The Tham Vessantara-jAtaka - Khamkoo

In the later part of the Kon-baung period, there appeared a couple of great
playwrights, namely U Kyin Oo and U Ponnya, who wrote plays for overnight
performance. U Kyin Oo was the pioneer in writing modern plays and his plays were
more suitable for over night performance than those of U Ponnya. He used fables and
legends rather than Jātakas for dramatization though he did write two plays on the
JAtakas, namely the Mahosada and the Vessantara-jātakas. On the other hand, U
Ponnya based his plays mostly on Jātaka stories and they were more suitable for
reading than performing. 24
4.2 A commentary on the great last ten JAtakas
A commentary on the great last ten JAtakas existed before the Kon-baung
period. During the Konbaung period, between the years SakkarAja 1125-1138, (1763-
1776 AD) Dan Daing Sayadaw, Shin GuBAlankAra, translated the commentary into
Burmese vernacular. 25
Up to this stage, there was no pure Burmese prose on the
JAtakas. It was mixed up with PALi phrases or words with one PALi word followed by its
Myammar vernacular equivalent. It is only in the reign of Botawpaya (1782-1908) that
U Obhasa, known as Minbu Sayadaw, composed eight great JAtakas except
SuvaBBasAma and Bhūridatatta-jAtakas into simple Burmese prose. The SuvaBBasAma
was composed by Ashin 26
Pannyatikkha, while the Bhūridatta by the pupil of U
Obhasa, Nandamedha. The names of Sayadaw, who composed the last great ten JAtakas
and the years in which they were complete can be viewed as follows:
24
Khin Maung Nyunt, An Out line of History of Burma Literature, p. 77
25
Ibid. p. 2.
26 “Ashin” or “U” in Burmese word is an honourable word. People used to address either of them to the
fully ordained monks. Both “Ashin” and “U” are equal to “Venerable”. For instance Ashin
TikkhaGAna or U TikkhaGAna. But for a novice, the word “Shin” is used. For example, Shin TikkhaGAna.
In front of a novice’s name the word Ashin or U cannot be fixed.
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