Abstract
Already in the Pâli canon the ideal king, who in a subsequent life became Gautama Buddha, attributed his might and greatness to the fruits of Giving, Self-Conquest and Self-Control through kamma effects of past lives.1 Historic kings of Ceylon likewise justified their exalted status by a favorable kamma from past lives.2 And Burma’s third historically attested king, Kyanzittha of Pagan, proclaimed in an inscription during the 1090’s that in a former life he had been performing pious deeds at the time of the Buddha who preceded Gautama, that as a result he was subsequently reborn in two Indian dynasties: After giving happiness to all the people and piously observing the Ten Duties of Kings, he was born again as the sage Bisnû at the time of Gautama Buddha, who prophesied his future birth as king of Pagan, so that “all beings shall find shelter in the shade of [his] merit ...”3
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References
Mahâ-Sudassana Sutta, II, 2: Buddhist Suttas translated from Pâli by T. W. Rhys Davids, in: SBE, Vol. XI (1881), p. 271; Cf. Mahâvastu, I, i, 52: transl. Jones, Vol. I, pp. 1, 44f.
Cûlavamsa, XLVIII, 114; LXXXVII, 61; XCIII, 15; XCIX, 9, 11: Cûlavaṃsa transl. W. Geiger (1953), Part I, p. 121; Part II, pp. 181, 226, 255f.
Kyanzittha’s Myakan Inscription of Myanpagan, in: Epigraphia Birmanica, Vol. I, Part ii, pp. 126, 138ff.
Myan-ma Min ou:’ hcou’poun sa-dan:, III, § 352 [hke], p. 62; Saya Pye, Magadewa Lingathit, p. 206, quoted by Dr. Thaung, “Burmese kingship in theory and practice during the reign of Mindon,” in: JBRS, XLII, ii (December, 1959), p. 173.
Paññasâmi, Sâsanavaṃsa, Vi, 149: transl. B. C. Law, p. 149 (sic).
Ba U, My Burma: The autobiography of a President (London, 1959), p. 175.
M. Bode, Pâli Literature of Burma, pp. 871.
Bhadda-Sâla-Jâtaka: Cowell, Jâtaka..., Vol. IV (1901), p. 95.
E. Forchhammer, The Jardin Prize Essay on the sources and development of Burmese Law (Rangoon, 1885), pp. 60, 75; M. Bode, Pâli Literature of Burma, pp. 85f; G. E. Harvey, History of Burma, p. 353.
A. Judson’s Burmese-English Dictionary (Rangoon, 1953), p. 799.
This refers to the reign of king Thadomynbya, the last ruler of Sagaing and the first king of the Ava Dynasty; the pagoda referred to is the Mashikana Paya: Cf. Saya U Maung-gyi: Myanma Yaza-win (Rangoon, 1292/1930), pp. 279ff.
Saṃyutta Nikâya, I, v, 7: English translation by Mrs. Rhys Davids, The Book of the Kindred Sayings, Part I (Sagâthâ-Vagga) Pali Text Society, Translation Series, No. 7 (London, 1950)], pp. 45–46.
Cûlavaṃsa, XXXVII, 185t; XXXVIII, 45, 50f.
Cf. H. D. Evers, Die Entstehung einer Unter nehmer Schicht als Führungsgruppe im soziokulturellen Wandel der sinhalesisch-buddhistischen Kultur Ceylons (unpublished Dissertation : Freiburg im Breisgau, 1962), pp. 45ff.
Mahâbodhi-Jâtaka: Cowell, Jâtaka..., Vol. IV, p. 123.
Hman-nan: Maha Yazawin-to-gyi:, Pahtama-twe (Mandalay, 1318/1956), cxxviii, p. 250; Cf. Mandhâtu-Jâtaka: Cowell, Jâtaka..., Vol. II, pp. 216f.
A. Judson, Burmese-English Dictionary, p. 614.
Kanha Jâtaka: Cowell, Jâtaka..., Vol. IV, p. 6.
G. H. Luce, “Prayers of ancient Pagan,” in: JBRS, XXVI, iii (1936), p. 136; Pe Maung Tin, “Women in the inscriptions of Pagan,” in: Burma Research Society, Fiftieth Anniversary Publications, No. 2 (Rangoon, 1960), pp. 419f. My above quotation combines the text of these two translations. Cf. Suttâvaddhananîti, 73ff.: “By this my Merit may I attain Nibban (Nirvana); until then....may I obtain food, clothing, and wealth not by manual labour, but by supernatural power, according to my desires”: J. Gray, Ancient Proverbs and Maxims from Burmese Sources: the Nîti Literature of Burma (London, 1886), p. 157, fn. 29. These collections, according to Gray (ibid., p. viii), may go back into the thirteenth century, that is into the Pagan Period.
Pe Maung Tin, “Buddhism in the inscriptions of Pagan,” in: JBRS, XXVI, i (1936), p. 65; Archaeological Department of Burma, List of Inscriptions, No. 334.
Pe Maung Tin, “Women in the inscriptions of Pagan”, op. cit., p. 419; Archaeological Department of Burma, List of Inscriptions, No. 311.
G. H. Luce, “Prayers of ancient Pagan,” in: JBRS, XXVI, iii (1936), pp. 136f.
Archaeological Department, List of Inscriptions found in Burma (Rangoon, 1921), No. 259. Nihar-Ranjan Ray, An introduction to the study of Theravâda Buddhism in Burma (Calcutta, 1946), p. 164.
Archaeological Department, List of Inscriptions, No. 123, quoted by Nihar-Ranjan Ray, op. cit., p. 165.
Inscription from the porch of the Tainggyut Temple, quoted after G. E. Harvey, History of Burma, pp. 331f. Harvey is wrong in assuming that in this case the donor “outcasted himself”: The Pagoda Slaves were not “outcastes” yet -as they became later. Cf. Than Tun, “Social life in Burma, A.D. 1044–1287,” in: JBRS, XLI (December, 1958), pp. 37–47.
G. H. Luce, “Economic life of the early Burmans,” in: Burma Research Society, Fiftieth Anniversary Publications, No. 2 (Rangoon, 1960), p. 341.
G. H. Luce, “The greater Temples of Pagan,” in: Burma Research Society, Fiftieth Anniversary Publications, No. 2, p. 170.
Cf. R. von Heine-Geldern, “Weltbild und Bauform in Südostasien,” in: Wiener Beiträge zur Kunst- und Kulturgeschichte Asiens, IV (1930), pp. 28–78.
P. Mus, pp. 799f.
G. E. Harvey, History of Burma, p. 70.
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Sarkisyanz, E. (1965). Kamma and Buddhist Merit-Causality as Rationale for Medieval Burma’s Social Order. In: Buddhist Backgrounds of the Burmese Revolution. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-017-6283-0_11
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