Burmese Sketches - Khamkoo

BURMESE SKETCHES,
2QI
Gautama belonged, without wounding the pride and arrogance
pf the Brahmans ?
The so-called Buddhist Law of Burma is interwoven with the
tenets of Buddhism ; an intimate knowledge of it, therefore, is
essential for the interpretation x)f that Law. The belief in the
working of karma, for instance, plays an important part in
modifying the pre-Buddhistic and aboriginal laws of the
Burmans into that form in which we now find them as recorded
in the Dha?iimathats. With regard to the law of inheritance,
Dr. Forchhammer has clearly shown the different stages
through which it passed to be moulded into its present form.
Before he embraced Buddhism, the Burman's belief in a future
world was like that now held by the Chinese, Chins, and
Hindus. He believed that spiritual benefits would accrue to
the departed by offerings on the part of the living, and held
that the ** heritage must be administered in a manner most
productive of spiritual advantage to the deceased ancestors. "
This belief is the origin of early marriage and ancestral
w^orship both in India and China, and Burma just escaped from
the evils of the early marriage system by the timely introduction
of Buddhism.
The essay before us is a store-house of information. Not
only does it point out the development of Burmese Law
since the settlement of the Gangetic Hindus— called cqcooi from
Gola, (Skr. Gauda,) Gaur, the ancient capital of Bengal . .
on the shores of the Gulf of Martaban up to the British occupa-
tion of Pegu, but it also gives us glimpses of the Burman in
his pre-Buddhistic days, and proofs of his ethnic affinity to the
Chin. Amongst the Burmans there is a current tradition that
the races of mankind are loi in number. We have asked
many Burmans reputed for Pitaka lore to expound us the
allusion contained in it. But they all scratched their heads and
confessed their ignorance. Dr. Forchhammer has pointed out
that, for the origin of this cosmogonic tradition, we must go to
the Chins. Hiinu, their highest deity, laid loi eggs from
which sprang the
Essay.
loi races of mankind {vide p. 14 of the
As Mr. Jardine has said, in working up the Law of Burma,
the scholar must forerun the judge and legislator. Tne introduction
of British Law into the Province has produced a transi-
the people have a hazy knowledge of their ovyn law
tion state ;
and institutions and are bewildered in applying it to their own
affairs.