungoo period, ''Maha Yazawin'' provides its most specific information on dates and descriptions of various events Toungoo kings partook. It traces the life of each king chronologically, wherever possible, from his birth to the grave or his dethronement.[Hla Pe 1985: 38] However, its narrative of the earlier periods is far more sketchy, offering only the year, not the specific date, in most cases. It shows that Kala did not have the full versions of earlier chronicles, and that he did not check any inscriptions, which would have yielded more specific dates and double-checked the events.[Hla Pe 1985: 46–47]
Yazawin Thit
The next major chronicle, ''Yazawin Thit'' ("New Chronicle"), written in 1798,[Hall 1961: 88] was an attempt to check ''Maha Yazawin'' with epigraphic
Epigraphy () is the study of inscriptions, or epigraphs, as writing; it is the science of identifying graphemes, clarifying their meanings, classifying their uses according to dates and cultural contexts, and drawing conclusions about the wr ...
evidence. (It is the first historical document in Southeast Asia compiled in consultation with epigraphic evidence. It shows that historians in Southeast Asia were using epigraphy for sourcing and verification around the same time as the practice was first used in Europe, even if Twinthin's methods may not have "evolved into a formal method".[Woolf 2011: 416]) Its author, Twinthin Taikwun Maha Sithu, consulted over 600 stone inscriptions, which he had collected and copied from around the kingdom between 1783 and 1793 per King Bodawpaya's decree, to verify the accuracy of ''Maha Yazawin''. It was the only Burmese chronicle (other than ''Zatadawbon Yazawin'') to organise itself by dynasties and periods whereas all others had been organised strictly along the linear order of kings, and the first to link the origins of Burmese monarchy to Buddhism.[Aung-Thwin 2005: 142–144]
The chronicle updates the events up to 1785, and contains several corrections and critiques of earlier chronicles. However, the chronicle was not well received, and ultimately rejected by the king and the court who found the critiques of earlier chronicles excessively harsh.[Thaw Kaung 2010: 50–51] It became known as ''A-pe-gan Yazawin'' (, the "Discarded Chronicle").[Hsan Tun in preface of (Hmannan Yazawin 2003: xxxv)]
Nonetheless, when ''Hmannan Yazawin'', the first officially accepted chronicle of Konbaung Dynasty, appeared in 1832, it had incorporated many of ''Yazawin Thit's'' corrections, in particular regnal dates of Pagan period kings.[Maha Yazawin Vol. 1 2006: 346–349] Modern scholarship notes the chronicle's innovative use of epigraphy but does not find the chronicle's criticisms harsh. Rather, scholarship maintains that for its criticisms and corrections, the chronicle largely retains traditional narratives, and "was —as elsewhere in the world —written with didactic intentions".[
]
Hmannan Yazawin
''Hmannan Yazawin'', known in English as the "Glass Palace Chronicle", was compiled by the Royal Historical Commission in 1829–1832. The chronicle covers events right up to 1821, right before the First Anglo-Burmese War
The First Anglo-Burmese War ( my, ပထမ အင်္ဂလိပ်-မြန်မာ စစ်; ; 5 March 1824 – 24 February 1826), also known as the First Burma War, was the first of three wars fought between the British and Burmese ...
(1824–1826). The commission consulted several existing chronicles and local histories (''thamaings'') and the inscriptions collected by Bodawpaya, as well as ''eigyins'', poetry describing epics of kings and ''mawguns'', panegyric poems. Although the compilers disputed some of the earlier accounts, they by and large retained the accounts of ''Maha Yazawin'' and ''Yazawin Thit''. The most important development was ''Hmannan's'' disposal of the hitherto prevalent pre-Buddhist origin story
In entertainment, an origin story is an account or backstory revealing how a character or group of people become a protagonist or antagonist, and it adds to the overall interest and complexity of a narrative, often giving reasons for their intent ...
of Burmese monarchy, and linkage of the monarchy to the clan of the Buddha
Siddhartha Gautama, most commonly referred to as the Buddha, was a śramaṇa, wandering ascetic and religious teacher who lived in South Asia during the 6th or 5th century BCE and founded Buddhism.
According to Buddhist tradition, he was ...
and the first king of Buddhist mythology, Maha Sammata
Maha and MAHA may refer to:
* Maha (name), an Arabic feminine given name
* ''Maha'' (film), a Tamil thriller film
* MaHa, Nepali comedy duo, Madan Krishna Shrestha and Hari Bansha Acharya
* Maha Music Festival, an annual music festival held on th ...
.[Hla Pe 1985: 39–40][Lieberman 2003: 196] (The head of the Royal Historical Commission, Monywe Sayadaw, also wrote a similar chronicle to ''Hmannan'' called '' Maha Yazawin Kyaw'' ("Great Celebrated Chronicle") in 1831. The learned monk had been writing the chronicle prior to his appointment, and completed his own chronicle because he did not agree with some of the points in ''Hmannan''.[Thaw Kaung 2010: 53–55])
The second part of ''Hmannan'', also called the Second Chronicle, was written in 1867–1869 by another committee of scholars.[Allot et al 1989: 13–14] It covers the events up to 1854, including the first two Anglo-Burmese wars
The Anglo-Burmese Wars were a clash between two expanding empires, the British Empire against the Konbaung Dynasty that became British India‘s most expensive and longest war, costing 5–13 million pounds sterling (£400 million – £1.1 billio ...
.[ The Second Chronicle's account of the two wars, according to historian ]Htin Aung
Htin Aung ( my, ထင်အောင် ; also Maung Htin Aung; 18 May 1909 – 10 May 1978) was a writer and scholar of Burmese culture and history. Educated at Oxford and Cambridge, Htin Aung wrote several books on Burmese history and culture ...
, was "written with the objectivity of a true historian, and the great national defeats were described faithfully in detail."[Htin Aung 1967: 254] The posthumous names of "Bodawpaya" ("Royal Lord Grandfather") and "Bagyidawpaya" ("Royal Lord Paternal Uncle") were introduced in this chronicle; the kings respectively were grandfather and paternal uncle to King Mindon who had commissioned the chronicle.
The third instalment came in 1905, nearly twenty years after the end of Burmese monarchy, and was written by Maung Maung Tin, who had a distinguished career in the British administration. Tin updated the chronicle to 1885, to the fall of the monarchy, relying mainly on the court records obtained from several members of the royal library and also on the papers seized by the British and kept in libraries.[Hla Pe 1985: 41] (Almost all the records of the Konbaung Dynasty had gone up in flames as drunken British soldiers burned down the royal library soon after King Thibaw's surrender in 1885.)[(Myint-U 2006: 30); The wanton destruction of the buildings of the palace ended only in 1901 when Viceroy ]Lord Curzon
George Nathaniel Curzon, 1st Marquess Curzon of Kedleston, (11 January 1859 – 20 March 1925), styled Lord Curzon of Kedleston between 1898 and 1911 and then Earl Curzon of Kedleston between 1911 and 1921, was a British Conservative statesman ...
issued an order to preserve what was left of the palace. Tin updated the chronicle in 1921, and included the death of King Thibaw in 1916 as a postscript.[
]
List of national chronicles
The following is a list of standard chronicles with two notable exceptions. Though officially commissioned by King Bodawpaya, ''Yazawin Thit'' was not accepted by the Konbaung court as its official chronicle. It is included in this list because ''Hmannan'' retains many of ''Yazawin Thit's'' corrections. Likewise, ''Konbaung Set Yazawin'' or Hmannan Yazawin Part III was written after the monarchy was abolished, and thus not official.
Biographic chronicles
Usually named ''ayedawbons'', biographic chronicles cover the life of more celebrated kings such as Razadarit
Razadarit ( mnw, ရာဇာဓိရာတ်,The spelling "ရာဇာဓိရာတ်" per ''Slapat Rajawan'' (Schmidt 1906: 118) and the 1485 Shwedagon Pagoda inscription (Pan Hla 2005: 368, footnote 1). Nai Pan Hla's ''Razadarit Ayedawb ...
, Bayinnaung
, image = File:Bayinnaung.JPG
, caption = Statue of Bayinnaung in front of the National Museum of Myanmar
, reign = 30 April 1550 – 10 October 1581
, coronation = 11 January 1551 at Toung ...
, Nyaungyan
Nyaungyan ( my, ညောင်ရမ်းမြို့) is a town in Mandalay Region, Myanmar
Myanmar, ; UK pronunciations: US pronunciations incl. . Note: Wikipedia's IPA conventions require indicating /r/ even in British English al ...
and Alaungpaya
Alaungpaya ( my, အလောင်းဘုရား, ; also spelled Alaunghpaya or Alaung-Phra; 11 May 1760) was the founder of the Konbaung Dynasty of Burma (Myanmar). By the time of his death from illness during his campaign in Siam, this f ...
in detail. Note: ''Razadarit Ayedawbon'' is actually the first half of the Hanthawaddy chronicle.[ At least two Alaungpaya biographies by different original authors exist. ''Hsinbyushin Ayedawbon'' is actually about the reign of King ]Bodawpaya
Bodawpaya ( my, ဘိုးတော်ဘုရား, ; th, ปดุง; 11 March 1745 – 5 June 1819) was the sixth king of the Konbaung dynasty of Burma. Born Maung Shwe Waing and later Badon Min, he was the fourth son of Alaungpaya, fou ...
, not the more famous Hsinbyushin and Bodawpaya's brother, King Hsinbyushin
Hsinbyushin ( my, ဆင်ဖြူရှင်, , ; th, พระเจ้ามังระ; 12 September 1736 – 10 June 1776) was king of the Konbaung dynasty of Burma (Myanmar) from 1763 to 1776. The second son of the dynasty founder Al ...
.[
]
Regional chronicles
Regional chronicles are the histories of various small kingdoms such as (Hanthawaddy Kingdom
( Mon) ( Burmese)
, conventional_long_name = Kingdom of Hongsarwatoi (Hanthawaddy) Pegu
, common_name = Hongsarwatoi (Hanthawaddy) Kingdom / Ramannya (Ramam)
, era = Warring states
, status = Kingdom
, event_pre ...
and Mrauk-U Kingdom
The Kingdom of Mrauk-U ( Arakanese: မြောက်ဦး နေပြည်တော်,) was a kingdom that existed on the Arakan littoral from 1429 to 1785. Based out of the capital Mrauk-U, near the eastern coast of the Bay of Bengal, ...
) and tributary vassal states (Early Toungoo, Prome, major Shan states of Lan Na
The Lan Na Kingdom ( nod, , , "Kingdom of a Million Rice Fields"; th, อาณาจักรล้านนา, , ), also known as Lannathai, and most commonly called Lanna or Lanna Kingdom, was an Indianized state centered in present-day ...
, Kengtung
th , เชียงตุง
, other_name = Kyaingtong
, settlement_type = Town
, imagesize =
, image_caption =
, pushpin_map = Myanmar
, pushpin_label_position = left
, ...
, Hsenwi
Theinni or Hsenwi ( shn, ; my, သိန္နီ, ; th, แสนหวี, , ) is a town in northern Shan State of Burma, situated near the north bank of the Nam Tu River and now the centre of Hsenwi Township in Lashio District. It is nort ...
and Hsipaw
Hsipaw ( shn, သီႇပေႃႉ; Tai Nuea: ᥔᥤᥴ ᥙᥨᥝᥳ), also known as Thibaw ( my, သီပေါ), is the principal town of Hsipaw Township in Shan State, Myanmar on the banks of the Duthawadi River. It is north-east of Mandal ...
) which maintained their own court and court historians. The regional chronicles were most relevant during the small kingdoms (warring states) period of Burmese history (14th to 16th centuries). The tradition of local court histories vanished in the Irrawaddy valley starting in the 17th century when Restored Toungoo kings integrated the entire valley into the core administrative system. The chronicle tradition continued only in farther major tributaries such as Kengtung and Lan Na, and indeed in the independent kingdom of Mrauk-U until it was conquered by Konbaung Dynasty in 1785.[See (Lieberman 2003: 158–202) for administrative and economic reforms begun by Restored Toungoo kings and continued by Konbaung Dynasty. Regional courts in the Irrawaddy valley were vanquished, and the number and power of Shan courts greatly reduced.]
Upper Burma
Ramanya
The original Mon language
The Mon language (, mnw, ဘာသာမန်, links=no, (Mon-Thai ဘာသာမည်) ; my, မွန်ဘာသာ; th, ภาษามอญ; formerly known as Peguan and Talaing) is an Austroasiatic language spoken by the Mon peopl ...
chronicles of the two main Mon-speaking kingdoms of the second millennium did not survive in their full form. The chronicles of the Hanthawaddy Kingdom
( Mon) ( Burmese)
, conventional_long_name = Kingdom of Hongsarwatoi (Hanthawaddy) Pegu
, common_name = Hongsarwatoi (Hanthawaddy) Kingdom / Ramannya (Ramam)
, era = Warring states
, status = Kingdom
, event_pre ...
(1287–1539, 1550–1552) were destroyed in 1565 during a rebellion led by ex-Hanthawaddy officials that burned down the whole city of Pegu
Bago (formerly spelt Pegu; , ), formerly known as Hanthawaddy, is a city and the capital of the Bago Region in Myanmar. It is located north-east of Yangon.
Etymology
The Burmese name Bago (ပဲခူး) is likely derived from the Mon lang ...
(Bago). Likewise, most of the records of Restored Hanthawaddy Kingdom (1740–1757) were destroyed in 1757 by Konbaung forces.[Harvey 1925: xviii] Therefore, the earliest extant chronicles are only parts of the original chronicles. The first half (1287–1421) of the original ''Hanthawaddy Yazawin'' had been translated into Burmese by Binnya Dala as ''Razadarit Ayedawbon
''Razadarit Ayedawbon'' ( my, ရာဇာဓိရာဇ် အရေးတော်ပုံ) is a Burmese chronicle covering the history of Ramanya from 1287 to 1421. The chronicle consists of accounts of court intrigues, rebellions, diplomat ...
'' before the 1565 rebellion, and the Burmese translation has survived. (To be precise, four oldest palm-leaf copies conjecturally dated to mid 18th century survived. In all, nine slightly different versions of existed according to a 1968 analysis by historian Nai Pan Hla
Nai Pan Hla ( my, နိုင်ပန်းလှ, mnw, နာဲပါန်လှ; 1923 – 18 June 2010) was a Burmese historian and cultural anthropologist of Mon descent. Throughout his career, he published many works on Mon ethnog ...
.[Aung-Thwin 2005: 133–135] Pan Hla re-translated one of the versions back to Mon in 1958. He also wrote a new (tenth) version in 1968, synthesising the Burmese versions of ''Razadarit'', ''Pak Lats version, and the accounts in ''Hmannan'' as well as modern research.[Pan Hla 1968: 3–4])
Other extant chronicles are even more limited in scope: they are mainly supplementary chronicles dealing with specific topics. '' Nidana Arambhakatha'' ("Preface to the Legend") covers the genealogy of kings, and was supposedly part of a larger treatise called ''Ramann'-uppatti-dipaka'' ("An Explanation of the Origins of Ramannadesa"). The surviving copy of ''Nidana'' is dated to the 18th century although the copy says its original manuscript was compiled in year 900 ME (1538/39 CE). Another chronicle called '' Gavampati'', likely compiled between the 18th and 19th centuries, mainly covers the early (legendary) history, claiming its early monarchs' linkage to the Buddha.[Aung-Thwin 2005: 145] Another 18th-century chronicle, ''Slatpat Rajawan Datow Smim Ron'' ("History of Kings"), written by a monk, was also a religion/legend-centric chronicle although it does cover secular history from Sri Ksetra and Pagan to Hanthawaddy periods. Like ''Gavampati'', and ''Hmannan'' of the same period, ''Slatpat'' too linked its kings to the Buddha
Siddhartha Gautama, most commonly referred to as the Buddha, was a śramaṇa, wandering ascetic and religious teacher who lived in South Asia during the 6th or 5th century BCE and founded Buddhism.
According to Buddhist tradition, he was ...
and Buddhist mythology
The Buddhist traditions have created and maintained a vast body of mythological literature. The central myth of Buddhism is the life of the Buddha. This is told in relatively realistic terms in the earliest texts, and was soon elaborated into ...
.[Aung-Thwin 2005: 139–141]
Indeed, the most complete compilation of the history of Mon kingdoms would have to wait until 1910 and 1912 when ''Pak Lat Chronicles
The ''Pak Lat Chronicles'', as they are known in English, are a compilation of Mon history texts gathered from palm-leaf manuscripts by the Siamese Mon Monk Phra Candakanto around 1912-13.
This compilation of manuscript texts was published in tw ...
'' was published in a two-volume set. It was reportedly based on the stash of manuscripts found at Pak Lat, then an ethnic Mon enclave east of Bangkok
Bangkok, officially known in Thai language, Thai as Krung Thep Maha Nakhon and colloquially as Krung Thep, is the capital and most populous city of Thailand. The city occupies in the Chao Phraya River delta in central Thailand and has an estima ...
. (The provenance and chronology of the manuscripts used in the publications are uncertain, and had not yet been studied by a Burma Mon scholar as of 2005.) ''Pak Lat'' weaves together all existing Mon narratives, including the history of Thaton Kingdom, ''Gavampati's'' linkage with the Buddha, the Hanthawaddy Chronicle from monarchs Wareru
Wareru ( mnw, ဝါရေဝ်ရောဝ်, my, ဝါရီရူး, ; also known as Wagaru; 20 March 1253 – 14 January 1307) was the founder of the Martaban Kingdom, located in present-day Myanmar (Burma). By using both diplomatic a ...
to Shin Sawbu
Shin Sawbu ( my, ရှင်စောပု, ; mnw, မိစဴဗု; 1394–1471) was queen regnant of Hanthawaddy from 1454 to 1471. Queen Shin Sawbu is also known as Binnya Thau ( mnw, ဗညားထောဝ်; mnw, ဨကရာဇ ...
(1287–1472), and ''Nidana's'' genealogy of kings.[Aung-Thwin 2005: 148–149]
Arakan
Although the earliest extant work of Arakanese literature in Arakanese (Burmese) script, ''Rakhine Minthami Eigyin'' ("Lullaby for a Princess of Arakan"), was written only in 1455,[Singer 2008: 16–17] Arakanese chronicle tradition most likely began at least a century earlier. (The Burmese script had already been in use at the Arakanese court at least since the 1330s when the future King Swa Saw Ke of Ava was educated there.[Htin Aung 1967: 86] According to Pamela Gutman, the use of Burmese script appeared for the first time in the Le-Mro period (11th to 15th centuries) on stone inscriptions.[Gutman 2001: 61]) Much earlier Devanagari
Devanagari ( ; , , Sanskrit pronunciation: ), also called Nagari (),Kathleen Kuiper (2010), The Culture of India, New York: The Rosen Publishing Group, , page 83 is a left-to-right abugida (a type of segmental Writing systems#Segmental syste ...
inscriptions exist (as early as c. 550 CE)[Than Tun 1964: 65–66] but it does not appear that the Arakanese chronicles consulted the inscriptions in any case because later court historians could not read the earliest inscriptions. Indeed, to date, most of the inscriptions have not been fully examined, or translated.[(Singer 2008: 16–17); only a portion of the ''Ananda Chandra'' inscriptions was translated into English in 1930, and into Burmese in 1975.]
Though Arakanese chronicles may have been written circa the 14th century, the earliest extant manuscripts date only from the 18th century. Most of Mrauk-U's historical works did not survive the burning of the royal library by the Konbaung forces in 1785.[Myint-U 2006: 110] Only portions escaped the indiscriminate destruction. An Arakanese monk tried to salvage the wreckage as much as he could by promptly compiling the ''Dhanyawaddy Yazawin''. He completed it in 1788 but the chronicle may not be as reliable as it is "a third-hand piece of work". Colonial period scholars had to piece together the extant portions of ''Maha Razawin'' (148 ''angas'' or 1776 palm-leaves), Do We's ''Rakhine Razawin'' (48 ''angas'' / 576 leaves), Saya Mi's ''Maha Razawin'' (24 ''angas'' / 288 leaves).[Harvey 1925: xviii–xix] In the late 20th century, historian San Tha Aung could confirm only eight of the supposed 48 historical works of Arakanese history. Even of the extant eight, he was unsure of the reliability of the information prior to 1000 CE.[
All Arakanese Arakanese chronicles remain untranslated into English. It means the Arakanese accounts have not been open to (non-Burmese reading) international scholars. According to historian Michael Charney, the Arakanese accounts need to be checked since "the references to Arakan in the chronicles of Arakan’s neighbors, such as Pegu, Ayudhya, and Ava are on the whole biased or ill-informed."][Charney 2005: 978]
Shan states
The rulers of Shan states
The Shan States (1885–1948) were a collection of minor Shan kingdoms called ''muang'' whose rulers bore the title ''saopha'' in British Burma. They were analogous to the princely states of British India.
The term "Shan States" was firs ...
, called ''saopha
Chao-Pha (; Ahom language, Tai Ahom: 𑜋𑜧𑜨 𑜇𑜡, th, เจ้าฟ้า}, shn, ၸဝ်ႈၾႃႉ, translit=Jao3 Fa5 Jao3 Fa5, my, စော်ဘွား ''Sawbwa,'' ) was a royal title used by the hereditary rulers of the T ...
s'' ''(sawbwas)'', held court even as they paid tribute to their larger neighbours. Some of the larger Shan states such as Lan Na (Chiang Mai), Kengtung, Hsenwi, Hsipaw and Mong Yawng also maintained their own histories down to the 19th century, similar to what other vassal states such as Prome and Toungoo did in the 14th and 16th centuries. (Lan Na
The Lan Na Kingdom ( nod, , , "Kingdom of a Million Rice Fields"; th, อาณาจักรล้านนา, , ), also known as Lannathai, and most commonly called Lanna or Lanna Kingdom, was an Indianized state centered in present-day ...
was tributary to Burma from 1558 to 1775.) At any rate, only Lan Na and Kengtung, the two largest Shan states, had sizeable chronicles. Moreover, the earliest extant copies of Lan Na date only from the 18th century even though the original copy of ''Jinakalamali'' of Chiang Mai is said to have been compiled in 1527.[Aung-Thwin 2005: 125] The rest of the smaller Shan state chronicles (Hsenwi, Hsipaw, etc.) date only from the 19th century.[Cochrane 1915: 51–52] Like their Burmese and Mon counterparts, various Shan chronicles also claim their sawbwas' descent from the clan of the Buddha, which British colonial period scholars took to be a sign of copying from ''Hmannan'' and as a sign of their recent nature.[Hardiman 1901: 216–217] G.E. Harvey, a colonial period scholar, found the extant Shan chronicles "consistently reckless with regard to dates, varying a couple of centuries on every other leaf", and discarded them.
The Shan local histories were written in a variety of Shan script
The Shan alphabet is a Brahmic scripts, Brahmic abugida, used for writing the Shan language, which was derived from the Burmese alphabet. Due to its recent reforms, the Shan alphabet is more phonetic than other Burmese-derived alphabets.
Histo ...
s. ''Jinakalamali'' was originally written in Pali, ''Zinme Yazawin'' in Lan Na script, and ''Kengtung Yazawin'' in Khun script, for example. (At least six Shan scripts—Tai Long, Tai Hkamti, Tai Neu, Khun, Tai Yun (Kengwi), Tai Yun (Lan Na) were in use in Burmese Shan states.[Aung Tun 2009: 27]) Excluding Lan Na chronicles, only ''Kengtung Yazawin'' has been fully translated into English as the '' Padaeng Chronicle and the Jengtung State Chronicle''.[Aung-Thwin 1996: 884] (Two Lan Na chronicles of the Chiang Mai Chronicle and the Nan Chronicle have also been translated into English.)[See (Wyatt 1998: Chiang Mai Chronicle) and (Ratchasomphan and Wyatt 1994: The Nan Chronicle)]
Miscellaneous
There are also chronicles that fall outside of general categorisation. ''Pawtugi Yazawin'' covers the history of the Portuguese, especially their rule at Syriam (Thanlyin) from 1599 to 1613.[ ''Dawei Yazawin'' and ''Myeik Yazawin'' are chronicles of ]Tavoy
Dawei (, ; mnw, ဓဝဲါ, ; th, ทวาย, RTGS: ''Thawai'', ; formerly known as Tavoy) is a city in south-eastern Myanmar and is the capital of the Tanintharyi Region, formerly known as the Tenasserim Division, on the northern bank of ...
(Dawei) and Myeik (Mergui), compiled after the Burmese conquest of Tenasserim in 1765.[
]
Supplementary sources
Chronicles in verse
The chronicles were also written in verse
Poetry (derived from the Greek ''poiesis'', "making"), also called verse, is a form of literature that uses aesthetic and often rhythmic qualities of language − such as phonaesthetics, sound symbolism, and metre − to evoke meanings in a ...
, chiefly in ''eigyin'' or ''mawgun'' forms, and secondarily in the form of ''yazawin thanbauk''. ''Eigyins'' are elaborate lullabies for young princes and princesses, written to inform the royal children of their genealogy and the achievements of their forebears. Since the antiquity of the royal family's genealogy mattered greatly, the poets did their best to trace the ancestors as far back as they could, with considerable use of their own imagination. The earliest ''eigyin'' (''Mauktaw Eigyin'', or more commonly known as ''Rakhine Minthami Eigyin'') dates from 1455, and is also the earliest extant Burmese poetry on palm-leaf. Over 40 royal ''eigyins'' are on record. ''Mawguns'' are panegyric poems, composed as a rule to commemorate an important event. The subjects range from the arrival of a white elephant at the court to the conquest of Siam, from the completion of a canal to an essay on cosmology. The earliest ''mawgun'' dates from 1472. The poet's duty was to glorify the event in an ornate language in verse. There are more than 60 extant ''mawguns''. Both ''eigyin'' and ''mawgun'' were composed in four-syllable lines, albeit in different styles. A few ''yazawin thanbauks'', or historical epigrams or chronograms, from the 18th and 19th centuries have also survived. The often lengthy ''thanbauks'' list the pairings of year dates to historical events.[Hla Pe 1985: 42–43]
With their poetical imagery and excessive glorification, ''eigyins'', ''mawguns'' and ''thanbauks'' are of high literary value but of limited historical value.[ Some of the more well known chronicles in verse are:
]
Administrative treatises and precedents
Court scholars also wrote administrative treatises and precedents. The two most well known, '' Zabu Kun-Cha Po Yaza Mu Haung'' () ( early 15th century)[Hudson 2004: 29] and '' Mani Yadanabon'' () (1781) are compilations of precedents but also provide an outline of the prior dynasties down to the era in which they were written.[Aung-Thwin 2005: 123–124, 141–142] ''Mani Yadanabon'', for example, is "a repository of historical examples illustrating pragmatic political principles worthy of Machiavelli".[ Furthermore, many of these treatises—expositions on institutions, royal insignia, ranks and technical terms—help interpret the chronicles since many of the terms are obsolete.][Hla Pe 1985: 44–45]
Law treatises and precedents
'' Dhammathats'' are treatises on law used by Burmese royal courts. ''Hpyat-htons'' (also spelled ''pyattons'') are legal precedents by earlier kings. The earliest extant legal treatise '' Dhammavisala Dhammathat'' dates from the 12th century[Huxley 2005: 62] while the more well known Mon language '' Wareru Dhammathat'' dates from the 1290s. The earliest ''dhammathats'' were mainly written in Pali, and were accessible only to the court elite and clergy. Though modeled after the Hindu legal treatise ''Manusmriti
The ''Manusmṛiti'' ( sa, मनुस्मृति), also known as the ''Mānava-Dharmaśāstra'' or Laws of Manu, is one of the many legal texts and constitution among the many ' of Hinduism. In ancient India, the sages often wrote their ...
'' in terms of organization, the content of Burmese ''dhammathats'' is mostly Burmese customary law[Huxley 2005: 64–66] with early ''dhammathats'' containing "between 4% and 5%" of the Hindu legal treatise ''Manusmriti
The ''Manusmṛiti'' ( sa, मनुस्मृति), also known as the ''Mānava-Dharmaśāstra'' or Laws of Manu, is one of the many legal texts and constitution among the many ' of Hinduism. In ancient India, the sages often wrote their ...
''.[Huxley 2005: 63] The ''Wareru'' was translated into Burmese, Pali and Siamese, and was the basic law of the First Toungoo Empire
The First Toungoo Empire ( my, တောင်ငူ ခေတ်, ; also known as the First Toungoo Dynasty, the Second Burmese Empire or simply the Toungoo Empire) was the dominant power in mainland Southeast Asia in the second half of the ...
.[Abbott 2000: 297][Htin Aung 1967: 127] After the empire's fall in 1599, the Code lived on—albeit in adapted forms—in the main successor states. In Siam, it coexisted with other legal codes until King Rama I
Phra Phutthayotfa Chulalok Maharaj (, 20 March 1737 – 7 September 1809), personal name Thongduang (), also known as Rama I, was the founder of the Rattanakosin Kingdom and the first monarch of the reigning Chakri dynasty of Siam (now Tha ...
compiled a new legal code in 1805.[Lingat 1950: 23, 28] The new Siamese law's core 18 chapters share "substantial similarities to King Wareru's code", and the new code adds 21 more chapters.[Lingat 1950: 24–25] In Burma, the Code morphed into a more Buddhist-centric version by 1640. The new treatise often supports Burmese customary law "with explicitly Buddhist scriptural justifications".[Lieberman 1993: 248]
An 1899 analysis by historian U Gaung lists a total of 36 ''dhammathats'' that had survived in some form.[Charney 2002: 4] Some of the more well known law treatises and precedents are:
Censuses
''Sittans'', or censuses/revenue inquests, were used by the kings to determine their tax collection and military manpower base. The censuses collected data on the size of population, number and description of villages, arable land, products and taxes. Kings since Pagan times had graded each town and village by the taxes and levy it could raise. The first known instance of a ''sittan'' was ordered per the royal decree dated 12 March 1359 while the first nationwide census was commissioned in 1638.[Harvey 1925: 194] The next two national censuses were commissioned in 1784 and 1803.[Harvey 1925: 269–270] The 1784 census shows the kingdom had a population of 1,831,487, excluding "wild tribes" and the recently conquered Arakan.[Harvey 1925: 333]
Histories of religion and religious monuments
The country's many pagodas and temples also maintain a historical record, usually a stone and/or bell inscription, called ''thamaing''. They furnish important historical information about the religious dedications by the royalty and the wealthy donors. Each ''thamaing'' purports to give the history of the founder of the building and of its subsequent benefactors. Such documents include notices of secular events.[Phayre 1883: viii-ix] In addition, some learned monks also wrote chronicles on the history of Buddhism from the time of the Buddha to their present day. The two well known religious chronicles are:
Analysis
Quantity
The overall number of the chronicles outside the inscriptions is "modest" due to their destruction in the country's repeated bouts of warfare. Most of the extant material is that of Upper Burmese dynasties, which by the virtue of winning the majority of the wars "possessed an abiding palace and a continuous tradition". The sparseness of the chronicles of Ramanya (Lower Burma), Arakan and Shan states belies the long histories of these former sovereign states, which for centuries were important polities in their own right.[ Even the Upper Burmese chronicles still have many gaps and lack specificity, especially with regard to pre-Toungoo (pre-16th century) eras.][
Still, Myanmar has the highest amount of historical source material in all of ]Southeast Asia
Southeast Asia, also spelled South East Asia and South-East Asia, and also known as Southeastern Asia, South-eastern Asia or SEA, is the geographical United Nations geoscheme for Asia#South-eastern Asia, south-eastern region of Asia, consistin ...
.[ ]British colonial period
The British Empire was composed of the dominions, colonies, protectorates, mandates, and other territories ruled or administered by the United Kingdom and its predecessor states. It began with the overseas possessions and trading posts esta ...
scholars, who were the first ones to reconstruct Burma's history in a "scientific" way and made invaluable efforts to systematically preserve the records, and cast a highly sceptical eye toward the chronicle narratives, nonetheless praised the relative completeness of the extant Burmese material compared to those of Southeast Asian and even Indian states.[ ]D.G.E. Hall
Daniel George Edward Hall (1891–1979) was a British historian, author, and academic. He wrote extensively on the history of Burma. His most notable work is ''A History of Southeast Asia'', said to "...remain the most important single history o ...
summarises that "Burma is not the only Southeast Asian country to have large collections of this indispensable source material and precious heritage of the past; no other country surpasses her."[
]
Scope
The scope of the chronicles is rather narrow. The coverage mostly revolves around the activities of the monarch and the royal family, and offers little perspective on the general situation of the kingdom outside the palace unless the monarch happened to be involved in the event.[ Remote regions would make an appearance only if they were part of the king's itinerary, or were involved in rebellions or military campaigns. Other records—legal and administrative treatises, censuses and regional chronicles—do provide valuable complementary views. On balance, however, the royal records overall remain heavily monarch-centered: they "tell little of general conditions, and their story is not of the people of Burma but simply that of the dynasties of Upper Burma."][
]
Influences
The earliest chronicles, such as ''Yazawin Kyaw'' and ''Maha Yazawin'' were modelled after '' Mahavamsa''.[Hla Pe 1985: 37–38] The early Buddhist history (and mythology) came right from the Sri Lankan chronicle. But much of the extant chronicle tradition (both in prose and verse) and the "sophistication in use and manipulation of an expanded Burmese vocabulary and grammar" are legacies of the Ava period.[Aung-Thwin 1996: 890–891]
The Burmese chronicles have been used in Thai historians' effort to reconstruct the Thai history before 1767 for the original Siamese chronicles were destroyed during the sack of Ayutthaya by the Burmese army. In particular, the pre-1767 chronology of Thai history follows that of Burmese chronicles. (The prior reconstructed dates of the 19th century Siamese chronicles had been off by nearly two decades before historians realised it in 1914.)[Harvey 1925: 343]
Historicity and accuracy
The chronicles can be divided in two parts: the early mythical origin legends and later factual history. The chronicle narratives start out with early origin myths, and eventually, they slowly change from being mythical to largely factual. Historians treat the Pagan Empire period (1044–1287) as the dividing period between mythical legends and the factual history. The Pagan period narratives still contain a number of legends—according to Harvey, "half the narrative told as historical down to the 13th century is probably folklore"—but the period's "deluge" of inscriptions provide a wealth of information to check the veracity of these narratives.[Harvey 1925: xvii] Even the later portions of the chronicles, which have been shown to be largely factual, still were not written purely from a secular history perspective but rather also achieve what Aung-Thwin calls "legitimation according to religious criteria" of the Burmese monarchy.[Aung-Thwin 2005: 144–145]
Early history (pre-11th century)
Reconstruction of this part of the early Burmese history has been ongoing, and the views of the scholarship evolving. European scholars of the colonial period saw in the narratives mostly the "legends" and "fairly tales", and outright dismissed all of early history as "copies of Indian legends taken from Sanskrit or Pali originals".[Hall 1960: 7] They highly doubted the antiquity of the chronicle tradition, and dismissed the possibility that any sort of civilisation in Burma could be much older than 500 CE.[Myint-U 2006: 44–45][Harvey 1925: 307–309] This assessment was the mainstream view at least to the 1960s. Some did vigorously challenge the views but the dismantling of the views would have to wait until more archaeological evidence came in.[(Aung-Thwin 2005: 295): Although a number of scholars of Burmese origin had expressed their disagreement with then prevailing interpretation in Burmese language works, ]Htin Aung
Htin Aung ( my, ထင်အောင် ; also Maung Htin Aung; 18 May 1909 – 10 May 1978) was a writer and scholar of Burmese culture and history. Educated at Oxford and Cambridge, Htin Aung wrote several books on Burmese history and culture ...
was the first scholar who openly challenged then mainstream views in English. See (Htin Aung 1967: 341–344) for Htin Aung's charge of European scholarship's biases. Htin Aung was roundly criticized for his critiques. See (Hall 1968) for Hall's scathing response, and (Htin Aung 1970) for his "Defence of the Chronicles" in response. (Hla Pe 1985) criticizes Htin Aung for what Hla Pe
Dr. Hla Pe ( my, လှဘေ, ; 8 January 1913 – 31 July 2007) was a prominent Burmese language linguist and a longtime contributor to the '' Myanmar–English Dictionary''. He was professor of Burmese language and culture at the University of ...
deemed (Htin Aung 1970)'s direct attacks on G.H. Luce; (Aung-Thwin 2005: 295) however finds some of Htin Aung's "refutation, especially of Luce's arguments quite convincing"; overall, Aung-Thwin calls Htin Aung's ''Defence of the Chronicles'' "a reasonable critique" of then prevailing views but "not one that advanced the field in a substantive way with regard to hard data."
Modern scholarship, with the benefit of latest research, now holds a far more nuanced view. Latest research shows that when stripped of the legendary elements, which are now viewed as allegories
As a literary device or artistic form, an allegory is a narrative or visual representation in which a character, place, or event can be interpreted to represent a hidden meaning with moral or political significance. Authors have used allegory th ...
, the chronicle narratives largely conform to the evidence. Archaeological evidence shows that many of the places mentioned in the royal records have indeed been inhabited continuously for at least 3500 years.[ For example, at Tagaung, the site of the first Burmese kingdom according to the chronicles, the latest evidence supports the existence of both Tagaung eras (c. 9th century BCE to 1st century CE) reported in the chronicles.][Moore 2011: 4–5] On the other hand, evidence suggests many of the early "kingdoms" (Tagaung, Sri Ksetra
, conventional_long_name = Kingdom of Sri Ksetra
, common_name = Kingdom of Sri Ksetra
, era = Classical Antiquity
, status = City-state
, event_start = Founding of Kingdom
, year_start = c. 3rd to 9th century CE
, date_start =
, ...
and Pagan
Paganism (from classical Latin ''pāgānus'' "rural", "rustic", later "civilian") is a term first used in the fourth century by early Christians for people in the Roman Empire who practiced polytheism, or ethnic religions other than Judaism. ...
) were contemporary to each other for long periods, and did not exist in a serial fashion as reported in the chronicles.[Harvey 1925: 364] The chronicle narratives of the pre-11th century history are social memory of the times.[
]
Post-Pagan
The royal records become increasingly more factual where "after the 11th century, the chronology of Burmese chronicles is reliable."[ One major reason is that Burmese chroniclers could read the inscriptions of the previous eras. It was not the case in ]Champa
Champa (Cham: ꨌꩌꨛꨩ; km, ចាម្ប៉ា; vi, Chiêm Thành or ) were a collection of independent Cham polities that extended across the coast of what is contemporary central and southern Vietnam from approximately the 2nd cen ...
, Cambodia
Cambodia (; also Kampuchea ; km, កម្ពុជា, UNGEGN: ), officially the Kingdom of Cambodia, is a country located in the southern portion of the Indochinese Peninsula in Southeast Asia, spanning an area of , bordered by Thailand t ...
and Siam
Thailand ( ), historically known as Siam () and officially the Kingdom of Thailand, is a country in Southeast Asia, located at the centre of the Mainland Southeast Asia, Indochinese Peninsula, spanning , with a population of almost 70 mi ...
, where "scripts have in the course of centuries undergone such profound changes that the compilers of later chronicles could not read the earlier inscriptions".[ Likewise, a 1986 study of ''Maha Yazawin'' by Lieberman finds much of the history for the 16th century, which was also witnessed by many Europeans, largely factual.][Lieberman 1986: 236–255] To be sure, the post-Pagan narratives are not without issue. According to Harvey, "the chronicles abound in anachronisms, and in stock situations which recur regularly"; the chroniclers regarded "general conditions in early times being the same as those in their own day, the 18th century".[ Moreover, the troop figures reported in the chronicles for the various military campaigns are at least an order of magnitude higher than the actual number possible given the size of the population and transportation mechanisms of the era.][Harvey 1925: 333–336]
Current status
Despite Myanmar's possession of large amounts of historical material, many of the records have not been properly maintained, or used for research. The National Library of Myanmar
The National Library of Myanmar, located in Yankin Township, Yangon, is the national library of Myanmar. Established in 1952, the National Library, along with Yangon University Library, is one of only two research libraries in Yangon. The librar ...
holds 10,000 bundles of palm-leaf manuscripts, which have been collected from private donations and monasteries. Many more rolls of palm-leaf manuscripts remain uncollected, and are moldering in monasteries across the country without proper care as well as under attack by unscrupulous treasure hunters. Efforts to digitise the manuscripts have not materialised.[Zon Pann Pwint May 2011: Uphill fight to preserve palm leaf texts] Few have been studied systematically since the Burma Research Society
The Burma Research Society ( my, မြန်မာနိုင်ငံ သုတေသန အသင်း ) was an academic society devoted to historical research of Burma (Myanmar). Its aims were "the investigation and encouragement of Art, Sci ...
closed the doors in 1980. The society had published the Journal of the Burma Research Society
The ''Journal of the Burma Research Society'' ( my , မြန်မာနိုင်ငံသုတေသနအသင်းဂျာနယ်) was an academic journal covering Burma studies that was published by the Burma Research Society betwee ...
(JBRS) over (1300 articles in 59 volumes) between 1910 and 1980.[IG Publishing: JBRS]
See also
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{{Burmese chronicles
History of Myanmar