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[미얀마] Burmese Historical Literature (5): Ameindaw and Dhammathat

Myo Oo 2012-05-10 00:00

Ameindaws (royal edicts) are often noted for their great length and verbosity. Royal orders issued on the appointment of an officer generally enumerate in detail the incumbent’s duties and remuneration. They bring into light interesting features of Burmese administration.


Dhammathats, or law-books, show the Indian influence in Burmese cultural history especially during the early period. The earliest interpretations of Indian laws appeared in Burma in the Pali language. In later years Burmanization set in and law-books came to be written in Burmese. The most outstanding is the compilation made by Mahasiriuttamazeyathingyan, King Alaungpaya’s highly trusted soldier-administrator and well-known for his literary interests. His Manukye dhammathat, or expended version of the laws of Indian Manu, is a comprehensive study, written almost entirely in Burmese, about the legal procedure in Burmese courts. The author based his book on the older law-books in Pali to which he added personal researches on local customs and conventions.




Thaung Blackmore. 1967. “Burmese Historical Literature and Native and Foreign Scholarship.” F. S. Drake & Wolfram Eberhard (eds.). In Symposium on Historical, Archaeological, and Linguistic Studies on Southern China, South-East Asia and the Hong Kong Region. pp. 310-319. Hong Kong: Hong Kong city University Press.