Notes on Burmese Manuscripts: Text and Imagesrci.rutgers.edu/~dcl96/Lammerts.2010.Notes.pdfNotes on Burmese Manuscripts 229 229 Notes on Burmese Manuscripts: Text and Images Christian

Notes on Burmese Manuscripts 229

229

Notes on Burmese Manuscripts: Text and Images Christian Lammerts

The transmission in Burma of Buddhist literature in manu-script form is roughly coextensive with the era for which we have evidence of writing in the Irrawaddy basin, and is witnessed by an increasingly rich archive of materials dating from the middle of the first millennium CE.1 The first manuscripts, discovered among the relics of the Pyū-speaking culture at Śrī Ksetra and dated on paleographical grounds to the fifth or sixth centuries, contain brief Pali texts, all of which parallel formulations found in the Tipitaka, incised in Pyū script on gold plates. The 20 folios of the largest of these finds, that of the manuscript recovered from the Khan Bha mound, are complete with two perforations on each folio, through which the leaves are secured with a golden wire and are placed in golden cover-boards, such that the object would be immediately recognizable as a manuscript by anyone familiar with Burmese or other Southern Asian palm-leaf manuscript

The Journal of Burma Studies Vol. 14 (2010), pp. 229–254 © 2010 Center for Burma StudiesNorthern Illinois University

Burmese script is transliterated according to the method described in Dietrich Christian Lammerts, “Buddhism and Written Law: Dhammasattha Manuscripts and Texts in Premodern Burma” (PhD diss., Cornell University, 2010). All photos are copyright of the author unless otherwise noted.

1 To the southwest in Arakan, there is epigraphic evidence of the transmission of Sanskrit manuscripts (pustaka) plausibly dated to not later than the eighth‒ninth centuries CE. See Edward H. Johnston, “Some Sanskrit Inscriptions of Arakan,” Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies 11, no. 2 (1944): 377.

.

.

.

JBS14_Lammerts.indd 229 7/26/2010 1:52:06 PM

230 Christian LAMMERTS

Several folios of the Pyū golden manuscript recovered from the Khan Bha mound (Courtesy of Oxford University Press).

2 Tun Nyein, “Maunggan Gold Plates,” in Epigraphia Indica, vol. 5 (Calcutta: Govt. Printing, 1898–1899), 101–2; Louis Finot, “Un Nouveau Document sur le Bouddhisme Birman,” Journal Asiatique 20 (1912): 121–39; Gordon H. Luce, Phases of Pre-Pagan Burma, 2 vols. (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1985); Harry Falk, “Die Goldblätter aus Śrī Ksetra,” Wiener Zeitschrift für die Kunde Südasiens 41 (1997): 53–92; Janice Stargardt, Tracing Thought through Things: The Oldest Pali Texts and the Early Buddhist Archaeology of India and Burma (Amsterdam: Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences, 2000). See also the important review of Stargardt’s book by Peter Skilling in Asian Perspectives 44, no. 2 (2005): 386–90.3 For a bibliography of research on the Pyū corpus in Burmese and European languages, see Maung Zeyya, Win Tint, and Hla Hla Win, Bibliography of the Peoples and Cultures of the Pyu (Meiktila: Meiktila Degree College Library, 1997).

styles.2 No local Indic or vernacular compositions, excluding epigraphs,3 have been securely dated to pre-Pagan Burma, although there are several later attributions of texts compiled

.

.



during the first millennium, for example, the Kappālankāra, a vijjādhara (“weikza”) text allegedly compiled by the bhikkhu Uttamasīri during the first century CE, and extant in an 18th-century Pali-Burmese nissaya4 version (which provides this attribution in its colophon) by Taungdwin Sayadaw Ñānābhidhammālankāra.5

12th- and 13th-century epigraphic sources from Pagan reveal a literary culture in which manuscripts were highly valued and well-established as part of the Buddhist landscape. Numerous inscriptions record the sponsorship of manuscript-making, the donation of manuscripts to monasteries, and the sympathies motivating such acts of devotion. Copying and production techniques are well documented and supports

4 In the most general terms, nissayas are bilingual exegetical texts that provide an interverbal or interlinear vernacular translation, gloss or commentary on a Sanskrit or Pali source text or section of text. However, the existence of a nissaya does not necessarily imply the prior independent existence of its source, as the Pali and Burmese elements of certain nissaya texts were authored simultaneously. There are also instances of nissayas made from vernacular source texts. Features of the nissaya style can be seen already in certain of the earliest inscriptions from Burma in which Sanskrit text is accompanied by interlinear glosses in Pyū. On Burmese nissaya, see Tin Lwin, “A Study of Pali-Burmese Nissaya” (Master’s thesis, School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London, 1961); John Okell, “Nissaya Burmese,” Journal of the Burma Research Society 50, no. 1 (1967): 95–123; Ññvan. Mon, “Kunh bhon khet mran mā nissaya myāh,” (Diploma thesis, Yangon University, 1990); William Pruitt, Étude Linguistique de Nissaya Birmans (Paris: École Française d’Extrême-Orient, 1994); Lammerts, “Buddhism and Written Law,” chap. 4. On nissaya texts and practices in Laos and Thailand, see Justin T. McDaniel, Gathering Leaves and Lifting Words: Histories of Buddhist Monastic Education in Laos and Thailand (Seattle: University of Washington, 2008).5 The text claims to have been written at Śrī Ksetra during the reign of the Pyū king Supaññānagarachinna. Manuscripts of the nissaya are held at Universities Central Library, Yangon, #14510 (on which, see Mon Mon Ññvan., Pe purapuik (Yangon: Cā pe bimān, 1999), 21–2, and the Research Library of the Ministry of Religious Affairs, Kaba Aye, Yangon, #7672. A version of the text was published in the Kappalankāra thvak rap kyamh ranh krīh (Yangon: Sudhammavatī, 1959).

..

.

.

..

..

. .

..

..

.



mentioned include gold leaf,6 paper,7 slate, and palm leaf — either palmyra or corypha, which was by far the most common and used for religious texts as well as administrative and juridical records.8 Several extant epigraphs reveal the titles of manuscript texts that were circulating at Pagan, and these are invaluable for the reconstruction of early Burmese and Pali literary history.9 Writing implements included chalk and soapstone,10 although from the inscriptions, we cannot be sure whether the palm-leaf manuscripts were written

6 Rheh honh mran mā kyok cā myāh, vol. 3 (Yangon: Department of Archaeology, 1983), 76, line 38. See also the earlier Shwesandaw Inscription edited and translated by Charles Otto Blagden in Epigraphia Birmanica, vol. 1, part 2, 158 (Mon text), 165 (English translation). Blagden reads “leaf of gold with vermillion writing” but notes that this is “conjectural and highly doubtful.” I thank Lilian Handlin for recalling the latter Mon reference. 7 Rheh honh mran mā kyok cā myāh, vol. 1 (Yangon: Department of Archaeology, 1972), 151, line 30. Note that there is only one epigraph from 1223 documenting the use of purabuit and from the context, it is not entirely clear that the material is paper. In later eras, the appellation “parabaik” was also applied to supports such as metal, wood, or leather. 8 Than Tun, “History of Buddhism in Burma A.D. 1000–1300,” Journal of the Burma Research Society 61, no. 1 (1978): 44.9 See Than Tun, “An Original Inscription Dated 10 September 1223 that King Badon Copied on 27 October 1785,” in Études Birmans en Hommage à Denis Bernot, eds. Pierre Pichard and François Robinne (Paris: École Française d’Extrême-Orient, 1998), 37–55; Alexey Kirichenko, “Classification of Buddhist Literature in Burmese Inscriptions and ‘Histories of Pitakat,’” Paper presented at the Burma Studies Conference, Northern Illinois University, 3–5 October 2008. 10 The Burmese epigraph cited in note 7 mentions the donation of 55 kam kū chān, which in later Burmese, refers to steatite or soapstone, most commonly associated with writing on black parabaik, but also used on metal, lacquered, or gilded manuscripts. It is not entirely certain that the term has the same meaning here, but it is evident that this is an implement used for writing on parabaik held by a cartridge (kam kū tam 1 kleññ), as were soapstone crayons in later eras. The inscription further mentions a number of minerals such as copper, sulfite and minium, which were used to make colored ink or paint, although no pen- or brush-like implements are named. Ūh Phuih Lat traces the derivation of kam kū via kam kut (“sulfite”?) to the Sanskrit kankustha (Pali kankuttha), “golden or yellow earth,” citing an inscription of 1238 that also describes ingredients used for paint. Phuih Lat,

... .

..

. .

. . . .. . ..

.

.

. .

.



in ink or incised; the latter was the more common practice in later years. There are ink epigraphs on temple walls at Pagan,11 but there is no direct evidence of ink being used on manuscripts; however, a number of fragments of Pali palm-leaf manuscripts written in square characters in ink have been excavated from the interior of Pagan temples, but unfortunately, no examination of this material has yet been conducted.12 No securely dated Pagan-era manuscript on any support has ever been found.

Our imprecise records of Pagan and pre-Pagan manu-scripts do not mention whether they were decorated or undecorated. Yet, there is extensive evidence of decoration on a variety of materials during this period, which suggests that it may have been unlikely if certain manuscripts were not also ornamented in similar ways. The most well-researched among the Pagan arts are the monumental architectural remains and the elaborate mural paintings on the walls of the dark interiors of many temples. Painted lacquer work13 and painted or lacquered Buddha images were also known, as were glazed and unglazed ceramics, which include terracotta plaques such as those of the Ānanda or the Phetleik temples

Mran mā ca kāh aphvan. kyamh, 3 vols. (Yangon: Paññānanda 1, 1962–1964), 53–4. On kam kut, see also Chanh Thvanh, Cā pe bhan (Yangon: Arun ūh cā pe tuik, 1967), 105–10. More research is needed on the precise meaning of these terms at Pagan and their relationship to Shan kam kut, which refers to a pen-like reed used for writing on manuscripts in ink.11 See Bha Rhan, Pugam man cā sutesana lup nanh (Yangon: Burma Historical Commission, 1966); Aon Mrat Kyau, “Pugam man cā myāh mha samuinh athok athāh nhan. mran mā cā reh thumh,” in Mran mā samuinh apvai. rhve ratu athumh amhat cā con (Yangon: Myanmar Historical Commission, 2004), 20–39. 12 The examples I am aware of are all held at the Pagan Museum. For some 16th- through 19th-century textual references to writing in ink on manuscripts and an important discussion of Burmese ink writing in general, see Ūh Phuih Lat, Mran mā ca kāh 2, 47‒9.13 Ralph Isaacs and T. Richard Blurton, Visions from the Golden Land: Burma and the Art of Lacquer (London: British Museum, 2000), 21–2; Sylvia Fraser-Lu, Burmese Lacquerware (Bangkok: White Orchid, 2000), 15–6.

.. .

. . . . . .

.

..

. ...

..

... .

.. . ..

. ..

. . .



depicting scenes from the Jātaka,14 as well as many hundreds of Buddhist sealings.15 Less attention has been paid to other types of design, including non-narrative temple friezes and ornamentation of stucco, wood, or stone and the stone carvings that frequently adorn donative epigraphs.16 Cloth paintings dated to Pagan have also been found, the longest of which is 136cm by 81.5cm and comprises five registers of a Jātaka tale accompanied by captions; its imagery is stylistically similar to 12th-century murals such as those in the Lokahteikpan and Gūbyaukgyi temples.17

The earliest dated decorated manuscript is much later: a 1683 Pañcanipāt anguttuir atthakathā,18 in ink and lacquer on gilded palm-leaf, discussed in an article by Stewart in 1934.19 As Noel Singer notes, the title folio is “decorated in the style of a Kammavaca,” and displays marginal designs that parallel ornamental motifs in the roughly contemporary painted murals of the Tilokaguru cave temple at Sagaing.20 While the

14 Gordon H. Luce and Ba Shin, Old Burma — Early Pagan, 3 vols. (New York: Artibus Asiae, 1969–1970), vol. 1. 15 U Mya, Votive Tablets of Burma, 2 vols. (Yangon: Department of Archaeology, 1961); Peter Skilling, “‘Buddhist Sealings’: Reflections on Terminology, Motivation, Donors’ Status, School-Affiliation, and Print-Technology,” in South Asian Archaeology 2001: Proceedings of the Sixteenth International Conference of the European Association of South Asian Archaeologists, eds. Catherine Jarrige and Vincent Lefèvre (Paris: Éditions Recherche sur les Civilisations, 2005), 677–85; Peter Skilling, “Buddhist Sealings in Thailand and Southeast Asia: Iconography, Function, and Ritual Context,” in Interpreting Southeast Asia’s Past, eds. Elisabeth A. Bacus, Ian Glover, and Peter D. Sharrock (Singapore: NUS Press, 2009), 248–62. 16 Than Tun, Myanma Design (Yangon: Plastic Rainbow, 2005), 117–61.17 See Pratapaditya Pal, “Fragmentary Cloth Paintings and their Relations with Indo-Tibetan Traditions,” in The Art of Burma: New Studies, ed. Donald M. Stadtner (Mumbai: Marg, 1999), 79–88.18 The commentary on the “Book of the Fives” from the Anguttara-nikāya of the Pali Tipitaka.19 John Alexander Stewart, “Burmese Dedicatory Inscription of A.D. 1683,” Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies 7, no. 3 (1934): 541–4.20 Noel F. Singer, “Kammavaca Texts: Their Covers and Binding Ribbons,” Arts of Asia (May-June 1993): 9.

...

.

.



observation that there is shared aesthetic vocabulary between manuscript and other forms of decoration such as murals is very important, we should be cautious about attributing a kammavācā “style” to the 17th century, as few securely-dated decorated manuscripts from this era survive, and thus, it is impossible to know whether kammavācā comprised a model for manuscripts ornamented in this way. And indeed, as the evidence of the 1683 manuscript suggests, the earliest dated example of this “style” comes from a non-kammavācā manuscript.21 The question here concerns the provenance of the highly stylized broad script of the text of the title of the manuscript, which resembles that of tamarind-seed (man kyaññh ce.) script kammavācā manuscripts, many examples of which survive from the 18th through 20th centuries.22 When this script was first used on manuscripts is impossible to determine with certainty, and we are not helped by the fact that most tamarind-seed kammavācā manuscripts, unlike those written on plain palm-leaf, lack colophons and carry no copy dates. Perhaps our best evidence, as Singer and the Burmese manuscript scholar U Nyunt Maung have noted,

21 Kammavācā manuscripts comprise texts recited during formal pro-cedures of the sangha (sanghakamma), such as in rituals associated with ordination, consecrating new sīmā, establishing monastic living quarters, etc. In addition, kammavācā manuscripts were sometimes touched or held by monks when swearing an oath of truth in juridical contexts, on which see Lammerts, “Buddhism and Written Law,” chap. 7. Very little research has been conducted on the distinctive kammavācā texts of Burma, and among Burmese scholars, there is some difference of opinion as to the variety of texts that are historically included in the genre. For a list of 37 kammavācā texts, see Ññvan. Mon, Man kyaññh ce. kammavā panh akkharā (Yangon: Cā pe Bimān, 2000), 15–7. Most European work on the Burmese tradition has concentrated on the divisions of the Navakhandha-kammavācā (kammavācā of 9 chapters); see Anne Peters, “Die birmanischen Kammavācā-Sammlungen mit neun Abschnitten,” in Untersuchungen zur buddhistischen Literatur, eds. Heinz Bechert, et al. (Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 1997), 274–84. 22 The name refers to the shape of the script, said to resemble tamarind seeds. For additional images, see Singer, “Kammavaca Texts”; Isaacs and Blurton, Visions.

.

. .

. .

. .

.



is the similarity between the tamarind-seed script and the square script used in 12th- through 14th-century Burmese lithic and ink inscriptions.23 We can only speculate here, but it may be that the majority of Burmese manuscripts produced during an early period would have employed a similar script. For reasons arguably having to do with the unique ritual function of kammavācā in sanghakammas, and also for certain manuscripts, their special value given the context of their donation (kammavācās were occasionally donated to indi-vidual monks in commemoration of their ordination), such scriptural archaisms were preserved and became increasingly stylized as a marker of the unique function and prestige of the texts. We should also note the difficulties involved in reading the tamarind-seed script, which requires some skill even for those literate in Burmese and Pali; perhaps this would have emphasized the specialized quality of the reading and reciting of these manuscripts, and also provided an incentive for monks to memorize the texts.

Kammavācā manuscripts comprised a wide range of styles and supports, and the most common were inscribed with a stylus on plain unadorned palm-leaf. The supports for decorated kammavācā written in ink, such as the tamarind-seed script variety, included lacquered and gilded palm-leaf; ivory;

23 Ññvan. Mon, Man kyaññh ce. kammavā, 47–8.

Ink drawing on the final folio of a gilt copper kammavācā manuscript and the first folio of a tamarind-seed script kammavācā (Collection of Sayadaw Ūh Pandita, Thīh Lhuin Monastery, Wundwin Township).

.

..

. . . ..



lacquered hardened cloth, typically from discarded monastic robes (vat lai); and metal, such as copper and aluminum. These were ornamented in gold leaf, cinnabar, ink, or mother-of-pearl, with often elaborate floral or iconic representations of the Buddha, Sāriputta and Moggallāna, devas, or mythical creatures in the margins of the first and final folios, as well as intricate interlinear and patterned designs bordering the text throughout the manuscript. Many of these decorative features are not limited to kammavācā texts, but shared by other genres written in ink on gilded and lacquered supports, although there are precious few examples of such manuscripts.24

The making of a kammavācā manuscript, the only type of manuscript still produced in central Burma. Mandalay, 2005.

24 Compare the Patthāna and Dhammacakkapavattana-sutta manuscripts reproduced in Ññvan. Mon, Man kyaññh ce. kammavā, 48 and 101; also the important manuscripts of the Salāyatana-vagga prepared for King Mindon and now housed at Northern Illinois Library, available online at <http://sea.lib.niu.edu/images/search1.php?source=ok Palitaw>.

.. ..

.



Nearly all surviving Burmese palm-leaf manuscripts (pe cā)25 date from the 18th or 19th centuries and are incised on the folios in a round Burmese script that is virtually identical with the contemporary script.26 There are a number of extant palm-leaf manuscripts dated to the 17th century, but I am not aware of any that have been reliably dated to earlier centuries. Palm-leaf was used for writing a wide variety of texts, which include Pali literature and its bilingual (nissaya) and vernacular commentaries; legal and ethical treatises; Sanskrit texts; historical works; poetry; and grammatical, lexicographical, medical, and astrological treatises. The vast majority of these manuscripts are undecorated except for the customary bands of gilding and vermillion along the outer edges of the entire bundle, five styles of which are known.27 The outer edges of a closed bundle may be further ornamented with designs in gold, vermillion, or black ink, although examples are not terribly common.

25 Palm-leaf was also used for the long strips of one or two line cā khyvan manuscripts that communicated official appointments from the king. 26 On the production and preparation of palm-leaf, see Mran mā nuin nam bhāsā pran cā pe asanh, Mran mā. cvay cum kyamh, vol. 10 (Yangon: Ca pe Bimān, 1966), s.v. Mran mā pe cā; U Thaw Kaung, “Myanmar Traditional Manuscripts and their Preservation and Conservation,” Myanmar Historical Research Journal 1 (1995): 241–73.27 For these styles, see Mon Mon Ññvan., Pe cā purapuik, 49.

Floral designs in vermillion and gold on the outer edges of a closed palm-leaf manuscript of the Manusāra-dhammasat by Vannadhamma Kyau Than. The name of the manuscript owner is inscribed in the center. Ūh Bhuih Sīh Pitakat Tuik, Thaton.

..

..

. . .

. .

. .

. . . .

.



There are several types of palm-leaf manuscripts that oc-casionally include incised images.28 The most notable among these are certain cosmological treatises that contain elaborate and highly detailed illustrations of the 31 bhūmi or planes of existence, often accompanied by captions.29 Also, jātā (horoscope), byūha (military, tactical), cheh (medical), dhātu (alchemical), bedan (astrological) and nakkhatta (astronomical) manuscripts occasionally carry incised designs or diagrams connected with their subject; unfortunately there is little research on any of these popular pre-modern genres and their manuscripts, let alone their aesthetics.30

A final category of palm-leaf ornamentation concerns mar-ginal and interlinear decoration and doodling and graffiti, none of which has received any scholarly attention. Perhaps the most frequently encountered marginal and interlinear adornments are concentric circles or floral patterns surround-

28 Painted palm-leaf is rare. I recall seeing only one example several years ago in the Resource Centre for Myanmar Manuscripts in Mandalay. For another, see the reproduction of a gilded palm-leaf kammavācā from the Mandalay Museum in Patricia Herbert, “Myanmar Manuscript Art,” in Enriching the Past, eds. Teruko Saito and U Thaw Kaung (Tokyo: Tokyo University of Foreign Studies, 2006), 23. 29 For a description of this genre and some examples, see Patricia Herbert, “Burmese Cosmological Manuscripts,” in Burma: Art and Archaeology, eds. Alexandra Green and T. Richard Blurton (London: British Museum, 2002), 77–97.30 For some references to manuscripts of these various disciplines, see Mran. Kraññ, Paññā rap aluik cī cañ thāh so rveh thut pe cā cā ranh. Diploma thesis, Yangon University of Arts and Sciences, 1979.

Detail of incised diagrams on a palm-leaf folio of a byūha text, repre-senting military tactical formations (Collection of the Pansodan Gallery, Yangon).

..

.. .

..



ing or radiating outwards from the perforations on a leaf, most common on the first or last folios of a fascicle, or cross-hatching designs both between lines on a folio and as borders along the edges of the text. Doodles and graffiti, probably made by scribes or monks and novices at monasteries where most palm-leaf manuscripts were kept, likewise include a range of styles and subjects, from rough non-representational marks to more controlled depictions of flora or animals. Doodles and graffiti on palm-leaf are however quite rare, and the majority of cases I have encountered are confined to margins or blank, partial or damaged folios, and I have yet to come across what appears to be an instance of the intentional defacement a text.

The thematic vocabulary of palm-leaf decoration is limited when compared with illuminated paper manuscripts or mural painting, and the probable existence of paper in Burma from

(Above) Incised doodles on the final folio of a palm-leaf manuscript of the Hatthipāla pyui (Courtesy of the Universities Central Library, Yangon). (Below) Typical steatite doodles on black parabaik (Collection of Sai Kun Monastery, Thazi Township; image courtesy of the Database of Myanmar Parabaik Manuscripts, Aichi University).



at least the later Pagan era perhaps served to constrain the expansion of palm-leaf art. Surviving paper manuscripts are of two general types: black parabaik and white parabaik. The etymology of the term parabaik is uncertain, and derivations have been made from Sanskrit, Mon, Chinese, Tai and Pali elements, none of which are entirely satisfactory.31 In Burma, the paper was typically made from the pulp of mulberry bark or different preparations of bamboo.32 The surface of the paper was then coated with thick rice water mixed with a charcoal powder, or in the case of white parabaik, rubbed with a whitening chalk or oil made from crushed gum ññan (Entada pursaetha) seeds.33 The outer folios of higher quality black and white parabaik were sometimes illustrated or adorned with lacquer relief work, often gilded and inlaid with gold and glass, a technique that was also used for decorating such things as manuscript chests, thrones, and coffins.34

31 Ūh Tan, Mran mā manh aup khyup pum cā tamh, 5 vols. (Yangon: Ministry of Culture, 1983), vol. 5, §554; Mon Mon Ññvan., Pe cā purapuik, 77–9.32 Numerous authors repeat the claim that a type of Burmese parabaik was produced from the bark of the sa rak khyañ tree, which to my knowledge was first put forth in Mran mā manh aup khyup pum cā tamh, §560. Mon Mon Ññvan. and Mon Mon Sinh have argued convincingly that instead this name derives from Sa Rak Khyañ village in Magwe Division where parabaik were made during the 19th century. Cf. Mon Mon Ññvan., Pe cā purapuik, 87; Mon Mon Sinh, Purapuik panh khyī le. lā khyak (Yangon: Ca pe bimān, 2001), 44–5. Mon Mon Sinh reports a conversation with a village elder who recalled that in his youth, parabaik was made from the bark of u nhai (Streblus asper) trees, the leaves of which are used to make cheroots. Most 19th-century foreign observers state that Burmese parabaik were produced from the pulp of bamboo or the inner bark of ma lhuin or mulberry (Broussonetia papyrifera), although it seems probable that other types of fibrous pulp would also have been used. See Louis Liotard, Memorandum on Materials in India Suitable for the Manufacture of Paper (Calcutta: Agricultural Department, 1880).33 For an account of the process, see Mon Mon Sinh, Pe purapuik myak nhā pran myāh pau mha le. lā tve. rhi khyak myāh (Yangon: Cā pe bimān, 2000), 49–63; see also, Elaine Koretsky and Donna Koretsky, The Goldbeaters of Mandalay (Brookline: Carriage House Press, 1991).34 Mon Mon Sinh, Cā tuik settā panh myak nā (Yangon: Ca pe bimān, 2001).

..

.. .

. . .. .

.. . .

. .. .

.

. .. .

. .. ..

.

. ...

. .

. .. .



Most extant paper manuscripts also date to the Konbaung period, although black parabaik have been found dated to as recently as the late 1960s.35 Black parabaik were used for writing just about anything that needed to be written. Such manuscripts were relatively inexpensive, lightweight and portable, and could be written on quickly with soapstone or chalk and even erased, recoated and reused. They were especially valued as supports for administrative, juridical and economic texts, and thousands of black parabaik records of such things as contracts, deeds royal orders, sangha affairs, court case records, population surveys, accounts, and laws survive in rural monasteries in Burma as well as in libraries and archives inside and outside the country.36 Other texts commonly written on black parabaik include medical, botanical and mathematical treatises; transcriptions of inscriptions, poems, songs and sermons; monastic library catalogs; paritta and apotropaic verses; grammatical, lexicographical and orthographic works; prophecies; sorcery handbooks; and local histories. Black parabaik were also used, along with slate, as manuals in the context of monastic education. As a gen-eral rule, more valuable or prestigious texts were written on palm-leaf while black parabaik served as a support for texts that were seen as temporary or had a more documentary or practical function; longer works of Pali or vernacular litera-ture were typically not written on parabaik but on palm-leaf, although there are no strict boundaries as to what type of text was written on which support.

A great number of black parabaik contain drawings in soap-stone or chalk, and those that I have come across include architectural diagrams; plans for the construction of monastic

35 Personal communication, Win Tint, Meiktila, 2008.36 For a catalog of some of this literature, see Win Tint, Database of Myanmar Studies Source Materials in Parabaik Manuscripts, 8 vols. (Meiktila: Meiktila University, 2004–2007); Toshikatsu Ito, U Htun Yee, et al., eds., Documents of Myanmar Socio-Economic History, 11 vols. (Toyohashi, Aichi University, 2002–2008), available online at <http://taweb.aichi-u.ac.jp/DMSEH/>.

.



sīmā; horoscopes; magic squares and diagrams of auspicious Pali gāthās (anh, ca ma, yatrā, etc.); drawings of humans, animals and plants; sumptuary manuals; cosmologies; maps; and tattooing handbooks. Doodlers were particularly drawn to black parabaik, which underscores its more ephemeral and notebook-like qualities. These manuscripts were occasionally also decorated with white, yellow, red, silver and gold ink, or even painted, but this was relatively rare.37 There are unfortunately few studies of black parabaik imagery or its role and relation to the broader artistic culture.38

A Konbaung-era sketch of a portrait from a black parabaik manuscript (Collection of Ni Tut, Mandalay; image courtesy of the Database of Myanmar Parabaik Manuscripts, Aichi University).

37 Compare the gold and silver ink on the title folio of the incomplete Manu akyay dhammasat in the British Library, Or. 3447A, reproduced in Patricia Herbert, “The Sir Arthur Phayre Collection of Burmese Manuscripts,” British Library Journal 1, no. 1 (1975): 68.38 See, however, Mon Mon Sinh Purapuik panh khyī, 55–64.

..

. .. .



These latter subjects as well as others are illustrated in white parabaik, which in their most basic form were typically written on using a pen (khon tam) with black or colored ink, and when painted, colored with a brush (cut tam) made from the ear-hair of a cow. In the 19th century, imported lead pencils were used for writing and sketching on white parabaik, and also employed on palm-leaf to make marginal notes or corrections to the text. In central Burma, it is not common to find white parabaik used as supports for texts unaccompanied by illustrations, as they are in Shan areas.39 Furthermore, it is probable that black and white parabaik functioned as

Two folios from a white parabaik medical manuscript (Ūh Bhuih Sīh Pitakat Tuik, Thaton).

39 See Barend Jan Terwiel and Chaichun Khamdaengyottai, Shan Manuscripts (Stuttgart: Franz Steiner, 2003).

..

.

. . ..



sketchbooks for artists and painters who used them to draft images for murals and other types of decoration. Among all the textual supports known in pre-modern Burma, parabaik and slate stand out as the most likely to have been used in the context of artistic as well as other forms of education given their popular circulation, relatively low cost, and the ease with which they could be erased and reused.

The most technically sophisticated painted manuscripts are the so-called “colored” or “variegated” (ron cum) white parabaik, which required further preparation of the surface of the paper with special oils, wax and resin before being coated

Detail of a cosmological map from an ākāśaśāstra text. Such texts described astral constellations and methods for interpreting celestial formations (Ūh Bhuih Sīh Pitakat Tuik, Thaton).

..

. . . .



with a layer of white or colored paint. Such manuscripts were painted by artists closely associated with the court, and their sponsors and readers included members of the royal family. One of the most significant aesthetic developments seen in variegated parabaik is the elaboration of the narrative possibilities of manuscript art. Many of these parabaik rep-resented for the first time in manuscripts, across multiple folios and in full color, the life of the Buddha, scenes from the Jātaka, cosmologies, and rituals associated with royalty, often accompanied by descriptive captions.40 Such parabaik

40 For additional examples, see Particia Herbert, The Life of the Buddha (Lon-don: British Library, 1992); Herbert, “Myanmar Manuscript Art,”; Charles Duroiselle, The Pageant of King Mindon (Calcutta: Government Printing, 1925); Ūh Thvanh Rī, Thvak tau mhu akhamh anāh, vol. 1 (Yangon, n.d.); Khin Maung Nyunt, et al., Myanmar Painting (Ho Chi Minh City: EPH, 2006).

Two folios from a white parabaik Sīmabhedavinicchaya text, an illus-trated commentary on the proper construction of monastic sīmā (Private collection, Mandalay).

. . . .



also retained the documentary function of earlier decorated manuscripts, although with increasing realism, and were used to catalogue varieties of humans, animals, and plants, inventory royal regalia and the king’s arsenal, and to produce detailed color maps and architectural plans.41

A painted white parabaik depicting a scene from the Vessantara Jātaka (Courtesy of the Universities Central Library, Yangon).

41 For a fuller list of 19th-century subjects illustrated in white parabaik, see Ūh Manh Nuin, Panh khyī tau Ūh Krā Ññvan. i khet nhan. sū. lak rā (Yangon: Ministry of Culture, 1979), 9–11. For an excellent reproduction of a white parabaik documenting royal regalia, see Manh khamh tau purapuik phrū (Yangon: n.d.).

..

..

. ..

.. .



There appears to be no external references to the making of these elaborate variegated parabaik in Burma prior to the 19th century.42 Major questions remain as to what influenced the development of this genre, whether it can be attributed in part to the influence of European, Indian, or “Thai” arti-sans, and the extent to which the technical and aesthetic achievements witnessed in these manuscripts are connected to broader transformations in the painterly culture. Further studies are necessary on the relationships among such manuscripts and the themes, techniques, and perspectives of 18th- and 19th-century murals and other painted and decorated objects such as manuscript chests, wood carvings and embroidered tapestries.

The history of manuscript decoration in Burma raises questions not only about how decorated manuscripts relate to other forms of artistic representation, but also about what

42 Mon Mon Sinh, Purapuik panh khyī, 48–9.

Detail of a manuscript chest with painted panels depicting Jātaka scenes, by an artist from Mandalay, late 19th century (Collection of Sayadaw Ūh Kundala, Sāsanā. Ron Kraññ Monastery, Salay).

. .. .

. . ..



manuscript aesthetics can tell us about how certain manu-scripts and their texts were engaged. Why were some texts seen to be particularly predisposed toward imaging while others were not? Can we map the variable relationships be-tween text (textual source, modes of citation and caption, etc.) and image, and how does this compare to similar relation-ships in other media? Should decoration signify that certain manuscripts had a more aesthetic or ornamental function as a particularly valued (or venerated?) type of textual object? Given the extensive evidence of mural painting throughout the second millennium, why do we not also find documenta-tion or examples of illuminated palm-leaf, as for example in some palm-leaf manuscripts from medieval Bengal, and what does this tell us about the ways that palm-leaf was under-stood as opposed to other supports?43 What might imagery, or the lack of imagery, reveal about the regional character and transmission of Southeastern Asian Buddhist literatures and their associated reading and scribal practices?

I would like to thank Christophe Munier for the initial conversations that occasioned this essay, as well as the anonymous reviewers of the manuscript for their helpful criticisms.

Christian Lammerts received his PhD in Southeast Asian Religions from Cornell University in May 2010. In September 2010, he will take up the position of Research Fellow at the Nālandā-Śrīvijaya Centre at the Institute of Southeast Asian Studies in Singapore. His research concerns the history of Buddhism in Southeast Asia, Burmese and Pali literature, Buddhist and Brāhmanical law, and manuscript studies and conservation. His dissertation, based on a study of several hundred hitherto unexamined Burmese and Pali manuscripts, investigates the regional and local histories of dhammasattha, the preeminent genre of Buddhist legal literature transmitted in pre-modern Burma and Southeast Asia. Since 2003, he has conducted extensive fieldwork in government, private, and monastic manuscript libraries throughout Myanmar. He can be reached at [email protected].

43 See Sarasi Kumar Saraswati, “East Indian Manuscript Painting,” in Chhavi: Golden Jubilee Volume, Bharat Kala Bhavan, 1920–1970, eds. K. Khanda-lavala, Anand Krishna, et al. (Banaras: Bharat Kala Bhavan, 1971), 243–62.

.



BibliographyAon Mrat Kyau. “Pugam man cā myāh mha samuinh athok athāh

nhan. mran mā cā reh thumh.” In Mran mā samuinh apvai. rhve ratu athumh amhat cā con. Yangon: Myanmar Historical Commission, 2004, 20–39.

Bha Rhan. Pugam man cā sutesana lup nanh. Yangon: Burma Historical Commission, 1966.

Blagden, Charles Otto. Epigraphia Birmanica, vol. 1, part 2, ed. Charles Duroiselle. Yangon: Government Printing, 1960.

Chanh Thvanh. Cā pe bhan. Yangon: Arun ūh cā pe tuik, 1967.Duroiselle, Charles. The Pageant of King Mindon. Calcutta: Govern-

ment Printing, 1925.Falk, Harry. “Die Goldblätter aus Śrī Ksetra.” Wiener Zeitschrift für

die Kunde Südasiens 41 (1997): 53–92.Finot, Louis. “Un Nouveau Document sur le Bouddhisme Birman.”

Journal Asiatique 20 (1912): 121–39.Fraser-Lu, Sylvia. Burmese Lacquerware. Bangkok: White Orchid,

2000.Herbert, Patricia. “The Sir Arthur Phayre Collection of Burmese

Manuscripts.” British Library Journal 1, no. 1 (1975): 62–70.____. The Life of the Buddha. London: British Library, 1992.____. “Burmese Cosmological Manuscripts.” In Burma: Art and

Archaeology, eds. Alexandra Green and T. Richard Blurton. London: British Museum, 2002, 77–97.

____. “Myanmar Manuscript Art.” In Enriching the Past: Preservation, Conservation and Study of Myanmar Manuscripts, eds. Teruko Saito and U Thaw Kaung. Tokyo: Tokyo University of Foreign Studies, 2006, 23–41.

Isaacs, Ralph and T. Richard Blurton. Visions from the Golden Land: Burma and the Art of Lacquer. London: British Museum, 2000.

Ito, Toshikatsu, U Htun Yee, et al., eds. Documents of Myanmar Socio-Economic History, 11 vols. Toyohashi: Aichi University, 2002–2008. Available at <http://taweb.aichi-u.ac.jp/DMSEH/>.

Johnston, Edward H. “Some Sanskrit Inscriptions of Arakan.” Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies 11, no. 2 (1944): 357–85.

Khin Maung Nyunt, et al. Myanmar Painting. Ho Chi Minh City: EPH, 2006.

Kirichenko, Alexey. “Classification of Buddhist Literature in Bur-mese Inscriptions and ‘Histories of Pitakat.’” Paper presented

..

..

.. ..

. . ..

..

.

..

. ..

. . . . .

.



at the Burma Studies Conference, Northern Illinois University, 3–5 October 2008.

Koretsky, Elaine and Donna Koretsky. The Goldbeaters of Mandalay. Brookline: Carriage House Press, 1991.

Lammerts, Dietrich Christian. “Buddhism and Written Law: Dham-masattha Manuscripts and Texts in Pre-modern Burma.” PhD diss., Cornell University, 2010.

Liotard, Louis. Memorandum on Materials in India Suitable for the Manufacture of Paper. Calcutta: Agricultural Department, 1880.

Luce, Gordon H. Phases of Pre-Pagan Burma, 2 vols. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1985.

Luce, Gordon H. and Ba Shin. Old Burma — Early Pagan, 3 vols. New York: Artibus Asiae, 1969–1970.

Manh khamh tau purapuik phrū. Yangon, n.d.Manh Nuin. Panh khyī tau Ūh Krā Ññvan. i khet nhan. sū. lak rā.

Yangon: Ministry of Culture, 1979.Maung Zeyya, Win Tint, and Hla Hla Win. Bibliography of the Peoples

and Cultures of the Pyu. Meiktila: Meiktila Degree College Library, 1997.

McDaniel, Justin T. Gathering Leaves and Lifting Words: Histories of Buddhist Monastic Education in Laos and Thailand. Seattle: University of Washington Press, 2008.

Mon Mon Ññvan [cf. Ññvan. Mon]. Pe purapuik. Yangon: Cā pe bimān, 1999.

Mon Mon Sinh. Pe purapuik myak nhā pran myāh pau mha le. lā tve. rhi khyak myāh. Yangon: Cā pe bimān, 2000.

____. Purapuik panh khyī le. lā khyak. Yangon: Ca pe bimān, 2001.____. Cā tuik settā panh myak nā. Yangon: Ca pe bimān, 2001.Mran. Kraññ. Paññā rap aluik cī cañ thāh so rveh thut pe cā cā ranh.

Diploma thesis, Yangon University of Arts and Sciences, 1979.Mran mā nuin nam bhāsā pran cā pe asanh. Mran mā. cvay cum

kyamh, vol. 10. Yangon: Ca pe bimān, 1966.Mya. Votive Tablets of Burma, 2 vols. Yangon: Department of

Archaeology, 1961.Ññvan. Mon. “Kunh bhon khet mran mā nissaya myāh.” Diploma

thesis, Yangon University, 1990.____. Man kyaññh ce. kammavā panh akkharā. Yangon: Cā pe bimān,

2000.Okell, John. “Nissaya Burmese.” Journal of the Burma Research Society

50, no. 1 (1967): 95–123.

.. ...

.. .

.

. . .

. ..

..

..

... .

..

. ..

.. .

.

..

..

. .



Pal, Pratapaditya. “Fragmentary Cloth Paintings and their Relations with Indo-Tibetan Traditions.” In The Art of Burma: New Studies, ed. Donald M. Stadtner. Mumbai: Marg, 1999.

Peters, Anne. “Die birmanischen Kammavācā-Sammlungen mit neun Abschnitten.” In Untersuchungen zur buddhistischen Litera-tur, ed. Heinz Bechert. Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 1997, 274–84.

Phuih Lat. Mran mā ca kāh aphvan. kyamh, 3 vols. Yangon: Paññā-nanda, 1962–1964.

Pruitt, William. Étude Linguistique de Nissaya Birmans. Paris: École Française d’Extrême-Orient, 1994.

Rheh honh sutesana ūh cīh thāna. Rheh honh mran mā kyok cā myāh, vols. 1 and 3. Yangon: Department of Archaeology, 1972, 1983.

Saraswati, Sarasi Kumar. “East Indian Manuscript Painting.” In Chhavi: Golden Jubilee Volume, Bharat Kala Bhavan, 1920–1970, eds. K. Khandalavala, Anand Krishna, et al. Banaras: Bharat Kala Bhavan, 1971, 243–62.

Singer, Noel F. “Kammavaca Texts: Their Covers and Binding Ribbons.” Arts of Asia (May-June 1993): 97–106.

Skilling, Peter. Review of Stargardt, 2000. Asian Perspectives, 44, no. 2 (2005): 386–90.

____. “‘Buddhist Sealings’: Reflections on Terminology, Motivation, Donors’ Status, School-Affiliation, and Print-Technology.” In South Asian Archaeology 2001: Proceedings of the Sixteenth International Conference of the European Association of South Asian Archaeologists, eds. Catherine Jarrige and Vincent Lefèvre. Paris: Éditions Recherche sur les Civilisations, 2005, 677–85.

____. “Buddhist Sealings in Thailand and Southeast Asia: Iconog-raphy, Function, and Ritual Context.” In Interpreting Southeast Asia’s Past, eds. Elisabeth A. Bacus, Ian Glover, and Peter D. Sharrock. Singapore, NUS Press, 2009, 248–62.

Stargardt, Janice. Tracing Thought through Things: The Oldest Pali Texts and the Early Buddhist Archaeology of India and Burma. Amsterdam: Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences, 2000.

Stewart, John Alexander. “Burmese Dedicatory Inscription of A.D. 1683.” Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies 7, no. 3 (1934): 541–4.

Tan. Mran mā manh aup khyup pum cā tamh, 5 vols. Yangon: Ministry of Culture, 1963–1983.

. ..

.

..

. . . . ... .

. .. . .



Terwiel, Barend Jan and Chaichun Khamdaengyottai. Shan Manu-scripts. Stuttgart: Franz Steiner, 2003.

Than Tun. “History of Buddhism in Burma A.D. 1000–1300.” Journal of the Burma Research Society 61, no. 1 (1978): 1–266.

____. “An Original Inscription Dated 10 September 1223 that King Badon Copied on 27 October 1785.” In Études Birmans en Hommage à Denis Bernot, eds. Pierre Pichard and François Robinne. Paris: École Française d’Extrême-Orient, 1998, 37–55.

____. Myanma Design. Yangon: Plastic Rainbow, 2005.Thaw Kaung. “Myanmar Traditional Manuscripts and their

Preservation and Conservation.” Myanmar Historical Research Journal 1 (1995): 241–73.

Thvanh Rī. Thvak tau mhu akhamh anāh, vol. 1. Yangon, n.d.Tin Lwin. “A Study of Pali-Burmese Nissaya.” Master’s thesis,

School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London, 1961.

Tun Nyein. “Maunggan Gold Plates.” In Epigraphia Indica, vol. 5. Calcutta: Government Printing, 1898‒1899, 101–2.

Uttamasīri Mather. Kappalankāra thvak rap kyamh ranh krīh. Yangon: Sudhammavatī, 1959.

Win Tint. Database of Myanmar Studies Source Materials in Parabaik Manuscripts, 8 vols. Meiktila: Meiktila University, 2004–2007.

. . .

... .

.
