400 Description of Pugan. July, 



Nothing occurs particularly worthy of mention in the four grants 

 that follow, in which the names of persons and of places are in general 

 marked with very intelligible distinctness, until we come to the final re- 

 capitulation beginning with the word ^r^fa:. After this and a few fol- 

 lowing words the import of which is very plain, comes an assemblage of 

 names, probably names of places in a great measure ; to which, except 

 in parts here and there, I can assign no meaning whatever. The Deva- 

 nagari letters, which are for the most part sufficiently clear on these two 

 last lines of the stone, are faithfully exhibited in the three lines of p. 38 1 

 preceding the concluding verse, for the benefit of such as may be skilful 

 or fortunate enough to discover the clue to their interpretation. 



XLIX. This concluding verse is in a hendecasyllable measure called 

 Sdlini which may be thus represented : — (compare verses III. and IV.) 



Zyvbs 5^7 \d/j.Trpois evetTrai /xeXcidpoiS 



This verse occurs in the Benares inscription often referred to (A. R. XV. 

 453) — and as Capt. Fell remarks inhis notes, p. 458, in other inscriptions 

 also, and in some, as he was gravely assured by certain pandits, that bore the 

 signature of the mighty Ra'ma himself in the Dvdpara Yuga. It seems to 

 be a general formulary annexed to grants of land, in order to secure 

 respect from the future lords of the soil, and excite them to do likewise. 

 Capt. Fell seems to have read ^«3T«T ott> instead of ^f^jTif devoted, 

 and perhaps TW^"*^: Ra'macjlandra instead of the synonymous 5nrW<:. 



III. — Notice of Pugan, the Ancient Capital of the Burmese Empire. By 

 Lieut. -Col. H. Burney, H. C.'s Resident in Ava. 



The celebrated Venetian traveller, Marco Polo, (see Marsden's 

 edition of his Travels, pages 441 to 451,) has given us an account of 

 the war between the Tartars and the people of Mien (the Chinese 

 name for Burmah), which occurred some time after 1272, and led the 

 former to take possession of the then capital of the latter nation. 

 Symes and Crawford, in the Journals of their Missions to Ava, as well 

 as Havelock and Trant in their accounts of the late war, have described 

 the extensive remains of Pugan, the former capital of the Burmese 

 empire, lying between Prome and Ava, with its innumerable ruins of 

 temples and columns. Perhaps the following account of the de- 

 struction of that city, translated from the 5th volume of the large 

 edition of the Royal Chronicles of the Kings of Ava, (Maha Yazawen 

 wen dan gyee,) may be deemed curious . Pugan, also called Pouk- 

 gan and Arimaddana, is stated to have been founded by a king 

 Thamu-dirit, A. D. 107, shortly after the destruction of the Thore 

 Khettara or Prome empire, and the king Narathihapade, in whose 

 reign the Chinese took possession of the city, wa» the 52nd from the 

 time of its foundation. 



