BURMESE, BUDDHIST LITERATURE IN

Belonging to the Sino-Tibetan family of languages, Burmese constitutes the primary language of the largest ethnic group in Myanmar (Burma). Burmese comprises two distinct styles, each with its own set of linguistic particles to mark the syntactical relations between words. Generally speaking, colloquial Burmese is used when people meet and talk; literary Burmese is used for published materials. And yet, colloquial Burmese sometimes appears in printed form, as in books that contain dialogue. Likewise, literary Burmese may be used in some spoken contexts, such as when news is read on the radio.

For purposes of this survey, the discussion of Burmese Buddhist literature will be divided into two parts: The first part distills developments in Burmese Buddhist literature from the twelfth century up to and extending into the nineteenth century; the second part focuses on relevant developments from the nineteenth century onwards.

Twelfth to nineteenth centuries

Inscriptions or kyokʿcā (stone-writings) make up the only form of extant Burmese writing prior to the mid-fifteenth century, and they continue to be an important form of writing throughout Myanmar's pre-British colonial period (the British completed their military conquest of Myanmar in 1885; Myanmar gained independence in 1948). The earliest Burmese inscriptions come from Pagan, a major city-state in central Myanmar that reached the zenith of its political and cultural development in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. The inscriptions, primarily in prose, often record the meritorious deeds of kings and other lay-people, in particular the construction and donation of monastic and other religious buildings. The inscriptions also sometimes record Buddhist laws set down by kings. The earliest Buddhist law inscription, an edict on theft, dates to 1249.

The sixteenth through the nineteenth centuries witnessed the development of a large body of legal materials composed in manuscript form in Burmese, Pāli, and other languages (e.g., Mon). These legal materials attempt to encode, legislate, and offer precedents for Buddhist practice. Common to the legal literature were rājasatʿ;, which were laws set down by kings, and dhammasatʿ; , which were law texts written, for example, by monks.

Historical and biographical materials, such as rajavaṅʿ (historical accounts of the lineages of kings), are yet another type of Burmese literature with Buddhist elements in pre-nineteenth-century Myanmar. These materials recount the exploits and intrigues of rulers and others, their lines of descent, and their acts of Buddhist patronage. Rājavaṅʿ have been written since the fifteenth century. However, the first rājavaṅʿ to attempt to offer a continuous history of Myanmar was Ūʺ Kalāʺʺs Mahārājavaṅʿ krīʺ (Great Chronicle), which appeared around 1724 (Herbert and Milner, p. 13).

Burmese Buddhist poetic literature appears in the historical record from about 1450 onwards. Among the poetic forms are pyuiʺ, lengthy and embellished translations of Pāli texts that deal with an event or series of events in the Buddha's life or previous lives (Jātakas). A famous example of pyuiʺ-type poetry is the Kuiʺ khanʺ pyuiʺ (the pyuiʺ in nine sections), which was authored by a monk in 1523 and based on a jātaka tale about a king who wanted an heir.

Finally, Burmese commentaries such as nissayas have been composed since the mid-fifteenth century. Nissayas were used to communicate in Burmese the inflections, syntax, and meanings of Pāli texts and passages. Nissayas and other commentaries continue to play a prominent role in the teaching and transmitting of Pāli texts and ideas up through and extending beyond the nineteenth century.

Nineteenth to twenty-first centuries

Despite, and partly due to, the political and economic challenges that have confronted Myanmar since the nineteenth century (e.g., colonial conquest, military rule, prolonged economic stagnation), the country has witnessed an efflorescence of Burmese Buddhist literature. As with the various types of Buddhist literature mentioned above, contemporary literature exhibits strong continuities with the conceptual and textual world of the TheravĀda Pāli canon, as well as with the Buddhist literary traditions of South and Southeast Asia.

In the contemporary period, there are four types of Burmese Buddhist literature that overlap with and extend several of the pre-nineteenth-century types. By no means exhaustive of available contemporary Burmese literature, the four highlight the range of literature readily accessible to those wishing to investigate Buddhist culture and practice in Myanmar. They are: (1) historical and biographical literature, (2) commentarial literature, (3) legal literature, and (4) devotional and meditational literature. Each type of material has been and continues to be used pedagogically, ritually, ethically, and politically.

Contemporary historical and biographical literature addresses the development and spread of Buddhism. Topics include the building of pagodas and other religious monuments, the activities of Buddhist-minded leaders, and the lives of various monks and laypeople. Overall, contemporary Burmese Buddhist histories and biographies participate in a predominant tradition of South and Southeast Asian religio-historical writing, which includes the vaṃsa literature of Sri Lanka and the tamnān literature of Thailand, as well as components of the kyokʿ cā and rājavaṅʿ literatures of Myanmar. An example of contemporary Burmese historical writing is Mahādhamma Saṅkraṃ's Sāsanālaṅ kāra cā tamʿʺ ; (Ornaments of the Dispensation), written in 1831 and considered by many Burmese to be an authoritative discussion of the history of Buddhism in Myanmar. Phuiʺ Kyāʺʿs Kyoṅʿʺ; toʿ rā Rvhe kyaṅ Cha rā toʿ bhu rāʺkrīʺtheruppatti (Life of the Kyauntawya Shwegyin Sayadaw, 1925) offers a short but informative biography of a monk who became abbot at the Kyauntawya Monastery in Yangon (Rangoon), the capital of Myanmar.

Commentarial materials fall into at least two broad categories. One category consists of materials written in the nissaya style of word-by-word translation. Such writings appear in a large number of contexts, including, for example, monastic cremation volumes like Bhaddanta Indācāra ʾAntimakharīʺ (Reverend Indacara's Final Journey, 1993), which includes nissaya passages that explain the Pāli notion of saṃvega (religious emotion).

A second category of commentary consists of treatises on portions of the Pāli canon and other Buddhist texts. An example of a commentarial treatise is Arhaṅ Janakābhivaṃsa's Kuiyʿ kyaṅʿ ʺ ʾabhidammā, which typifies the exposition of abhidhamma (metaphysics) prevalent in contemporary Myanmar. Since its first publication in 1933, Janakābhivaṃsa's text has seen several editions and an English translation by U Ko Lay, Abhidhamma in Daily Life (1999).

Contemporary legal materials include vinicchaya literature, which concerns rulings given by learned monks. These rulings are promulgated within different monasteries and monastic courts. Whether a given vinicchaya is accepted by civil authorities, monks, and laypeople as legally valid is by no means a certainty; however, when a monastic court has been appointed by the state, and the civil and monastic authorities in question agree upon a decision, the chances for general acceptance increase.

A representative example of vinicchaya literature hails from 1981, when a body of monks made a ruling on rebirth theory, which was published as a massive tome, complete with documentary photographs, titledLū se lū phracʿ vādānuvāda vinicchaya (Court Decision on Transmigration). Vinicchaya literature, as well as the contexts in which it is produced and deployed, could be profitably studied in light of Burmese Buddhist legal sources (e.g., rājasatʿs, dhammasatʿs) and culture dating to precolonial Myanmar.

Devotional and meditative literature includes handbooks focused on different aspects of daily practice associated with the Buddha and his teachings. Such handbooks help explain the meaning and dynamics of devotional and meditative activity. Examples include Ūʺ Taṅ Cuiʺ's Pu tīʺ cipʿ naññʿʺ (Method of Reciting Stanzas, 1999) and Muigh ʿʺ Ññhaṅʿʺ Cha rā toʿʾs Vipassanā ʾa lup peʺ cañʿ taraʺkrīʺ (Way of Vipassanā Practice, 1958). The latter volume discusses the intricacies of vipassanĀ (Sanskrit, vipaŚyanā; insight) meditation, which has become popular in South and Southeast Asia, as well as in the West.

In closing, it should be emphasized that there are several kinds of material that fall outside the types discussed here. These materials include novels, such as Gurunanda's Samavati e* tacʿ bhava saṃsarā (The Life of Samavati, 1991), which draws its story about a queen from the fifth-century philosopher Buddhaghosa's commentary on the Dhammapada (a work of verse in the Pāli canon). Clearly, a vast literature awaits those willing to engage the complexities of Burmese and the Burmese Buddhist world.

See also:Myanmar; Myanmar, Buddhist Art in; Pāli, Buddhist Literature in

Bibliography

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Chulalongkonmahawitthayalai, et al. Comparative Studies on Literature and History of Thailand and Myanmar. Bangkok, Thailand: Institute of Asian Studies, Chulalongkorn University, 1997.

Herbert, Patricia, and Milner, Anthony, eds. South-East Asia: Languages and Literatures, a Select Guide. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 1989.

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Jason A. Carbine