Saddasangaha & Aadiccava.msa

Dear Members,

I had a chance meeting today with Phra Maha Nimitr in the
Buddhaghosa College Library. We couldn't talk for as long as
I should have liked because my driver was waiting, but I did
take the opportunity to ask about the statement in his
preface that the Saddasangaha was a major grammar. He said
that this work was a personal favourite of the 19th century
Thai Sangharaajaa, Vajira~naa.navarorasa (Prince
Wachirayaanawororot), and that it was he who decided it
merited being classed as a major grammar. He added that it
is not classed as such by the Burmese. So that's that
little mystery cleared up.

Unfortunately Maha Nimitr doesn't speak English and won't
touch e-mail, else I would have invited him to join us, but
he did give me the phone numbers of himself and several
other Thai monks who have studied the Saddatthabhedacintaa,
either in Burma or at Wat Tha Ma O, and suggested we
contact them if we get stuck. This may come in handy when
we get to the Paki.n.naka chapter, which was covered only
selectively by Sayadaw Ujjota.

Regarding Ven. Pandita's query some months back about the
Burmese monk who lived in London in the 1920's: Maha Nimitr
(who seems to know about every Burmese monk of the last
century) suggested it may have been Ledi Sayadaw's student
Ashin Aadiccava.msa (1882-1951 -- called U Aung Myat Htut
after he disrobed). His information comes from the
biographical preface to the Thai edition of Aadiccava.msa's
Padasangaha. Before we parted he kindly presented me with a
copy of this work, saying that it was rather similar to the
Saddasangaha.

The preface states: "In 2461 (CE 1918) when Aadiccava.msa
had seventeen rains he travelled to India, Sri Lanka and
England, with the aim of learning English and spreading the
Saasanaa. Being blessed in learning languages, he was able
to master not only Pali, Sanskrit and English, but also
Hindi, Bengali, Gurumukhi, Urdu, and Japanese. After some
years of missionary work in England, France and Italy, he
returned to Burma in 2471 (CE 1928).

This would seem to place him in England at about the right
time to be the mystery transcriber of the Pa.tiA.

With Google I also found an intriguing mention of this monk
on a Burmese government literature site, on the subject of
Burmese biography. This seems to confirm the date:

http://www.myanmar.gov.mm/Perspective/persp2002/3-2002/mya.htm

"However, to readers with moral sensibilities the favourite
biographical subjects are the members of the Buddhist
Religious Order on the one hand, and the criminals on the
other. Among the former are the centenarian San-kin Sayadaw,
the reformist Ashin Ardatesa-wuntha (Adicca-vamsa)....

"....Myanmar writer Paragu points out that the earliest
modern Myanmar autobiography was written by the learned
Myanmar monk Shin Adicca-vamsa while he was in England
around 1927 and sent to Yangon to be serialized in the
British Burma Magazine, nos. 1 to 8, but as this Myanmar
monthly folded up after the 8th issue we have not seen the
latter parts of the autobiography. According to Paragu, the
autobiography was completed, though up to now, not published
in book form. It was entitled "Adicca-wuntha htay-ra
padan...."

"....Autobiography should contain a greater guarantee of
truth than any other form of biography, since the central
figure of the book appears also as a witness of the events
which he records. Shin Adicca-wuntha was so open and frank
and wrote the truth about why he had to leave the monkhood
that his followers burnt the pamphlet he issued about the
last days of his life as a monk."

Jim, thanks for the posting from the Diipanii. I see that
your rendering of the first paragraph is virtually the same
as Maha Nimitr's. I will look at the rest tomorrow.

Best wishes,

Dhammanando