Unconnected thread but interesting reading, especially the names
Anawrahta (Srì Aniruddhadeva, 1044?-1077?) Tribhuvanadityadhammaraja was king", "one queen of that king was named Trilokavatamsakadevi", "that queen's son was named Rajakumar
also that the inscription is in four languages..-- Myanmar, Mon, Pyu and Pali
Background The Rajakumar Inscriptions are inscribed on two stone pillars, designated A and B by C.O. Blagden who started work on the transcription and translation. Pillar A, now located in the Bagan Museum, was found by Emil Forchhammer, Professor of Pali at Rangoon College and Government Archaeologist, in 1886-87, soon after the British annexation of Upper Myanmar. It was found intact north of the Myazedi Pagoda and quite close to it, in front of a small ruined temple. Pillar B, now located on the platform of the Myazedi Pagoda to its southeast, was in four pieces when first found. Two pieces of the upper half were found in the Gubyaukgyi Temple in 1886-87 at the same time as Pillar A. The 3rd piece of the upper half was found in 1904 in the enclosure wall of the Myazedi Pagoda into which it had been immured. The 4th piece, the lower half, was found accidentally buried in a small brick building east of the Myazedi. Pillar A, the smaller of the two, is 1.4 m high, with each of its four faces 35.6 cm wide. Pillar B, less regular, is 2.2 m high; the two broader faces are 52.1 cm wide while the other two faces taper down from 30.1 cm at the top to 26.7 cm at the base. Since Pillar A was found intact at the Myazedi Pagoda, the Inscription was named the Myazedi Inscription. But this was a misnomer because the Insceiption dated back to the 11th century while the Myazedi was built in the late 19th century by villagers. The Inscription made reference to a cave-pagoda and this is identified with the Gubyaukgyi which adjoins the Myazedi in the west, and the Inscription is now referred to by its author, Rajakumar, the donor of the Gubyaukgyi. Texts The Inscription is in four languages -- Myanmar, Mon, Pyu and Pali -- with each text inscribed on each of the four faces. The Myanmar, Mon and Pali texts are written in a script derived from the Pallava script of southern India and used by the Mons of the Dvaravati kingdom in Thailand from about the 6th century. The earliest representatives of the script in Myanmar are the Tráp and Pandit Inscriptions found at Thaton. In Bagan, the script was earlier used by Anawrahta (Srì Aniruddhadeva, 1044?-1077?) in the Pali inscriptions on his votive tablets. The Pyu text is written in another script, one derived from the Kadamba script of southern India, early representatives of the script being found at Sriksetra, including a 5th century gold-leaf manuscript of excerpts from the Pali canon. In Bagan the script as well as the Pyu language was used in an inscription on a votive tablet of Srì Bañáno attributed to the reign of Anawrahta. The texts on Pillars A and B are identical although there are some variations in spelling. On Pillar A, the Myanmar and Pyu texts are on opposite faces; on Pillar B, the Myanmar and Pali texts are on the opposite broader faces. Since the pillars differ in size, the texts differ in the number of lines on each pillar: Pillar A Pillar B
Myanmar text 39 34
Mon text 33 46
Pyu text 26 29
Pali text 41 40
The Pali text is different from the others in that it is written in verse (gáthá), while the other three texts are in prose The Myanamr text is the earliest known Myanmar inscription, being preceded only by a short piece of Myanmar writing imbedded in Kyansittha's Myakan Inscription which is in Mon. This gives the name of the tank which Kyansittha dug as "Mahanirbban Lakchuykhiriy (Hand - Drawn - and - Carried Water). Despite the strong claims of Mon as the original text - with Kyansittha's inscriptions as well as the ink glosses of the Jataka paintings of Rajakumar's Gubyaukgyi being in Mon - scholars are of the opinion that the syntax in such sentences in the Mon text as "in the city of Arimaddanapur King Tribhuvanadityadhammaraja was king", "one queen of that king was named Trilokavatamsakadevi", "that queen's son was named Rajakumar" which conform to the Myanmar syntax of having the verb at the end indicate that the original text was Myanmar and that it was from Myanmar that translations were made. Translations An English translation of the Myanmar text by U Tun Nyein, Government Translator, was published in 1899 and a French translation of the Pali text was published by Leon de Beylie in his Prome et Samara in 1907. An improved English translation of both was made by Charles Duroiselle of the Burma Archaeological Survey in 1919 (Epigraphia Birmanica, II, i). The Pyu and Mon texts were much more difficult than the Myanmar and Pali texts and when they were sent to C.O. Blagden of the School of Oriental Studies in London for study he expressed the difficulties and his own inadequacies: "The ink-impressions supplied to me were often imperfect representations of much weathered and battered originals, which of course I have never had an opportunity of seeing .... To do full justice to these records would require in the editor a number of qualifications that are seldom found united; amongst others, a thorough knowledge of Mon, Sanskrit and Pali, much experience in Indian epigraphy, great familiarity with Buddhist thought and legend, an intimate acquaintance with local conditions of various parts of Burma, much leisure and a good deal of patience. To these, except the last two, I can lay no claim." The Pyu language was completely unknown when Blagden made his attempt and it was he who identified the unknown text of the Rajakumar Inscription as Pyu. It was only the existence of parallel texts which enabled Blagden to attempt a translation, and although he was able to make posi