2500 years ago, during Buddha’s time, Lower Burma and Rakhine were under India and for about 150 yrs as a British colony, Burma was under India

2500 years ago, during Buddha’s time, Lower Burma and Rakhine were under India and for about 150 yrs as a British colony, Burma was under India.

2500 years ago, during Buddha’s time, Lower Burma and Rakhine were under India. And for about 150 yrs as a British colony, Burma was under India.

Just consider why did Buddha called his native country as Mizzima or central region. He had already known the Arakan as the eastern part of his native land or Indian subcontinent. Rakhine/Pyu/Mons were influenced by Gupta area. Look at the map from that Gupta.Rakhine and lower Burma was under them.

Indians have a long and active history in Burma. Indians have actively engaged in Burma for over 2,000 years in all spheres of life i.e. politics, religion, culture, arts and cuisine and the effect can be seen today.

Ref: (1) Burma is the highway between India and China“Bagan Culture” page 42, Professor U Than Tun M.A., B.L., D. Lit., Ph.D.

(2) “Ancient Pyu” page page 3&4 Professor U Than Tun M.A., B.L., D. Lit., Ph.D.

Pyu, one of the three founding father of Bamar or Myanmar race was believed to be the mixture of three groups; (i) Few insignificant local inhabitants since Stone Age, Bronze Age and Iron Age, (ii) many migrants came from India bringing in Hinduism and Buddhism along with their cultures and literatures successively (iii) and the last group believed to came down from north, Tibeto-Burman group.

Ref:Dr Than Tun (History Professor, Mandalay University) The Story of Myanmar told in pictures.

Pyu arrived in future Burma area in the 1st century BC or earlier and established village kingdoms at: Hanlin, Kutkhaing in the north, Thanlwin coastal line in the east, Gulf of Martaban and its coast in the south, Thandwe in the southern west and Yoma in the west.

Ref:Dr Than Tun , “The Story of Myanmar told in pictures”

Pyu variant of the Gupta script

Pyu established ancient kingdom (and its language) found in the central and northern regions of what is now Burma. The history of the Pyu is known to us from two main historical sources: the remnants of their civilization found in stone inscriptions (some in Pali, but rendered in the Pyu script, or a Pyu variant of the Gupta script) and the brief accounts of some travellers and traders from China, preserved in the Chinese imperial history.

Ref: Chinese imperial history

Pyu Kings are Maharajas

In Chinese Chronicles they recorded Pyu as ‘P’aio’. But Pyu Called themselves Tircul.^[8] There are records of Nan Cho and Tibet alliance in 755 AD to defeat Chinese. Nan Cho king Ko-lo-fen communicate with Pyu. Pyu Kings were called Maharajas and Chief ministers were called Mahasinas.

Nan Cho conscripted Pyu soldiers to attack of Hanoi in AD 863. In AD 832 Nan Cho looted Han Lin village from Pyu.

Ref: Elizabeth Moore, Myanmar Historical Research Journal 2004

Pyu kings named Vishnu as in Gupta, India

Inscriptions in Pyu language using a South Indian script, showed a Vikrama dynasty ruling there at least from AD 673 to 718. On Pyu’s stone inscriptions, kings names with Vikrama were suffix with Vishnu. The same tradition was noticed in Gupta era India 100 BC.and in Sri Kestia, Mon in south, Thai and Cambodia. Statue of Vishnu standing on Garuda with Lakshmi standing on the lotus on left. And Brahma, Siva and Vishnu thrones were also found. Name, Varman indicated that there was influence of Pallava of India.^[9] The mentioning of Varman dynasty, an Indian name, indicated there was a neighbouring and rival city, but Old Prome is the only Pyu site so‘ far to be excavated in that area.

Ref: BURMA, D. G . E. HALL, M.A., D.LIT., F.R.HIST.S.Professor Emeritus of the University of London and formerly Professor of History in the University of Rangoon, Burma.Third edition 1960. Page 8

Indian Dravidian tribe in Panthwa

In Chinese Chronicles Chen Yi-Sein instead gives an Indian derivation for Panthwa village, as the name of a Dravidian tribe settled in Mon’s areas around the Gulf of Martaban. This group was later one of the pioneers in a ‘Monized’ occupation of Beikthano village, which also led to the village/city being called Ramanna-pura, linked to Mon areas of southern Myanmar (1999:77).

Ref: D. G . E. HALL, “BURMA”

The Tagaung dynasty is explicitly incorporated into the story of Duttabaung’s mother and father; the lineage of the Queen of Beikthano is less consistent, but always intertwined with that of the Sri Kestra village rulers. In all of these, links are made between territorial control, royal patronage of Hindu or Buddhist sects and supernatural events.

Ref:D. G . E. HALL, “BURMA”

Orissa

Orissa, Indian Buddhist colonists, arrived lower Burma, settled and built pagodas since 500 BC.

Ref; HGE Hall, “History of Southeast Asia.”

Andhra Dynasty

Hindu colonists, of Andhra Dynasty, from middle India (180 BC) established Hanthawaddy (Mon town) and Syriam (Ta Nyin or Than Lyin) in Burma.

Ref:HGE Hall, “History of Southeast Asia.”

Talaings

Mons or Talaings, an Ethnic Minority Group of Myanmar, migrated from the Talingana State, Madras coast of Southern India. They mixed with the new migrants of Mongol from China and driven out the above Andhra and Orissa colonists.

Ref: “The Muslims of Burma” A study of a minority Group, by Moshe Yegar, 1972, Otto Harrassowitz. Wiesbaden.

Those Mon (Talaings) brought with them the culture, arts, literature, religion and all the skills of civilisation of present Myanmar. They founded the Thaton and Bago (Pegu) Kingdoms. King Anawrahta of Bagan (Pagan) conquered that Mon Kingdom of King Manuha, named Suvannabumi (The Land of Golden Hues).

Ref: HGE Hall History of Southeast Asia.

India and Arakan

The Arakanese chronicles claim that the Kingdom was founded in the year 2666 BC.^[26]

Wesali founded by Hindu Chandras

“The area known as North Arakan had been for many years before the 8th century the seat of Hindu dynasties. In 788 AD a new dynasty, known as the Chandras, 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, … their territory extended as far north as Chittagong;—- Wesali was an easterly Hindu kingdom of Bengal — Both government and people were Indian.

Ref: M.S. Collis, Arakan’s place in the civilization of the Bay, Joumal of the Burma Research Society, 50th Anniversary publications No.2, Rangoon, 1960, P. 486.

So far as Arakan is concerned, the inscriptions show traces of two early dynasties holding sway in the north. The earlier one, a Candra dynasty, seems to have been founded in the middle of the fourth century A.D. Its capital was known by the Indian name of Vaisali and it maintained close connections THE PRE-PAGAN PERIOD 9 with India. Thirteen kings of this dynasty are said to have reigned for a total period of 230 years. The second dynasty was founded in the eighth century by a ruler referred to as Sri Dharmavijaya, who was of pure Ksatriya descent. His grandson married a daughter of the Pyu king of Sri Ksetra.

Ref: BURMA, D. G . E. HALL, M.A., D.LIT., F.R.HIST.S.Professor Emeritus of the University of London and formerly Professor of History in the University of Rangoon, Burma.Third edition 1960. Page 8 -9

Hindu statues and inscriptions in Wesali

The ruins of old capital of Arakan – Wesali show Hindu statues and inscriptions of the 8th century AD. Although the Chandras usually held Buddhistic doctrines, there is reason to believe that Brahmanism and Buddhism flourished side by side in the capital.

Burmese settlement in Arakan

“The Burmese do not seem to have settled in Arakan until possibly as late as the tenth century AD. Hence earlier dynasties are thought to have been Indian, ruling over a population similar to that of Bengal. All the capitals known to history have been in the north near modern Akyab”.

Ref: D. G. E Hall, A History of the South East Asia, New York, 1968, P. 389.

Arakanese known in Bengal as Maghs

The Buddhists Arakanese, known as Magh or Rakhine are descended from Aryans of Maghada, India Mongolians mixed with the Tibeto-Burmans.

Ref: HGE Hall History of Southeast Asia.

Let’s look at the Indian history

The Gupta Empire was an ancient Indianempire, founded by Sri Gupta, which existed at its zenith from approximately 320 to 550 CE and covered much of the Indian subcontinent.^[1] The peace and prosperity created under the leadership of the Guptas enabled the pursuit of scientific and artistic endeavours.^[2]^{[unreliable source?]} This period is called the Golden Age of India^[3] and was marked by extensive inventions and discoveries in science, technology,engineering, art, dialectic, literature, logic,mathematics, astronomy, religion, andphilosophy that crystallized the elements of what is generally known as Hindu culture.^[4]^{[unreliable source?]} Chandragupta I,Samudragupta, and Chandragupta II were the most notable rulers of the Gupta dynasty. The 4th century CE Sanskrit poetKalidasa credits the Guptas with having conquered about twenty one kingdoms, both in and outside India, including the kingdoms of Parasikas, the Hunas, theKambojas, tribes located in the west and east Oxus valleys, the Kinnaras, Kiratasetc.^[5]^{[non-primary source needed]}

The high points of this cultural creativity are magnificent architecture, sculptures and paintings.^[6] The Gupta period produced scholars such as Kalidasa, Aryabhata,Varahamihira, Vishnu Sharma andVatsyayana who made great advancements in many academic fields.^[7]^{[unreliable source?]}^[8] Science and political administration reached new heights during the Gupta era.^[9]^{[unreliable source?]}Strong trade ties also made the region an important cultural center and set the region up as a base that would influence nearby kingdoms and regions in Burma, Sri Lanka, and Southeast Asia.^[10]^{[unreliable source?]} The earliest available Indian epics are also thought to have been committed to written texts around this period.

The empire gradually declined because of many factors such as substantial loss of territory and imperial authority caused by their own erstwhile feudatories and the invasion by the Huna peoples (Ephthalite Huns) from Central Asia.^[11]^[12] After the collapse of the Gupta Empire in the 6th century, India was again ruled by numerous regional kingdoms. A minor line of the Gupta clan continued to rule Magadha after the disintegration of the empire. These Guptas were ultimately ousted by Vardhana ruler Harsha, who established his empire in the first half of the 7th century.

The Chola dynasty was one of the longest-ruling dynasties in the history of southern India. The earliest datable references to this Tamil dynasty are in inscriptions from the 3rd century BCE left by Asoka, of theMaurya Empire. As one of the Three Crowned Kings of Tamilakam, the dynasty continued to govern over varying territory until the 13th century CE.

The heartland of the Cholas was the fertile valley of the Kaveri River, but they ruled a significantly larger area at the height of their power from the later half of the 9th century till the beginning of the 13th century. The whole country south of theTungabhadra was united and held as one state for a period of two centuries and more.^[2] Under Rajaraja Chola I and his successors Rajendra Chola I, Rajadhiraja Chola, Virarajendra Chola and Kulothunga Chola I the dynasty became a military, economic and cultural power in South Asiaand South-East Asia.^[3] The power of the new empire was proclaimed to the eastern world by the expedition to the Gangeswhich Rajendra Chola I undertook and by the naval raids on cities of the maritime empire of Srivijaya, as well as by the repeated embassies to China.^[4] The Chola fleet represented the zenith of ancient Indian sea power.

During the period 1010–1200, the Chola territories stretched from the islands of theMaldives in the south to as far north as the banks of the Godavari River in Andhra Pradesh.^[5] Rajaraja Chola conquered peninsular South India, annexed parts of which is now Sri Lanka and occupied the islands of the Maldives. Rajendra Chola sent a victorious expedition to North India that touched the river Ganges and defeated thePala ruler of Pataliputra, Mahipala. He also successfully invaded cities of Srivijaya ofMalaysia and Indonesia.^[6] The Chola dynasty went into decline at the beginning of the 13th century with the rise of the Pandyan Dynasty, which ultimately caused their downfall.^[7]^[8]

The Cholas left a lasting legacy. Their patronage of Tamil literature and their zeal in the building of temples has resulted in some great works of Tamil literature and architecture.^[3] The Chola kings were avid builders and envisioned the temples in their kingdoms not only as places of worship but also as centres of economic activity.^[9]^[10]They pioneered a centralised form ofgovernment and established a disciplined bureaucracy. The Chola school of art spread toSoutheast Asia and influenced the architecture and art of Southeast Asia.^[11]^[12]

If we read back Burma or Myanmar in the world history as Greater India OR Indian cultural zone OR Part of “Farther India”

Burma or Myanmar in the world history: Greater India OR Indian cultural zone OR Part of “Farther India” (Ref:Wikipedia)
So if you use abusive vulgar words on Indians as Kalars, you all are like looking up and spitting into the air. Your saliva would definitely drop on your own face.

The cultural identity of the region is seen as part of “Farther India” or Greater India, as seen in Coedes’ Indianized States of Southeast Asia, which refers to it as “Island Southeast Asia”;[2] while other authorities see it is as partly (or heavily, in the case of Singapore) sinicised, and yet others even suggest its own identity within Austronesia or Oceania.

Dark orange: The Indian subcontinent. Light orange: Other countries culturally linked to India, notably Burma, Thailand, Cambodia, Laos, Champa (Historically consisted of Southern Vietnam), Indonesia, Malaysia, Brunei and Singapore. Yellow: Regions with significant Indian cultural influence, notably Afghanistan, Tibet, China’s Yunnan Province and the Philippines.

Greater India was the historical extent of the culture of India beyond the Indian subcontinent. This particularly concerns the spread of Hinduism and Buddhism,[1] by the travellers of the 5th to 15th centuries, but may also refer to the spread of Hinduism and Buddhism from India to Central Asia and China by the Silk Road during the early centuries of the Common Era. To the west, Greater India overlaps with Greater Persia in the Hindu Kush and Pamir mountains. The term is tied to the geographic uncertainties surrounding the “Indies” during the Age of Exploration.

In late 19th-century geography “Greater India” referred to Hindustan (India proper), the Punjab, the Himalayas, and extended eastwards to Indochina (including Burma), parts of Indonesia (namely, the Sunda Islands, Borneo and Celebes), and the Philippines.”[REFERENCE “Review: New Maps,” (1912) Bulletin of the American Geographical Society 44(3): 235–240.]

The term Greater India has several related meanings:

The name Greater India (Portuguese: Indyos mayores[2]) was used at least from the mid-15th century.[2] The term, which seems to have been used with variable precision,[3] sometimes meant only the Indian subcontinent;[4] However, in some accounts of European nautical voyages, Greater India (or India Major) extended from the Malabar Coast (present-day Kerala) to India extra Gangem[5] (lit. “India, beyond the Ganges,” but usually the East Indies, i.e. present-day Malay Archipelago) and India Minor, from Malabar to Sind

In 20th-century history, art history, linguistics, and allied fields but now largely out of favour,[8] it consisted of “lands including Burma, Java, Cambodia, Bali, and the former Champa and Funan polities of present-day Vietnam,”[8] in which pre-Islamic Indian culture left an “imprint in the form of monuments, inscriptions and other traces of the historic ‘Indianising’ process.”[8] In some accounts, many Pacific societies and “most of the Buddhist world including Ceylon, Tibet, Central Asia, and even Japan were held to fall within this web of Indianising culture colonies”[8] This particular usage—implying cultural “sphere of influence” of India—was promoted by the Greater India Society, formed by a group of Bengali men of letters,[9] and is not found before the 1920s. This usage lasted well into the 1970s in History; later in other fields.

*********The concept of the Indianised kingdoms, first described by George Coedès, is based on Hindu and Buddhist cultural and economic influences in Southeast Asia.[12] Butuan, Champa, Dvaravati, Funan, Gangga Negara, Kadaram, Kalingga, Kutai, Langkasuka, >>>>>>Pagan<<<<<, Pan Pan, Po-ni, Tarumanagara and Tondo were among the earliest Hindu kingdoms in Southeast Asia,

Professor Robert Lingat — characterised by law professor John Henry Wigmore as the greatest (and almost the only) authority on Siamese legal history[15] saw Southeast Asian rulers as founding them and then importing Indian ritual specialists as advisers on rajadharma, or the practices of Indian kingship. This view is supported by the argument that Indian merchants would not have possessed the ritual knowledge which became so prominent in these kingdoms.

Quaritch Wales in particular is cited[17] as holding that Indianisation was the work of Indian traders and merchants as opposed to political leaders, although the travels of Buddhist monks such as Atisha later became important. There was also a merchant named Magadu, known to history as Wareru and founder of the Hanthawaddy Kingdom, who commissioned Mon specialists in Indian traditions to compile the Code of Wareru, which has formed the basis for Burmese common law down to the present.

Wareru (Ref; Wikipedis>Burmese: ဝါရီရူး, pronounced: [wàɹíjú]; 1253–1307) was the founder of the Ramanya Kingdom located in today’s Lower Burma (Myanmar). The kingdom is more commonly known as Kingdom of Hanthawady Pegu (Bago), or simply Pegu although the kingdom’s first capital was Martaban (Mottama). By using both diplomatic and military skills, the commoner of Shan and Mon descent successfully carved out a kingdom for the Mon people in Lower Burma following the collapse of the Pagan Empire in 1287. Wareru was nominally a vassal of his father-in-law Rama Khamheng of Sukhothai, and of the Mongols, and successfully repulsed attacks by the Three Shan Brothers of Myinsaing in 1287 and 1294.

Wareru was assassinated by his grandsons in January 1307, and succeeded by his brother Hkun Law. The greatest achievements of his reign were his initiative to appoint a commission for the compilation of the Dhammathat, the earliest surviving law code of Burma; and the founding of the Mon kingdom which would prosper for another two and a half centuries.

Dhammasattha is the Pāli name of a genre of literature found in the Indianized kingdoms of Western Mainland Southeast Asia (modern Laos, Myanmar (Burma), Cambodia, Thailand, and Yunnan) principally written in malayalam, Myanmar (Burmese), Mon, or Tai languages, or in a bilingual Pāli-vernacular nissaya style.

“Sattha” is the Pāli cognate of the Sanskrit term for instruction, learning, or treatise, “śāstra”. Dhamma-sattha translates as “treatise on the law (dhamma)”. The vernacular Myanmar (Burmese) term, transliterated as “dhammasāt” or “dhammasat” (pronounced in modern Myanmar (Burmese) as “dhammathat”), is historically derived from Sanskrit or hybrid Sanskrit via Pāli. The Tai and Mon terms, typically romanized as “thammasāt” (Thai: ธรรมศาสตร์) or “dhammasāt”, respectively, also derive from Sanskrit.

Dhammasattha texts are historically related to the Hindu dharmaśāstra literature, although they are very significantly influenced by the local Pāli Buddhist traditions and literature of Theravāda Southeast Asia.

“Dhammasāt” (Ref: WIKIPEDIA>>>Burmese: ဓမ္မသတ်, also spelt Dhammathat) is first mentioned in Burma in a Burmese inscription from 13th century C.E. Bagan (Pagan), although it is likely that dhammasattha texts were transmitted there earlier. Certain dhammasatthas claim to have been compiled during the first millennium C.E. There are nine primary Burmese dhammathats, namely the Manu and Dhammavisala Dhammathats of the Pagan dynasty, the Waru Dhammathat (1270), Pasedha (1468), Dhammathat Kyaw (1581), and Pyanchi Dhammathats (1614) of the Taungoo dynasty, and the Myingun Dhammathat (1650) of the Konbaung dynasty.[1]

There is an extensive tradition of dhammasattha exegesis, particularly in Myanmar (Burma). Hundreds of dhammasattha, commentaries, and related legal texts are extant in parabaik and palm leaf manuscript form.

Dhammasattha influenced a number of Southeast Asian societies prior to the colonial era in matters concerning marriage, theft, assault, slavery, debt, kingship, property, inheritance as well as other issues. In contemporary Burma (Myanmar), although colonial and post-colonial laws predominate, it remains acceptable practice to use dhammasat in law courts in certain areas of family and inheritance law.

Cultural and trading relations between the powerful Chola dynasty of South India and the Southeast Asian Hindu kingdoms led the Bay of Bengal to be called “The Chola Lake”, and the Chola attacks on Srivijaya in the 10th century CE are the sole example of military attacks by Indian rulers against Southeast Asia. The Pala dynasty of Bengal, which controlled the heartland of Buddhist India, maintained close economic, cultural and religious ties, particularly with Srivijaya

2. Buddhism in the Mon and Pyu Kingdoms

While there is no conclusive archaeological proof that Buddhism continued to be practiced in southern Myanmar after the missions of the Third Council, the Sasanavamsa refers to an unbroken lineage of teachers passing on the Dhamma to their disciples.

The Mon

In a third century AD inscription by a South Indian king in Nagarjunakonda, the land of the Cilatas is mentioned in a list of countries visited by a group of bhikkhus. Historians believe the Cilatas or Kiratas (also mentioned by Ptolemy and in Sanskrit literature) to be identical to the Mon populations of Lower Myanmar.

The inscription states that the bhikkhus sent to the Cilata country converted the population there to Buddhism. In the same inscription, missions to other countries such as Sri Lanka are mentioned. It is generally believed that most of these countries had received earlier Buddhist missionaries sent by Buddhist kings, but as civilization in these lands was relatively undeveloped, teachings as profound as the Buddha’s had probably become distorted by local religions or possibly been completely lost. It is possible that these missions did not so much re-establish Buddhism, but rather purify the type of Buddhism practiced there. Southern India was then the guardian of the Theravada faith and obviously remained in contact with countries that had been converted in earlier times but were unable to preserve the purity of the religion.

As has been already mentioned, the first datable archaeological finds of the Mon civilization stem from the Mon kingdom of Dvaravati in the South of Thailand. They consist of a Roman oil lamp and a bronze statue of the Buddha which are believed to be no later than the first or second century AD. In discussing the Mon Theravada Buddhist civilization, we cannot remain in Myanmar only. For only by studying the entire sphere of influence of the Mon in this period, can a comprehensive picture be constructed. This sphere includes large parts of present day Thailand. In fact, the Chinese Buddhist pilgrim, Yuan Chwang, who traveled to India in about 630 AD, describes a single Mon country stretching from Prome to Chenla in the east and including the Irrawaddy and Sittang deltas. He calls the country Dvaravati, but the annals of the court of China of the same period mention Dvaravati as a vassal of Thaton. We can, therefore, safely conclude that the Mon of the region formed a fairly homogenous group in which the distribution of power was obviously not always evident to the outsider.

The Pyu

Lower Myanmar was also inhabited by another ethnic group, the Pyu, who were probably closely related to the modern Myanmar. They had their capital at Sri Ksetra (near modern day Prome) and were also followers of the Theravada Buddhist faith. Chinese travelers’ reports of the mid-third century AD refer to the kingdom of Lin-Yang where Buddha was venerated by all and where several thousand monks or bhikkhus lived. As Lin-Yang was to the west of Kamboja[13] and could not be reached by sea, we can infer that the Chinese travelers must have been referring to the ancient kingdom of Prome. This is all the more likely as archaeological finds prove that only about one century later Pali Buddhist texts, including Abhidhamma texts, were studied by the Pyu.

The earliest highly developed urban settlement of the Pyu was Beikthano, near Prome. However, its importance dwindled towards the sixth century, when Sri Ksetra became the center of Pyu civilization. A major monastery built in the fourth century has been unearthed at Beikthano. The building, constructed in brick, with a stupa and shrine located nearby, is identical to the Buddhist monasteries of Nagarjunakonda, the great Buddhist center of southern India. It is situated near a stupa and a shrine, a design which is identical to the one used in South India. Bricks had been used by the Pyus since the second century AD for the construction of pillared halls, which formed the temples of their original religion. Interestingly, the Pyu bricks have always been of the exact dimensions as those used at the time of Emperor Asoka in India. But the brick laying techniques used in the monastery in Beikthano were far inferior to the ones used in their southern Indian counterparts.

For such a major edifice as the monastery at Beikthano to have been constructed, the religion must have been well established at least among the ruling class. How long it took for Buddhism to become influential in Pyu society is difficult to determine, but some historians assume that the first contacts with Asokan religious centers in India took place in the second century AD. This would allow for a period of development of two hundred years until the first important shrine was built. Despite the Indian architectural influence, the inferior brick laying techniques found in Beikthano indicate that indigenous architects and artisans, rather than imported craftsmen or Indian colonisers, were employed in the construction of monasteries and other important buildings.

It should, of course, not be forgotten that the Pyu possessed an architecture of their own and a highly developed urban culture that had evolved quite independently of Indian influences. Theravada Buddhism found a fertile ground in this highly developed civilization. It is probable that the Pyu civilization was more advanced than that of the Mon. The Pyu sites found around Prome are the earliest urban sites in Southeast Asia found to date. The urban developments and datable monuments in Thailand and Cambodia are only from the seventh century. Older artifacts may have been found in Thailand, but they were not products of indigenous people and do not prove the existence of a developed civilization.

The information we have of the state of the religion in the Mon and Pyu societies during the first four centuries AD is very limited. However, by the fifth century, with the development of religious activity in the region, information becomes more substantive. The historical tradition of Myanmar gives the credit for this religious resurgence to a well-known Buddhist scholar, Acariya Buddhaghosa.