User:Vesali Magadha Arakanese

Vesalimagadha Arakanese, a task to upgrade the literature on Arakanese and Magadha

Vesalimagadha Arakanese will be a name for the literary work that is helped by us who are performing to upgrade Arakanese and Magadha (Pali) literature.Arakanese is a language that is spoken by Arakanese people, who are also known as Rakhines, and some others who are Kamans and Mro, Khumee, Daing-net, Thet, Mog, Marama and Maramagree. Mro, Khumee, Daing-net and Thet have their own languages among them.

Arakanese is an important language in Arakan. Some Arakanese people live in Irrawaddy Delta and Rangoon Division. Arakanese people use their language when they speak among themselves. But their written language is variable now, because the language that they are speaking is mixed with Bamar words.

Bamar and Arakanese

Bamar or Burmese people speak a language that is very like Arakanese. But they cannot make /r/ sound exactly. They say /r/ sound by substituting /ya/ sound. If Arakanese say Luugree, it will be Luugyee in Burmese. Almost all words that includes /r/ sound will be transformed into a word which can be spell with /y/. In this way, Arakanese and Burmese become different.

The difficult spelling for some Arakanese

Originally Arakanese created their written form that was shared to Burmese. For example, some words are spelled as ှရ that can be spelled in Latin form h+r. Therefore it will be ှရ hr. You will see ‌ေရှာက် for lemon. It will be pronounced as shouk in Burmese although it will be hrouk in Arakanese. At this current situation, the written language would be becoming the Burmese. Most people are saying in this way. That is why, some Educated Arakanese young men researched for a kind of Arakanese writing.

San Literature Team

Some Educated Arakanese tried to get a better writing form for Arakanese. An obvious team for this research is San Literature Team that was led by U San Thar Aung. The team was founded in 1982 and had researched and published some books for Arakanese literature. The team was stopped after U San Thar Aung died and the task of this literature team was ended.

A new research team continued for the task of updating Arakanese literature

When San Literature Team ended, some persons continued their research on Arakanese literature. They found a new writing form in Arakanese and Magadha (Pali). It was missed for a long time ago and it would be used before Buddha Gaudama enlightened in India.Most Pali would had been written in this form of writing, although some say that there was not any written form in Magadha (Pali). Most Buddhist monks together with Pali literary works were fired in Nalanda University, India, it was said in history. Arakanese alphabet and pronunciation

Burmese people understand Arakanese in this way_ Arakanese (ရခိုင်ဘာသာ)

Arakanese is a Burmese language spoken in Rakhine state (ရခိုင်ပြည်နယ်), a region in the south west of Burma/Myanmar formerly known as Arakan, by about 2 million people, half of whom are native speakers. There are also some Arakanese speakers in Paletwa Township in Chin state. It is considered by some to be a dialect of Burmese, though differs significantly from Standard Burmese in its vocabulary, including loan words from Bengali, English, and Hindi.

There are three dialects of Arakanese: Sittwe–Marma, Ramree and Thandwe. The most widely-spoken one is Sittwe–Marma. They know that Arakanese are using their language. It would be their vision. The writing method would be the same with Bamar (Burmese). But Arakanese is the first basic dialect between Bamar and Arakanese. It proved from the ancient style of writing in Brahmi alphabet. Firstly they spoke the same language. After Bagan was founded, the Bamar group became a new one changing their pronunciation from original language, but Arakanese remain unchanged. In this way they share their language with Bamar. In some regions, the Arakanese speak the language like Burmese accent using the complete Arakanese words. All Arakanese use the written language together with Bamar. Sometimes they use their own words to spell as their style. They will be wrong spellings in Bamar. Arakanese alphabet and pronunciation

MAGADHA OR PALI LANGUAGE

Pāli (पालि) Pali is also known as Magadha. Buddha Gaudama used this language when He preached His followers and His orders. There would be a kind of writing for His words to record them at that time. In this modern period, His Doctrine in Pali are written in their own alphabets to read well in their own languages. Therefore Pali becomes to write in many alphabets. You may see that it is written in Rakahine-Bamar Alphabet, Indian Nagari Alphabet, Thai Alphabet, Chinese Alphabet, Latin Alphabet and many others. The only language is written in many alphabets and this is Pali language as it is very useful language. In other words, it is called as Oriental Study. You will not be difficult to read Pali in your own language form. But you must know its basic grammar method. There will be 41 basic letters to write Pali. Pāli is the language of the scriptures of Theravada Buddhism, (the Pāli Canon or the Tipitaka in Pāli), which were written in Sri Lanka during the 1st century BC. Pāli has been written in a variety of scripts, including Brahmi, Devanāgarī and other Indic scripts, and also using a version of the Latin alphabet devised by T. W. Rhys Davids of the Pāli Text Society.

The name Pāli means "line" or "(canonical) text", and probably comes from the commentarial traditions, wherein the "Pāli" (in the sense of the line of original text quoted) was distinguished from the commentary or the vernacular following after it on the manuscript page. There are a number of ways to spell the name of the language: Pali, Pāli, Paḷi, Pāḷi, all four of which are found in textbooks.

Today Pāli is studied mainly by those who wish to read the original Buddhist scriptures, and is frequently chanted in rituals. There are non-religious text in Pāli including historical and medical texts. The main areas where Pāli is studied are Myanmar, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Laos and Cambodia.

Here are some references for Pali writings_





MAGADHA AND ARAKANESE

Arakanese founded their nation bordering Magadha according to historical facts in Arakan history and South East Asian history. In Arakan history, many facts were used to say with Pali historical records. Some facts about the eras of the kings who ruled in Arakan and Magadha are compared between Arakan and Magadha. Some Arakanese descendants accept that they are Magadha people, or Magadha descendants. Mog people who live in Tripura believe so. If what they accept is right, the Arakanese people might be Magadha descendants. We are doing our research for it. We Arakanese believe in Buddha. Almost all Arakanese may be Buddhists. Therefore they say that Amyo Thila Hnyc Htana Ko Saunt Swannai Thy Rakhine Mii Hla Bwei Nama in meaning as Both of Nationality and Ethics might be guarded by themselves, thus they should be called a beautiful name as Rakhine (Arakanese). According to their concept, we started to learn their culture in India and Bengladesh. Some Arakanese descendants live in Bengladesh and some of them live in Tripura, India, and they speak the same language, but they accept their national names differently. Those who live in Bengladesh are called by themselves as Marama and Those who live in Tripura are called by themselves as Mog. Mog people say that they are Magadha. Some Mog say that they are Arakanese.

How to learn Vesalimagadha writing

Arakanese must trace their background sources and historical facts. But they could not know it exactly, because they had lost everything to concern their national identity and national rights. The most difficult matter for them is their literature. Some people in their national group believe that they are the master to write the language first for the written language that is shared to Bamar. It may be right or wrong. Their historical record cannot be satisfied with them.

At this time, we have got a writing system for Arakanese people. We got it about 45 years ago. We learnt it from an abode Saradaw or a Buddhist monk whose name was Ashurn Tissa Thera in a monastery of Tripura, India. The name of the village is Mog Para.

However, a few years ago, we asked Mog TV program about the village name and an editor from Mog TV answered that it is a name only for every Mog village that is called Mog Para in Bengali language. Every village, in which Mog people live there, is called Mog Para. But we did not know about it and we recorded as Mog Para when we learnt the Vesalimagadha writing. Its name will be something in Southern Tripura. But we did not know it well. We have go to Tripura for the actual name of this Mog village or Mog Para. We had learnt this writing there for a month. We could not tell the others about it in Arakan, because most persons in the team were members from the Arakanese rebel groups that were fighting against Bamar army that ruled by the dictators in Myanmar Union. Our team named the writing method as Vesali Magadha Arakanese.

We will teach you this writing method in some pages as Arakanese Literature Exploration Team, ရခိုင္စာပေလေ့လာရေးလုပ္ငန္းစဥ္ and some others. You may find them on facebook.

WHY WE NEED A SEPARATE WRITING FROM BURMESE

Some Arakanese are telling each other that Burmese writing is their own. It may be right. But Burmese will not accept their idea because no Burmese will speak Arakanese. Burmese pretend that they do not understand Arakanese. But Arakanese will speak Burmese, for it is an official language in Myanmar Union. Some Burmese say that Arakanese is an ancient language of Burmese. It is not right. Arakanese people are speaking their language in Arakan well. Arakanese is an active language. Only a dead language would be an ancient one.

Some Burmese want to mute Arakanese because they are Burmese racists. Some Arakanese are also racists for their national concept. Racism is not good. But most people are using racism. We must hate racism. Burmese racists want the same speaking language together with Arakanese in Burmese style of speaking. It is a difficult matter. Burmese people have been teaching their Burmese in schools starting 1920 at the British rule in Myanmar Union. Before 1920, Arakanese and Burmese taught their language in Buddhist monasteries. They used the same writing together. It was a common written language before 1920 among Arakanese and Burmese. After 1920, Burmese made the written language as their own. Actually the written language could be read in Arakanese and in Burmese. But after 1920, Burmese made it as their own only, and the Arakanese pronunciation would not be read to teach the language in schools. In this way, Arakanese would need a writing script for their own. That was why Arakanese researched for their own writing method. For this requirement, we Arakanese got a writing system that is named as Vesalimagadha Arakanese. In the other Arakanese groups, they found some other writing systems which were mostly the same with the writing method of so-called Burmese and they were only a little different pictures of letters but they were very identical that could be read by many who know Burmese writing.

Vesalimagadha writing is totally different from the so-called Burmese writing.But it is very easy to learn. You may try it by yourself from some pages that are Arakanese Literature Exploration Team, ရခိုင္စာပေလေ့လာရေးလုပ္ငန္းစဥ္, ရခိုင္စာပီတိုးတက္ရီး and many others.

THE ARAKAN AND THE EDUCATION

Arakan had been a kingdom for 5000 years before 1784 CE. Koon Baung Ava kingdom invaded into Arakan and fought Arakan kingdom and Arakan was lost the independence in 1784 CE. Arakan and Ava lived peacefully and in sometimes they cooperated to fight against some others of their neighboring nations. Arakan and Ava were the victorious nations. Arakan organized Manipur and Asam and ruled them for some times, and Ava also organized Siam Thai and had ruled there for a short years, for Arakanese and Burmese were united to help each other. These two nations shared their national cultures. Burmese people accepted Arakanese culture. The Arakanese believed in Buddha and the Burmese also became the followers of Buddhism. They used the same writing to share the languages between them.But the Burmese said that they got the writing system from Mon people who ruled the lower Myanmar. Burmese fought Mon Land and occupied lower Myanmar. In about 1000 CE, Burmese occupied Thahtoon Suvannabumi of Mon people. When Mon Land was occupied by Burmese in about 1000 CE, Arakan was a kingdom. However, the king of Arakan lived as a captive in exile under the king Anawrahta of Bagan. Arakanese king lived in the palace of king Anawrahta and he had lived there for 12 years. After the death of king Anawrahta and king Kyansit ruled in Bagan, the Arakanese king was allowed to return to his palace in Mrauk-oo, Arakan. In this way, they lived assisting each other, but Arakanese king became as a subordinate with the king of Bagan. Indian people or Bengali people from Mogol kingdom had invaded in Arakan for some times. Arakan fought against them for their independence. Arakan never mixed with Mogols from India, although Arakanese had relationship to rule Chittagong, Manipur and Asam. But the Arakanese could mixed with Burmese, because they speak a language that is very similar to Burmese in a little different pronunciation in many words. Arakanese king allowed his people to use the same writing method to share with Burmese people. Arakanese thought that they were the creators of the writing system which was shared to Burmese. Burmese also said that they got the writing system from Mon people. Arakanese and Burmese accepted to use the writing system together.No problem was there to use the same writing system when they lived separately in two nations, as Arakan and Burma. After Arakanese lost their independence, the problem happened in the Arakanese society. They could not say that the writing system was their own. They were defeated and lost many lives as they fought the rulers for their independence. After 1784, many educated persons migrated to Mandalay and other parts of Irrawaddy delta. Then the British entered into Arakan. The poor Arakan suffered much illness and tired of war. Therefore they had lived peacefully for some times under the British rulers. Some Arakanese learnt English and became officers to rule in Myanmar at the time of British rulers. But they could not teach their language Arakanese to their people. They were like a dumb to learn their languge. Burmese people were trying to study their language better while the Arakanese were sleeping to learn their language. In 1920, Burmese were allowed to teach their language in their national schools. Arakanese also taught their children the languge in the national schools in Arakan. It would be Burmese language. It was a serous matter or the difficulty of Arakanese. The Bright Ray Reader Books (လင္းရောင္ျခည္ဖတ္စာအုပ္မ်ား) were in Burmese for the academic curriculum of Myanmar national schools. No Arakanese Reader Books were there to teach in the national schools. Arakan left alone without the techniques to teach their Arakanese children at the time of British rulers. Today we must go in our ways to teach our language to our Arakanese children.

THAI AND BURMESE

Thai or Siam Nationals founded their first kingdom on the Asam Heights in India. It was situated bordering with Arakan kingdom. Thai kingdom and Arakan kingdom were good neighbors. When a national group, that was known as Nanchao, entered into Thai kingdom, Thai people moved to mountain ranges on the east and passed over the ranges. And they arrived at Hugaung valley. Thai people founded a new kingdom in Hugaung Valley. Then they moved to Awa near the river Irrawaddy. Nanchao people followed after Thais and pushed them to run onto the plateau on the east. It became known as Shan Plateau for Thais got another name as Siams or Shans. They separated into two groups. One was Tai and another was Thai. Thais founded a kingdom with a beautiful city Ayotheya. Tais remained to stay on the Shan plateau. Nanchaos changed their name as Brahma, Myan and finally Myanmar. At the time of Aung Zeya, Myanmars fought Ayotheya of Thai kingdom and it was desolated. Thais restored a kingdom by building a better city, known as Bangkok. There are a long story between Thais and Burmese. Their cultures are very different. Tai Shans live in an independent land which is called Myanmar Union. Tai and Thai are separated from a national family. But Tai use a kind of writing that is a little similar with Myanmar writing and Thai use their own writing that would be a kind of Brahmi alphabet. There became another national group from Tais and Thais, and they were Laos. Laos language would be very similar to Tai Shans. They use their writing that will be the same with Thai. Tai Shans, Thai Shans and Laos Shans may be a national group. But they became different like Arakanese and Burmese. Old Arakanese writing that was named as Vesalimagadha Arakanese is a little similar in the forms of some letters in Thai. It would be remarked that the Arakan kingdom was situated as a neighbor with Thai kingdom before the Thais could be pushed out by Nanchaos from Asam Heights, and in this matter their writing scripts could be similar between Arakanese and Thais. But the letters are named different. A person who knows Thai writing cannot read the old Arakanese that is named as Vesalimagadha Arakanese. (History of Burma, by Moris Collis)