2 !< The Remains at Pac/dn. [No. 1. 



and blended with other touches and details so utterly un-Roraau 

 and original, that one cannot conceive so spirited and effective a 

 fusion to have been produced by any chance European aid. 



at the conclusion of the third great synod, B. C. 241, it was known in India aa 

 " Sucarna Bhum'C the Golden Land.* 



According to Mr. Mason, the ancient capital of the Takings (of the Toungthoos 

 according to the tradition of the latter) was Thadung, or Satung, a city whose 

 traces still exist between the mouths of the Salwen and the Sitang. Suvanna- 

 bumme, he adds, but unfortunately stating no authority, is still the classic Pali 

 name of Satung. f 



In the beginning of the fifth century, Budclhaghosa, a Bramin of Magadha, visit- 

 ed Ceylon and there revised the Buddhist scriptures and re-translated them into 

 Pali. He carried Ins version with him to Pegu, and there made it known. In 

 A. D. 1171, a mission was sent from Burma to Ceylon, and ten years subse- 

 quently five men deeply versed in the Burmese scriptures came from Ceylon to 

 Pagan. One of the number is said to have been a Cambojan, and another a 

 Cingalese. % 



The intercourse with Ceylon appears to have continued more or less till a late 

 period. It was not always an intercourse of merely a religious character. In one 

 instance, more particularly referred to at page 55 of the text, we find a king of 

 Ceylon carrying a hostile armament against the Burman countries (A. D. 1153) ;§ 

 and in another we find ' Brama, king of Pegu,' as he was called by the Portuguese, 

 sending to solicit the daughter of a king of Ceylon in marriage (about 1566.) [| 



It is scarcely possible that any intercourse should go on at the present day, if 

 we may judge by the surprise and incredulity of the Burmese courtiers when told 

 by Major Phayre that the sacred island of Laukadwipa also belonged to the 

 English. THe last remarkable instance of intercommunication between Ceylon 

 and Burma, of which, I am aware, occurred towards the end of the last century, 



* " Sono and Uttaro were deputed to Suvarna Bhumi or Gfolden Land. As 

 this country was on the sea-coast, it may be identified either with Ava, the Aurea 

 Regio, or with Siam the Aurea Chersonesus, 6,000,000 of people are said to have 

 been converted, of whom 25,000 men became monks, and 1500 women became 

 nuns." Quoted from the Mahawanso by Major Cunningham in his Bhilsa Topes, 

 p. 118. 



t Mason, as above p. 427. He also says that Maubee in the delta of the Ira- 

 wadee was called Savanna nadee, River of gold. Sobana emporium and Sobauas 

 occur as the names of a town and river in Ptolemy's list. And Chrysoanas, his name 

 for one of the rivers of the delta, looks like a translation of the same. 



X Mason — p. 453. 



§ It is curious that in the reign of the preceding monarch of Burma, Alountsee- 

 thoo, it is said in the chronicles that " the governors of Bassein, of other districts 

 in the Talaing country, the Kala governor of the island of Ceylon, and he of 

 Tena8serim, having rebelled, were put down, and their countries taken possession 

 ofy (Mason, as above.) 



jj Hut. of the discovery and conquest of India hy the Portuguese, London, 1695. 



