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The story of
Bagan may be told in two parts,
Bagan before King Anawrahta and after.
Rome, or any other city, wasn’t built in a day and for Bagan to
come into being, it had taken a long time to receive the
tradition and influence of three former dynasties — Tagaung,
Thaton and Tharekhittaya.
At the start (107
A.D.) Bagan at Yone-hlut kyun might just have been a strong
fortress or garrison town. The founder, King Thamodarit, paid
tribute to his Pyu descent by giving his fortress city the name
Paukkan or Pyu Gama (which simply means a Pyu Village.) In
everyday usage, the name changed to Bagan. But
Myanmar cities used to have at least two names, formal and
informal. (Shwebo of the last Konbaung Period had five names.)
So, in formal declarations, Bagan was described gradual as
Arimaddana Pura, meaning the “City of Conquerors”,and as the
name suggested, the first group of kings had quite a hard time
just taming and conquering the wild environment.
It is said that
from the dense forests nearby,
wild beasts and fabulous birds like rocs harassed the Bagan
people. Even wild vegetation of ground bushes overran the paddy
fields in the countryside. Brave knights like Pyu Saw Hti (the
3rd, king) appeared to do away with the wild ones. Thus,
Hnget-pyit-taung pagoda (where the great roc was shot) and Bit
Phaya (where the wild gourd was cleared away) stand today in
memory of those early struggles against natural enemies.
Even the palace sites of the kings had to change four times,
though all were in the same vicinity. The present site of Bagan,
with walls and Tharaba Gate,was the fourth city built during the
reign of King Pyinbyu in 849 A.D. He was the 34th. king of the
dynasty and Bagan at that time had started to prosper having
commercial relations with Shans and Chinese in the east, Assam
and Manipur in the west and the land of Pyus and Mons in the
south.
As regards
religion,
people of early Bagan, with some Pyus and other natives of the
north mixed up, had diverse interests. Horse-riding Aris (monks)
with pugilistic habits and other malpractices had migrated from
N.W. India and they gained considerable sway over common people.
Then during the reign of Thin-lÈ-kyaung (344-384 A.D.), the 7th.
king of the dynasty, Mahagiri Nats came to Mt. Popa (also page
57) and nat-worshipping was popular among all classes.
Thus Bagan before
Anawrahta, for nearly a thousand years (107-1044 A.D.), still
had no cultural progress, though its position as a kingdom could
be considered to have been established.
Anawrahta’s Kingdom of Bagan
(1044-1298 A.D.)
Anawrahta
was the 42nd. king of Bagan dynasty
and he came to the throne in 1044
A.D. He opened the stage of his pegency dramatically by fighting
and killing his half-brother King SokkatÈ in single combat. He
was hot-tempered and did many wrongs as a young king. But at
heart, he was just and straight-forward, and he tried to repair
his wrongs.
Anawrahta did
many works of public utility,
such as repairing Meiktila lake and construcing irrigations,
thus KyauksÈ became the granary of northern Myanmar.
He made administrative reforms, dividing the kingdom into
districts and appointing officers to look after all affairs and
to collect fair revenue. For security, he established 45
out-posts along the border of his kingdom. In religion and
culture,
Anawrahta
did not encourage the shabby customs of Aris, nor the popular
celebrations of nat-pwe's. He looked for a true faith and, in
1056 A.D., Shin Arahan, known to be Arhat missionary, came from
Thaton to Bagan. The dedicated Buddhist monk and the dynamic
king met to make the historic change in Bagan and later to all
Myanmar.
Anawrahta became
a pure Theravada Buddhist
with great zeal. First of all he abolished the Ari gangs,
driving some away and forcing most of them to work as lay men.
Then to foster the true religion, he needed Buddhist scriptures.
Because King Manuha of Thaton bluntly refused his decent
request, Anawrahta made war on Thaton (1057 A.D.) and thus
destroyed the Mon dynasty.
Thirty-one
elephant loads of the scriptures were carried away to Bagan.
Manuha and his family were taken prisoners. A very important
thing was that Mon crafts≠men, artistes and skilled workers
numbering about 30,000 were also brought to Bagan.Anyway,
destiny seemed to have sacrificed Thaton for the coming
greatness of Bagan and also for the emergence of Myanmar as a
leading Buddhist country today. Shin Arahan, the scriptures, Mon
craftsmen and Anawrahta, with his people together started
building the glorious Bagan.
Bagan people, during
Anawrahta’s reign and after, became so well-versed in the
scriptures that, it is said, even village girls could discuss
metaphysics with the learned monks from great monasteries.
Then there appeared exceptionally learned persons among the
leisurely royal class — King Kyaswa, Princess Thanbyin, etc.
—who held regular classes teaching monks in Pali and Sanskrit
texts !
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