Burmese Literature - Classical Literature

Classical Literature

The earliest forms of Burmese literature were on stone engravings called kyauksa (Burmese: ကျောက်စာ) for memorials or for special occasions such as the building of a temple or a monastery. Later, palm leaves called peisa (ပေစာ) were used as paper, which resulted in the rounded forms of the Burmese alphabet. During the Bagan Dynasty, King Anawrahta adopted Theravada Buddhism as the state religion, and brought many Pali texts from Ceylon. These texts were translated, but Pali remained the literary medium of the Burmese kingdom. Furthermore, Pali influenced Burmese language in structure, because of literal translations of Pali text called nissaya (နိဿယ)......

The earliest works of Burmese literature date from the Bagan dynasty. They include proses recording monarchical merit acts and poetic works, the earliest of which was Yakhaing minthami eigyin (Cradle Song of the Princess of Arakan), dated to 1455. During the Bagan and Innwa dynasties, two primary types of literature flourished, mawgun (မော်ကွန်း) and eigyin, (ဧချင်း) and pyo (ပျို့), religious works generally derived from the Jataka tales.

Non-fiction and religious works prevailed during this period although kagyin (ကချင်း), a war poem by a monarch, was an early form of this genre in history.

As literature grew more liberal and secular, poetry became the most popular form of literature in Burma. The flexibility of the Burmese language, because of its monosyllabic and tonal nature, and its lack of many consonantal finals allowed poetry to utilise various rhyming schemes. By the 15th century, four primary genres of poetry had emerged, namely pyo (poems based on the Jataka Tales, linka (လင်္ကာ metaphysical and religious poems), mawgoun (historical verses written as a hybrid of epic and ode), and eigyin (lullabies of the royal family). Courtiers also perfected the myittaza (မေတ္တာစာ), a long prose letter.

Buddhist monks were also influential in developing Burmese literature. Shin Aggathammadi rendered in verse the Jataka stories. During this time, Shin Maha Thilawuntha (1453–1520) wrote a chronicle on the history of Buddhism. A contemporary of his, Shin Ottama Gyaw, was famous for his epic verses called tawla (တောလား) that revelled in the natural beauty of the seasons, forests and travel. Yawei Shin Htwe, a maid of honour, wrote another form of poetry called aingyin on the 55 styles of hairdressing.

After the conquest of Siam by the Toungoo Dynasty, Thailand became a Burmese colony. This conquest incorporated many Thai elements into Burmese literature. Most evident were the yadu or yatu (ရာတု), an emotional and philosophic verse and the yagan (ရာကန်), which imitated the themes of the yadu genre, which was more emotionally involved, could be inspired by mood, place, incident, and often addressed to sweethearts and wives. Famous writers of yadu include Nawadei I (1545–1600) and Prince Natshinnaung (1578–1619). Some parts of Laos and Cambodia also became Burmese colonies during Second Burmese Empire and thereby influenced Burmese literature.

In the areas of law, there were two major types of literature, dhammathat (ဓမ္မသတ်), which appeared prior to the 13th century, and shauk-htone (လျှောက်ထုံး), which were compilations of brief accounts of historic cases and events in simple narrative to serve as guides and legal precedents for rulers.

As the Konbaung Dynasty emerged in the 18th century, the Third Burmese Empire was founded. This era has been dubbed the "Golden Age of Literature". After a second conquest of Ayutthaya (Thailand), many spoils of war were brought to the Burmese court. The Ramayana (ရာမယန) was introduced and was adapted in Burmese. In addition, the Ramayana inspired romantic poems, which became popular literary sojourns among the royal class. Burmese literature during this period was therefore modelled after the Ramayana, and dramatic plays were patronised by the Burmese court. Moreover, the Burmese adapted Thai verses and created four new classical verses, called: taydat (တေးထပ်), laygyo (လေးချိုး), dwaygyo (ဒွေးချိုး) and bawle (ဘောလယ်). Furthermore, the arrival of the first printing press in Burma in 1816, sent by the Serampore Mission, helped to liberalise centuries-old traditions of writing in verse (lay-lone tha-paik (‌လေးလုံးတစ်ပိုဒ်), a poetry type, where four syllable lines are linked in a climbing rhyme and grouped into stanzas of 30 lines.).

Monks remained powerful in Burmese literature, compiling histories of Burma. Kyigan Shingyi (1757–1807) wrote the Jataka Tales incorporating Burmese elements, including the myittaza (Pali metta or love + Burmese sa or letter), which are love letters and are important sources of first-hand accounts of the economic and social changes Burma was undergoing before colonialism. During the First Anglo-Burmese War (1823–1826), more solemn and muted moods exuded from Burmese literature, including lyrical music. In addition, yazawin, historical chronicles, became important in the Konbaung dynasty, although they had been written since the Innwa dynasty. In 1724, U Kala wrote the Maha yazawin gyi (The Great Chronicles), covering Burmese history until 1711. In 1829, King Bagyidaw appointed scholars to compile the Hmannan yazawin dawgyi (Glass Palace Chronicle), covering Burmese history until 1821. A successor king, King Mindon Min appointed a committee of Burmese scholars from 1867 to 1869 to create the Dutiya maha yazawin dawgyi (The Second Great Royal Chronicles).