Arakan’s place in the civilization of the Bay:
A study of coinage and foreign relations
M.S.Collis, in collaboration with San Shwe Bu.
Coins found in Arakan
Mr.
Htoon Aung Gyaw, Barrister-at-law and certain other private collectors
of Akyab have in their possession over a hundred coins found in Arakan.
When recently arranged by Mr. San Shwe Bu, many of them were seen to be
duplicates, but sixteen belonging to the Maruk-U dynasty (1430 to 1784
A.D.) were distinct specimens, bearing the dates and titles of fifteen
different kings of that time. Moreover there were a few coins belonging
to the Wesali
dynasty (788 to 951 A.D.). I propose in this paper to show the
relationship of these coins to Indian coinage as a whole and to use them
as a document from which to draw certain general conclusions on the
history of Arakan. As that history has never been written and as the
data for the early centuries are scanty and controversial, I trust that
the inevitable shortcomings of this summary will be understood and
excused.
Types of Indian coinage; Hindu
Speaking
generally the coins of India fall into two distinct types, the Hindu
and the Mohamedan. Specimens of Hindu coinage of as far back as 600 B.C.
are in the British Museum, but it was not until India came into contact
with mediterranean civilization in 327 B.C. that its coinage developed
and became an art. This connection, beginning with the invansion of
Alexander and continuing through the Satraps into Roman times resulted
first in the striking of coins almost pure Greek in design and gradually
in the adaptation of that design to Hindu ends. With the Guptas (320 to
455 A.D.) a coinage had been evolved which while owing much to the
Greek theory of form, was pure Hindu in feeling. Now all this Hindu
coinage, from its highest as a work of art to its lowest as a barbarous
confusion, has certain definite characteristics. It exhibits portraits
of kings, figures and animals, deities and symbols of deities.
Inscriptions take a very subordinate place; dates are infrequent; as it
is not always possible to identify a coin with a particular king, a
classification by dynasties and localities is the most that can often be
attempted.
Types of Indian coinage: Mahomedan.
Mohamedan
coinage, which came into India in 1203 A.D. has opposite
characteristics. It is of an inscriptional nature. Save for a few
exceptions, it contains not a portrait or a figure. The King’s name,
title, date and faith are carefully recorded. The coin’s artistic merit
depends upon the calligraphy; and as everyone is aware who has studied
the Persian script as at mural decoration this can give a remarkably
balanced and vital impression of art.
Coins of Arakan
The coins found in Arakan belong to both the groups described above; those of Wesali are Hindu and those of Mrauk-U are Mahomedan. In order to understand the Wesali
coins it will be necessary to set down here in outline what is known of
that Kingdom and how it stood in relation to adjoining states.
Wesali, Archaeological evidence
The
ruins of the city are still to be seen on the bank of a tidal creek
about six miles from Mrauk U (now known as Myohaung) and about fifty
miles inland from the Bay of Bengal. The site has neither been surveyed
nor excavated, but the casual observer may perceive the remains of brick
walls enclosing a large area. On the south side was to be seen until
lately portions of a stone pier. Within the walls are numerous mounds and lying on them are pieces of stone statuary, bas-reliefs, capitals, floral designs in stone and inscriptions in the Nagari character of the 8th
century. All these remains are purely Hindu in execution and subject.
The figures represent deities; on the capitals is the sacred bull of
Siva; the style is rougher than the best Hindu work, but is not debased.
Close by the walls is a large stone
monolith of Buddha belonging to the same date. This is the image now
known as the Paragri, praying at which Fra Manrique found King
Thiri-thu-dhamma eight centuries later. Various Nagari inscriptions,
still undeciphered, have been found in the vicinity of the
city; and at Mahamuni, 15 miles N. E., are to be seen surrounding the
mound on which once sat the great image of the Buddha, which is now
Mandalay, a number of statues and bas-reliefs of the Hindu Pantheon.
Incomplete and insufficiently worked out as is this archaeological
evidence, it suggests that in the city of Wesali were practiced both the Hindu and Buddhist religions or that it was a Mahayanist city.
Wesali MSS. evidence
Mr.
San Shwe Bu has placed in my hands his translation of a curious
Arakanese MS. called. “The true chronicle of the Great Image” 1 Its calligraphy is order than that of the rest of the MSS. in my possession.- San Shwe Bu. The age of this MS. like that of most Arakanese MSS. is unknown, but it purports to give some account of the Wesali dynasty. It contents in this respect may be summarised as follows:-
The
area now known as north Arakan had been for many years before the 8th
century the seat of Hindu dynasties; in 788 A.D. a new dynasty known as
the Chandra, founded the city of Wesali;
this city became a noted trade port to which as many as a thousand
ships came annually; the Chandra kings were upholders of Buddhism,
guarding and glorifying the Mahamunni shrine; their territory extended
as far north as Chittagong; the dynasty came to an end in 957 A.D. being
overwhelmed by a Mongolian invasion. The conclusion to be drawn from
this MS. is that Wesali
was an easterly Hindu kingdom of Bengal, following the Mahayanist form
of Buddhism and that both government and people were Indian as the
Mongolian influx had not yet occurred.
Testimony from the history of Bengal
I. Fa-Hien
Four
hundred years before the Chandras, Fa-Hien (405-411 A.D.), the Chinese
pilgrim,visited the plain of Hindustan when that land was ruled by the
Guptas. The supreme government was Brahmanical, but he was able to
collect from the thousands of Mahayanist and Hinayanist monasteries,
which were flourishing side by side with the temples of the ancient
gods, quantities of Buddhist books and relics, with which he returned to
China.
India was no longer Buddhist as it had been at the time of Asoka (272 B.C.); but numerous Buddhist foundations persisted.
II. Hiuen Tsang
A
hundred and fifty years before the Chandras, another Chinese pilgrim,
Hiuen Tsang (630 A.D) visited the same area, then under the Emperor
Harsha. Hiuen Tsang himself was a Mahayanist and from the conversation
he states he held with Harsha, it is clear that the latter also inclined
to that religious view, though in the course of his reign he had
created temples to Siva, to the Sun and to Buddha. Hiuen Tsang returned
to China with hundreds of Buddhist MSS. But his account of how the Bodhi
tree at Gaya had been dug up and the footprint of Buddha at Pataliputra
destroyed by the Puranic Hindus allow us to draw the conclusion that
Hinayanism had already fled the country and that Mahayana Buddhism was
really a compromise in which the Hindu gods and Buddha ranked equally.
The Pala Kings of Bengal
If
we now turn on to the history of this Ganges area at a period
contemporary to that of the Chandras, we find a further development of
the same tendency. The ruling dynasty, the Pala, was Mahayanist; it was
in communication with Tibet, to which country it sent two missions; and
the last of the Palas developed the Tantric side of Mahayana Buddhism.
Conclusion: Wesali a Mahavanist State
These are some of the data for forming an opinion as to the religious condition of Bengal from 400-1000 A.D. As Wesali
was a Hindu State adjacent thereto, the presumption is that its
religious history was similar. Hinayanism had vanished; Mahayanism had
compromised with original Hinduism to such a point that Buddha had
become one of many gods; even the sexual magic of Tantricism was no
anomaly. Such, it appears, was the Chandra kingdom of Wesali,
Mahayanist in the sense that word carried in the Bengal of the 8th
century. It is significant that at least one Tantric sculpture has been
found in Wesali.
The coinage of Wesali
The Wesali
coins can now be appreciated. They have been picked upon the site and a
considerable number are in existence. Some of them are as large as a
modern rupee; others resemble in size a four anna bit. They are of good
silver and well preserved. Stamped on them are the bull, Nandi, the
avatar of Siva; Siva’s trident; on one is what appears to be a vase of
votive flowers; on some there is an undecipherable Nagari insciption.
Artistically they are a long way behind the Gupta coins, but they lie in
that tradition and are superior to many of the debased coins of
Southern India. Though all the symbols that occur on them are to be
found at one time or another among those struck on Indian coins, I have
seen none that are precisely their fellows. They have a generic
similarity to the coinages of some of the lesser Indian States, and
there is no doubt both from the number of them now in private
collections, from their uniformity of design and verying values that
they were coins and not, as has been suggested, commemorative tablets.
Indeed, from what I have already noted of the size of Wesali
and its foreign trade, to suppose that it had no coinage would be to
postulate an exception, for at that period in India all states of any
importance had at least a silver currency. Wesali,
as will be explained later, must be regarded not as an early Burmese
but as a late Hindu State. With the whole tradition of the great Hindu
past it had inherited coinage. All these data indicate that the coins of
Wesali were in the
pure Brahmanical tradition. But coins bearing Brahmanical symbols are
not inconsistent with a Mahayanist dynasty. I am not aware of any Indian
coin of a period later than the 1st century A.D., which
contains a Buddhist figure, symbol or inscription. The Mahayanist kings
of the periods mentioned above struck Brahmanical coins. Nothing is
therefore more to be expected than that the Wesali coins should also be Brahminical. It is merely another proof of how closely the Mahayanist Buddhism of 8th century Bengal approximated to Hinduism.
The end of Wesali & the beginning of the Arakanese
Such was the kingdom of Wesali,
an Indian state in the style of the period. But in 957 A.D. occurred an
event which was to change it from an Indian into an Indo-Chinese realm
and to endow the region of Arakan with its present characteristics. The
“True Chronicle” records that in the year 957 A.D., a Mongolian invasion
swept over Wesali,
destroyed the Chandras and placed on their throne Mongolian kings. This
important statement can fortunately be amply substantiated. Over the
border in Bengal the same deluge carried away the Pala kings. The
evidence for this latter irruption is fully cited in a paper by Mr.
Banerji and there is no doubt that the Mongolian invasion, which
terminated the ruler of the Palas, closed also the epoch of the
Chandras. But while in Bengal the Hindus regained their supremacy in a
few years, it would seem that in Arakan the entry of the Mongolians was
decisive. They cut Arakan away from India and mixing in sufficient
number with the inhabitants of the east side of the present Indo-Burma
divide, created that Indo-Mongoloid stock now known as the Arakanese.
This emergence of a new race was not the work of a single invasion. The
MSS record subsequent Mongolian incursions. But the date 957 A.D., may
be said to mark the appearance of the Arakanese, and the beginning of a
fresh period.
The period 957-1430 A. D., General characteristics
The
cardinal characteristic of the new period is that Arakan (as the area
may now be called) looked East instead of West. The Mongolians were
savages and following their invasion supervened a period of darkness.
But the invaders became educated in the culture of the country they had
conquered. The resulting civilization was of a mediaeval character. The
capital was moved from Wesali
to the Lemro river, some fifteen miles south-east. There during the
ensuing centuries numerous dynasties ruled, each with its own city but
always in the same locality. Few archaeological remains of this period
of five centuries exist, though brick foundations may be seen on the
Lemro bank. There was no coinage. This fact is significant as placing
the age in its perspective. We have here to do with a small kingdom in
an age of small kingdoms. In Bengal the Mohamedans were not to arrive
till 1203. Over the mountains in Burma proper was the quaint kingdom of
Pagan. It was with Pagan alone the Arakan had any considerable dealings
and it was to learn much. Thus during these five centuries the
inhabitants of Arakan became more similar to the inhabitants of Burma
and less like Indians. Their religion became less Mahayanist and more
Hinayanist. The link with the past, however, was the Mahamuni image,
which was still in its old place, for it fitted equally well into
Hinayana as into Mahayana Buddhism.
Particular Characteristics of the period 957-1430 A. D.
Arakan
became feudatory to Pagan, that is to say it maintained its own kings
but paid tribute as an acknowledgement of suzerainty. There existed a
road connecting the Lemro with Pagan. That road was known as the Buywet
ma-nyo. It has long been overgrown, but the present Government is
seeking to resurvey it. It was along that road that the ideas of Burma
passed into Arakan. Pagan herself had modified from the Mahayanist to
the Hinayanist form of Buddhism and the modification was transmitted to
Arakan during the eleventh and twelfth centuries. Burmese writhing came
over at the same time and in the same manner. No inscriptions in the
Burmese script are found in Arakan before that date. The question of the
emergence of the Arakanese language is more difficult. Whether it was the language of the Mongolian invader’s of the 10th century or whether it filtered across the mountains after contract with Burma in the 11th and 12th centuries is undecided. As Arakanese is the same language as Burmese, being merely a dialect, to suppose that it was the language
of the invaders is to contend that the Mongolians who extinguished the
Chandras spoke the same tongue as those who afterwards became
predominant in the Irrawaddy plain. If the contrary is postulated, and
it is argued that the Burmese language,
coming over the mountain road, impinged upon the Mongolian speech of
the then Arakanese and created modern Arakanese, linguistic difficulties
are raised which are difficult to solve. This question awaits judgment.
The Mahamuni image and Pagan
The
great preoccupation of the Lemro dynasties during this mediaeval period
was the guardianship of the Mahamuni image. As it was believed to be a
likeness of the Master cast during his life time its possession gave
Arakan and important position in the eyes of the Pagan kings. For
monarchs who had built so many thousand pagodas and who had raised up so
sacred a city as Pagan, the possession of Mahamuni would have been the
crown of their endeavours. But the Arakanese had an old belief that if
it left their country, it would synchronise with the ruin of their race.
As they were not strong enough to guard it by force of arms, they
employed that peculiar system of magical astrology, known as Yadaya, to
protect it. They attempted to render its site unapproachable for
invanders or spoilers by enveloping it in a magical net. Both Anawratha
and Alaungsithu, though suzerain lords of Arakan and though both dearly
longed to enshrine the great Buddha in their own capital city, failed to
remove it. The writers of the manuscripts conclude that the Yadaya
calculations were well drawn. Being unable to take it, they worshipped
there and the fact that the most revered image of all Budddhism was
located in Arakan resulted in much coming and going between that country
and the kingdom of Pagan. Thus were the two countries drawn closely
together.The road over the mountains became a trade route. The MSS.
relate great fairs held on it at a point between the two States. But of
coinage there was no need.
Summary of the Lemro period
During
these five hundred years Arakan became a Holy Land. It had no political
importance, but was a place of pilgrimage for the Buddhist world.
Neither commercial nor cosmopolitan like the kingdom of Wesali, it developed those racial and religious charactristics which mark it still.
Arakan looks West again 1450A.D.
But
India was again to play its part in the making of Arakan. To understand
the age of Mrauk-U (1430 – 1785 A. D.), the profound changes which had
taken place in Bengal since the time of the Palas must be called to
mind.
The World movement of Islam
When
the life went out of the Roman Empire, clan vital drove the followers
of Mahomet to create a polity in its stead. Under the propelling
conviction of their war-religion they overran the middle block of
Eur-Asia. Europe was restricted almost to small states on the Atlantic
see board. Moslem civilization extended from Cordova to Dacca. An
average observer of the period would have seen nothing in the world but
Islam. From all points of view, military, political and cultural, the
Moslem Sultanates were in the van of civilization. For every other state
they represented modernity, as industrial Europe now represent what is
modern for Asia and Africa. Bengal was absorbed into this great polity
in 1293 A. D. But that was its extreme eastern limit. It never passed
into Indo-China; and its influence from its arrival in 1203 to 1430 was
negligible upon Arakan.
Why Arakan turned towards India in 1450
The
circumstances which made Arakan turn from the East and look West to the
Moslem States were political. In 1404 A. D., Min Saw Mwan was King of
Arakan, ruling from Launggret, one of the Lemro Cities already
mentioned. As the kings of Pagan had regarded Arakan as their feudatory,
the Kings of Ava, who succeeded them, saw no reason why they should not
reassert that view. Moreover the Arakanese had annoyed them by raiding
Yaw and Laungshe. Accordingly the heir apparent to the throne of Ava
invaded Arakan in 1406. Min Saw Mwan fled the country, taking refuge at
Gaur, the capital of the Sultan of Bengal. That kingdom had been
independent of the Sultanate of Delhi for eighty six years. It was one
of the many sovereign states of the world wide Moslem polity. The
Arakanese king remained there for twenty four years, leaving his country
in the hands of the Burmese.
Founding of Mrauk-U
Nasir-ud-din
Shah became Sultan in 1426 and Min Saw Mwan prevailed on that monarch
to restore him to the throne of Arakan, as his tributary. Force of
circumstances made him prefer to call himself a feudatory of the Sultans
of Bengal than of the kings of Ava. He turned away from what was
Buddhist and familiar to what was Mohamedan and foreign. In so doing he
loomed from the mediaeval to the modern, from the fragile fairyland of
the Glass Palace Chronicle to the robust extravaganza of the Thousand
Nights and one Night. Nasir-ud-din restored him in 1430 A.D. and Mrauk-U
was built. It is noteworthy that one of that Sultan’s coins was
recently found near the site of that city. It is a unique document in
the history of Arakan.
Origin of Arakanese coinage
When
the Moslems entered Bengal in 1203, they introduced the inscriptional
type of coinage already described in this paper. Nasir-ud-din’s coin is
in the tradition and it was on that coin and its fellows that the
coinage of that coin and its fellows that the coinage of Mrauk-U was
subsequently modelled. In this way Arakan became definitely oriented
towards the Moslem State. Contact with a modem civilization resulted in a
renaissance. The country’s great age began.
The Mrauk-U dynasty1450-1786
Shin
Arahan would have found himself as much out of place at the court of
Gaur as St.Bernard in the University of Cordova. To avoid such a
sensation and snatch advantage from change, the Arakanese had to forsake
a fashion in ideas, which had fallen behind in the march of the world’s
thought, and bring themselves up to date.
Period I. 1430-1530. As feudatory to Bengal
They
had to learn the history of recent events, the meaning of the triumph
of Islam and how it arrived that the chief Moslem protagonists were
Mongolian. For it was a curious fact that while the
government of Further India was Mongolian-Buddhist, that of India and
westwards beyond was Mongolian-Mohamedan. Situated as they were between
the two, the Arakanese had opportunity of detecting their fundamental
difference. That basic distinction centred in the matter of war and
agggrandisement. While for Further India war was wrong and only happened
by the way, for the Moslem block it was the first preoccupation of
government. It took the Arakanese a hundred years to learn that doctrine
from the Moslem Mongolians. When it was well understood, they founded
what was known as the Arakanese empire. For the hundred years, 1430 to
1530, Arakan remained feudatory to Bengal, paid tribute and learnt
history and politics. Eleven kings followed one another at Mrauk-U in
undistinguished succession. If they struck coins, none have been found.
In 1531 Minbin ascended the throne. With him the Arakanese graduated in
their Moslem studies and the empire was founded.
The Mrauk-U dynasty. Period II, 1531-1638
Two
capital events occured which gave the now instructed Arakan its weapon
and its opportunity,—the arrival of the Portuguese and civil war in
Bengal.
The Portuguese
The
Portuguese arrived in eastern waters about the year 1500 in search of
trade. From the Indian point of view they were an obscure tribe living
on the extreme edge of the Moslem dominion; in fact they had only
recently succeeded in driving the Moslem out of their own Iberian
peninsular. Between them and India was the solid block of the Mussalman
states and they had therefore been compelled to sail round by the Cape
of Good Hope. But they had one extraordinary and unique characterstic –
they were mariners, supreme seamen. There were no other sailors of note
in the world. The enormous Moslem dominion was military. It had no need
of the sea because its trade routes in Eur-Aisa were overland. The
Portuguese shipmen were a mere handful; the total population of their
country would not have filled a dozen of the larger Indian cities; but
as they were unopposed on the sea, they found themeselves in command of
it. Had this not been the case they could never have appeared at all in
eastern waters so far from their base. But it was not enough to be in
command of the sea; some point d’appui on land for trade and refitting
was essential. This they acquired in various localities by peaceful
arrangement with the local authorities. Looking for such a concession
Don Jao de Silveira entered the harbour of Arakan in 1517, fourteen
years before Minbin’s accession. The Arakanese, their wits sharpened by
experience, saw that here was one of those chances given to nations and
individuals, which if boldly exploited yield a great profit. It seemed
that a mutually agreeable understanding could be arranged. While the
Portuguese were able to provide mastery of seamanship, with a more
modern knowledge of arms and fortification, the Arakanese could throw
into the bargin territorial concessions and trade openings. An agreement
on these lines was reached. When Minbin came to the throne he turned
Mrauk-U into the strongest fortified city of the Bay, employing the
Portuguese to lay out his walls and moats and to forge and mount his
cannon. He appointed them as military officers to train and equip a
mercenary army of heterogeneous races, foreign and domestic; and he
built, with their aid, a large fleet manned with his own men, who were
hardy boatmen, but guided and stiffened by Portuguese mariners. Minbin
in this way became master of a powerful modern weapon.
Civil war in Bengal
The
second capital event, which gave Arakan its oportunity was the civil
war in Bengal. The Moguls had arrived and the second of that line,
Humayon entered Gaur, displacing the independent dynasty. But he could
not maintain himself against the pretender Shere Shah. During the whole
of Minbin’s reign the administration of Bengal was interrupted by that
struggle and eastern Bengal lay defenceless. For Minbin, armed as he now
was, this was the opportunity. With a combined fleet and army movement
he occupied Eastern Bengal. That province remained to Arakan for the
next hundred and twenty years, till 1666. Its administration was left in
the hands of twelve local rajahs, who paid an annual tribute to the
Arakanese king’s Viceroy at Chittagong.
Minbin’s coin
In Mr.Htoon Aung Gyaw’s collectionis one of Minbin’s coins. It
presents a succinct commentary on the sudden rise of Arakan to
importance in the Bay. On one side of it is inscribed the word “Minbin”
in the Burmese character. On the reverse in Nagari is his Moslem title,
Zabauk Shah.
Mrauk-U a Sultanate
So Arakan had turned into a Sultanate. The Court was shaped in Gaur and Delhi; there were the eunuchs
and the seraglio, the slaves and the executioner. But it remained
Hinayana Buddhist. Mahamunni was still there, still fervently
worshlipped. Moreover Minbin embellished Mrauk-U with its greatest
temples and pagodas. But the architecture of the former is neither
Mohamedan nor Buddhist.
The architecture of the Period
It’s
Hindu, but of so unique a design as almost to constitute a particular
style. This architecture was the work of Indian builders employed by
Minbin and working to his general specifications. It illustrates the
cosmopolitan origins of the state of Mrauk-U, which derived from the
Hindu and the Buddhist as well as from the Prortuguese and the Moslem.
But it also indicates how Minbin was able to fuse diverse elements into a
particular and separate style.
Consolidation of Mrauk-U 1600, The north-west frontier
If
Minbin founded the prosperity of Mrauk-U, Razagri, his successor of
forty years later, may be said to have consolidated it. In 1576 central
and western Bengal was definitely administered by Akbar. Hence the
Arakanese in eastern Bengal found themselves on the frontier of the
Moghul. There was now no buffer state between. It was known that the
Moghul regarded all Bengal as rightly his and that it was entered in his
records as such. Hence it behaved Mrauk-U to guard that frontier well.
But it was not feasible to do so with the regular army. Arrangements
were therefore made with other Portuguese for this purpose. These were
not those who acted as officers and instructors at Mrauk-U. They did not
belong to the home army or navy. They were Portuguese mariners who had
been allowed to found a trade settlement and refitting base near
Chittagong. It was agreed between them and the king that they would
protect the frontier against the Moghul in return for all the trade
openings their position at Chittagong afforded. The king had his brother
or near relative as Viceroy. It was the duty of that functionary to
watch the Portuguese and see that they played fair. This they were not
always inclined to do, but at that period the kings of Mrauk -U were
strong enough with their home army and navy to over power the Portuguese
when necessary. On at least one occasion they were constrained to
punish them by burning their settlement. On another occasion Don
Gonsales Tibau who belonged to an outside set of Portuguese, made a dash
at the city of Mrauk-U itself. But he was turned back from the harbour
of Arakan and was followed up and defeated in his own independent island
at the mouth of the Ganges, Thus at this time when the government of
Mrauk-U was strong enough to keep the Portuguese in order, the policy of
posting the latter on the northern frontier was a sound one.
The south-east frontier
Maruk-U,
having turned the tables on Bengal proceeded to do the same on Burma;
this was the first and only Period in its history when Arakan was able
not only to repulse the Burmese but even to annex part of their country.
Razagiri, in alliance with Ava, took Pegu. On the division of the
spoils the strip up to and including Syriam and Moulmein was added to
his long coastline. This campaign was rendered possible by his excellent
navy and Razagri in appointing the Portuguese de Brito, as Governor of
Syriam was repeating the policy of the North West frontier. He depended
on those mariners, in conjunction, presumably, with his own seamen, to
keep his borders for him.
Maximum extent of the empire of Mrauk-U
For
a short period during the reign of Razagri Arakan extended from Dacca
and the Sundabans to Moulmein, a coast strip of a thousand miles in
length and varying from 150 to 20 miles in depth.This considerable
dominion was built up by means of the strong cosmopolitan army and navy
organized by Minbin and by inducing the Portuguese outside his army of
fight for him in return for trade concessions. It is difficult to
conceive of a state with less reliable foundations. But during the short
years of its greatness, the century from 1540 to 1640, it was brilliant
and imposing. Copying the imperial Court of Delhi, its kings adopted
the title of Padshah. The French traveller Fyiard, who was in India at
the time, sums up its position in the Bay as second only to that of the
Moghul. In my studies from Fra Manrique and the Arakanese MSS. I have
tried to paint a picture of Arakan at this moment of its highest
destiny. Here well add, in order to give those studies perspective a
comparison of its coinage with that of the contemporary coinage of
Delhi.
A comparison of the Moghul and Mrauk-U coinage 1600
The
coins of the Sultans were inscribed with a precise inscription in
useful and sufficient Persian lettering. With Akbar and his successors
the script becomes a fine art. Imperially cursive, whirling under the
eye, it has a living beauty. We possess a coin of Razagri. On the
obverse is his title in Burmese; on the reverse in Persian and Nagari.
The style is essentially that of the Sultanates, convenient, clear, but
conveying no impression of art. In fact Moghul Delhi never influenced
Mrauk-U. That city drew from Gaur of Bengal, the Gaur of 1430. Beyond
that it did not excel.
Decline and fall of Mrauk-U 1638-1785
The
causes that make men rich are often the same as ruin them. What a
gambler has won he may lose by an identical throw. Mrauk-U was glorious
because wise kings took advantage of a strong alliance against
distracted border states. It fell into poverty and contempt because weak
kings were falsely served by their allies against united border states.
Internal causes of decay
In
my sketches of Mrauk-U at its heyday I have indicated the weakening of
the central government that followed the murder of King
Thiri-thu-dhamma. The usurper. Narapati, was never fully accepted by the
Arakanese. He depended upon his foreign mercenares. These were ready to
unmake him. The sanctity of authority was gone. Moreover the victories
of previous reigns had flooded the country with Moghul, Burmese and
Portuguese prisoners of war. These were centres of discontent on which
any adventurer could count. On such men counted Shuja, Aurangzebe’s
elder brother, rightful Emperor of Hindustan, when he fled to Arakan
after being worsted in the struggle for the imperial crown which
followed the death of Shah Jahan. Only a strong national king can
control an army of foreign paid soldiers.
External causes: The Portuguese
After
1600 a change for the worse overcame the Portuguese. When their country
was united with Spain and her resources were squandered on the European
struggle in the Netherlands, she was unable to reinforce her eastern
shipmen. The Dutch and the English had arrived and treatened trade
rivalry. In consequence the Portuguese were transformed from assured
traders into cut off and desperate adventurers. They realised that their
empire of the sea was doomed, that being unable to look for help from
Europe, they had only their own wits and swords to uphold them and that
situated on the borders of great oriental states, so many thousand miles
from home, the duration of their prosperity could but be short. They
became pirates. The Viceroy of Goa’s control over them, always slight,
now disappeared. They recruted their numbers from the halfbreeds. Yet it
was on the good faith of these desperate men that the King of Mrauk-U
depended for the defence of his North West Frontier. The weak usurpers
of Arakan had no hold at all upon such cutthroats. If it was to their
interest to play fair, eastern Bengal could still call itself a part of
Arakan. But in fact for 28 years before Chittagong was actually lost,
the coinage of Mrauk-U bears no reference to it. The coins are stamped
only with a Burmese legend.
External causes: The Moghul
As the 17th century advanced, the Moghuls consolidated their administration. But Bengal remained and irritant. It
was not so much that the Emperors objected to the eastern portion owing
allegiance to Arakan as that it was the base from which resolute
pirates crossed into their domains, raiding even to Moorshedabed. The
pirate boats were manned by pure Portuguese, half breeds and Arakanese.
They seized from the river banks goods and persons. Large numbers of
these latter were sold in Arakan, where the rice crop was sown and
reaped by them. But it was a short-sighted policy for the kings of
Arakan to annoy so strong a neighbouring State as the Moghul empire. As
noted above, however, it is doubtful whether the usurping kings after
Thiri-thu-dhamma controlled or attempted to control the Portuguese.
These foreigners had established an independent bandit State on the
Bengal border. So intolerable a condition of affairs could not last. It
was only a question of time when the Moghul would move. And in fact, as
soon as Aurangzebe had secured the throne and his rival was in exile, he
sent to Bengal a strong Governor, Shaistah Khan with instructions to
stop the piracy.
Items in the decline of Mrauk-U (I) Loss of Chittagong 1666
Shaistah
Khan made it clear to a certain section of the Purtuguese bandits that
the whole force of the empire would now be used to suppress them, but if
they liked to come over to his side before he attacked, they would be
given rewards greater than they had received from the king of Arakan.
The Portuguese cannot have been fools enough to believe that the Nawab
would pay them as well as they had been able to pay themselves, but they
saw that the game was up and in 1665 many came over. Moghul sources
give a very full account of the events which followed- the nature of the
country in which the operations took place, the huge fleet built by the
Nawab, the assistance given by the Dutch and the fact that the
expedition had for its military object the defeat of the rest of the
Portuauese fleet. All was quickly over and Eastern Bengal was lost to
Arakan. It is noteworthy that the Arakanese home army was not sent into
Bengal in full force to resist the Moghuls. This supports the view here
taken that the Portuguese had become almost independent and that the
usurpers after Thiri-thu-dhamma exercised little control in Chittagong
which had become a Portuguese robber state. When the Moghuls showed
signs of advancing into Arakan proper, the Arakanese army resisted them
in force and with success. After the loss of Chittagong the territory of
the kingdom of Mrauk-U was reduced to the present districts of Akyab,
Kyaukpyu and Sandoway. Those areas in Lower Burma which had been won by
Razagri and resumed in part by Thiri-thu-dhamma had all lapsed back to
the Burmese. Arakan was now confined to its natural boundaries and was
no larger than it had been two hundred and fifty years prevously at the
time when it was feudatory to Bengal. That phase in the country’s
history which began with Minbin was now over. But it was to last as an
independent kingdom for another hundred and nineteen year.
Items in decline of Mrauk-U (II) Internal degradation 1666-1785
There
were twenty five kings of Mrauk-U during those hundred and nineteen
years. That is a sufficient commentary on the period. With the old
legitimate line extinct and with a large mercenary army of miscellanous
races which cared neither for the person of the king nor for the
aspirations of the people, adventurers appeared every few years,
sometimes every few months and the throne constantly changed hands,
Between the fall of Chittagong (1666) and Sanda Wizaya (1710) there were
ten kings averaging two and a half years each. Three reigned only one
year and two did not reign one month. Between Sanda Wizaya and Nara
Abaya (1742) the average was under two years, and the last seven kings
to 1784 averaged just three years each. The three kirgs named, Sanda
Thu-dhamma, Sanda Wizaya and Nara Abaya, each were a notable man and
each tried to stop the downward tendency, but without success. So
insecure a polity is little removed from anarchy, the coins we possess
reflect this desperate internal condition. While we have several stamped
with the titles of Sanda Thu-dhamma and Sanda Wizaya there are none
extant of the ten kings between. Of the following set of six, two are
represented and of the last seven all have coins except number 42 and 46
who both ruled but a few weeks. The coins themselves exhibit little
variation. Their design is neither more not less inserving. It remains
in the Mohamedan tradition of 1450 A. D.
The fall of Mrauk-U
Such
a kingdom as was Arakan from 1666 to 1784 could only stand alone and
independent as long as it had no aggressive neighbour. The Moghuls had
ceased to an expanding power; Burma was mearly as distracted as Arakan;
the English were new comers. In other circumstances it could not have
endured a century and a quarter. But when in 1760 the Alaungpaya dynasty
had united
Burma,
Mrauk-U’s fate was certain. The sole question was when the blow would
fall. In 1782 Thaniada became king of Maruk-U. So reduced had become the
once great kingdom, that his role did not extend more than a few miles
beyond the walls.
Ngathande and Bodawpaya
There
were six other pretenders in the country, each with his following and
each anxious to enter the capital city. One of these, Ngathande, asked
Bodawpaya, king of Burma, to invade the realm. After so long a period of
looking west, Arakan turned east ward again. Ngathande’s idea was that
Bodawpaya would place him on the throne as a feudatory monarch. It was a
familiar point of view in Arakanese foreign relations. Bodawpaya,
however had no intention of anything of the kind. He used Ngathande,
invaded the country and reduced it to the position of an administered
province, the first time in its long history that it had lost a home
government of its own.
The Mahamuni image
It
is noteworthy that when Bodawpaya decided to annex Arakan, he bowed to
the old idea that the Mahamuni was the defence of that kingdom. For so
many centures it had been the common belief of Further India that as
long as Mahamuni was in Arakan, the country would remain independent,
that Bodawpaya thought it safer to tamper with those calculations in
Yadaya which were reputed to protect both the image and the realm. He
therefore sent masters of that Art before his troops corssed the
mountains and the formular were detected.
Its loss a mortal blow
After
his victory and to clinch the affair and prove to the world that Arakan
was realy down, he removed Mahamuni to Amarapura, where it now sits.
This event, long prophesied and long guarded against, crushed the
Arakanese more than defeat in the field.
The Burmese administration of Arakan 1784 to 1825
Bodawpaya’s
first act was to strike a medallion in the style of the Mrauk-U
coinage. The Burmese had never used coins and hence he had no model of
his own. He copied therefore the Moslem design. The legend reads- “The
kingdom of the Master of Amarapura and of Many White Elephants.” This is
the numismatic document to the fall of Mrauk-U. It was the last coin struck in Arakan.
Bodawpaya’s medallion
The
Burmese governor of Mrauk-U found the country in a very lawless state.
One Chinbya organized a rebellion. To secure peace and maintain order
the Burmese put to death some and deported others to Burma. Two hundred
thousand are said to have fled to India.
Arakan learned nothing from Burmese connection of 1784-1825
In
her previous connections with outside states Arakan had always been the
gainer. As Feudatory to Pagan she had received the Little Vehicle and
learnt her present alphabet. As feudatory to Bengal she had laid the
foundations of her great age. But administered as a governorship by the
Burmese of the 18th century, she had nothing to gain for the Burmese had
nothing to teach a country which for centuries had been in touch with
the world of thought and action through the Moslem Sultanates at a time
when Burma herself was isolated and backward.
Arakan looks West again
But an extraordinary turn of events had changed the face of India since the fall of Chittagong in 1666.
The Moghuls had disappeared and their place had been taken by other
foreigners, not Mongolians on this occasion but English, persons strange
to say who resided three thousand miles away but who maintained
themselves by means of a sea connection as the Portuguese had done but
far more successfully. These individuals became irritated with the
Burmese in 1824 for the same reason that Aurangzebe had become irritated
with the Arakanese in 1665, nemely in the matter of frontier raids. The
Burmese had lived so long out of the world that their geography and
political information were lamentable weak. They were not aware that the
then masters of Hindustan represented a more modem polity than their
own. The Arakanese, however, were better informed. For just as Min Saw
Mwan realised in 1430 that the Sultanate of Bengal was a polity in the
van of the world’s thought and would be able to drive the Burmese out of
Arakan and restore him, so the Arakanese of 1824 perceived that the
English were modems and that the Burmese could not resist them.
Accordingly they sided enthusiastically with them and facilitated in
every way their occupation of Arakan in 1825.
Arakanese desire again to be foudatory to Bengal
When
the Burmese had fled and Mrauk-U was occupied by the English, the
Arakanese expected that the history of 1430 would be repeated and that
an Arakanese prince would be palced on the throne. It is possible that
the English might have classed Arakan as a Native State had there been a
royal house in existence. But unfortunately the legitimate line had
been exterminated 186 years before and it would have been difficult to
select from the descendants -of the twenty eight various usurping
commoners who followed, a prince acceptable to popular opinion. For
forty years Arakan had been a conquered country and part of Burma, so
that for the English to have reconstituted it as a princedom would
hardly have been feasible. If the Arakanese were disappointed, it
indicates that they were in need of the very education they were about
to receive.
The significance of the English administration of Arakan 1825 to 1929
The
Arakanese had graduated in various systems of ideas during the course
of their history in Hinduism in Hinayanism, and in the real Politic of
the Moslem Sultanates. They were now to graduate again and this time in
economies. Economics had become the metaphysic of the modern world; by
the canons of that science right and wrong could be distinguished. The
significance therefore of the English dominance has been for Arakan its
initiation into a modern system of thought. Just as the country’s
connection with Moslem Bengal dissipated mediaeval phantasies, so its
subordination to the Government of India brought it again up to date.
Conclusion
The rhythm of the history of Arakan is that of a dancer who sways now to the East and now to
the West. Rarely has she stood upright. For a hundred years now she had
been leaning westwards. But there are indications that her rhythm is
beginning to re-establish itself and that she will again sway to the
East.
Appendix-I
Kings of Maruk-U Date of accession Coin Remarks
Min Saw Mwan 1430 Feudatory to Bengal
Min Khari (Ali Khan) 1434
Baw Saw Pru 1459
Dan Uga 1482
Ba Saw Nyo 1492
Ran Aung 1494
Sa-leng ga-thu 1494
Min Raza 1501
Gazapadi 1523
Min Saw U 1525
Tha Zada 1525
Min Bin( Zabauk Shah) 1531 Obverse: Chittagong-Minbin The period of the
Min Khari (Ali Khan) 1434
Baw Saw Pru 1459
Dan Uga 1482
Ba Saw Nyo 1492
Ran Aung 1494
Sa-leng ga-thu 1494
Min Raza 1501
Gazapadi 1523
Min Saw U 1525
Tha Zada 1525
Min Bin( Zabauk Shah) 1531 Obverse: Chittagong-Minbin The period of the
Reverse: Nagari inscription Arakanee empire..
Giving Moslem title Minbin to Thri-thu-
Dhomma
Dek-kha 1553
Saw Hla 1555
Min-Sak-Kya 1564
Min-Pha-laung 1571
(Secundah Shah)
Razagri(Selim Shah) 1593 Obverse: Sin Byu Shin Nara- Naradipadi was the
Dek-kha 1553
Saw Hla 1555
Min-Sak-Kya 1564
Min-Pha-laung 1571
(Secundah Shah)
Razagri(Selim Shah) 1593 Obverse: Sin Byu Shin Nara- Naradipadi was the
Dipadi Selam Shah 963 title assumed by
Reverse: Bilingual legend, Razagri at his
Upper half in Persian and coronation
Lower half in Nagari. Appears
to repeat obverse.
Minkha Maung 1612 Obverse: Sin Byu Shin Wara Wara Dhamma Raza
(Hussein Sheh) Dhamma Raza…Hussein was the coronation
(Hussein Sheh) Dhamma Raza…Hussein was the coronation
Shah 974. title of Minka
Reverse: Bilingual legend, Maung
Appears to repeat obverse
Thiri-thu-dhamma 1622
Min-Sani 1638 Period of usurpers
Min-Sani 1638 Period of usurpers
And decline
Narapadigri 1638 Sin Byu Thakin Sin Ni Tha-
Narapadigri 1638 Sin Byu Thakin Sin Ni Tha-
kin Narapadigri 1,000
(Reverse same)
Thado Mintara 1645 Sin Ni Thakin Sin Byu Tha- Reading of this coin
Kin Thado Mintara 1007 in Phayre Museum
( Reverse same) Catalogue appears
to be incorrect
Sanda Thu-dhamma 1652 Shew Nan Thakia Sanda First issue
Thu-dhamma Raza 1014
(Reverse same)
Shew Nan Thakin Sanda Second issue, which
Thu-dhamma Raza 1034 is in two sizes, the
(Reverse same) smaller having a bar
across the middle on
reverse.
Thiri Thurya 1684
Wara Dhamma 1685
Muni Thu-dhamma 1692 Reigneed 13 days
Sanda Thurya 1694
Dhammaraza
Nawrata Zaw 1696
Mayupiya 1696
Kalamandat 1697
Naradipati 1698
Sanda Wimala 1700
Sanda Thurya 1706
Sanda Wizaya 1710 Shwe Nan Thakin Sanda Wi-
Wara Dhamma 1685
Muni Thu-dhamma 1692 Reigneed 13 days
Sanda Thurya 1694
Dhammaraza
Nawrata Zaw 1696
Mayupiya 1696
Kalamandat 1697
Naradipati 1698
Sanda Wimala 1700
Sanda Thurya 1706
Sanda Wizaya 1710 Shwe Nan Thakin Sanda Wi-
zaya Raza 1072 (Reverse
same).
Sanda Thurya 1731 Shew Nan Thakin Sanda
Thurya Raza 1093 ( Reverse
same)
Naradipadi 1731
Nara Pawara Raza 1735 Shew Nan Thakin Nara Pa-
Nara Pawara Raza 1735 Shew Nan Thakin Nara Pa-
Wara Raza 1097 ( Reverse
same)
Sanda Wizala 1737 Reigned 8 months
Katya 1737 Reigned 3 days
Madarit 1737
Nara Abaya 1742 Shew nan Thakin Nara
Katya 1737 Reigned 3 days
Madarit 1737
Nara Abaya 1742 Shew nan Thakin Nara
Abaya Raza 1104
(Reverse same)
Thiri-thu 1761 Reigned 3 months
Sanda Parama 1761 Shew Nan Thakin Sanda
Sanda Parama 1761 Shew Nan Thakin Sanda
Parama Raza 1123
( Reverse same)
Maha Raza 1764 Shwe Nan Thakin Abaya
Maha Raza 1126 (Reverse
Same)
Sanda Thumana 1773 Shwe Nan Thakin Sanda
Raza. Thumana Raza 1135
Raza. Thumana Raza 1135
(Reverse same)
Sanda Wimala 1777 Reigned 40 days
Phaditha Dammarit 1777 Shew nan Thakin
Phaditha Dammarit 1777 Shew nan Thakin
Dhammarit Raza 1140
(Reverse same)
Thamada 1782 Shew nan Thakin Maha Fall of Maruk-U
Thamada Raza.
Burmese conquest
Uodawpaya 1784 Amarapura Sin Byu Shin Two sizes. Larger
Naing Gan has an ornamented
Border of slanted
Lines and dots.
Appendix-II
Coins struck by the kings of Arakan from 1523 C.E. to 1782 C.E
————————————-
- Its calligraphy is older than that of the rest of the MSS. in my possession.- San Shwe Bu.
Authorities Consulted
-
- Mr. Tun Aung Gyaw’s Arakanese coins, arranged, translated and annotated by Mr. San Shwe Bu.
- The True Chronicle of the Great Image. An Arakanese MSS. translated by Me. San Shwe Bu.
- Notes from private Arakanese MSS. placed at my disposal by Mr. San Shwe Bu.
- Lecture by Mr. Htoon Chan, Bar-at-law. Printed in “Arakan News” of May 1916.
- The coins of India. P. Brown,
- Coinages of Asia. S. Allan.
- The Palas of Bengal, Banerji
- Early History of India. V. Smith.
- Travels of Fa-Hein. Edited by Giles.
- Padre Maestro Fray Seb. Manrique (Translated in Bengal: Past and Present).
- Shihabuddin Talish. Persian MS. Translated by Sarkar.
- The Glass Palace Chronicle. Tin and Luce.
- History of Bengal, Stewari.
- Musalmans of Bengal. Fuzli Rubbee.
- Outline of Burmese History. Harvey.
- Catalogue of Coins in Phayre Provincial Museum.
- Report of Superintendent, Archaeological Survey, Burma, for the years 1917, 1921,1922 and1923.
- From Akbar to Aurangzebe. Moreland.
- History of the Portuguese in Bengal. Campos.
- Coins of Arakan, of Pegu and of Burma. (In Numisman Orientalia) Sir Arthur Phayre.
The above Article appeared in Burma Research Society, 50th Anniversary publication’s # 2, Rangoon, 1960. P 1485-1504
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