Mani Yadanabon

The Mani Yadanabon Kyan, "Treatise of Precious Jewelled Precedents", was completed on 24 September 1781 by Shin Sandalinka, a senior Buddhist monk and the recipient of a high royal title under King Singu's patronage. According to the author, the work was a compilation of several historical works and chronicles. It claims to describe the exemplary "advice offered by various ministers to Burmese sovereigns from the late 14th to the early 18th century". The book was probably modeled upon the Buddhist text Milinda Panha. Nonetheless, the book is known mostly for the Min Yaza section, and commonly known as "Po Yaza's Submissions" (ဘိုးရာဇာ လျှောက်ထုံး). The treatise was held in high regard by the Konbaung government, the last Burmese dynasty. It was one of the first four Burmese texts to be machine-published, which "shows the priority it commanded". ==Analysis==

The Mani Yadanabon belongs to a "largely unexplored Burmese literary genre dealing with statecraft and court organization". and "a repository of historical examples illustrating political principles worthy of Machiavelli." Still, the overall quality of the compilation is uneven. The most detailed and valuable part of this text, according to Aung-Thwin and Bagshawe, is the section on Min Yaza's submissions from ( 1368– 1421), after which the quality declines. The Min Yaza section is "very likely a good preservation of the 15th century work Zabu Kun-Cha, parts of which can still be found in the palm-leaf copy of 1825". Though not officially a chronicle, Mani is noted for the amount of historical background information. However, much of ''Mani's'' accounts were "condensed and cannibalized" versions of then existing chronicles, and add little to the scholarly understanding of Burmese history. and in contrast to the 107 CE date given in the standard chronicles. Its accession year for King Minkhaung I is also more accurate than that given in the standard chronicles. However, the author did not synthesize differing dates, which likely came from different sources. For example, the text says Sri Ksetra and Pagan were contemporary to each other but the dates given for Sri Ksetra and Pagan are five centuries apart. Perhaps most importantly, Mani also marks the earliest appearance in the Burmese histories of Maha Sammata, the first human king of the world in Buddhist mythology, and Abhiyaza as the founder of the first Burmese state of Tagaung. This origin myth allows all Burmese kings to descend from the clan of the Buddha in an apparent attempt legitimize the Konbaung kings by religious criteria. ==Translations==

L. E. Bagshawe translated the Min Yaza section into English. The partial translation, which represented "somewhat under half of the total", was published in 1981 under the name of The Maniyadanabon of Shin Sandalinka. ==Notes==