Maha Yazawin

Before this chronicle, hitherto Burmese histories were biographic chronicles and comparatively brief local chronicles.^[4] The compilation of the chronicle began c. 1712–1720, early in the reign of King Taninganway. The task was undertaken by U Kala, a wealthy descendant of court and regional administrative officers from both sides of his family. (His father was a "rich man" who descended from regional administrative officers (myosas) of the crown, and his mother was of mixed Shan and Burman noble descent.) He had the education, connections and wealth to devote his time to chronicle writing. With his pedigree, he apparently had access to court documents that went back to the reign of Bayinnaung (r. 1550–1581).^[9] Perhaps because of his wealth, Kala was able to devote his time being a "full-time chronicler".^[1]

Kala prefaced his chronicle with an apology for its writing, noting that Buddhist scriptures considered the writing of history to be inimical to religious development. He justified his work by explaining that the study of past events would help to demonstrate the impermanence of all things, including political authority, and that meditation on this theme would actually promote religious insight.^[3]

When Kala completed the chronicle in 1724,^[1] he had compiled the chronicle in three versions by length: Maha Yazawin Gyi [The Great Chronicle in Twenty-One Volumes], Yazawin Lat [The Shorter Chronicle in Ten Volumes], Yazawin Gyok [The Brief Chronicle in One Volume].^[10][1] The chronicle is said to have referenced court documents from the 16th century, and in all, over 70 regional and foreign texts. The notable list includes the "Thaton Chronicle," the "Mon Chronicle," the "Ayutthaya Chronicle," and the "Chiang Mai Chronicle" as well as the Mahavamsa for the early religious history.^[11] Though he used a variety of local chronicles, Kala did not include the history of Tagaung Kingdom, which would be claimed as the beginning of the Burmese monarchy a century later by Hmannan Yazawin.^[12]

The work is divided into three parts, the first two detailing the origin of the universe and Buddhist kings of ancient India. The third part relates the founding of Threhkittara and Pagan and proceeds to provide accounts of the Pinya, Sagaing, Ava and Toungoo dynasties, and takes the history down to his own time to 1711. A "salient characteristic" of the chronicle is "its composite character: the chronicle is a pastiche of legends, local histories, biographies, and detailed court records."^[1]

Since it was written in the late Toungoo period, Maha Yazawin provides its most specific information on dates and descriptions of various events Toungoo kings partook. It traces the life of each king chronologically, wherever possible, from his birth to the grave or his dethronement.^[5] However, its narrative of the earlier periods is far more sketchy, offering only the year, not the specific date, in most cases. It shows that Kala did not have the full versions of earlier chronicles, and that he did not check any inscriptions, which would have yielded more specific dates and double-checked the events.^[7] Indeed, the later chronicles corrected many of Maha Yazawin's Pagan Dynasty and pre-Pagan dates based on epigraphic evidence.^[8]

Moreover, the chronicle also introduces for the first time that the Thaton Kingdom of Lower Burma was conquered by King Anawrahta of Pagan in 1057, and Anawrahta's religious reformation with the help of Shin Arahan, the primate of Pagan. (Maha Yazawin does not say that Shin Arahan was from Thaton. That he was born in Thaton was inserted in Yazawin Thit, written in 1798.^[13]) Later British colonial period scholars further asserted that Pagan received religious reforms and civilization from Thaton. Recently, the historian Michael Aung-Thwin has argued that the Thaton conquest story cannot be found in any prior extant texts or inscriptions.^[14]

However, the chronicle's portrayal of the 16th century Toungoo Burma, which was also witnessed by many Europeans, has been found by scholars to be largely factual.^[6]

The chronicle has formed the basis for all subsequent histories of the country, including the earliest English language histories of Burma written in the late 19th century.^[3] The historian Victor Lieberman writes that "rarely has a national historiographic tradition depended so heavily on a single author as the Burmese tradition has on U Kala."^[6]

The chronicle's existence was especially made important because many of the original sources on which he relied were destroyed by a fire at Ava (Inwa) some twenty years later. In addition to this loss, U Kala's prose style was seen as a model in the eyes of all subsequent historians.^[6] The general tone of the chronicle is described as "not bombastic", "relatively subdued", and "matter-of-fact".^[11] The pre-1712 portions of later national Burmese chronicles — including Yazawin Thit (1798), Maha Yazawin Kyaw (1831), and the famous Hmannan Yazawin (the Glass Palace Chronicle) — are more or less verbatim reproductions of Maha Yazawin, "with some interpolations of quasi-legendary material and with limited digressions on points of scholarly dispute".^[6]

As of 2022,^[update] the full chronicle had been published only in Burmese, and not translated in full into English or any other language.^[10] However, the last sections of the chronicle from 1597 to 1711 have been published in an English language translation by historian Tun Aung Chain.^[15] An unpublished partial translation by "U Ko Ko, formerly of the University of Mandalay" is cited and used by the author John Strong in "Relics of the Buddha."^[16]

• Aung-Thwin, Michael A. (2005). The Mists of Rāmañña: The Legend that was Lower Burma (illustrated ed.). Honolulu: University of Hawai'i Press. ISBN 9780824828868.
• Charney, Michael W. (2006). Powerful Learning: Buddhist Literati and the Throne in Burma's Last Dynasty, 1752–1885. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan.
• Hla Pe, U (1985). Burma: Literature, Historiography, Scholarship, Language, Life, and Buddhism. Singapore: Institute of Southeast Asian Studies. ISBN 9789971988005.
• Kala, U (2006) [1724]. Maha Yazawin (in Burmese). Vol. 1–3 (4th printing ed.). Yangon: Ya-Pyei Publishing.
• Kala, U (2016). The Great Chronicle 1597–1711. Translated by Tun Aung Chain. Yangon: Myanmar Knowledge Society.
• Lieberman, Victor B. (September 1986). "How Reliable Is U Kala's Burmese Chronicle? Some New Comparisons". Journal of Southeast Asian Studies. XVII (2). Cambridge University Press: 236–255. doi:10.1017/s002246340000103x. ISBN 978-0-521-80496-7.
• Myint-U, Thant (2001). The Making of Modern Burma. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 9780521799140.
• Strong, John (2004). Relics of the Buddha. Princeton N.J.: Princeton University Press.
• Thaw Kaung, U (2010). Aspects of Myanmar History and Culture. Yangon: Gangaw Myaing.
• Wade, Geoff (2012). "Southeast Asian Historical Writing". In José Rabasa; Masayuki Sato; Edoardo Tortarolo; Daniel Woolf (eds.). The Oxford History of Historical Writing: Volume 3: 1400–1800. Vol. 3 (illustrated ed.). Oxford University Press. p. 752. ISBN 9780199219179.