3 G 
[No, 1, 
Sir Arthur P, Phayre —On the History of Pegu. 
aboriginal tribes of India, who may have occupied that country before even 
the Dravidians entered it, Csoma de Koros, in his Tibetan Dictionary, defines 
Mon as a general name for the hill people between the plains of India and 
Tibet. Assuming that a people having that name, once inhabited the east¬ 
ern Himalaya region, and migrated to the south, we have now no means of 
tracing whether the Mun of Pegu came direct down the course of the Era- 
wati, or parting from their kinsmen the Kolarian tribes in the lower course 
of the Ganges or Brahmaputra, came through Arakan to their present seat. 
There appear now to be no indications of their presence, either in Arakan or 
in the country of the Upper Erawati; though more careful inquiry into the 
languages of some of the wild hill tribes, between Arakan and Manipur, might 
possibly show their track. The Dravidians of Talingana, who beyond all 
doubt came by sea to the eastern shores of the Bay of Bengal, probably a 
thousand years before the Christian era, found the Mun rude savages, who 
even some five centuries later, are called bhilus , or ogres. Yet the Dravidian 
colonists have been merged into the mass of that wild race. Their name 
indeed remains in the word Talaing, but it is known only to foreigners, and 
is not acknowledged in the language of the people. Though the alphabet 
used by the Mun is derived from an Indian source, through the Dravidians, 
there is probably little or no trace of the language of that race in the Mun 
tongue. 
The city of Pegu having been founded, the historians of the Mun peo¬ 
ple thenceforth make it the centre round which the fortune of their race 
revolves. . Thamala was consecrated king by the solemn ceremony of bithe- 
Jcct, or water poured on the body, and assumed the title of Mahimu Thamala 
Kummara. This king is stated to have built the city of Mutamau (Muta- 
ma, or Martaban), three years after the foundation of Pegu ; and he founded 
other cities in the territory he reigned over. But after a reign of twelve 
years, his younger brother Wimala conspired against him and put him to 
death. Thamala left a son who then was seven years old. He was concealed 
by his mother and sent to a wild district in the hills, east of the Tsit-taung 
River, where he was brought up amidst a herd of wild buffaloes. 
Wimala was consecrated king. In the third year of his reign, he built 
the city of Tsit-taung (Sittang). After he had reigned five years, in the 
year 590, A. D., the king of Bij-ja-na-ga-ran sent an army with seven ships, 
and a champion seven cubits high, to conquer Han-tha-wa-ti. It was agreed 
that the quarrel should be decided by a fight between two champions. The 
whole country was searched, but king Wimala and his nobles could find no 
one to meet the Kula giant. At length appeared the lost prince, the son of 
Thamala, who now was sixteen years old. He fought and slew the giant. 
His uncle now offered to abdicate the throne ; but he would not consent to 
reign, and again retired to the forest, east of the Tsit-taung River. There 
