TO THE COURT OF AYA. 477 
of the present King’s father, as Heir-apparent, 
when he conquered Aracan in 1783. 
A handsome marble slab, similar to others 
which I have already described, gives an ac¬ 
count of the building of the temple, which was 
the work of the late King, who called it Maha- 
Myat*-Muni, after the Aracan idol, which, for 
distinction sake, is known by the Pali title of 
Maha-Muni, or “the great saint.” He con¬ 
demned for ever one hundred and twenty fa¬ 
milies of Aracanese, in all likelihood, the 
stoutest and most obstinate defenders of their 
country, to the degrading servitude of slaves 
to the Pagoda, giving each a P6 of land for 
subsistence. This was the endowment for the 
temple. 
This building is more frequented by votaries 
than any other which I have seen, owing to the 
sanctity attached to the image. Those whom 
we saw were persons of respectable appear¬ 
ance, and by far the larger number, aged wo¬ 
men. The resort of votaries brought w r ith it, 
of course, a proportionate number of beggars, 
most of w r hom were persons lame, blind, or 
very old. 
Here, in a long gallery constructed for the 
purpose, the late King had collected an enor- 
* The word “ Myat” means, in Burman, 4< excellent.” 
