so to speak, Bishops, with four more as
assistants and over them all his chaplain Nana as Archbishop.
Nana was a man of energy and lived in turn in various monasteries
supervising the discipline and studies.

In spite of the extravagances of Bodopaya, the Church was flourishing
and respected in his reign. The celebrated image called Mahamuni was
transferred from Arakan to his capital together with a Sanskrit
library, and Burma sent to Ceylon not only the monks who founded the
Amarapura school but also numerous Pali texts. This prosperity
continued in the reigns of Bagyidaw, Tharrawadi and Pagan-min, who
were of little personal account. The first ordered the compilation of
the Yazawin, a chronicle which was not original but incorporated and
superseded other works of the same kind. In his reign arose a question
as to the validity of grants of land, etc., for religious purposes. It
was decided in the sense most favourable to the order, _viz._ that
such grants are perpetual and are not invalidated by the lapse of
time. About 1845 there was a considerable output of vernacular
literature. The Digha, Samyutta and Anguttara Nikayas with their
commentaries were translated into Burmese but no compositions in Pali
are recorded.

From 1852 till 1877 Burma was ruled by Mindon-min, who if not a
national hero was at least a pious, peace-loving, capable king. His
chaplain, Pannasami, composed the Sasanavamsa, or ecclesiastical
history of Burma, and the king himself was ambitious to figure as a
great Buddhist monarch, though with more sanity than Bodopaya, for his
chief desire was to be known as the Convener of the Fifth Buddhist
Council. The body so styled met from 1868 to 1871 and, like the
ancient Sangitis, proceeded to recite the Tipitaka in order to
establish the correct text. The result may still be seen at Mandalay
in the collection of buildings commonly known as the four hundred and
fifty Pagodas: a central Stupa surrounded by hundreds of small shrines
each sheltering a perpendicular tablet on which a portion of this
veritable bible in stone is inscribed. Mindon-min also corrected the
growing laxity of the Bhikkhus, and the esteem in which the Burmese
church was held at this time is shown by the fact that the monks of
Ceylon sent a deputation to the Sangharaja of Mandalay referring to
his decision a dispute about a _sima_ or ecclesiastical boundary.

Mindon-min was succeeded by Thibaw, who was deposed by the
British. The San