International Convention of Asia Scholars (ICAS)

In bringing the insights of linguistic scholarship to historical inquiry, this study considers the language of a set of historical narratives of the Mons, who developed one of the earliest, foundational civilizations in Mainland Southeast Asia. A close reading of the language of the largest of the texts, the Rājādhirāj narrative, suggests that the texts were transmitted at times through the Thai language. This reading also reveals the “residually oral” aspects of the rhetoric and organizational style of the language. This residual orality suggests that the texts were created and transmitted at least in part orally. A source of the narrative of Rājādhirāj from outside modern conceptions of the Mon nation and ethnic boundaries in turn leads to an examination of the state of history-writing in and on Burma, while considering some of the intellectual traditions and practices of history-writing in Burma. This consideration reveals the role of British colonial conceptions, such as of the truth-value of historical sources, which in turn shapes and even limits how Burmese and Mon scholars and intellectuals think of narratives like that of Rājādhirāj. A larger concern of this study is to bring both the practice of Burmese history-writing and Burma Studies in step with wider trends in Southeast Asian history-writing, to continue the project of reconsidering the foundational myths of national and ethnic histories, and to reevaluate the bases for current conceptions and understandings of historical narratives.