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Dhammasattha
''Dhammasattha'' ("treatise on the law") is the Pali name of a genre of literature found in the Indianized kingdoms of Western mainland Southeast Asia (modern Laos, Burma, Cambodia, Thailand, and Yunnan) principally written in Pali, Burmese, Mon or the Tai languages or in a bilingual ''nissaya'' or literal Pali translation (). Burmese is often transliterated "dhammathat" and the Tai and Mon terms are typically romanized as "thammasāt" or "dhammasāt" (). "Dhamma" is the Pali-cognate of the Sanskrit-term "Dharma", meaning "law and justice". "Sattha" is the cognate of "śāstra", which either means instruction, learning, or treatise. Dhammasattha texts are historically related to Hindu dharmaśāstra literature from the Indian subcontinent, although they are very significantly influenced by the Theravada Buddhist traditions and literature of Southeast Asia. History The word ''dhammathat'' is first mentioned in a Burmese inscription from 13th-century Bagan, although it is likely ...
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Burmese Customary Law
Burmese customary law, also known as Myanmar customary law (), is the foundational body of legal principles primarily applied to Buddhists in Myanmar, governing family matters such as marriage, divorce, inheritance, and matrimonial rights. This legal system is not codified but evolved from ancient indigenous customs, including pre-colonial legal treatises ( ''dhammathat''), and continues to be shaped by judicial case decisions and legislative adjustments in the modern era. Myanmar is the only majority Buddhist country in the world that has developed and maintained a system of family law for Buddhists enforced by the courts. This law synthesizes indigenous customs, principles from pre-modern legal treatises ('' dhammathats''), and the impact of British colonial rule. In contemporary Myanmar, it operates within a complex legal pluralism, coexisting with state statutory law (e.g., Myanmar Penal Code), other religious personal laws (for Muslims, Hindus, and Christians), and justice syste ...
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Wareru Dhammathat
The ''Wareru Dhammathat'' (, ; also known as Wagaru Dhammathat or Code of Wareru) is one of the oldest extant ''dhammathats'' (legal treatises) of Myanmar (Burma). It was compiled in the 1290s in Mon language, Mon at the behest of King Wareru of Hanthawaddy Kingdom, Martaban. Modeled after the Hindu legal treatise ''Manusmriti'', the Code expounds mostly Pagan Kingdom, Pagan era Burmese customary law; it contains less than 5% of the content of the ''Manusmriti''. The Code was the basic law of the Mon-speaking kingdom until the mid-16th century when it was adopted by the conquering First Toungoo Empire. Translated into Burmese, Pali and Siamese, it became the basic law of the empire. The Code was adapted into the later ''dhammathats'' of the successor states of the empire. In Siam, the Code coexisted alongside other Siamese legal codes, and became the core portion of the Siamese Legal Code of 1805. In Burma, the Code was revised "to support Burmese customary law with explicitly Budd ...
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Dharmaśāstra
''Dharmaśāstra'' () are Sanskrit Puranic Smriti texts on law and conduct, and refer to treatises (shastras, śāstras) on Dharma. Like Dharmasūtra which are based upon Vedas, these texts are also elaborate law commentaries based on vedas, Dharmashastra themselves evolved from dharmshutra. There are many Dharmashastras, variously estimated to number from 18 to over 100. Each of these texts exists in many different versions, and each is rooted in Dharmasutra texts dated to the 1st millennium BCE that emerged from Kalpa (Vedanga) studies in the Vedic era. The textual corpus of Dharmaśāstra were composed in poetic verse, and are part of the Hindu Smritis, constituting divergent commentaries and treatises on ethics particularly duties, and responsibilities to oneself and family as well as those required as a member of society. The texts include discussion of Ashrama (stage), ashrama (stages of life), varna (Hinduism), varna (social classes), Puruṣārtha, purushartha (proper g ...
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Religious Law
Religious law includes ethical and moral codes taught by religious traditions. Examples of religiously derived legal codes include Christian canon law (applicable within a wider theological conception in the church, but in modern times distinct from secular state law), Jewish '' halakha'', Islamic '' sharia'', and Hindu law. In some jurisdictions, religious law may apply only to that religion's adherents; in others, it may be enforced by civil authorities for all residents. Established religions and religious institutions A state religion (or established church) is a religious body officially endorsed by the state. A theocracy is a form of government in which a God or a deity is recognized as the supreme civil ruler. In both theocracies and some religious jurisdictions, conscientious objectors may cause religious offense. The contrary legal systems are secular states or multicultural societies in which the government does not formally adopt a particular religion, ...
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Thammasat University
Thammasat University (TU; ; , ) is a public university, public research university in Thailand with campuses in the Tha Phra Chan area of Bangkok, Rangsit, Pattaya and Lampang Province. , Thammasat University has over 39,000 students enrolled in 33 faculties, colleges, institutes and 2,000 academic staff. Thammasat is Thailand's second oldest List of universities and colleges in Thailand, university. Officially established to be the national university of Thailand on 27 June 1934, it was named by its founder, Pridi Banomyong, the University of Moral and Political Sciences (; ). It began as an Open-door academic policy, open university, with 7,094 students studying law and politics in its first year. In 1960, the university ended its free-entry policy and became the first in Thailand to require passing national entrance examinations for admission. Thammasat today offers more than 240 academic programmes in 33 different faculties and colleges on four campuses. Over the 80 years sin ...
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Pali
Pāli (, IAST: pāl̤i) is a Classical languages of India, classical Middle Indo-Aryan languages, Middle Indo-Aryan language of the Indian subcontinent. It is widely studied because it is the language of the Buddhist ''Pali Canon, Pāli Canon'' or ''Tripiṭaka, Tipiṭaka'' as well as the sacred language of ''Theravada, Theravāda'' Buddhism. Pali was designated as a Classical languages of India, classical language by the Government of India on 3 October 2024. Origin and development Etymology The word 'Pali' is used as a name for the language of the Theravada canon. The word seems to have its origins in commentarial traditions, wherein the (in the sense of the line of original text quoted) was distinguished from the commentary or vernacular translation that followed it in the manuscript. K. R. Norman suggests that its emergence was based on a misunderstanding of the compound , with being interpreted as the name of a particular language. The name Pali does not appear in t ...
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Bagan
Bagan ( ; ; formerly Pagan) is an ancient city and a UNESCO World Heritage Site in the Mandalay Region of Myanmar. From the 9th to 13th centuries, the city was the capital of the Pagan Kingdom, the first kingdom that unified the regions that would later constitute Myanmar. During the kingdom's height between the 11th and 13th centuries, more than 10,000 Buddhist temples, Burmese pagoda, pagodas and Kyaung, monasteries were constructed in the Bagan plains alone, of which the remains of over 2200 temples and pagodas survive. The Bagan Archaeological Zone is a main attraction for Tourism in Myanmar, the country's nascent tourism industry. Etymology Bagan is the present-day Burmese dialects#Dialects, standard Burmese pronunciation of the Burmese word ''Pugan'' ( my-Mymr, ပုဂံ), derived from Old Burmese ''Pukam'' ( my-Mymr, ပုကမ်). Its classical Pali name is ''Arimaddanapura'' ( my-Mymr, အရိမဒ္ဒနာပူရ, lit. "the City that Tramples on Enemies ...
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Legal History
Legal history or the history of law is the study of how law has evolved and why it has changed. Legal history is closely connected to the development of civilizations and operates in the wider context of social history. Certain jurists and historians of legal process have seen legal history as the recording of the evolution of laws and the technical explanation of how these laws have evolved with the view of better understanding the origins of various legal concepts; some consider legal history a branch of intellectual history. Twentieth-century historians viewed legal history in a more contextualised manner – more in line with the thinking of social historians. They have looked at legal institutions as complex systems of rules, players and symbols and have seen these elements interact with society to change, adapt, resist or promote certain aspects of civil society. Such legal historians have tended to analyze case histories from the parameters of social-science inquiry, u ...
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Burmese Literature
The literature of Myanmar () spans over a millennium. The Burmese language, unlike other Southeast Asian languages (e.g. Thai, Khmer), adopted words primarily from Pāli rather than from Sanskrit. In addition, Burmese literature tends to reflect local folklore and culture. Burmese literature has historically been a very important aspect of Burmese life steeped in the Pali Canon of Buddhism. Traditionally, Burmese children were educated by monks in monasteries in towns and villages. During British colonial rule, instruction was formalised and unified, and often bilingual, in both English and Burmese known as Anglo-Vernacular. Burmese literature played a key role in disseminating nationalism among the Burmese during the colonial era, with writers such as Thakin Kodaw Hmaing, an outspoken critic of British colonialism in Burma. Beginning soon after self-rule, government censorship in Burma has been heavy, stifling literary expression. Classical literature The earliest for ...
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Palm-leaf Manuscript
Palm-leaf manuscripts are manuscripts made out of dried palm leaves. Palm leaves were used as writing materials in the Indian subcontinent and in Southeast Asia dating back to the 5th century BCE. Their use began in South Asia and spread to other regions, as texts on dried and smoke-treated palm leaves of the Palmyra or talipot palm. Their use continued until the 19th century when printing presses replaced hand-written manuscripts. One of the oldest surviving palm leaf manuscripts of a complete treatise is a Sanskrit Shaivism text from the 9th century, discovered in Nepal, and now preserved at the Cambridge University Library.Pārameśvaratantra (MS Add.1049.1) with images
, Puṣkarapārameśvaratantra, University of Cambridge (2015)
The
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Parabaik
Folding-book manuscripts are a type of writing material historically used in Mainland Southeast Asia, particularly in the areas of present-day Myanmar, Thailand, Laos and Cambodia. They are known as ''parabaik'' in Burmese, ''samut thai'' in Thai or ''samut khoi'' in Thai and Lao, ''phap sa'' in Northern Thai and Lao, and ''kraing'' in Khmer. The manuscripts are made of a thick paper, usually of the Siamese rough bush (''khoi'' in Thai and Lao) tree or paper mulberry, glued into a very long sheet and folded in a concertina fashion, with the front and back lacquered to form protective covers or attached to decorative wood covers. The unbound books are made in either white or black varieties, with the paper being undyed in the former and blackened with soot or lacquer in the latter. Myanmar Along with paper made from bamboo and palm leaves, ''parabaik'' (ပုရပိုက်) were the main medium for writing and drawing in early modern Burma/Myanmar.Raghavan 1979: 4–14 The U ...
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Myanmar
Myanmar, officially the Republic of the Union of Myanmar; and also referred to as Burma (the official English name until 1989), is a country in northwest Southeast Asia. It is the largest country by area in Mainland Southeast Asia and has a population of about 55 million. It is bordered by India and Bangladesh to its northwest, China to its northeast, Laos and Thailand to its east and southeast, and the Andaman Sea and the Bay of Bengal to its south and southwest. The country's capital city is Naypyidaw, and its largest city is Yangon (formerly Rangoon). Early civilisations in the area included the Tibeto-Burman-speaking Pyu city-states in Upper Myanmar and the Mon kingdoms in Lower Myanmar. In the 9th century, the Bamar people entered the upper Irrawaddy River, Irrawaddy valley, and following the establishment of the Pagan Kingdom in the 1050s, the Burmese language and Culture of Myanmar, culture and Buddhism in Myanmar, Theravada Buddhism slowly became dominant in the co ...
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