JOURNAL 



OF THE 



ASIATIC SOCIETY. 



No. I. 1857. 



An Account of the Ancient Buddhist Remains at Pagdn on the Ira- 

 wadi. — -By Captain Henry Yul e, Bengal Engineers. 



The Burmese monarchs derive their stem from the S'akya kings 

 of Kapilavastu, the sacred race from which Gautama sprang. One 

 of them, Abhi-Baja by name, is said to have migrated with his 

 troops and followers into the valley of the Irawadi, and there to 

 have established his sovereignty at the city of Tagoung : a legend 

 manifestly of equal value and like invention to that which deduced 

 the Romans from the migration of the pious JEneas, the ancient 

 Britons from Brut the Trojan, and the Gael from Scota daughter of 

 Pharaoh.* 



But that Tagoung was the early capital of the Burmans, appears 

 to be admitted, and is probable, supposing the valley of the Irawadi 

 to have been settled from the north. There, they relate, (as is 

 told also of Anuradhapura in Ceylon), a city or a succession of 

 cities had existed even during the times of each of the three Bud- 

 dhas who preceded Gautama. The last foundation of Tagoung 

 took place, according to story, in the days of Gautama himself, and 

 this city was the seat of seventeen successive kings.f 



From Tagoung a wild legend carries the dynasty to Prome, where 

 an empire under the Pali name of Sare Khettara (Sri Kshetra) was 



* I see, however, since the text was written, that Lassen accepts the traditions 

 of the Indian origin of the Burmese Kings as genuine. (Indische AltertJiwm- 

 sJcunde, II. 1034.) 



t Col. Burney in J. A. S. B. vol. V. p. 157. 



No. LXXXV.— New Series. Vol. XXVI. b 



