[Tlc] Indigenous Tai lexicography

[Fernquest Jon]

Dear Justin, Khun Yuphapann, Geoff Wade, Bonnie Brereton, Tutu, Oliver Raendchen;
 
Thank you for your feedback.
 
Justin, is your dissertation available in any library in Thailand? Thanks for these new names too (Renoo Wichasin, Wasan Panyagaeo, Thomas Borchert). Balee Buddharaksa's work was made known to me through Peter Skilling's papers.
 
Your 2002 review of the recent Camadevivamsa translation in the Journal of American Oriental Society, sums up well my feelings about indigenous Burmese historiography (c. 1350-1600):
 
"Swearer and Sommai see the possible historical information that could be gleaned from the CDV as of "secondary importance" to the "religio-mythic nature" of the history.... They emphasize the literary devices, social commentary, and ethical instruction woven through Bodhiramsi's telling of history...Swearer and Sommai, largely in agreement with Hans Penth, see "univocal" categorization of genres of Thai history as "impossible" ...this reader would have liked to see this comparison expanded to include non-canonical jatakas written in Yuan (northern Thai), Khun, and Lao which show a similar interest in the history of local religion, as well as a closer look at local "epic" poems like the Lao Thao Hung Thao Cheung and Xieng Xai, which contain the elements of dynastic histories and creation myths and which tell, like the CDV, the exploits of magical virtuosos. This ***exercise in regional comparative literature would reveal what literary tropes were widespread in the region***, would underscore the further ***arbitrariness of the genre categories currently used by many scholars***, and would help clarify what if any literary themes were specific to Pali versus vernacular texts. Furthermore, his comparison would help address a problem that has plagued most work in Southeast Asian religious and literary studies, namely, the employment of modern national borders as a guide to collecting and commenting on primary sources."
 
The **arbitrariness of genre and regional linguistic boundaries** certainly does seem like an important theme to guide research. The Burmese U Kala Mahayazawin chronicle bears fundamental similarities to the Tamnan Pheun Meuang Chiang Mai, for instance. 
 
This is why I'm focusing on chronicle and inscription translation and the lexicography that supports such translation, focusing on accurate rendering of historical sources, rather than jumping to radically premature interpretations as, for instance, Aung-Thwin does in the Mists of Rammana (attempting effectively to erase Mon history without even mastering Mon language and sources, a communication from Shorto to Piriya Krairiksh cited in his Piriya's work on Pathom Cedi actually states that the palaeography of Mon inscriptions in Isan matches that of Mon inscriptions in Burma, what is lacking is attention to the details of words like this, even the shapes of writing sometimes being an important detail).  
 
Zooming in on history c. 1350-1425, the Razadarit Ayeidawpon (Rajadhirat Mon epic, in Mon, Thai, Burmese language versions) though overtly recording history, explicitly states in two places that the work is about the employment of four "upaya" (bheda, sama, danda, dana) in politics and warfare which really makes the work a cross between arthasastra and history. Perhaps to historians "intellectual history," but of what era? 
 
These four upaya are a fundamental part of the Kamandaki Nitisara, a condensed version of Kautilya's Arthasastra, and the basis of rajaniti. A Tai version of the Kamandaki Nitisara is listed in Skilling's bibliography. A Pali version also exists, quoted extensively in Bagshawe's online Raja Dhamma Sangaha. The English Kamandaki version that I have is a translation of a translation from Sanskrit to Javanese. Burmese chronicles always include rajaniti, sometimes in Pali nissaya form, and the Pali Thai script rajaniti that I have (published c. 1920), supposedly originated in Pagan.  
 
That Pali and Sanskrit so often served as a cross-cultural communication vehicle or conduit for this indigenous knowledge, is well-attested to, by Ludvik Sternbach's work on the dissemination of Indian Supphasita into Southeast Asia. Unravelling the history of post-Buddha, pre-Asoka India contained in the U Kala Mahayazawingyi of Burma, leads you to....the Mahavamsa Tika, for the stories of the post Ajatasatru, but pre-Nanda kings. Everything seems to be interconnected.
 
Not only is the pre-modern religious-historical-literary textual world of South-Southeast Asia completely interconnected, but the lexical building blocks of this world are also apparently interconnected. Accurate translations require thorough explication, and one has to start somewhere, so a blog devoted to Burmese and northern Tai words, with lots of example sentences, might be nice. That's one thing I do everyday:  http://www.readbangkokpost.com/businesswords/
 
The Wichienkaew-Wyatt Pheun Meuang Chiang Mai translation, if it is very literal, might have a dictionary residing implicitly within it. Has anyone tried to read the two texts in parallel? I've been slogging through Razadarit Ayeidawpon for months extracting works and the sentences they are embedded in, many of which are not in any dictionary at all, at least the sense in which they are used.
 
[Also is there a northern Tai font or a program that converts from central Thai to northern Tai publicly available?]
 
Sincerely,
Jon Fernquest
Educational Services, Bangkok Post,
http://readbangkokpost.com/
 

 
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