Jacques Leider has written on this tradition. Michael Charney
also works on the region (more politics and history though).
There are epigraphic records and chronicles as well.
Manuscript evidence is not as prevalent, but there are
Arakanese mss. William Pruitt, Catherine Raymond and Lilian
Handlin know more about this than I ever could. They have
worked closely with Burmese scholars who often work under
distress there. The subject of a separate "Arakanese
Tradition" is not promoted by the present government.
Best,
jm
---- Original message ----
>Date: Sat, 17 Dec 2005 06:30:43 +0600
>From: nyanatusita <nyanatusita@...>
>Subject: [palistudy] Arakan and Chittagong Pali traditions
>To: Pali Study Group <palistudy@yahoogroups.com>
>
>Hello,
>
>Has any research been done on the Arakan and Chittagong Pali
textual
>traditions? Do they use different scripts than the Burmese
script? It is
>possible that there are texts or recensions of texts
preserved in this
>area which are unknown elsewhere. In a book on the Theravada
Sangha
>called Banner of the Arahants I found the following
interesting information:
>
>``Bangladesh has a considerable Buddhist minority with a
Sangha divided
>between two traditions. One is a small group of bhikkhus, the
Mahaathera
>Nikaaya, who claim to be descended from bhikkkhu fleeing from
Bihar at
>the time of the Moslem invasions. It is reported that thery were
>corrupted in the course of time in their new home but refused
the chance
>of re-ordination by Burmese bhikkhus. This was taken by the great
>majority who now form the Sangharaja nikaya. In fact the
latter group
>alone can claim to be Theravada although the other group has
reformed
>itself and is hardly distinguishable now.''
>
>The author, Bhikkhu Khantipalo, must be referring the
Chittagong hill
>area that borders the Arakan area. I don't know anything
about the
>history and ethnography of these areas, but the Mahaathera
nikaya might
>also have existed in Arakan.
>
>The bhikkhus who came to Sri Lanka to reintroduce the
Upasampada in the
>early and late 17th centuries came from Rakkhangadesa, i.e.
Arakan,
>according to the Mahavamsa.
>
>Best wishes,
> Bh. Nyanatusita
>
>
>
>
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______________
Dr. Justin McDaniel
Dept. of Religious Studies
2617 Humanities Building
University of California, Riverside
Riverside, CA 92521
909-827-4530
justinm@...