A WARRIOR-RULER STELE FROM SRi K~ETRA, PYU, BURMA

Beginning to construct a chronology of Pyu sculpture is exceedingly difficult. An extraordinary stone stele, discovered at Sri ~etra in the 1970s presents a new dimension to our understanding of the origins of the Pyu sculptural style. It invites comparison with Indian prototypes of the early centuries AD from Andhra Pradesh, especially the low relief panels favoured for stupa decoration at Nagarjunakonda and related sites of the lksavakus and Visnukundins rulers (c. third to sixth centuries AD). It also exhibits what one suspects is a strong indigenous aesthetic but for which comparative material is exceedingly scarce. Given the nature of the Pyu cultural context in which this sculpture was found, I would provisionally suggest a fifth century date. The stele, over 1.5 metres in height, depicts a warrior-king, accompanied by two standard bearers, holding agaru£!.adhvaja and what appears to be a cakradhvaja respectively. Portable standards were used as emblems of rank and in the Indian epics no warrior of note appears without one. Associated with rulers and heroes in early India, dhvajas were always displayed by noble warriors as a source of magical power to assure victory. The garu£!.adhvaja in India is linked with Vishnu and kings, and taken together with the cakradhvaja, a warrior symbol, suggests a Vaisnavite allegiance amongst the ruling elite of Sri K~etra (as also supported by sculptural evidence from Sri K~etra). This rests uneasily with the overwhelmingly Buddhist nature of the site in its later history. This paper is concerned with the cultural activity of the Pyu, who occupied central and upper Burma in the first millennium AD. Little is known about their origin, though they employed a written script which has links to southern India.1 The bulk of the archaeological data for this period was obtained through excavations of Pyu urban settlements in upper and central Burma (Aung Thaw 1972). It is surely significant that the Pyu were recognized by the Chinese, in the Hou Han Shu (2nd century AD), as a civilized people (Wheatley 1983: 167), perhaps reflecting the Pyu's early adoption of Buddhism. A later Chinese source, Man Shu by Fan Ch'o, AD 863 (Luce 1961: 90), endorsed this view: [The people of] the [P'iao = Pyu] kingdom use a silver coinage. They use green bricks to make the walls surrounding their city. It is one day to walk around it. The common people all live within the city-wall. There are twelve gates. In front of the gate of the palace where the king of [this] kingdom dwells, there is a great image seated in the open air, over a hundred feet high, and white as snow ... The people's nature is friendly and good ... They reverence the Law of the Buddha. Within the city there is absolutely no taking of life. Also there are many astrologers who tell fortunes by the stars. • John Guy is Deputy Curator of Indian and Southeast Asian Art, Victoria & Albert Museum, London SW7 2RL. Journal of The Siam Society Vol 85, Parts 1 & 2 This graphic description, most probably of the northern Pyu city of Halin, was written by a Chinese official who served in