1873.] 
Sir Arthur P. Phayre —Oti the History of Pegu. 
25 
and which has been followed in the modern capital of Burma. The ground 
plan of the outer rampart is a square or oblong, within which is an open 
space of about a hundred and fifty feet, and then a second but lower wall or 
rampart, and moat. The east and west inner walls are each 7700 feet long; 
while those on the north and south are about 4000 feet each, enclosing a 
space of about seven hundred acres. The angles, however, are not exact 
right angles. In the centre of the city is the fortified royal citadel, measur¬ 
ing from north to south 10S0 feet, and from east to west 1150 feet. This 
was for the defence of the palace, the “ throne room” being, as is now the 
case at the Burmese capital, nearly the central point of the city. There are 
two gates, or spaces for entrance, in the northern and southern faces of the 
rampart, but it is impossible to say how many on the eastern and western. 
Such is the description given by Mr. St. John of the present appearance of 
Tha-htun. The position of the city with reference to the approach from 
sea, is now not suitable for a port. But there is strong probability that a gra¬ 
dual rise of the land, including all the adjoining gulf of Martaban, has been 
going on for several centuries, which has destroyed the port. With this 
change of level it is probable that the influx of tide, called “ the bore,” is 
now more violent near the mouth of the river Thit-taung (Sittang), than it 
was two thousand years ago. 
The traditions as well as the scanty historical notices which remain re¬ 
garding Tha-htun, show that it was founded by Indian colonists. One tra¬ 
dition is, that the original colonists came from Thu-binga in the country of 
Ka-ra-naka, or Karanatta. By some this is made to refer to the founding 
of Maulamyaing. It may, however, be accepted as certain that people from 
what is now called the Coromandel Coast, established at an early period 
possibly a thousand years before the Christian era, one or more trading sta¬ 
tions on the coast of Pegu. That Tha-htun had risen to some importance 
as a city in the third century before Christ, is shown from its having had 
allotted to it missionaries at a synod held under the influence of the Budhist 
Constantine Asoka. The name Suvarnabhumi, or “golden land,” by which 
the country was then known in India, probably refers to gold being exported 
in great quantity from the emporium. Gold, no doubt, was brought from 
Yunan down the Erawati Biver at a very early period. It continued to be 
an article of commerce from the same country until within the last sixteen 
or eighteen years, since which the trade has been interrupted.* There is 
also an old gold “ diggings” about a hundred and twenty miles distant 
from Tha-htun on the Paung-laung or Sit-taung Biver. The town is still 
* In a note on the metals of Burma by Dr. T. Oldham, published in Yule’s Mission 
to Ava, it is stated on good authority, that the annual amount ot gold brought from 
China (Yunan) overland to Ava for some years before 1855 was 1100 lbs. weight. In 
one year, 1800 lbs. weight was imported, 
4 D 
