Using magic, religion and

architecture to ward off

the enemies of Mrauk-U,
old Arakan, Myanmar.
Working draft, September 2020.
Bob Hudson

Abstract 1 Hari-taung stupa, Mrauk-U

th
A 19 century archaeological and
historical report on the kingdom of Arakan, in western Burma (Myanmar), contains a list of
buildings that are meant to be imbued with magico-religious powers that will be strong
enough to defend against or conquer various enemies of the kingdom.
This paper reviews the data in the report, and asks whether any of these buildings might
have been actually constructed, and where.
So far evidence has been found to suggest that two on the list might still exist. Locating the
remaining 15 buildings will take further research into old Arakanese documents, inscriptions
and architectural remains.

Introduction.
In Dr Forchhammer’s 1891 report on Arakan he provides a translation cum
interpretation of the AD 1734 Yattara bell inscription, found at Dhanyawadi -
Mahamuni (Forchhammer 1891). The inscription describes how the construction of a
particular pagoda on a particular hill, with associated rituals, will protect against or
destroy various enemy kingdoms. Or to describe the bell in relation to its horoscope
designs: “magical ciphers are used to put invaders to flight by deranging their
astrological charts and so placing them in jeopardy” (Tun Shwe Khine 1992: 102).
We will examine the material provided by Forchhammer, with the caveat that there is
no copy available in English or in Arakanese of the original document, the
Sarvasthanapakarana, that he used to produce this data.
The enemies on the list are Udarat (Tripura), Pathan (the Afghans), Maunggut (the
Moguls), the Kulas (Indians or other foreigners coming via India), the Palaungs (the
English), Yodaya (Ayuthaya or Thailand), Muttama (Martaban), Pegu (modern
Bago), the Muns (Talaing or Mon), Thanlyn (Syriam), Pre (Prome, modern Pyay),
Taungo (Taungoo), Pagan (Bagan), Ava (Inwa), the Aukthas (Burmans from the
south of the kingdom), the Shans and the Saks (an “Arakanese tribe”).
On his 1891 map of Mrauk-U (which has also been known as Arakan, Arrakan,
Arracan or Myohaung, literally “city-ancient”) Forchhammer (1891 Plate IX) showed
Udarat hill, where Hari-taung pagoda (reputedly built 1760 CE) is to be found today
(Fig 1), just north of the Mrauk-U palace. A pagoda and tank should be built on
Udarat hill, says the inscription. The Hari-taung is in good condition, regularly visited,
but modern guide books and historical reviews, as well as the UNESCO World
Heritage documentation, do not link it to a kingdom of Udarat (actually Tripura, as we
explain below) or to any ancient program of protective magic. This is not unexpected.
The information associated with pagodas usually focuses on the name of the royal
donor, which also places the building in its time period (San Tha Aung 1979; Tun
Shwe Khine 1992, 1994; San Shwe Bu 1998; Gutman 2001; Myar Aung 2007;
Ministry of Religious Affairs and Culture 2020). If the original motivation for
construction had included protection in some form, this may well have been so
obvious at the time that it was not even necessary to state it as part of the formula
for an inscription.
There is a Bagan = Pagan pagoda on a hill at Mrauk-U, west of the Let-se-gan (lake)
(Ministry of Religious Affairs and Culture 2020 Vol 2: 87). Was this pagoda built to
magically protect the city against Bagan, as the Yattara inscription prescribed?
Bagan was a provincial centre rather than a kingdom during the Mrauk-U period, but
it was also an ancient enemy of Arakan.
So were pagodas actually built at Mrauk-U with magico-religious motivation, to
protect the 15th to 18th century city against the enemies listed by Dr Forchhammer?
Had some already been built when the bell was inscribed, effectively validating the
prophesy? Where might there be evidence of them today? How accurately did
Forchhammer extract information from the ancient document Sarvasthanapakarana
which he used as his only source for interpreting the “magic square” horoscopes on
the bell? Have the old names of these buildings, if they were ever built, been
forgotten, as the Udarat - Hari-taung pagoda suggests? Were any of the other
buildings constructed at all, or are they just names on the magical inscription?
We have at least one other indication of a changed and forgotten name. In 1825, the
British captured Mrauk-U from the Burmese. As souvenirs, or loot, two engraved
bells, one celebrating a victory by Martaban over Pegu, were taken away to India,
where the soldiers were based. The relevant point for us here is that the bells seem
to have been taken from the Sakya-manaung complex, a few hundred metres
northeast of the old palace. In the British records, the Sakya-manaung, where
Gardners Horse, the mounted unit whose members souvenired the bells, was
billeted, was then known not as the Sakya-manaung but as the Gaudama-muni
(Wroughton, Robert 1825; Wroughton, R 1837; Wroughton, R and Ratna Paula
1838; Robertson 1853: 70-100).
We will examine the locations mentioned in the Yattara bell inscription one by one.
Indented paragraphs come directly from Forchhammer. Toponyms (names of
places) are compared with names in a detailed list published in 1944 (G.S.G.S. India
1944). Botanical names are checked against relevant colonial publications (NS
1895). Names have also been checked against the classic Hobson-Jobson (Yule,
Burnell et al. 1903). This paper relies on English language sources. As none of the
surviving Arakanese chronicle material (compiled in Sandamala Linkara 1931) has
ever become available in English (Charney 2005: 978), further examination by
Arakanese/Burmese scholars would be essential.
The Yattara bell.
To prevent the inroads of enemies from foreign towns and villages, let offerings of flowers,
parched corn, and lamps be made night and day at the Thitthaungnu, Mwedawngayat, and
the Myotiparathit pagodas [not listed in the standard guides to Mrauk-U]. To cause the rulers
of the towns and villages in the four cardinal directions to be panic-stricken, let a pagoda,
provided with four archways (facing the four cardinal points), be constructed over the Gondaw
dhat at Gonlatan [placename unrecorded]; and let the Yattara bell be hung and struck at the
eastern archway, and the enemies from the east will be panic-stricken and quit by flight. Let
the bell be hung and struck at the southern archway, and the enemies from the south will be
panic-stricken and run away; let it be hung and struck at the western archway, and the
enemies from the west will be panic-stricken and fly away; let it be hung and struck at the
northern archway, and the enemies from the north will be panic-stricken and depart.
Furthermore, let lamps and parched corn be offered to the holy relic on the hill night and day;
let also the Yattara bidauk drum be struck at the relic chambers of Buddha. By these means
foreign invaders will be seized by fear and take to
flight.

According to Forchhammer, the bell had been

removed to Akyab after the British annexed Arakan
in 1823, but by 1867 it was back at Mahamuni,
restored by a donor. Forchhammer took a
photograph (Fig 2), which shows part of the
engraved magic squares.
He also provided a transcription of the content,
reproduced in his report. The original artwork and
plates from this report seem to have disappeared,
so all we have to go on is a fairly poor but legible
reproduction. Shwe Zan (p 48) tells us that the bell
was lost in 1950 and never recovered. 2 The Yattara bell, Forchhammer 1891

3 A transcription of the content engraved on the bell, Forchhammer 1891.

Despite the wealth of text on the bell (Fig 3: a higher resolution version is available
online at https://archive.org/details/Arakan-Forchhammer-1891 ), Forchhammer
relied instead for its interpretation on the Sarvasthanapakarana, the untraceable
primary source from which he also drew the mytho-historical summary with which he
opened his report. Bearing this in mind, we will try to consider the data that allegedly
interprets the bell inscription in its best light. The original material quoted from
Forchhammer, below, is indented. His own comments are shown in parentheses,
extra comments are included within square brackets.

Enemies, prescribed actions and evidence.

Udarat [Tripura]
If the king desires the destruction of Udarat let the summit of the Udarat hill be levelled to the
extent of 5 cubits and a pagoda built thereon; a tank must be dug on the north side ; let the
nagataing (dragonpost) be made of a piece of urat [NBR = No Botanical Record] timber
placed upside down. Let no representations of nagas be made; let umbrellas, banners, lamps,
flowers, and parched corn be placed at the four corners of the tank. Then the kingdom of
Udarat will be destroyed

Forchhammer writes further of this:

To the north of the palace in Mrohaung (which city I visited before Mahamuni, and ere I had
become acquainted with the contents of the bell inscription) is a steep rocky hill, called
Udarittaung; its narrow top is levelled, a small pagoda is perched on it, and on its north side a
small tank has been dug in an almost impossible place, no water can ever gather in the
reservoir, and no one would ever climb the rock to get water there, especially as there are
large tanks near the foot of the rock.

His map (Plate IX) shows Udarit hill as the nearest elevated area to the north of the
palace wall (or just opposite the former town bus station, for old Mrauk-U hands).
This pagoda is now called Hari-taung. It is popular with tourists and pilgrims. The
small stupa has a rest-house and image alcove on its east side, and has been paved
around to cater for the visitors.
My first thought here was that rather than a kingdom of Udarit/Udarat we may have
been dealing here with Udarata, the Kandy kingdom in Sri Lanka (1469-1815).
However the correct identification came via Kyaw Minn Htin, a scholar who works
with Araknese primary sources. He tells us that Udatat = Uttarac = Utarat = Utta-rit
refers to Tripura (= Twipra = Tippera). The king of Tripura is mentioned as "Mrung
Min who ruled the country of Uttarac (Utta-rit]" in Candamala's New Chronicle of
Rakhine (Kyaw Minn Htin, personal communication). The remnants of the Uttarac
kingdom, which was successfully expansionist in the 15th and early 16th centuries,
now form the Indian state of Tripura. This suggests that at times we need to go
beyond Forchhammer’s Anglicisation of the placenames
We see already here from the simple homonyms (words that sound alike but differ in
meaning) used (Udarat, urat wood) that some strong elements of what the old-time
anthropologists called “sympathetic magic” might be at work. The name of the hill
reflects the name of the enemy, and a post is made from timber whose name sounds
like the name of the enemy- to be placed upside down for good measure. This is part
of the formula for most of the enemies listed here. Had pagodas been built according
to the formula, in the 50 years between 1734 when the bell was cast and 1784 when
the Burmese invaded, then by the time Forchhammer visited more than a century
later it is fair to assume that some placenames could have been lost, with only
Udarat surviving, or at least, only Udarat catching Forchhammer’s attention.
We might note here that the term “pagoda” is a general term for a religious structure
to which a Myanmar Buddhist would give an equally general name that means “a
holy thing”. The UNESCO convention in Myanmar is to call a pagoda that can be
entered a temple, and one that is solid, though perhaps with an external niche
containing a Buddha image, a stupa.

Pathan [the Afghans].

If the destruction of Pathan is meditated, let a pagoda be built at Pauktaing or Pauktu; on its
south-western side let a tank be dug; let the nagataing be a piece of pinne [peinne] timber
(artocarpus integrifolia) [1895 list P 12] placed upside down; at its four corners let cocoanut
trees be planted. And Pathan will be destroyed.

There are three Pauktaing villages in the 1944 Gazetteer. They are (1) in the Arakan
yoma (hills) 180 kms to the southeast of Mrauk-U (2) near the Tonbo caves along
the Ayeyarwady River, 35 kms south of Pyay, and (3) near Darwei / Tavoy on the
southern peninsula. There are four Pauktu villages, (1) in the Arakan hills 140 kms to
the southeast, (2) 30 kms south southeast of Thandwe = Sandoway, (3) 115 kms
south southeast of Thandwe and (4) in the Ayeyarwady delta 40 kms south of
Myaungmya. Forchhammer does not define this enemy, but Pathan = Puttan means
Afghans (Yule, Burnell et al. 1903). This being the case, none of the putative
locations sit directly between Mrauk-U and the Afghans, who were certainly militarily
active in India during the Mrauk-U period (see, for example Dalrymple 2019). Then
again, proposing a physical location between the city and the enemy might be an
unnecessary application of modern logic to an old macro-religious formula, So we
can ask whether pagodas were actually built, or were prescribed to be built, at any of
these particular locations? Or again, might the name be applied to any hill that was
chosen to comply with the magical formula, perhaps a hill at Mrauk-U convenient to
the architects and astrologers of the city?

Maunggot.
If the king desires the destruction of Maunggot (Mogul Empire), let a pagoda be erected at
Maungzwe, Mritkain, or Mingauk ; On its western side let a tank be dug; let the nagataing be
of prano [NBR] wood placed upside down, and, plant shashauk citrus trees
[Shaukpot,Shaukthagwa and Shauktono citrus trees, 1895 list P 14] at the corners of the tank.
And Maunggot will be destroyed.
The toponyms do not appear in the 1944 Gazetteer.

The Kulas.
If the destruction of the Kulas (Western foreigners) is wished for, let a pagoda be built either
at the entrance of the lesser Kulatan cave or at that of a small subterranean cavity near it; on
its western side let a tank be dug; let the nagataing be of kula [1895 list has many examples
 of trees with kala in their name] wood placed upside down; and at its four corners let pebabwe
(NBR) trees be planted. By these means all the Kulas will be destroyed.

There is no Kulatan in the Gazetteer. The term Kula, often today written Kala or
Kalar, “refers to a native of India, but also misapplied to English and other Western
who have come from India to Burma” (Yule, Burnell et al. 1903: 495). Toponyms that
include the term kala occupy four pages of the Gazetteer, but there is no Kulatan, or
Kalatan (G.S.G.S. India 1944: 106-109). The term kala still appears on modern
Myanmar maps to indicate villages with populations of Indian origin: for example, Zi
za village, 10 kilometres south of Mrauk-U, is jointly named Zi za (Rakhine) and Zi
Za (Kala) (Ministry of Agriculture and Irrigation 2004).

The Palaungs.
If the king desires the destruction of the Palaungs (the English are called in Arakan Palaungs,
a corruption of Feringi), let a pagoda be built on a level of 4 cubits either on the top of the
Paletaung, or the Palaypaletaung ; on its southern side let a tank be dug; let the nagataing be
of prawn (?) bamboo placed upside down; at its four corners let reroshashauk trees (a
species of Morinda) be planted. And the Palaungs will be destroyed.

There is a Paletaung mountain range, E 97.4 N 18.9, 200 kms NE of Bago. The
toponym seems more likely to have been used as a homonym than as a
geographical location. At this distance in time, the distinction between Kulas and
Palaungs is not very clear.

Yodaya.
If the destruction of Yodaya (Siam) is desired, let a pagoda be erected on the top of the
western Yattara hill levelled to the extent of 8 cubits ; on its north-western side let a tank be
dug , let the nagfitaing be of yintaingthit (black wood) placed upside down; at its four corners
plant urat trees (NBR). And Yodaya will be destroyed.

Yattara hill is the name of the bell. There is no entry in the Gazetteer for Yattara as a
placename. Yodaya was Ayuthaya, the capital at the time the kingdom of what is
now Thailand was successfully invaded by the Burmese.

Muttama.
If the destruction of Muttama (Martaban) is meditated, let a pagoda be built on the top of the
Puto hill on the Puto plain, after having levelled it to the extent of 4 cubits ; let a tank be dug
on its eastern side ; let the nagfitaing be a piece of pranethaka timber [NBR] upside down ;
plant mango trees on its four corners. And Muttama will be destroyed.

There is a Puto (E 97.433333 N 20.883333) 40 kms east of Taunggyi, on the Shan

plateau.

Pegu
If the destruction of Pegu is desired, let a pagoda be built either at the Pipin tank or at
Praintain (Boronga island) ; on its northern side let a tank be dug ; let the nagataing be of
pinkathit [Pinle-thit kauk = Gyrocarpus americanus] placed upside down ; plant yinshe trees
[Lumnitzera racemose, 1895 list P23] at its four corners. And Pegu will be destroyed.

Boronga island is 70 kms south of Mrauk-U. No Pipin can be located.

The Muns.
If the destruction of all the Muns (Talaings) is desired, let a pagoda be built either at Kaleit or
Talak ; on its south-western side let a tank be dug ; let the nagataing be of kalethit [NBR]
wood placed upside down and plant urat [NBR] trees at the four corners of the tank. And all
the Talaings will be destroyed.

There is no Kaleit or Talak in the Gazetteer. Mun and Talaing are synonyms for Mon.

Thanlyn.
If the king desires the destruction of Thanlyin (Syriam), let a pagoda be erected on a level of 4
cubits on the top of either the Thanlwin hill or the Thanlwin taung. On its south-western side
let a lank be dug; let the nagfitaing be of thavinthit wood (Karun oil tree) placed upside down
and at its four corners plant yinhnaung trees (Vitis auriculata) [Yinhnaungpeinnwe, List 1895
P22]. And Thanhlyin [sic] will be destroved.

There are Thanlwin villages 390 kms southeast of Mrauk-U (E 95.23, N 17.68) in the
Ayeyarwady delta and a further 40 kilometres south (E 95.55 N 17.45). Neither offer
much in the way of hills, but they are certainly well placed between old Syriam and
Mrauk-U.

Pre
If the destruction of Pre (Prome) be wished for, let a pagoda be built at Pyin ; on its south
eastern side let a tank be dug; let the nagfitaing be of pyinthit wood placed upside down ; at
its 1 four corners plant kankaw trees (Mesua peditnculata) [Gangaw = mesua ferrea, [Lace
1922: 192]. And Pre will be destroyed.

Pyin is a common component of placenames but the Gazetteer has no place

specifically named Pyin.

Taungngu.
If the destruction of Taungngu (Taungu) [Toungoo] be desired, let a pagoda be erected on a
level of 2 cubits in extent on the summit of either the Anataungang or the Agye taungngu ; on
its south eastern side let a tank be dug ; let the nagfitaing be a piece of kyathit timber placed
upside down ; at its four corners plant paukpanpyu trees (Butca). And Taungngu will be
destroyed.

Neither of the placenames appear in the Gazetteer.

Puggan.
If the destruction of Puggan (Pagan)[Bagan] is desired, let a pagoda be built on a level of 2
cubits in extent on the top of the Puggan taung ; on its western or northern side let a tank be
dug; let the nagfitaing be made of printhit wood placed upside down ; at its four corners plant
mayzali (Cassia florida) [mezali, cassia siamea] trees. And Pagan will be destroyed.

As mentioned above, there is a Bagan = Pagan pagoda on a hill west of the Let-se-
gan (lake) at E 93.19044 N 20.581549.

Ava.
If the destruction of Ava [i.e. Inwa] be required, let a pagoda be built either at Onwa or at
Anwa; on its south-western side let a tank be dug ; let the nagfitaing be made of uratthit wood
placed upside down; at its four corners let shauk (citron) [Shaukpot, Shaukthagwa ,Shauktono ,
varieties of citrus, 1895 list p 14] trees be planted. And Ava will be destroyed.
The Gazetteer has no Onwa or Anwa, although the more common Anglicisation is
Inwa, the old capital south of Mandalay.
The Aukthas.
If all the people known as the Aukthas (Burmans of the Irrawady delta south of
Sandoway/Thandwe) are to be sent to destruction, let a pagoda be built on a level of 6 cubits
in extent on the summit of the Aukthataung ; on its eastern side let a tank be dug ; let the
nagfitaing be made either of uhaungthit or ushinthit and placed upside down ; at its four
corners plant tikkhateindhan trees. And the Aukthas will be destroyed.

An Arakanese chronicle tradition claims that the Arakanese were actually the progenitors of
the Delta Burmans, or Aukthas (Charney 2004). There is no Aukthatung gazetted.

The Shan.
If the destruction of the Shans be meditated, let a pagoda be built on a level of 6 cubits in
extent on the top of either the Theintaung or the Shantaung; dig a tank on its north-eastern
side, let the nagataing be made of thiban or shisha wood and placed upside down ; at the four
corners plant yintaik or yinkauk trees. And the Shans will be destroyed.

Modern Shan state is far across the Ayeyarwady to the east of Mrauk-U, but there
were earlier Shan polities closer, to the north. There is a Shan taung on the southern
peninsula, 300 kms south of Yangon.

The Saks.
The destruction of the Saks (an Arakanese tribe) can be effected in a similar way.

Jacques Leider (personal communication) expands on Forchhammer’s description of

the Saks as an “Arakanese tribe”. He reminds us that the Thet = Sak of the Rakhine
chronicles cannot be taken to be the tiny Thet tribe which counts a few thousand
people today, partly Christianized, but rather the Buddhist Tibeto-Burman Chakma
people, speaking an East Bengali dialect, counting today a few hundreds of
thousands of people who played a politically important role in the late 16th century
when they were one of the main enemies of the expanding Rakhine kingdom.
One can scarcely help but see a pattern of homonyms in the names of the hills and
other locations, and to a much lesser degree, the significant and perhaps magical
trees. Even in English, 13 of the 17 locations appear to be homonyms, as are at
least four of the auspicious trees. A key question, then, is whether the magic formula
was prescribing action to be taken at known locations, or that any hill chosen for the
purpose of constructing a magical building could have the appropriate name
attached to it.

Another palace?
"If the king's natal star be on the ascendant in the hinnawing, and if the constellations locate
his siri, parivara, ayu bhiimi, and marana {i.e., his glory, retinue, life and territory, and death)
in the Myauk-u city (i.e., Mrohaung), such a place is indeed excellent and should not be
abandoned because the starry influence exercised both on the king and city is the same. But
let another palace be built between Wuntitaung and Kyaktharetaung (a hill to the east of the
palace in Mrohaung) ; then the welfare and prosperity of the Arakanese towns and villages
will be promoted; both laymen and priests will be happy ; the king's longevity will be insured.
Shinbyushin, the Lord of the five white elephants (the King of Pegu), will be conciliated; the
 neighbouring kings will pay tribute and be submissive to our king. Foreign invaders will be
frightened and repelled by the sound of the Yattara bell through which the incomparable
Mahamuni image proclaims and yields his power."

As told by the chronicles, the astrologers often advised changes on the location of
the royal palace in line with their interpretations of supernatural signs and domestic
political threats. Apart from the palace in the centre of the city, a rectangle of stone
ruins dubbed the “Min Tikkha temporary palace” has been identified and inventoried
northeast of the Koethaung temple. But no structure that might have been any kind
of royal residence or administrative centre has yet been identified between Wunti-
taung (called the Won Dee Nat Taung, hill # 42, in the World Heritage
documentation) and the central palace (Ministry of Religious Affairs and Culture
2020 Vol 1: 19, 61 & Vol 4 Figure 11).

Discussion.
To commence this quest for magical buildings, we took Forchhammer’s report at
face value, and searched for links between the buildings in his paper and known
buildings today. Forchhammer visited Arakan in 1885, some years before the
posthumous volume was published. In an official report following this trip, he
acknowledged the work of his assistant, Taw Sein Ko, in providing translations of
manuscripts (British Burma Secretariat 1885: 70-71). One might suggest that
Forchhammer, as the senior person, may be getting credit for more original work
than he himself actually undertook. It may well have been Taw Sein Ko who
translated the Sarvasthanapakarana, and probably also did the “assistant” work of
transcribing the text on the Yattara bell.
Authorities have disagreed even as to Forchhammer’s first name: we see Emil,
Emmanuel or Emanuel, sometimes neatly abbreviated to “Em”, in different sources
(Attinger 1926; Luce 1985; Bigger 2005). But more detail than this is lost.
Forchhammer collected much more data than he published. His career featured a
level of disorganisation sufficient to be formally noticed by his superiors: “it is to be
regretted that Dr. Forchhammer has been so much engrossed in the work of
collecting, as well as in other duties, that he has not found time to arrange and digest
his materials” (British Burma Secretariat 1891).

As to his general collection of data, Forchhammer had earlier

reported that more than 600 palm-leaf manuscripts had been
deposited in the Bernard Free Library in Rangoon, and noted
that his search for manuscripts related to Arakan, among other
places, was “completed, or nearly so” (G.B.C.P.0. 1889). He
died on April 26 1890, at Myingyan, on his way down the
Ayeyarwady with the aim of leaving Burma to go on sick leave.
He reportedly had the Arakan volume ready to go to press (NS
1890: 85). Researching Forchhammer’s career, Andrew Huxley discovered that
hundreds of documents could not be located after his death, along with nine-tenths
of the photographs he had taken. Any documents he had planned to take with him to
work on during his sick leave in India would probably have accompanied his wife
Constantia and their daughter who had left Burma ahead of him to join Constantia’s
parents who were missionaries in Bangalore (Bigger 2005; Huxley 2012).
The kindest view of Forchhammer’s career is that he overcommitted himself. His
vanished data, pertinent to our interest here, includes the Sarvasthanapakarana. I
am not suggesting that Forchhammer engaged in academic fraud, or even that he
took more credit than was appropriate in the context of his senior role as
Government archaeologist. But it remains the case that the data that is available on
the Yattara bell inscription relies on Forchhammer’s interpretation of what is almost
certainly Taw Sein Ko’s translation of a primary source which is lost.

Research prospects.
One major challenge is to look again at the Yattara bell and its inscribed horoscope-
format. Where is the bell? It supposedly vanished, or at least could not be accounted
for, in 1950. Stolen for scrap metal? Rescued by devotees who wanted to preserve
it? Sold to the antique trade? Kept in a museum or monastery? Retained by a private
scholar?
With or without the bell, we have the rough but readable hand-copy of the inscription
published in Forchhammer’s report. A new digital transcription of this would be
valuable. The “magic squares” format has been used for horoscopes in Myanmar
since the Bagan period. How does the content of the bell actually match
Forchhammer’s interpretation of the Sarvasthanapakarana? Perhaps some of the
astrologers active at any major pagoda in Myanmar could be asked to comment.
The architecture, with the help of recent surveys done for the UNESCO World
Heritage application, could be looked at again, particularly in relation to any surviving
inscription stones, and pagoda and hill names. This program would be best suited to
Burmese/Arakanese-speaking archaeologists or historians. Anyone with these
qualifications may take this as a personal request. There might be a graduate thesis
topic here. The magical Yattara bell has left us with an intriguing challenge.

Bibliography.

Attinger, Victor, Ed. 1926. Dictionnaire historique & biographique de la Suisse. Tome troisième, Erard-
Heggenzi. Neuchâtel, Administration du Dictionnaire Historique et Biographique de la Suisse.
Bigger, Andreas. 2005. "Forchhammer, Emmanuel." Dictionnaire historique de la Suisse (DHS),
version 20/09/05, from http://www.hls-dhs-dss.ch/textes/f/F44652.php.
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