Lii.), Which They Took And Sacked; And As The
King Still Refused To Submit, They Then Advanced To The "Primitive
Capital," Taikung, Which They Captured.
Here Pauthier's details stop.
(Pp.
405, 416; see also D'Ohsson, II. 444 [and Visdelou].)
[Illustration: The Palace of the King of Mien in modern times]
It is curious to compare these narratives with that from the Burmese Royal
Annals given by Colonel Burney, and again by Sir A. Phayre in the
J.A.S.B. (IV. 401, and XXXVII. Pt. I. p. 101.) Those annals afford no
mention of transactions with the Mongols previous to 1281. In that year
they relate that a mission of ten nobles and 1000 horse came from the
Emperor to demand gold and silver vessels as symbols of homage on the
ground of an old precedent. The envoys conducted themselves disrespectfully
(the tradition was that they refused to take off their boots, an old
grievance at the Burmese court), and the King put them all to death. The
Emperor of course was very wroth, and sent an army of 6,000,000 of horse
and 20,000,000 of foot(!) to invade Burma. The Burmese generals had their
point d'appui at the city of Nga tshaung gyan, apparently somewhere
near the mouth of the Bhamo River, and after a protracted resistance on
that river, they were obliged to retire. They took up a new point of
defence on the Hill of Male, which they had fortified. Here a decisive
battle was fought, and the Burmese were entirely routed. The King, on
hearing of their retreat from Bhamo, at first took measures for fortifying
his capital Pagan, and destroyed 6000 temples of various sizes to furnish
material. But after all he lost heart, and embarking with his treasure and
establishments on the Irawadi, fled down that river to Bassein in the
Delta. The Chinese continued the pursuit long past Pagan till they reached
the place now called Tarokmau or "Chinese Point," 30 miles below Prome.
Here they were forced by want of provisions to return. The Burmese Annals
place the abandonment of Pagan by the King in 1284, a most satisfactory
synchronism with the Chinese record. It is a notable point in Burmese
history, for it marked the fall of an ancient Dynasty which was speedily
followed by its extinction, and the abandonment of the capital. The King is
known in the Burmese Annals as Tarok-pye-Meng, "The King who fled from
the Tarok."[1]
In Dr. Mason's abstract of the Pegu Chronicle we find the notable
statement with reference to this period that "the Emperor of China, having
subjugated Pagan, his troops with the Burmese entered Pegu and invested
several cities."
We see that the Chinese Annals, as quoted, mention only the "capitale
primitive" Taikung, which I have little doubt Pauthier is right in
identifying with Tagaung, traditionally the most ancient royal city of
Burma, and the remains of which stand side by side with those of Old
Pagan, a later but still very ancient capital, on the east bank of the
Irawadi, in about lat.
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