အခုကေတာ့ ပညာရွင္အခ်ိဳ႕စုခဲ့ ျပဳခဲ့တဲ့ သမိုင္းေၾကာင္းေတြဘဲ ထုတ္ျပ ရေတာ့မယ္ During the 8th and 9th centuries the kingdom of Nanzhao became the dominant power in southwestern China; it was populated by speakers of Lolo (or Yi), a Tibeto-Burman language. Nanzhao mounted a series of raids on the cities of mainland Southeast Asia in the early decades of the 9th century and even captured Hanoi in 861. The Mon and Khmer cities held firm, but the Pyu capital of Halingyi fell. The Burmans moved into this political vacuum, establishing Pagan as their capital city in 849. By that time the Mon apparently had become supreme in southern Myanmar. They may have occupied the whole of the region and controlled the port of Pathein (Bassein) in the west and the city of Bago in the centre. They could have stepped into the void caused by the destruction of the Pyu kingdom, but their power was linked to the trade of southern Myanmar and not with the agrarian-based economy of northern Myanmar. Early 4th-century to late 9th-century CE line of rulers in southern India whose members originated as indigenous subordinates of the Satavahanas in the Deccan, moved into Andhra, and then to Kanci (Kanchipuram in modern Tamil Nadu state, India), where they became rulers. Their genealogy and chronology are highly disputed. The first group of Pallavas was mentioned in Prakrit (a simple and popular form of Sanskrit) records, which tell of King Vishnugopa, who was defeated and then liberated by Samudra Gupta, the emperor of Magadha, about the middle of the 4th century CE. A later Pallava king, Simhavarman, is mentioned in the Sanskrit Lokavibhaga as reigning from 436 CE. The Pallavas were the emperors of the Dravidian country and rapidly adopted Tamil ways. Their rule was marked by commercial enterprise and a limited amount of colonization in Southeast Asia, but they inherited rather than initiated Tamil interference with Ceylon (now Sri Lanka). The Pallavas supported Buddhism, Jainism, and the Brahminical faith and were patrons of music, painting, and literature. Their greatest monuments are architectural, in particular the Shore Temple, the various other temples carved from granite monoliths, and the Varaha cave (7th century; these collectively were designated a UNESCO World Heritage site in 1984) at Mamallapuram, once a flourishing port. Mahendravarman I (reigned c. 600–630) contributed to the greatness of the Pallava dynasty. Some of the most ornate monuments at Mamallapuram, especially those dedicated to the Hindu god Shiva, were constructed under his rule (though born a Jain, Mahendravarman converted to Shaivism). He was a great patron of art and architecture and is known for introducing a new style to Dravidian architecture, which the noted art historian Jouveau Debreuil referred to as “Mahendra style.” Mahendravarman also wrote plays, including (c. 620) Mattavilasa-prahasana (“The Delight of the Drunkards”), a farce in Sanskrit, which denigrates Buddhism. Mahendravarmans reign involved constant battles with the Western Chalukya kingdom of Badami under Pulakeshin II. Mahendravarmans successor, Narasimhavarman I, conquered some of the territory that was lost during numerous Pallava-Chalukya battles. Although he was able to recapture some of the Pallava land, the Pallavas were ineffective in withstanding military pressure from the Western Chalukya dynasty, who were eventually ousted by the Cholas. The Pallava dominions passed to the Chola kings about 880. Minor dynastic power that held sway in an area to the northwest of Mysore city on the Indian subcontinent between the 4th and 6th centuries CE. Their chroniclers claim that the family migrated from northern India, but other records suggest that they were indigenous to Kuntala (northern Kanara). An early inscription, the accuracy of which is unknown, describes the dynastic founder, Mayurasharman, as a learned Brahman who, after being insulted by a Pallava official, took up a military career and acquired sufficient territory to bargain with the Pallavas for a feudal principality on the western coast. His son Kangavarman, who assumed the title Dharmamaharajadhiraja (“Lawful King of Kings”), was probably the king of Kuntala defeated by the Vakateka king Vindhyaseva. His grandson Kakusthavarman (reigned c. 425–450) was a powerful ruler involved in many marriage alliances with the Guptas and other kingly families. After his death the southern part of the kingdom was established as an independent principality under his younger son, Krishnavarman. A period of warfare between the two branches of the family followed, during which the junior branch initially triumphed but was quickly forced to acknowledge the suzerainty of first the Pallavas and then the senior branch. The Kadamba kingdom came to an end with Pulakeshin IIs capture of Banavasi during the reign of Ajavarman. Between the 1st century BCE and the 9th century CE, speakers of Tibeto-Burman languages known as the Pyu established city-kingdoms in Myanmar at Binnaka, Mongamo, Shri Kshetra, and Halingyi. At the time, a long-standing trade route between China and India passed through northern Myanmar and then across the Chindwin River valley to the west. In CE 97 and 121, Roman embassies to China chose this overland route through Myanmar for their journey. The Pyu, however, provided an alternative route down the Irrawaddy to their capital city, Shri Kshetra, at the northern edge of the delta. From there, the route extended by sea westward to India and eastward to insular Southeast Asia, where the China trade connected with the portage routes on the peninsula and with maritime routes within the archipelago. Chinese historical records noted that the Pyu claimed sovereignty over 18 kingdoms, many of them in the southern portions of Myanmar. The same Chinese records emphasized the humane nature of Pyu government and the elegance and grace of Pyu life. Fetters, chains, and prisons were evidently unknown, and punishment for criminals was a few strokes with a whip. The men, dressed in blue, wore gold ornaments on their hats, and the women wore jewels in their hair. The Pyu lived in houses built of timber and roofed with tiles of lead and tin; they used golden knives and utensils and were surrounded by art objects of gold, green glass, jade, and crystal. Parts of the city walls, the palace, and the monasteries were built of glazed brick. The Pyu also appear to have been Buddhists of the Sarvastivada school. Their architects may have developed the vaulted temple, which later found its greatest expression at Pagan during its golden age, from the 11th to the 14th century. Pyu sons and daughters were disciplined and educated in monasteries or convents as novices. In the 7th century the Pyu shifted their capital northward to Halingyi in the dry zone, leaving Shri Kshetra as a secondary centre to oversee trade. The Mon To the south of the Pyu lived the Mon, who were speakers of an Austroasiatic language. The Mon were closely related to the Khmer, who lived to the east of the Mon in what is now Cambodia. The capital of the Mon probably was the port of Thaton, which was located northwest of the mouth of the Salween River and not far from the portage routes of the Malay Peninsula; through this window to the sea the Mon saw India, in its full glory, under the Gupta dynasty (early 4th to late 6th century CE). Earlier, in the 3rd century BCE, the great Mauryan emperor Ashoka apparently had sent a mission of Buddhist monks to a place called Suvarnabhumi (the Golden Land), which is now thought to have been in the Mon region of the Isthmus of Kra. The ancient monastic settlement of Kelasa, situated near Thaton in southern Myanmar and claimed by Burmese and Mon chronicles to have been founded by Ashokas missionaries, was mentioned in early Sinhalese records as being represented at a great religious ceremony held in Sri Lanka in the 2nd century BCE. With the expansion of Indian commerce in Southeast Asia between the 1st and 4th centuries CE, Thatons prosperity and importance increased. Indian merchants and seamen went to Thaton as traders rather than as conquerors or colonists. The number of Indians was never great, and their settlements were of a commercial, not military, nature. As a result, Indian culture was readily accepted by the Mon. However, the Mon culture was not displaced by Indian ways; the Mon blended the old with the new. They integrated many of their own beliefs into those of Theravada Buddhism, which arrived in Southeast Asia already replete with local South Asian beliefs. The power and prestige of the Mon kingship were enhanced by the notions of kingship found in India. The Mon developed a new art of sculpture by blending indigenous traditions with Gupta conventions of iconography. They built stupas (Buddhist ceremonial mounds) according to Indian models, which were adapted to Mon aesthetic tastes. The Mon subsequently became one of the most culturally advanced peoples in Southeast Asia. They assumed the role of teachers to their neighbours, spreading Theravada Buddhism and their new culture over the entire region. The Mon centre eventually shifted to Bago (Pegu), located on the Bago River, about 50 miles (80 km) northeast of present-day Yangon (Rangoon). From there the Mon were able to control the trade of southern Myanmar. Pallava dynasty. Encyclopædia Britannica. Encyclopædia Britannica Ultimate Reference Suite. Chicago: Encyclopædia Britannica, 2012. MLA Style: Kadamba family. Encyclopædia Britannica. Encyclopædia Britannica Ultimate Reference Suite. Chicago: Encyclopædia Britannica, 2012. Michael Arthur Aung-Thwin Associate Professor of Asian Studies, University of Hawaii at Manoa, Honolulu. Author of Pagan: The Origins of Modern Burma and others. David I. Steinberg Distinguished Professor of Asian Studies, Georgetown University. Author of . Turmoil in Burma: Contested Legitimacies in Myanmar and other books and articles.
Posted on: Thu, 10 Jul 2014 05:03:12 +0000
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