Page:The Pali literature of Burma (1909).djvu/19

Burma, under which name we may conveniently, if not quite accurately, include Pegu, Arakan, and Martaban, has been the home of Buddhism for many centuries. No Buddhist country has kept the antique faith more sheltered from change. Yet even the chronicles of monasteries and such strictly ecclesiastical works as the Sāsanavaṃsa^[1] cannot unfold their quiet tale without a necessary mention of rivalries and wars between these neighbouring states, when the balance went down first on the side of Burma, then of Pegu, when Mongol armies marched on the Burmese capital, or the Burmese king marched into Siam. Rulers changed and the fortunes of the Fraternity with them, but the doctrine and the tradition suffered hardly any alteration, and the countries of Further India developed an intellectual life which was before all the product of Buddhist ideas and the work of Buddhist monks. For Burma the first language of abstract thought was an Indian language; the rational and moral force which, for a large body ofthe Burmese people, broke down the thraldom of ancient superstitions, was inspired by India. By the predominance of Buddhist influence in Burmese culture Burmese studies belong rightfully to the great field of Indianism.

We must, though the subject has already been fully and admirably treated by others, remind the reader here of the form in which the Buddhist doctrine, enshrined in a canon of scripture, was conveyed to Further India.

The language was Pali, the literary dialect closely allied to Sanskrit. Pali is usually called by the Burmese the māgadhabhāsā