INSCRIPTION FROM BUDDHA GAYA. 



171 



north latitude about 24**. The beginning of the third and twenty-second volumes of the 

 large Burmese history contains some notice of these kings, who were of the race said to 

 be descended from the sun, and also of the Thakee or Thakya ('^) race, like Gaudama. 

 An account of the origin of this term Shaky A, or as the Burmese write and call it Thakya 

 or Thakee, is given in the first volume of the Burmese history, and it corresponds a 

 good deal with that translated by M. Csoma de Koros from the Thibet work, and pub- 

 lished in the 20th volume of the Journal of the Asiatic Society. According to the Bur- 

 mese version, a king of Baranathi or Benares, named Oukkakareet, expels from his ca- 

 pital four of his sons and five daughters, who go and found the city o{ Kapinlawot C^), where 

 Gaudama was afterwards born ; and the four princes, the eldest of whom named OuK- 

 kamoukkha, appoint the eldest sister to take the place of mother, and marry the other four 

 sisters. When the father hears of this proceeding he observes to his courtiers, my sons 

 have ability indeed {thakee tau in Pali) to take care of our lineage and thence, all kings 

 of Pdtalipoui were styled of the Thakee or Thakya race. The first king of Tagoung, 

 Abhiraja, came from Central India long before the birth of Gaudama, and a list is 

 given in the Burmese History of the sovereigns of Tagoung, most of whom are designat- 

 ed Thado. The queen of one of these kings, named Thado-men-gyee, was delivered 

 about the sacred year 40 or B. C. 504, of twin sons, Maha Thambawa (*°) and TsooLA 

 Thambawa both of whom were born blind. The father directed them to be put to 

 death but the mother placed them upon a raft with provisions and floated them down the 

 Erawadi. An account is given of their voyage down the river, and the sites of some of 

 the towns now in existence, Tsa-gain, Tsa-len, Myede, are said to have then received 

 their names. The two princes receive their sight on the passage down, and stop at last 

 otF Prome, close to the spot where an uncle of their's, who had some time before been 

 led so far from Tagoung in pursuit of an immense wild hog, had taken up his residence 



The eldest prince, Maha Thambawa, here built a city called Thare Khettara in 

 the sacred year 60 or B. C. 484, and established the Prome dynasty, which flourished 578 

 years. Some remains of that city are still to be seen a few miles to the eastward of the 

 present town of Prome, and Colonel Symes, who visited the spot, gives a description of 



Shakya. Q'^) Kapilavastu. (°°) Maha Sambhava. {^'^) Chkla Sambhava. 



(') There are many places named after this Hog— Wet-ma-zwot, or Hog not wet, a place where 

 he crossed the Erawarii without the water reaching his belly; — Wtt-ye-gan, Hog tank, the Waltyguon 

 where our army met with one of the most serious disasters during the late war ; — and Wet-ltywon, Hog 

 island, a spot near Prome, where the Hog was at last killed. 



