"In the fifth year after the lord Gautama attained to the state of Budha, two brothers named Maha-poon and Tsoo-la-poon asking leave from the Phra, built a monastery called Tsan-da-koo-nan-tha at the village of Say-gaing in the country of Thoo-na-pa-ranta.* The Phra also prophesied (that) hereafter in the Mran-má country my religion will be long established,' and accompanied by five hundred Rahandas he frequently came through the air before the monastery was finished; when the monastery was finished he received it in gift, and remained there seven days, and preached. At that time five hundred men and five hundred women in Theo-na-pa-ran-ta became Rahandas. At that place was a hermit named Theet-tsa-ban-da who had attained the state of an Areeya. At his intercession the Phra left the impression of one foot on the Theet-tsa-pan hill; and at the intercession of the Na-man-da Na-ga he left the impression of the other on the bank of the Mán stream. Thus two firmly founded pagodas were fixed in the rock as if sealed down, and the Lord said: :'Hereafter my religion shall be long established in the countries of Thoo-na-pa-ran-ta and Tampa-dena.'t From thence the Phra went and arrived at the Pho-eoo hill To the south-east was the sea. On the water was the appearance of something floating and just appearing above the surface. A little pwé or bamboo rat lifted up its nose and did homage to the omniscient Phra. The Phra smiled at these two omens, and, in reply to his younger brother who asked for explanation, said, 'Beloved Anan-da, in the year 101, after I shall have entered into the rest of pa-ree-neib-ban, five great omens shall be manifested here. They are, first, A violent earthquake shall shake the whole land. Second, where the Bho-oo peak now rises there shall be a lake. Third, the Tsa-moon-than-my-eit river shall be formed. Fourth, the earth * This is on the Man river which runs into the Irrawaddy from the westward near the town of Menboo. + Tampa-dena is one of the ancient names for Ceylon. According to the practice of the Budhist nations of Indo-Chinese to transfer to their own countries the name of Budhist lands in the west, this name was given to Pugân and the surrounding country. The name was probably given after the books were brought from them and a reformation made in religion. Pugân was more anciently called A-rimad-da-na. This history, however, intimates that Tampa-dee-pa was the more ancient name. Thoo na-pa-ran-ta is mentioned as a country in the Budhist Scriptures. See Hardy's Budhism, p. 259. This is the name of a peak on the west bank of the Irrawaddy near to Prome. Great changes no doubt have occurred in the course of the Irrawaddy river, probably within the historical period, about Prome. The rocks around Prome contain large deposits of marine shells, so that the Burmese had evidence of the sea having once reached there. shall rise and form Poop-pa-toung. Fifth, in the country to become Tha-re-khet-te-ya, the sea shall be dried up. In the time when those omens shall be manifested and fulfilled, that little pwé, removed from his existing body, and become a man, shall be king over a great country under the name of Dwot-ta-boung. In that king's reign, in the Mran-má country, my divine religion shall flourish and shall exist throughout long ages-'" According to that divine prediction the Phra went to paree-neibban and in the year 40 of religion in the reign of Tha-do-ma-ha Radza king of Pin-tsa-ta-goung before mentioned, a mighty boar twelve cubits high ravaged the country. The Crown prince La-ba-dooha went forth armed to destroy him. The boar fled to the Shan country, and the prince followed. The glen where he entered the mountains east of the Irrawaddy is called Wet-weng (boar entrance) to this day. The prince chased him down the west bank of the Irrawaddy, though how the boar arrived there is not stated, and he crossed again to the east bank. As from his great height his belly was not wet by the water, the place he reached is still called Wet-matawcott (boar not wet). The boar then continued his flight down the east bank of the river until he came to an island near to Tha-re-khetta-ya. There the prince overtook him. The place is called Wet-htokuyen to this day. The prince now reflected that he was far from the country of Tagoung, and that his story of having killed the boar would not be believed; and wearied with the world he determined to become a hermit in the place where he was. There were then no inhabitants near at hand except wild animals. In the jungle a doe produced a young one in the form of a human female child. The doe, startled by the cry of the infant, fled, and the hermit coming to the spot was astonished at the sight. The hermit carried the child to his cell, and brought her up as his own daughter. When she was grown up, he gave her the name of Bhe-da-ree. "Such is the story of the first establishment of the city of Tha-ré-khet-ta-ya by the hermit who was the brother-in-law of the king of Ta-goung." In the very year when the Crown-prince La-ba-doo-há went forth to slay the boar, the queen of Ta-goung gave birth to twin sons. They The name of an extinct volcano about 200 miles north from Prome. D were both born blind and named Mahá-Tham-ba-wá and Tsoo-la-thamba-wá. The king from shame ordered them to be killed; but the queen loving the children of her own bosom concealed them, until they were nineteen years of age. The king then having discovered that they were alive, again ordered them to be killed; but the queen had them put into a boat, with many days' provisions, and set them afloat on the Irrawaddy river. As they floated down the river, the boat struck against the branch of a Tseet tree. At that spot in after times was built the city of Tseet Kaing. As they proceeded down they met with a Bee-loc-ma, who gave them some medicine to restore their eyesight. The cure was effected, and looking up and seeing the sky for the first time they said, "The sky is as a cover; the earth is underneath," and hence the place they were passing was called Myé-daí. At length they reached the place at Prome* where their uncle the bermit dwelt. There they beheld the hermit's daughter Bhe-da-ree drawing water from the stream, with a gourd. As the water would not flow readily into the gourd they opened it. Bhe-da-ree then filled it and returned to her father's cell. She told him the cause of her quick return, and the young Princes being called, they told their story, and the hermit learned then, that they were the sons of his sister the Queen Kein-naree-de-wee. After this the elder brother Prince MaháTham-ba-wa was married to the hermit's daughter Bhe-da-ree. This was in the year 60 of religion according to the Mahá Radza Weng, or, by the Burmese reckoning of the period of Gautama's death, 483 years before Christ. From this time commences the history of the monarchy established at Thare-khet-ta-ya, and no further notice is taken of Tagoung and the upper country of the Irrawaddy until some centuries later. Note on the etymology of the word Myan-ma or Mran-má. In the Journal of the Asiatic Society No. I. of 1853, is an interesting paper by Mr. B. H. Hodgson, on the languages of the IndoChinese borderers, compared with the Thibetan and Himalayan tongues. In that paper Mr. Hodgson appears to conclude that the term Burma or Burmese, which is the Europeanized form of the name by which * See Journal of the Asiatic Society, Vol. XXV. p. 173, for an account of the pagoda built upon that spot. man. that people call themselves, can be traced to the native name for This, however, is open to some doubt; but Mr. Hodgson's general conclusion that the languages of the Himalayan, Indo-Chinese, and Thibetan tribes are of one family is fully justified. The name by which the people known to Europeans as Burmans or Burmese call themselves, is written by them Mran-ma and sometimes Mram-ma, and is pronounced Ba-má. The Arakanese call themselves Ma-ra-má which is a variation of the same word. The questions involved are, 1st. Does the word Mran-ma contain the root signifying man in some of the Indo-Chinese dialects? 2nd. Is the word Mran-ma directly derived from the name for man generally, and on that account used as the national designation of the Burma ? 3rd. Can any other origin for the term Mran-ma be found, from which it is more likely to be derived ? It is shown by Mr. Hodgson that in many of the above languages ma and mi mean I, and man, (pp. 5, 34, 36 and 63), and hence it is concluded that the etymology of Burma or Burmese is recovered. The word Burma or Burmese no doubt is the European form of Ba. má. Is the written form Mran-ma the original, of which the spoken form Ba-má is a mere colloquialism? or is the latter the real original expression of the name for the race? The Arakanese, it may be noted, do not use the form Ba-má and therefore are never called by Europeans Burmans or Burmese. The root mi in the Burmese language has now no known reference to the pronoun I, or to man, as a general term, whatever it may formerly have had. It now means female; with the prefix a it means mother, and sometimes a daughter. As an affix to the word tha or Sa, child, it signifies a female child. The root ma has the same general meaning, female; but has a more dignified signification than mi. It is also applied to female animals. The word for woman, Mien-ma or Mi-ma, is probably the union of the two forms of the root representing female, and is applied to woman as the female par excellence (see p. 66 of Mr. Hodgson's paper). The personal pronoun Nga-I, is both masculine and feminine. But though I cannot agree that the root mi or ma appears in the word Mran-má, that root may Possibly appear in the Burmese word myo, mro or in its Arakanese form, mru➡race, and seed; possibly also this word may originally have signified man, in the Burmese as now in the Mrú language, (see p. 34). Mr. J. R. Logan in the Journal of the Ind. Arch. for 1857, Vol. II., observes "The root of Mran-má is ran, one of the forms of a widely spread Himalaic name for man. Karen has the same root, with the guttural in place of the lateral prefix." I have not been able to satisfy myself as to the grounds on which this observation is founded. The question still remains, whence the word Mran-má, which is pronounced Ba-má, and in the Arakanese form Ma-ra-má, is derived ? I believe it to be a modern appellation adopted by the people since they became Budhist, and derived from the Pali word Brah-ma signifying celestial beings, as shown in the text. Hence it really has only an accidental similarity to the word for man in some of the IndoChinese dialects. It is much as if the Angli had adopted the national name Angeli with their Christianity, with this difference, that we know for certain that the Angli originally so called themselves, but we do not know for certain what the Burmese called themselves, beforc they adopted the name Mran-má. The pride of the people caused them to assume this as their national designation. The only names for the ancient tribes which may have become the Mran-ma nation, which we are acquainted with, are Pyoo, Kan-yan or Kan-ran and Thek or Sak. Is it possible that in adopting the word Brah-ma as their national name they kept in view also their native root ma as Mr. Hodgson would appear to conclude? This I will not venture to affirm, but of the direct origin of the present national name I have no doubt. Nor need it cause surprise that a people should have adopted a foreign term to designate themselves. With their religious instructors they received knowledge of every kind. The districts of their country were named after the countries of their teachers. Even their great river, known in the vernacular as Myit-gyi, received an equivalent term in Pali,-E-ra-wa-ti; and their capital city always has a Pali name. From the history it is evident that the name Mran-má was not adopted until after several tribes had been united under one powerful chief, by whose fiat the name would readily have been adopted. With reference, however, to the root mi and its appearance in the word Mien-ma or Mim-ma (woman), it is curious that the Chinese of Yunan call the Burmese Mien or loung-mien, and that is the name |