A Burmese wonderland; a tale of travel in Lower and ... - Khamkoo

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114 A BURMESE WONDERLAND.
tx) make them rival Pali stories. Burmese historians
have a fatal habit of creating parallels with Indian
history. It is, however, possible that attempts were
made on Kyanzittha's Hfe. His mother was a princess
of VesaU sent over to Anawratta, and his father was
the minister who escorted her. Kyanzittha was no son of
Anawratta's, and illegitimacy is widely accepted. A
comforting suggestion has been put forth lately that the
princess came from Vesah of Arakan and not of India, but
to accept this we must disregard all the early historians
in favour of a recent one, and further ignore the fact
that "VesaU of Arakan was destroyed in 1018 A.D., and
had ceased to be a capital before Kyanzittha's day
But whatever his birth, Kyanzittha Uves vividly still
in the imagination of the people.
At the time of the last massacre, Kyanzittha was
already grown up to boyhood. His mother brought
him to Pagan itself, thinking that that would be the
last place where search would be made, and when he
grew a little bigger she entered him as a no%4c€ in one
of the monasteries. Later on Anawratta discovered his
presence and became for a time more or less reconciled
to him, and even took him into the palace.
As Kyanzittha reached manhood he developed
personal beauty and strength. He must also have
possessed a charm of manner which won him universal
popularity. Anawratta, conscious of his attractions,
kept him in a state of poverty, so that the boy subsisted
mainly on allowances and gifts from the courtiers.