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rittipwrw 



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20 



On the history of the Burmah Race. 



[No. 1, 



traditions attest ; and it appears not improbable that this movement 

 may have been made by the mountain passes which Kan Radza-gyee 

 is described as having traversed to go westward. But according to 

 the history this event occurred thirty-one generations of kings before 

 the time of Gautama. That race, at the end of the thirty-first king's 

 reign, died out in Tagoung, or rather was driven out by an invasion 

 of northern hordes. A female descendant of the kings was preserved, 

 and when the Sahya race of Kap-pi-la-wot was destroyed in the time 

 of Gautama, or about the middle of the sixth century B. 0., one of 

 the princes of that tribe named Baza Eadza is again described as 

 eoming from Kap-pi-la-wot to the Xrrawaddy, to continue the ancient 

 race in that region. That wild Indo-Chinese tribes should find their 

 way from the bleak north, down to warmer and more fertile climates 

 of the south, is credible ; and that after reaching the Xrrawaddy they 

 should proceed westward across the mountains, and so reach the sea, 

 is not improbable, as the more direct route down the Xrrawaddy was 

 already occupied by the 3£on. That such indeed was their course is 

 borne out by existing facts. But if we consider the present state of 

 the countries lying between Bengal and Burmah, from Cachar east- 

 ward to the valley of the Xrrawaddy ; and consider also the difficulties 

 for travelling over that route, which must have been presented twenty- 

 five centuries ago, the supposed emigration, either for conquest or 

 colonization, by the comparatively civilized tribes of India, to the 

 barbarous wilds lying east of Tipperah and Cachar, will appear very 

 improbable. On the other hand it is highly probable that religious 

 zeal would carry missionaries wherever a route for trade existed, 

 however wild and dangerous that route might have been. It appears 

 probable that a trade did exist from early times through eastern Bengal 

 via the upper Irrawaddy to China.* Traffic is frequently carried 

 on by very difficult routes, and by paths which people well advanced 

 in civilization, in a fertile and extensive country, would not follow in 

 search of a land to colonize. Merchants will venture into such countries 

 as is exemplified in the way the wild tribes east and northeast of Arakan 

 are now supplied with salt, and other necessaries of life. W here traders go 

 for love of gain, missionaries will go from religious zeal. From these con- 

 siderations then, while the passage of Budhist Missionaries to Burma by 



** The part of China bordering on Burma is called Tsein by the Burmese. 

 Was the Indian name Cheen derived from this source ? 



«BHWM 



