Burmese Collections

Phayre collection
Mandalay collection
Burney collection

Content description

Manuscripts

The Burma [renamed Myanmar] collections consist of approximately 1800 manuscripts, mostly written in Burmese or Pali in Burmese script, but with a few in Shan, Mon and Arakanese. The majority of the manuscripts are written on palm leaf, but there are also many paper folding books (parabaik), and texts written on diverse materials such as gold, silver, copper and ivory sheets in the shape of palm leaves, manuscripts on European paper. The collection is particularly strong in historical, legal and grammatical texts, and illustrated manuscripts depicting such subjects as the life of Buddha, the Jataka stories, and scenes from court life. In subject matter a high proportion of the collection consists of Buddhist canonical works and commentaries and also includes astrology, chronicles and inscriptions, cosmology, history, language and literature, law, and medicine.

In 1842 the British Museum Library acquired the John Murray collection, which includes several manuscripts from Arakan dating from the 1740s and are the earliest manuscripts in the whole collection. The collection also includes the Sir Arthur Phayre collection, acquired in 1888. The India Office Library’s collection of Burmese manuscripts began with the Royal Mandalay Collection acquired in 1886 after the Anglo-Burmese war, and a collection of official documents formed by Henry Burney, which was probably presented to the library by Mr Henry Burney himself.

Printed books

The collection includes about 20,000 printed books, including early Burmese printing and many early editions. The collection is strongest in printed works in Burmese published between 1838 and 1940, which were acquired under the Press and Registration of Books Act from 1867 through to the 1930s. And also it includes a collection of books, serials and ephemera relating to the Pro-Democracy Movement in Burma (requests to use this restricted collection should be made in writing to the Curator).

Periodicals

The Burmese periodical and newspaper collection contains about 300 titles.

Catalogues

Since 1982, Burmese printed books and periodicals have been catalogued on the Integrated Catalogue. The card catalogue of Burmese printed books in the Asian and African Studies Reading Room comprises author, title and subject sequences. These cards represent Burmese books acquired from approximately 1960-80. Books in Western languages on Burma can also be found on the Integrated Catalogue.

ALA-LC Romanization Tables are used in the online catalogue.

Manuscripts

‘Classed Inventory’ in the Asian and African Studies Reading Room, listed under Burmese, Pali, Peguan (Mon) and Shan. ORC.GEN.MSS.15 & 16

V. Fausböll, Catalogue of the Mandalay manuscripts in the India Office Library. [London]: Pali Text Society, 1897. ORC.BUR.MSS.3

Pe Maung Tin, ‘Burma manuscripts in the British Museum’. Journal of the Burma Research Society, Vol.14, part 3 (1924), pp.221-46. ORC.BUR.MSS.1

Thaung Blackmore, Catalogue of the Burney parabaiks in the India Office Library. London: British Library under the auspices of the British Academy Oriental Documents Committee, 1985. ORC.BUR.MSS.2

Patricia Herbert, “The Sir Arthur Phayre collection of Burmese manuscripts”. The British Library Journal, Vol.1, no.1 (1975), pp.62-70.

Patricia Herbert, ‘The making of a collection: Burmese manuscripts in the British Library’. The British Library Journal, Vol.15, no.1 (Spring 1989), pp.59-70.

IOL Burmese manuscripts in the British Library, compiled by San San May. ORC.BUR.MSS.4

Printed books

Kenneth Whitbread, Catalogue of Burmese printed books in the India Office Library. London: H.M.S.O., 1969. ORC.BUR.PBS.2

L.D.Barnett, A catalogue of the Burmese books in the British Museum. London: 1913. [About 2,500 items, including Pali texts with Burmese glosses.] ORC.BUR.PBS.1

Catalogue of the Pali printed books in the India Office Library, ed. by T.C.H.Raper and revised by M.J.C.O’Keefe. London: The British Library, 1983. [Includes editions in Burmese script.] ORC.PALI.PBS.1

Catalogue of Pali Books. ORC.PALI.PBS.2

Phayre Collection

Content description

The manuscripts were collected and used by Sir Arthur Phayre to produce his History of Burma (London 1883) and the collection was acquired by the Library in 1888. Sir Arthur Phayre (1812-1885) was the first Commissioner of British Burma, 1862-1867.

In 1846 he was appointed assistant to the commissioner of the province of Tenasserim, Burma, and in 1849 he was made commissioner of Arakan. After the Second Anglo-Burmese War in 1852, he became commissioner of Pegu. In 1962 Sir Arthur Phayre was made first Chief Commissioner for the entire province of British Burma. He left Burma in 1867. A collection of about 80 manuscripts in Burmese, Pali (Burmese script) and Mon falls into three catagories: palm leaf manuscripts, paper folding books (parabaik), and manuscripts on European paper. Phayre collection includes several portions of the chronicle on palm leaf and a full text of the Glass Palace Chronicle copied on to European paper and bound in eleven volumes. The majority of the texts are historical or legal works, but there are also literary texts in the collection. Content dates range from 1752 to 1862 AD.

Catalogue

Patricia Herbert, "The Sir Arthur Phayre collection of Burmese manuscripts". The British Library Journal, Vol.1, no.1 (1975), pp.62-70.

Mandalay Collection

Content description

A collection of some 176 manuscripts, including the Vinaya-pitaka, Sutta-pitaka, Abhidhamma-pitaka, and works on history, grammar and doctrines. This collection of manuscripts belonged to the King’s Library at Mandalay and was acquired in 1886 after the Anglo-Burmese War. The collection consists of manuscripts in Pali, Burmese, and some in both Pali and Burmese.

Catalogue

V. Fausböll, Catalogue of the Mandalay manuscripts in the India Office Library [London?] Pali Text Society, 1897.

Burney collection

Content description

Colonel Henry Burney was Resident Minister at the Court of Ava from 1829 to 1838 under the terms of the treaty of Yandabo which ended the first Anglo-Burmese war of 1824-6. Before he was in Ava he was Deputy Commissioner of Tavoy in the province of Tenasserim for three years. When he served as Deputy to the Civil Commissioner of the Tenasserim Provinces he started learning Burmese. Since arriving in Ava, he had progressed so much in his study of the Burmese language. There are about seventy black paper parabaik in this collection. The collection consists of meeting records and official letters to the Burmese government.

Catalogue

Thaung Blackmore, Catalogue of the Burney parabaiks in the India Office Library. London, British Library under the auspices of the British Academy Oriental Documents Committee, 1985.