1I2 On tlie History of the Burma Race. [No. 2, 



India, commencing in move modem time,, with the great revival 

 of Buddhism under A-nau-ra-hta iu the early part of the eleventh 

 century of the Christian era. Marriages were contracted between 

 the royal family of Burma, and the family of some Raja, apparently 

 a Buddhist, in Bengal. The strange tale of the assassination of 

 king Nara-thu by Indians sent from Bengal, has been related 

 From all these circumstances, and from the conquests attributed 

 to A-nau-ra-hta, it is very probable that after the conquest of 

 Bengal by the Mahomedans in the thirteenth century, the kings 

 of Burma would assume the title of kings of Bengal. It is 

 nowhere expressly stated in the Burmese history, but the course 

 of events renders this very probable. We know that this claim 

 to Bengal was asserted by the king of Burma in long after yeais 

 In tbe journal of the Marquis of Hastings, under the date o 

 September 6th, 1818, is the following passage :_« The lung of 

 "Burma favoured us early this year with the obliging reqiusiti n 

 « that we should cede to him Moorshedahad and the provinces to the 

 •' east of it which, he deigned to say, were all natural dependencies of 

 "kis throne." And at the time of the disputes on the frontier of 

 Arakan in 1823-24, which led to the war of the two following years, 

 L governor of Arakan made a similar demand. We may, there ore, 

 e sonably conclude that at the close of the thirteenth century 

 of the Christian era, the kings of Pu-gan called themselves kings 



of Burma and Bengala. 



In order that tbe reader may have a distinct view of the seveial 

 dynasties of the Burmese monarchy as recorded in the Maha-ra- 

 dl-weng, I have drawn out a table of them from the earliest time 



Tlieli/of kings who are said to have ***»?*£. 

 upper Pu-gan, before tbe establishment of the kingdom of Tha.- 

 khet-tara, I have not considered it necessary to give in detail. But 

 the named each king, and the length of bis reign, commencing 

 W itk Ma-ha-tham-ba-wa, in the year 483 B. C, has been carefully 

 copied from the Burmese history. In regard to dates, there are 

 Jen in the Maha-radza-weng various local eras. To avoid con- 

 fusion these have been omitted, until the existing era commencing 

 U1039 A. D. is reached. The era of Gaudama's death, commenc- 

 ing with 543 B. C. which is in use in Burma and all the adjoining 



