
CHAPTER I THE PREPAGAN PERIOD THE early history of Burma is obscure The Burmese chronicles begin with the supposed foundation of Tagaung in BC but the stories they tell are copies of Indian legends taken from Sanskrit or Pali originals The earlest extant description of Further India is in the Geography of the Alexandrian scholar Ptolemy who flourished in the middle of the second century AD He refers to the inhabitants of the Irrawaddy Delta as cannibals These were not however the Burmese for their migrations into the country had not started In Ptolemys time the dominant race in IndoChina was Indonesian It must have been strongly represented in Burma since her modern in habitants show clear traces of the mixture Buddhist legends point to Indian influence coming by sea There is the story of the two brothers Tapusa and Palikat who visited Gautama and received from him eight hairs of his head which they are said to have brought to Burma and enshrined beneath the Shwe Dagon Pagoda The Mon chronicles contain the story of Sona a.
burma free Burma PDFCHAPTER I THE PREPAGAN PERIOD THE early history of Burma is obscure The Burmese chronicles begin with the supposed foundation of Tagaung in BC but the stories they tell are copies of Indian legends taken from Sanskrit or Pali originals The earlest extant description of Further India is in the Geography of the Alexandrian scholar Ptolemy who flourished in the middle of the second century AD He refers to the inhabitants of the Irrawaddy Delta as cannibals These were not however the Burmese for their migrations into the country had not started In Ptolemys time the dominant race in IndoChina was Indonesian It must have been strongly represented in Burma since her modern in habitants show clear traces of the mixture Buddhist legends point to Indian influence coming by sea There is the story of the two brothers Tapusa and Palikat who visited Gautama and received from him eight hairs of his head which they are said to have brought to Burma and enshrined beneath the Shwe Dagon Pagoda The Mon chronicles contain the story of Sona a.