The ''Kalyani Inscriptions'' ( my, ကလျာဏီကျောက်စာ), located in

Bago Bago may refer to: Places Myanmar * Bago, Myanmar, a city and the capital of the Bago Region * Bago District, a district of the Bago Region * Bago Region an administrative region * Bago River, a river * Bago Yoma or Pegu Range, a mountain range ...

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 ...

(Myanmar), are the stone

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 erected by King Dhammazedi of

Hanthawaddy Pegu (Mon) ( Burmese) , conventional_long_name = Kingdom of Hongsarwatoi (Hanthawaddy) Pegu , common_name = Hongsarwatoi (Hanthawaddy) Kingdom / Ramannya (Ramam) , era = Warring states , status = Kingdom , event_pre ...

between 1476 and 1479. Located at the Kalyani Ordination Hall (Kalyani Sima) outside Bago, the inscriptions commemorate the reformation of

Burmese Buddhism Buddhism ( my, ဗုဒ္ဓဘာသာ), specifically Theravāda Buddhism ( my, ထေရဝါဒဗုဒ္ဓဘာသာ), is the State religion of Myanmar since 1961, and practiced by nearly 90% of the population. It is the most re ...

Ceylon Sri Lanka (, ; si, ශ්‍රී ලංකා, Śrī Laṅkā, translit-std=ISO (); ta, இலங்கை, Ilaṅkai, translit-std=ISO ()), formerly known as Ceylon and officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, is an ...

's Mahavihara tradition between 1476 and 1479.Taw 1892: iv–v The inscriptions are the most important sources on religious contacts between Burma and Sri Lanka.Sirisena 1978: 14 King Dhammazedi, a former monk, proclaimed in the inscriptions that Buddhism in Ramanya ower Burmawas in decline as sectarianism had developed and the Orders had grown farther and farther away from their original purity; that he emulated great model Buddhist kings Anawrahta of

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. ...

, Sithu II of Pagan and Parakramabahu I of Ceylon who, according to him, kept the religion pure and reformed the ''sangha'' in the "orthodox" brand of Theravada Buddhism that he was attempting to do; and that he had sent the '' sangha'' to Ceylon to be re-ordained in the Mahavihara tradition as King Sithu II had done.Aung-Thwin 2005: 114–115 The inscriptions were so named because the ''sangha'' of Lower Burma were re-ordained on the

Kalyani river Kalyani may refer to: Film and television * ''Kalyani'' (1940 film), a Hindi film * ''Kalyani'' (1952 film), a Tamil film * ''Kalyani'' (1971 film), a Kannada film * ''Kalyani'' (1979 film), a Telugu film * ''Kalyani'' (1983 film), an Oriya ...

(near modern

Colombo Colombo ( ; si, කොළඹ, translit=Koḷam̆ba, ; ta, கொழும்பு, translit=Koḻumpu, ) is the executive and judicial capital and largest city of Sri Lanka by population. According to the Brookings Institution, Colombo me ...

). The language of the first three stones is

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 ...

, inscribed using the

Burmese script Burmese may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to Myanmar, a country in Southeast Asia * Burmese people * Burmese language * Burmese alphabet * Burmese cuisine * Burmese culture Animals * Burmese cat * Burmese chicken * Burmese (horse), a ...

. The rest of the stones are

Mon Mon, MON or Mon. may refer to: Places * Mon State, a subdivision of Myanmar * Mon, India, a town in Nagaland * Mon district, Nagaland * Mon, Raebareli, a village in Uttar Pradesh, India * Mon, Switzerland, a village in the Canton of Grisons * An ...

translation. The stones are high, wide, and thick. They are inscribed on both faces, with 70 lines of text to each face, three letters to an inch (2.54 cm). Some of the original stone slabs were destroyed by the Portuguese in the early 17th century and Konbaung forces in 1757. Several carefully preserved palm-leaf manuscripts survived.

Taw Sein Ko Taw Sein Ko, CIE, ISO ( my, တော်စိန်ကို; ; 7 December 1864 – 29 May 1930) was Burma's first recorded archaeologist. Personal life He was born in Moulmein (present-day Mawlamyine, Mon State) in 1864. He was the son of ...

translated the inscriptions from the palm-leaf manuscripts into English and Pali written in Latin script.

Notes

References

Bibliography

* * * * {{Burmese chronicles Burmese chronicles Multilingual texts Hanthawaddy dynasty Inscriptions of Myanmar Burmese Buddhist texts Buddhist inscriptions