Myanmar Literature

8- St. Agnes

Myanmar

Myanmar was formerly known as Burma. The Myazedi inscription is the earliest extant specimen of Burmese literature. It narrates the dedication of the Golden Buddha by a prince and the gift of slave-villages to the image, ending with a prayer for the donor and his friends. Over a thousand such dedicatory inscriptions were set up in the next 700 years, containing eloquent poems and prayers of poetic merit.

Myanmar Literature

From the fifteenth century up to thenineteenth century, palm-leaf (scratchedwith a stylus) and folded-paper literaturebecame common. Such works were filledwith Buddhist piety and courtly refinementof language. The authors were monks,educated courters and court poetesses.Prose works during this period were few,mostly Buddhist scriptures and chroniclesof kings.

Palm-leaf and Folded Paper Literature

Poetry

Poetry was varied: there were historical ballads, panegyric odes, the pyo (Buddhist story in verse), and the ya-du (poems of love or nature). The writes also used the “mixed style” or prose and poetry together.

Yagan- a serio-comic epic.

Myil-Ta-za- letter of an abbot to the king.

Modern fiction began with the novel, like Tet-Pongyn, a classical novel.

With the founding of the University of Rangoon in 1920 came an increase in output of Burmese literature. Foreign literature , especially English works, were translated. With independence in 1948, Burmese gradually replaced English as the medium of instruction, and literature become more nationalistic.