Three ‘Immortal’ Burmese Songs

Hla Pe

doi:10.1017/S0041977X00070324

Three ‘Immortal’ Burmese Songs

Published online by Cambridge University Press: 24 December 2009

Hla Pe

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It is one of the most tantalizing features of the ancient history of southern Asia that there is no generally accepted solution to the dating problems of the Kushan dynasty. The wide divergences of opinion still current with regard to this question were well evidenced by the lively discussions which took place at the Conference on the Date of Kanishka, held at the School of Oriental and African Studies from 20 to 22 April I960. It was rightly appreciated that numerous questions of Oriental history and archaeology depend on the correct solution of this problem.

Type: Research Article
Information: Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies , Volume 26 , Issue 3 , October 1963 , pp. 559 - 571

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/S0041977X00070324 [Opens in a new window]
Copyright: Copyright © School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London 1963

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^{page 559 note 1} Mahādhammarājādhipati's poem is in ABL, II, 64–6. References to texts of the others are given in the following sections. A list of works cited is given at the end ofthis article.

^{page 559 note 2} Transliterated lakā, from Sanskrit alaṃkāra, used in Burmese inthe sense of ‘ornamentation’, ‘embellishment’.

^{page 559 note 3} The following passage, including the poem, is taken from the translation of the ‘Glass Palace Chronicle’ by Pe Maung Tin and G. H. Luce, 139–140. Where we strongly prefer a different interpretation we have altered their version, as follows: ‘sonof the nurse of his brother’ for their ‘tutor to his brothe’; and in the poem:

line 7: they have ‘shadow’

line 9: they omit ‘Lasts but a lifetime’;

line 15: they have ‘Verily it is the nature of every living thing to decay’;

line 24: they have ‘Dissolution lures’.

^{page 562 note 1} See, e.g., IB, pi. 36, 1. 4; pi. 74, 1. 11. The earliest occurrence of the word nan: so far traced is in pi. 283, 1. 7 (A.D. 1294).

^{page 562 note 2} See entry for Let-we-thon-dara, , x, 3, 1920, 139–40Google Scholar.

^{page 562 note 3} Transliterated ratu. The origin of this wordis obscure: as some yadu are reminiscent of Kālidāsa's Meghadūta and ḳtusaṃhāra, Burmese scholars derive it from Sanskrit rtu ‘season’.

^{page 563 note 1} JBRS, XII, 1, 1922, 36.

^{page 563 note 2} VI, 1, 1916, 13–14; VII, 1, 1917, 52–3; XI, 2, 1921, 102; xxv, 3, 1935, 129–35.

^{page 563 note 3} VI, 1, 1916, 15–17; VII, 1, 1917, 53–1.

^{page 565 note 1} HY, see p. 570.

^{page 565 note 2} JBRS, VI, 1, 1916, 12.

^{page 566 note 1} JBRS, VII, 1, 1917, 45.

^{page 566 note 2} JBRS, XI, 2, 1921, 99–100

^{page 566 note 3} JBRSVII, 1, 1917, 45; XII, 1, 1922, 35

^{page 566 note 4} JBRSVI, 1, 1916, 10.

^{page 566 note 5} JBRSJBRS, VII, 1, 1917, 45

^{page 566 note 6} JBRS Ibid.

^{page 566 note 7} JBRS, VII, 3, 1917, 277–8.

^{page 567 note 1} JBRS, VII, 1, 1917, 46.

^{page 567 note 2} JBRS, VI, 1, 1916, 10.

^{page 567 note 3} On this point see Pe, farther Hla, ‘Dawn songs’, BSOAS, xx, 1957, 345 Google Scholar

^{page 567 note 4} KPZ, I, 14.

^{page 568 note 1} See also Burmese drama, 76-8.

^{page 568 note 2} History of Burmese literature, 342.

^{page 568 note 3} See Buddhist legends, 43.

^{page 569 note 1} KBZ, in, 328 f.

^{page 569 note 2} See UPNW, 318 f.

^{page 569 note 3} History of Burmese literature, 341

^{page 569 note 4} For an explanation of this transcription see Stewart, J. A., Manual of colloquial Burmese, London, 1955, 1–3 Google Scholar.

^{page 570 note 1} See KLD, 92

^{page 570 note 2} Tha-thana-lin-ka-ra, 15

^{page 570 note 3} KLD, 93

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