This monograph is an outcome of my studies and research in the domain of Burmese Art, Archaeology, and History that I have been pursuing for the last four years. My original subject was and still is, a comprehensive study of the origin and history of Architecture in Burma-an almost untrodden field of study and research, but one that is gradually yielding results that would contribute, I hope, considerably to our advancement of knowledge of a very important aspect of early Indo-Burmese relations. In course of my studies and investigations on the spot in that connection, I was struck by the presence of a considerable number of Brahmanical images scattered all over the Peninsula interesting from both artistic as well as iconographic points of view. Professedly Buddhistic as Burma was from very early times and still is, these images very naturally invited my attention, and a close preliminary observation convinced me that systematic iconographic and artistic study of them would be much help to my further studies in this field, especially in the study of Burmese monuments. Accordingly, I took it up, and here I put forward the record of my work.
Both geographically and culturally Burma is a projection of the Indian continent and formed a part of Indo-China and ancient Campa, Kamboj, and Siam-Laos. The attention of scholars as well as of laymen has been drawn to the subject of Indian colonial enterprise in the past in those countries as well as in the island colonies of Java and Sumatra, Bali, and Barneo where important archaeological discoveries have been made during the last twenty-five years by French and Dutch scholars. But, unfortunately indeed, the same cannot equally be said of Burma; the amount of attention of Eastern and Western scholars, the study of the history and archaeology of this less-introductory know the Indian Orient is not what it ought to have been. Archaeological study and investigation in Burma is a thing of recent development; and whatever the Archaeological Department of Burma has done in the domain of Early Burmese History and Geography, Art and Archaeology, Iconography and Religion, and above all Epigraphy, during the last three decades in mainly the work of one man, Mon. Charles Duroiselle, late Superintendent, Archaeological Survey, Burma. And, whosoever has worked or attempted to work, in the domain of Burmese History and Archaeology in recent years must, first of all, recognize and acknowledge with gratitude, as I do here, the research carried out by him and his Department. To him, therefore, I dedicate this humble piece of work.
But, despite the valuable work he and his Department have done, the images studied and described in the following pages have not yet received their due recognition. No systematic study to bring out fully their iconographic significance and their learning upon early Indo-Burmese historical and cultural relations has yet been pursued. Most of them have not even been identified and some had even to be rediscovered from the debris of finds thing ago made. I, therefore, make no apology for presenting for one first time a detailed analytical study of these Brahmanical sages in all their bearings as the subject of a short monograph.
