1873.] 
29 
Sir Arthur P. Phayre— On the History of Pegu. 
It is now time to turn to the history of Pegu. This country became 
known to Europeans in the fifteenth century when it was a powerful kingdom. 
Afterwards it long existed as a mere “ geographical expression,” but under 
other influences is once more rising to commercial greatness. 
Concerning the foundation of the city of Pegu the legends relate that 
at the time when the lord Gautama came through the air, attended by 
thousands of Rahandas to visit the king of Tha-htun, the sea flowed over 
the whole of the low country, now occupied by Ran gun and Pegu. After 
preaching to the king and people of Tha-htun, Budha returned through the 
air to go to the middle land. When passing over the sea, a small sand¬ 
bank appeared, which rose above the surface of the water, shining like a 
silver islet ; and there the lord beheld a pair of golden hdnsas * ITe then 
predicted that hereafter a great city and country would arise in that spot ; for 
wherever golden hdnsas resort, to feed and enjoy themselves, happiness and 
a great future are sure to follow in the land. The country, it was predicted, 
was to be called c Hanthawati.’ These birds were supposed to live on a beauti¬ 
ful lake in the midst of the Himalaya, which region was, in the imaginations 
of the tropic-dwelling Talaings, invested with the grandeur of immensity, 
not unmixed with gloom. There all kinds of lotus flowers of various colours 
rested on the water, amidst which, never disturbed by man, the birds slept 
at night, and came to their far off feeding place in the morning. 
Now it so happened, according to the divine prediction, more than nine 
hundred years after the lord had entered Nirvana, that the silvery sandbank 
# The hansa, or hentliu, is still the sacred bird of Pegu. Much discussion has aris¬ 
en as to its identity. It is not a native bird of the country. The Burmese and Ta¬ 
laings refer to the Himalaya region as its home, and while supposing it to be a su]3e- 
rior order of wild duck or goose, describe it in such glowing but unscientific terms, 
that an ornithologist would be puzzled how to classify it. Spence Hardy in his 
“ Manual of Budhism,” when mentioning hdnsas as inhabiting the Himalaya according 
to the Budhist geography, observes : “ This is regarded as the king of birds, and by 
Europeans is generally supposed to be the golden winged swan.” Colonel Yule, in his 
narrative of the Mission to Ava in 1855, suggests that it may be i£ a mythicised swan.” 
Mr. T. T. Cooper in his book of enterprising travel to the frontier of Eastern Tibet has 
the following passage, which may be accepted as indicating the bird referred to in the 
legend. “ The large yellow wild duck is met with on all the Thibetan streams and 
mountain pools at a great elevation. These ducks were precisely similar to the brah- 
inini ducks of the upper waters ol the Brahmaputra, I was anxious to secui e a 
specimen and fired at the first I saw, but luckily missed, for a Lama who was with us, 
rushed up in great consternation. The yellow ducks were sacred to the grand Lama, 
and to kill one would bo a great crime, even to have fired at the sacied biid was an 
offence.” These birds are represented in the “ boat scene ol Sakya s death, carved 
in bas-relief at Sanchi (See Cunningham’s Bhilsa topes, 1 late XI.) One ol them le- 
presents a former existence of Gautama’s, and probably also ol the futuie Budha 
Arimateya. 
