Arakan Library - Arakan’s Place In The Civilization Of the Bay P-I

Arakan: - One Who Preserves and Takes Care of Their Own Nationality.

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research papers on OLD ARBY - U SAN SHWE BU

Arakan’s Place In The Civilization Of the Bay

A study of coinage and foreign Relations

J.B.R.S Vol. XV, Part 2. 1925

Coins Found In Arakan

Mr. Htoon Aung Gyaw, Barrister - at - Law and certain other private collectors of Akyab have in their possession over a hundred coins found in Arakan. When recently arranged by Mr. San Shwe Bu, many of them were seen to be duplicates, but sixteen belonging to the Mrauk-U dynasty (1430 to 1784 A.D.) were distinct specimens, bearing the dates and titles of fifteen different kings of that line. Moreover there were a few coins belonging to the Wesali dynasty (788 to 951 AD). I propose in this paper to show the relationship of these coins to Indian coinage as a whole and to use them as a document from which to draw certain general conclusions on the history of Arakan. As that history has never been written and as the data for the early centuries are scanty and controversial, I trust that the inevitable shortcomings of this summary will be understood and excused.

Types of Indian coinage; Hindu & Mohomedan

Speaking generally the coins of India fall into two distinct types, the Hindu and the Mohamedan. Specimens of Hindu coinage of as far back as 600 B.C are in the British Museum, but it was not until India came into contact with Mediterranean civilization in 327 B.C. that its coinage developed and became an art. This connection, beginning with the invasion of Alexander and continuing through the Satraps into Roman times resulted first in the striking of coins almost pure Greek in design and gradually in the adaptation of that design to Hindu ends. With the Guptas (320 to 455 A.D.) a coinage had been evolved which while owing much to the Greek theory of form, was pure Hindu in feeling. Now all this Hindu coinage, from its highest as a work of art to its lowest as a barbarous confusion, has certain definite characteristics. It exhibits portraits of kings, figures and animals, deities and symbols of deities. Inscripitions take a very subordinate place; dates are infrequent; as it is not always possible to identify a coin with a particular king, a classification by dynastics and localities is the most that can often be attempted. Mohomedan coinage, which came into India in 1203 A.D. has opposite characteristics. It is of an inscriptional nature. Save for a few exceptions, it contains not a portrait or a figure. The King’s name, title, date and faith are carefully recorded. The coin’s artistic merit depends upon the calligraphy; and as every one is aware who has studied the Persian script as a mural decoration this can give a remarkably balanced and vital impression of art.

Coins of Arakan

The coins found in Arakan belong to both the groups described above; those of Wesali are Hindu and those of Mrauk-U are Mahomedan. In order to understand the Wesali coins it will be necessary to set down here in outline what is known of that Kingdom and how it stood in relation to adjoining states.

Wesali, Archaeological evidence

The ruins of the city are still to be seen on the bank of a tidal creek about six miles from Mrauk-U ( now known as Myohaung ) and about fifty miles inland from the Bay of Bengal. The site has neither been surveyed nor excavated, but the casual observer may perceive the remains of brick walls enclosing a large area. On the south side was to be seen until lately portions of a stone pier. Within the walls are numerous mounds and laying on them are pieces of stone statuary, bas-reliefs, capitals, floral designers in stone and inscriptions in the Nagari character of the 8th century. All these remains are purely Hindu in execution and subject. The figures represent deities; on the capitals is the sacred bell of Siva; the style is rougher than the best Hindu work, but is not debased. Close by the walls is a large stone monolith of Buddha belonging to the same date. This is the image now known as the Paragri, praying at which Fra Manrique found king Thirithu-dhamma eight centuries later. Various Nagari inscriptions, still undeciphered, have been found in the vicinity of the city, and at Mahamuni, 15 miles N.E., are to be seen surrounding the mound on which once sat the great image of the Buddha, which once sat the great image of the Buddha, which is now in Mandalay, a number of statues and bas-reliefs of the Hindu Pantheon. Incemplete and insufficiently worked out as is this archaeological evidence, it suggests that in the city of Wesali were practiced both the Hindu and Buddhist religions or that it was a Mahayanist city.

Wesali MSS. evidence

Mr.San Shwe Bu has placed in my hands his translation of a curious Arakanese MS. called “the true chronicle of the Great Image”. The age of this MS. like that of most Arakanese MSS. is unknown, but it purposrts to give some account of the Wesali dynasty. Its contents in this respect may be summarized as follows;-

The area now known as north Arakan had been for many years before the 8th century the seat of Hindu dynasties; in 788 A.D. a new dynasty, known as the Chandras, founded the city of Wesali; this city became a noted trade port to which as many as a thousand ships came annually; the Chandra kings were upholders of Buddhism, guarding and glorifying the Mahamuni shrine; their territory extended as far north as Chittagong; the dynasty came to an end in 957 A.D. being overwhelmed by a Mongolian invasion. The conclusion to be drawn from this MS. is that Wesali was an easterly Hindu kingdom of Bengal, following the Mahayanist form of Buddhism and that both government and people were Indian as the Mongolian influx had not yet occurred.

Testimony from the history of Bengal

(1) Fa-Hein

Four hundred years before the Chandras, Fa-Hein ( 405 - 411 A.D.), the Chinese pilgrim, visited the plain of the Hindustan when that land was ruled by the Guptas. The supreme government was Brahmanical, but he was able to collect from the thousands of Mahayanist and Hinayanist monasteries, which were flourishing side by side with temples of the ancient gods, quantities of Buddhist books and relics, with which he returned to China. India was no longer Buddhist as it had been at the time of Asoka (272 B.C.); but numerous Buddhist foundations persisted.

(2) Hiuen Tsang.

A hundred and fifty years before the Chandras, another Chinese pilgrim, Hiuen Tsang (630 A.D.) visited the same area, then under the Emperor Harsha. Hiuen Tsaung himself was a Mahayanist and from the conversation he states he held with Harsha, it is clear that the latter also inclined to that religious view, though in the course of his reign he had created temples to Siva, to the Sun and to Buddha. Hiuen Tsang returned to China with hundreds of Buddhist MSS. But his account of how the Bodhi tree at Gaya had been dug up and the footprint of Buddha at Patatiputra destroyed by the Puranic Hindus allows us to draw the conclusion that Hinanyanism had already fled the country and that Mahayana Buddhism was really a compromise in which the Hindu gods and Buddha ranked equally.

(3) The Pala kings of Bengal

If we now turn on the history of this Ganges area at a period contemporary to that of the Chandras, we find a further development of the same tendency. The ruling dynasty, the Pala, was Mahayanist; it was in communication with Tibet, to which country it sent two missions; and the last of the Palas developed the Tantric side of Mahayana Buddhism.

Conclusion. Wesali a Mahayanist State

These are some of the data for forming an opinion as to the religious condition of Bengal from 400 - 1000 A.D. As Wesali was a Hindu State adjacent thereto, the presumption is that its religious history was similar. Hinayanism had vanished; Mahayanism had compromised with original Hinduism to such a point that Buddha had become one of many god; even the sexual magic of Trantricism was no anomaly. Such, it appears, was the Chandra Kingdom of Wesali, Mahayanist in the sense that word carried in the Bengal of the 8th century. It is significant that at least one Tantric sculpture has been found in Wesali.

The coinage of Wesali

The Wesali coins can now be appreciated. They have been picked up on the site and a considerable number are in existence. Some of them are as large as a modern rupee; others resemble in size a four anna bit. They are of good silver and well preserved. Stamped on them are the bull, Nandi, the avatar of Siva; Siva’s trident; on one is what appears to be a vase of votive flowers; on some there is an undecipherable Nagari inscription. Artistically they are a long way behind the Gupta coins, but they lie in that tradition and are superior to many of the debased coins of Southern India. Though all the symbols that occur on them are to be found at one time or another among those struck on Indian coins, I have seen none that are precisely their fellows. They have a generic similarity to the coinages of some of the lesser Indian States, and there is no doubt both from the number of them now in private collections, from their uniformity of design and varying values that they were coins and not, as has been suggested commemorative tablets. Indeed, from what I have already noted of the size of Wesali and its foreign trade, to suppose that it had no coinage would be to suppose that it had no coinage would be to postulate an exception, for at that period in India all States of any importance had at least a silver surrency. Wesali, as will be explained later, must be regarded not as an early Burmese but as a late Hindu State. With the whole tradition of the great Hindu past it had inherited coinage. All these data indicate that the coins of Wesali were in the pure Brahmanical tradition. But coins bearing Brahmanical symbols are not inconsistent with a Mahayanist dynasty. I am not aware of any Indian coin of a period later than the 1st century A.D., which contains a Buddhist figure, symbol or inscription. The Mahayanist kings of the periods mentioned above struck Brahmanical coins. Nothing is therefore more to be expected than that the Wesali coins should also be Brahmanical. It is merely another proof of how closely the Mahayanist Buddhism of 8th century Bengal approximated to Hinduism.

The end of Wesali & the beginning of the Arakanese.

Such was the kingdom of Wesali, an Indian state in the style of the period. But in 957 A.D. occurred an event which was to change it from an Indian into an Indochinese realm and to endow the region of Arakan with it s present characteristics. The “True Chronicle” records that in the year 957 A.D., a Mongolian invasion swept over Wesali, destroyed the Chandras and placed on their throne Mongolian kings. This important statement can fortunately be amply substantiated. Over the border in Bangal the same deluge carried away the Pala kings. The evidence for this latter irruption is fully cited in a paper by Mr. Banerji and there is no doubt that the Mongolian invasion, which terminated the rule of the Palas closed also the epoch of the Chandras. But while in Bengal the Hindus regained their supremacy in a few years, it would seem that in Arakan the entry of the Mongolians was decisive. They cut Arakan away from India and mixing in sufficient numbers with the inhabitants of the east sides of the present Indo-Burma divide, created that Indo-Mongoloid stock now known as the Arakanese. This emergence of a new race was not the work of a single invasion. The MSS. record subsequent Mongolian incursions. But the date 957 A.D., may be said to mark the appearance of the Arakanese, and the beginning of a fresh period.

The period 957-1430 A.D., General characterist ics.

The cardinal characteristic of the new periods is that Arakan (as the area may now be called) looked East instead of West. The Mongolians were savages and following their invasion supervened a period of darkness. But the invaders became educated in the culture of the country they had conquered. The resulting civilization was of a mediaeval character. The capital was moved from Wesali to the Lemro river, some fifteen miles south-east. There during the ensuing centuries numerous dynasties ruled; each with its own city but always in the same locality. Few archaeological remains of this period of five centuries exist, though brick foundations may be seen on the Lemro bank. There was no coinage. This fact is significant as placing the age in its perspective. We have here to do with a small kingdom in an age of small kingdoms. In Bengal the Mahomedans were not to arrive till 1203. Over the mountains in Burma proper was the quaint kingdom of Pagan. It was with Pagan alone that Arakan had any considerable dealings and it was from that gentle garden of the Little Vehicle that it was to learn much. Thus during these five centuries the inhabitants of Arakan became more similar to the inhabitants of Burma and less like Indians. Their religion became less Mahayanist and more Hinayanist. The link with the past, however, was the Mahamuni image, which was still in its old place, for it fitted equally well into Hinayana as into Mahayana Buddhism.

Particular Characteristics of the Period 957-1430 AD.

Arakan became feudatory to Pagan, that is to say it maintained its own kings but paid tribute as an acknowledgement of suzerainty. There existed a road connecting the Lemro with Pagan. That road was known as the Buywet-ma-nyo. It has long been overgrown, but the present Government is seeking to resurvey it. It was along that road that the ideas of Burma passed into Arakan. Pagan herself had modified from the Mahayanist to the Hinayanist form of Buddhism and the modification was transmitted to Arakan during the eleventh and twelfth centuries. Burmese writing came over at the same time and in the same manner. No inscriptions in the Burmese script are found in Arakan before that date. The question of the emergence of the Arakanese language is more difficult. Whether it was the language of the Mongolian invaders of the 10th century or whether it filtered across the mountains after contact with Burma in the 11th and 12th centuries is undecided. As Arakanese is the same language as Burmese, being merely a dialect, to suppose that it was the language of the invaders is to contend that the Mongolians who extinguished the Chandras spoke the same tongue as those who afterwards became predominant in the Irrawaddy plain. If the contrary is postulated, and it is argued that the Burmese language, coming over the mountain road, impinged upon the Mongolian speech of the then Arakanese and created modern Arakanese, linguistic difficulties are raised which are difficult to resolve. This question awaits judgment.

The Mahamuni image and Pagan

The great preoccupation of the Lemro dynasties during this mediaeval period was the guardianship of the Mahamuni image. As it was believed to be a likeness of the Master cast during his lifetime, its possession gave Arakan an important position in the eyes of the Pagan kings. For monarchs who had raised up to sacred a city was Pagan, the possession of Mahamuni would have been the crown of their endeavours. But the Arakanese had an old belief that if it left their country, it would synchronise with the ruin of their race. As they were not strong enough to guard it by force of arms, they employed that peculiar system of magical astrology, known as Yadaya, to protect it. They attempted to render its site unapproachable for invaders or spoilers by enveloping it in a magical net. Both Anawratha and Alaungsithu, though suzerain lords of Arakan and though both dearly longed to enshrine the great Buddha in their own capital city, failed to remove it. The writers of the manuscripts were well drawn. Being unable to take it, they worshipped there and the facts that the most revered image of all Buddhism was located in Arakan resulted in much coming and going between that country and the kingdom of Pagan. Thus were the two countries drawn closely together. The road over the mountains became a trade route. The MSS. relate great fairs held on it at a point between the two States. But of coinage there was no need.

Summary of the Lemro period

During these five hundred years Arakan became a Holy Land. It had no political importance, but was a place of pilgrimage for the Buddhist world. Neither commercial nor cosmopolitan like the kingdom of Wesali, it developed those racial and religious characteristic which mark it still.

Arakan looks West again 1430 A.D.

But India was again to play its part in the making of Arakan. To understand the age of Mrauk-U (1430 -1785 A.D.)., the profound changes which had taken place in Bengal since the time of the Palas must be called to mind.

The World movement of Islam.

When the life went out of the Roman Empire,élan vital drove the followers of Mahomet to create a polity in its stead. Under the propelling conviction of their warreligion they overran the middle black of Eur-Asia. Europe was restricted almost to small states on the Atlantic sea-board. Moslem civilization extended from Cordova to Dacca. An average observer of the period would have seen nothing in the world but Islam. From all points of view, military, political and cultural, the Moslem Sultanates were in the van of civilization. For every other State they represented modernity, as industrial Europe now represents what is modern for Asia and Africa. Bengal was absorbed into this great polity in 1203 A.D. But that was its extreme eastern limit. It never passed into Indo-China; and its influence from its arrival in 1203 till 1430 was negligible upon Arakan.

Why Arakan turned towards India in 1430.

The circumstances which made Arakan turn from the East and look West to the Moslem States were political. In 1404 A.D., Min Saw Mwan was King of Arakan, ruling from Launggret, one of the Lemro cities already mentioned. As the kings of Pagan had regarded Arakan as their feudatory, the Kings of Ava, who succeeded them, saw no reason why they should not reassert that view. Moreover the Arakanese had annoyed them by raiding Yaw and Laungshe. Accordingly the heir-apparent to the throne of Ava invaded Arakan in 1406. Min Saw Mwan fled the country, taking refuge at Gaur, the capital of the Sultan of Bengal. That kingdom had been independent of the Sultanate of Dehli for eighty-six years. It was one of the many sovereign states of the world wide Moslem polity. The Arakanese king remained there for twenty four years, leaving his country in the hands of the Burmese. Nasir-ud-din Shah became Sultan in 1426 and Min Saw Mwan prevailed on that monarch to restone him to the throne of Arakan, as his tributary. Force of circumstances made him prefer to call himself a feudatory of the Sultans of Bengal than of the kings of Ava. He turned away from what was Buddhist and familiar to what was Mahomedan and foreign. In so doing he loomed form the mediaeval to the modern, from the fragile fairy land of the Glass Palace Chronicle to the robust extravaganza of the Thousand Nights and one Night.