9 - Burmese Royal Language

Summary

Burmese royal language began with the beginning of the Burmese monarchy in the eleventh century AD. Its concepts were engendered by the twin notions of treating one's superior with respect and humility, and of the king being a person who would ultimately become a Buddha. The significant characteristic of the idiom, therefore, is the refinement of the language: courtly and elegant. These idioms went through a process of evolution, in the course of which some were discarded and some modified, and a few more added to the existing stock before they were “institutionalized”, as it were, some time in the twentieth century.

There are at least five major types of sources from which the royal language has been developed and preserved: 1) Burmese inscriptions on stone, 2) poetry, 3) religious works, 4) legal treatises, and 5) chronicles.

The inscriptions were numerous between the twelfth and the fourteenth century and declined from the fifteenth century until they became an insignificant number in the nineteenth century. They are mainly in prose although several of the later ones are in verse or interspersed with passages of poems.

The remaining four types of sources were first recorded on palm-leaf, inscribed with a stylus, but most of them have subsequently been printed in book form. The poetical works are, of course, in verse form, while the religious, legal and historical works are mainly in prose, although there are a few of these in verse, while some contain short passages of verse inserted into the prose, or are in the “mixed style” of poetical prose. All these writings flourished from about the thirteenth to the nineteenth century. The Burmese monarchy came to an end in 1885.

The earliest extant Burmese inscription is dated AD 1113. This and all subsequent inscriptions are dedicatory in nature. They were made for posterity by members of the royal family, courtiers, officials and rich men and their relatives and they record the building of religious edifices and other Buddhist works of merit. Since the theme is almost entirely limited to religion and royalty, the scope is relatively restricted. Nevertheless, by the same token, they possess a good repertoire of regal expressions, since the king, as the lord of the realm, features in almost all the works of merit.