Hmannan Maha Yazawindawgyi (Burmese:မှန်နန်း မဟာ ရာဇဝင်တော်ကြီး,pronounced[m̥àɰ̃náɰ̃məhàjàzəwɪ̀ɰ̃dɔ̀dʑí]; commonly,Hmannan Yazawin; known in English as theGlass Palace Chronicle) is the firstofficial chronicle ofKonbaung Dynasty ofBurma (Myanmar). It was compiled by theRoyal Historical Commission between 1829 and 1832.^[1][2] The compilation was based on several existing chronicles and local histories, and theinscriptions collected on the orders of KingBodawpaya, as well as several types of poetry describing epics of kings. Although the compilers disputed some of the earlier accounts, they by and large retained the accounts givenMaha Yazawin, the standard chronicle ofToungoo Dynasty.^[2]

The chronicle, which covers events right up to 1821, right before theFirst Anglo-Burmese War (1824–1826), was not written purely from a secular history perspective but rather to provide "legitimation according to religious criteria" of the monarchy.^[3] The "most important development" inHmannan was the replacement of the hitherto prevalent pre-Buddhistorigin story of Burmese monarchy with one that links the origins of the monarchy to the clan of theBuddha and the first king of Buddhist mythology,Maha Sammata.^[2][4]

Hmannan was the main chronicle referenced by early European scholars to write the earliest versions of Burmese history, and it still is the main standard chronicle in the study of Burmese history.^[5]

The name of the chronicle comes fromHmannan or thePalace of Mirrors, the building of theInwa Palace complex where the chronicle was compiled,^[3][6] andyazawin (ရာဇဝင်) from Palirājavaṃsa meaning "chronicle of kings".^[7] It is conventionally translated as the "Glass Palace Chronicle" although a more accurate translation should be the "Chronicle of the Palace of Mirrors".^[3]

In early 1829, KingBagyidaw ordered theRoyal Historical Commission to update the royal chronicles.^[8] The kingdom had just come off the disastrousFirst Anglo-Burmese War (1824–1826) after whichKonbaung Burma was forced to cede all of its western empire (Arakan,Manipur andAssam) plus the entireTenasserim coast south of theSalween River. Moreover, the royal treasury was severely being depleted to pay the British one million pounds sterling (about $2 billion in 2006 US dollars) as war reparations in four installations.^{[9][note 1]} Updating the chronicles was perhaps a fitting task "when the future seemed unclear, the present had become so painful, and the lessons of the past needed a more proper accounting."^[9]

The standard official chronicle at the time wasMaha Yazawin (The Great Chronicle), the standard chronicle of Toungoo Dynasty that covers up to 1711. Konbaung Dynasty's first chronicleYazawin Thit (The New Chronicle of Myanmar), commissioned by Bagyidaw's predecessor and grandfatherBodawpaya and covers up to 1785, had not been accepted as an official chronicle because the new chronicle contained severely harsh criticisms of earlier chronicles. Although it was Bodawpaya himself who ordered the author ofYazawin Thit to verify the accuracy ofMaha Yazawin by consulting a variety of sources including hundreds of inscriptions, the king did not accept the new chronicle when it was presented to him.^[10]

The 13-member Royal Historical Commission consisted of learned monks, court historians and court Brahmins.^[11] When the commission convened the first time on 11 May 1829 (1st waxing of Nayon 1191 ME), they had ready access to a number of historical sources: over 600 inscriptions (some originals and some recast copies of the originals) collected between 1783 and 1793, several prior Burmese chronicles (yazawins andayedawbons), local pagoda histories (thamaings),Pali religious chronicles and Burmese poetical literature (eigyins,mawguns andyazawin thanbauks).^[8][12]

The commission was led byMonywe Zetawun Sayadaw, one of the "most learned monks" of the day. The monk had already compiled an abridged chronicle in 1810, and had been writing a more comprehensive chronicle when he was appointed to write the next official chronicle. He was assisted by another learned monk,Thawkabin Sayadaw. The two monks were given the task of scrutinizing the earlier chronicles in prose, especially the two main ones:Maha Yazawin andYazawin Thit. Moreover, they also acted as "consulting editors".The two monks were assisted by an ex-monk and a senior minister at the court,Maha Dhamma Thingyan, who also checked the two main chronicles for historical sources, and decided what to accept and what to reject. U Yauk and U Chein scrutinized twelve volumes of oldeigyin poems, and nine minor chronicles (yazawins) and five biographic chronicles (ayedawbons). The other officials were scribes like U Hpyaw and court Brahmins who checked Indian sources for records of court ceremonies like royal coronations, ceremonies for building new palaces, etc.^[13]

It took three years and four months for the commission to complete the new chronicle. The commission had organized the chronicle was into two parts: The first part covers from time immemorial to the last dynasty (to 1752); the second part (also calledKonbaung-Zet Yazawin) covers then ruling Konbaung Dynasty to 1821.^[1] Not all of the authors agreed with the conclusions reached in the new chronicle. The head of the commission, Monywe Sayadaw, felt the portrayal of the last Toungoo kings in earlier Konbaung accounts was too harsh, and decided to publish his own chronicle calledMaha Yazawin Kyaw ("Great Celebrated Chronicle") in 1831.^[13]

Though the main tasks of the commission ostensibly were to verify the accuracy of the prior chronicles, and update the history to their day (1829–1832), the chroniclers had at least another equally important task, which was to provide "legitimation according to religious criteria" of the Burmese monarchy.^[14] The new chronicle did bring up Burmese history to 1821, right before the First Anglo-Burmese War. However, despite having consulted the inscriptions and a variety of sources, the commission left much of the accounts ofMaha Yazawin largely unchanged.^[8]

The authors did try to verifyMaha Yazawin's dates which did not agree with those given inZatadawbon Yazawin.Maha Yazawin's dates for Pagan Dynasty were off by as much as 42 years fromZata (for the accession date of Anawrahta). Earlier historians had already tried to reconcile the glaring differences between the two prior chronicles. In 1798,Yazawin Thit tried to bridge the gap; its dates are about 15 more years closer toZata's dates but still 27 years off.^{[note 2]} (Zata's dates later turned out to be the most accurate based on inscriptional evidence.)^[15] The authors ofHmannan chose to stay withYazawin Thit's dates for the most part with just a few minor tweaks as seen in the table below. It shows a comparison of the regnal dates of the early Pagan kings (fromPyinbya, the fortifier of Pagan, according to the chronicles) as reported in the three chronicles.^[16]

The authors ofHmannan also inserted a number of commentaries at several points ofMaha Yazawin's text. Still, even when the commission disputed earlier accounts, their commentaries are mostly of an "extremely esoteric nature", and contain "little substantive critical analysis" from a secular history perspective.^[3] The few changes the commission brought in are strictly from a religious standpoint.^{[note 5]} Of those, the most important development wasHmannan's assertion that the Burmese monarchy had descended from theSakya clan of theBuddha.^[8] The new narrative superseded the hitherto prevalent pre-Buddhistorigin story of the monarchy which until then was supposed to have descended from onePyusawhti, son of a solar spirit and a dragon princess.^[4] The authors asserted that Pyusawhti was actually a scion of the SakyianTagaung royalty, founded byAbhiyaza of the Sakya clan fromKapilavastu, the very region the Buddha was born. Pyusawhti's parents were now human beings—Thado Adeissa Yaza (lit. the "Sun King" in Pali) of Tagaung royalty, and his wife who had wished for a son at a local shrine honoring the dragon princess.^[17] This claim was to have a devastating impact on the reputation of the chronicle as a whole in the eyes ofBritish colonial era scholars who dismissed much of the early history reported in the chronicles as "copies of Indian legends taken from Sanskrit or Pali originals".^[18] It was the prevalent mainstream scholarship view at least to the 1960s although prominent Burma historians of Burmese origin disagreed with the outright dismissal of the chronicles' early history.^{[note 6]} Latest research does show that when stripped of the legendary elements, which are now viewed asallegories, the chronicle narratives largely conform to the evidence. Archaeological evidence shows that many of the places mentioned in the royal records have been inhabited continuously for over three millennia, and the chronicle narratives of the pre-11th century history are considered "social memory" of the times.^[19][20]

Hmannan becomes increasingly more factual where "after the 11th century, the chronology of Burmese chronicles is reliable." One major reason is that Burmese chroniclers could read the inscriptions of the previous eras.^[21] Likewise, a 1986 study ofMaha Yazawin, whichHmannan closely follows, finds much of the history for the 16th century, which was also witnessed by many Europeans, largely factual.^[22]

Hmannan Yazawin isthe standard Burmese chronicle, and the primaryhistorical source material of Burmese history to the early 19th century.^[5] Almost all books on Burmese history down to the imperial period in English are chiefly based onHmannan.^[23][24] It was also used by Thai historians to correct the pre-1767 chronology of the reconstructed post-1767 Siamese chronicles, which was off by a few decades.^[25]

Although all major Burmese history books are based onHmannan, the entire chronicle has not yet been translated into a Western language. To date, only a portion—up to the end of Pagan Dynasty—has been translated into English as theGlass Palace Chronicle byPe Maung Tin andGordon Luce. In 1987, theGlass Palace Chronicle was translated into French asPagan, l'univers bouddhique: Chronique du Palais de Cristal by P. H. Cerre and F. Thomas.^[26] The chronicle was, however, translated into Chinese in three volumes by the Commercial Press.^[27]

• Aung-Thwin, Michael A. (2005).The Mists of Rāmañña: The Legend that was Lower Burma (illustrated ed.). Honolulu: University of Hawai'i Press.ISBN 9780824828868.
• Charney, Michael W. (2006).Powerful Learning: Buddhist Literati and the Throne in Burma's Last Dynasty, 1752–1885. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan.
• Hall, D.G.E. (1960).Burma (3rd ed.). Hutchinson University Library.ISBN 978-1-4067-3503-1.{{cite book}}:ISBN / Date incompatibility (help)
• Hla Pe, U (1985).Burma: Literature, Historiography, Scholarship, Language, Life, and Buddhism. Singapore: Institute of Southeast Asian Studies.ISBN 9789971988005.
• Htin Aung, Maung (1967).A History of Burma. New York and London: Cambridge University Press.
• Htin Aung, Maung (1970).Burmese History before 1287: A Defence of the Chronicles. Oxford: The Asoka Society.
• Kala, U (1720).Maha Yazawin Gyi (in Burmese). Vol. 1–3 (2006, 4th printing ed.). Yangon: Ya-Pyei Publishing.
• Lieberman, Victor B. (September 1986). "How Reliable Is U Kala's Burmese Chronicle? Some New Comparisons".Journal of Southeast Asian Studies.XVII (2). Cambridge University Press:236–255.doi:10.1017/s002246340000103x.ISBN 978-0-521-80496-7.
• Lieberman, Victor B. (2003).Strange Parallels: Southeast Asia in Global Context, c. 800–1830, volume 1, Integration on the Mainland. Cambridge University Press.ISBN 978-0-521-80496-7.
• Myint-U, Thant (2006).The River of Lost Footsteps—Histories of Burma. Farrar, Straus and Giroux.ISBN 978-0-374-16342-6.
• Phayre, Lt. Gen. Sir Arthur P. (1883).History of Burma (1967 ed.). London: Susil Gupta.
• Royal Historical Commission of Burma (1829–1832).Hmannan Yazawin (in Burmese). Vol. 1–3 (2003 ed.). Yangon:Ministry of Information, Myanmar.
• Than Tun (1964).Studies in Burmese History (in Burmese). Vol. 1. Yangon: Maha Dagon.
• Thaw Kaung, U (2010).Aspects of Myanmar History and Culture. Yangon: Gangaw Myaing.
• Woolf, Daniel (2011).A Global History of History (reissue, illustrated ed.). Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.ISBN 978-0-521-69908-2.

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