Inscriptions of the Pagan Kingdom

Abstract

The purpose of the research is to present information about the inscriptions of Pagan, the kingdom situated on the plain area in the middle of the Republic of the Union of Myanmar in ancient times.  There are over 550 Pagan Kingdom inscriptions (9^th-13^th century CE) found and engraved in 7 languages: Pali, Burmese, Mon, Pyu, Sanskrit, Chinese, and Tamil. All the scripts used in the inscriptions including Pyu script, Old Mon script, Old Burmese script, Chinese script, Tamil script, Devanagari script, and South Indian. The inscriptions were made from several materials such as stone, clay tablets, votive tablets, and metal but stone used mostly. The contents appeared in the Pagan inscriptions are divided into 7 categories based on different objectives. The first one is to inform the religious offerings. The second one is to record engraver’s feelings and emotions. The third one is to record the important events and make them known publicly. The fourth one is to describe how to create the permanent structures and to detail them. The fifth one is to curse those who attempt to eradicate or destruct the religious structures to be fear and avoid doing that. The sixth one is to record the matters relating to Buddhism. And the seventh one is to record laws and lawsuits publicly to be the guidelines for administration and adjudication. The Pagan Kingdom declined due to the invasion of the Mongol in 1287.