26 
[No. 1, 
Sir Arthur P. Pliayre —On the History of Pegu. 
called in Burmese Shwegyin, or “ gold sifting place.” Gold is indeed still 
found there, hut not in sufficient quantity to he remunerative, except to 
very poor people. These facts appear to explain satisfactorily the classic 
name of the country. The name Tha-htun is derived from vernacular words 
having the same signification. 
One of the early Budhist legends referred to by the native historians is 
to he found recorded in books still existing in the monasteries of Ceylon.* 
Two merchants fro n Thuwanna bhumi, named Tapassu and Bliallaka, had 
m 
gone on a trading expedition to Northern India. On returning with their 
waggons of merchandize to reach the sea coast, they passed through Maga- 
dha, where Budha was absorbed in meditation and in the seventh weeko f his 
fasting, in the Kiripalu forest. The merchants made an offering of honey 
to Budha, who, at their request, bestowed on them eight hairs of his head as 
relics. These they brought to their own country, which are now believed to 
be enshrined in the Shwe Dagun pagoda at Rangun. This legend may be 
accepted as showing that at an early period, the Indian merchants of Suvarna- 
bhumi traded to Upper India, and were considered a community of sufficient 
importance to have attributed to two of their body the honour of a personal 
interview with Budha. At a later period, the commercial importance of 
Suvarnabhumi is shown from the emporium Subara appearing in Ptolemy’s 
list of places on this coast, as has been pointed out by Colonel Yule. 
Concerning the first building of Tha-htun, it is related that before Gau¬ 
tama appeared, there reigned a certain king Ti-tha, in the city of Tliu-bin-na 
(or Thu-bin-ga), in the country of Karanaka. He had two sons Ti-tlia 
Kumma and Dza-ya Kumma. The young princes determined to abandon 
the world and become hermits. They, therefore, left their home, and went to 
dwell on separate mountains, near the seaside, described as being not far 
from the future site of the city of Tha-htun. The whole country was then 
forest. Once when walking on the seashore, the brother hermits found two 
eggs, which had been deposited and abandoned by a female dragon, who 
came up out of the sea. The hermits carried away the eggs, from which in 
due time issued forth two male children. The hermits brought up the boys, 
one of whom died at ten years of age ; but being born again in Mit-ti-la, 
about the time of the appearance of the lord Gau-ta-ma, became, while yet a 
child, one of his disciples. The boy, produced from the egg taken by the 
elder hermit, lived in the forest until he was seventeen years of age, when by 
the help of Tha-kya,f he built the city of Thuwanna-bhumi, called also Tha- 
htun, and reigned with the title of Thiha Ra-dza. By the intercession of 
him who, in a former birth, had been his younger brother, but had now risen 
* See Spence Hardy’s Manual of Budliism, page 182. 
f Sekra, the chief of the second dewaloka, or heavenly region, answering to In. 
dra in Hindu mythology. 
