ARAKAN DIVISION
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ancestors of both Arakanese and Burmans at the time of the separa-
tion of the former from the main stock. Both Burmese and Arakanese
have since undergone phonetic decay along divergent lines, with:
the result that the two languages now sound widely different. The
difference lies, however, solely in pronunciation: when the varying
sounds are reduced to writing it disappears; vocabulary and syntax
are identical. The Arakanese dialect was spoken in I90o by 383,400
persons in Burma, of whom 381,858 were enumerated in the Arakan
Division.
The ancient kingdom of Arakan, practically conterminous with the
Division, ceased to exist in 1784. Burmese tradition, handed down by
a people anxious to connect the religion of Burma with the cradle of
the Buddhist faith, has it that the founder was a son of a king of
Benares, Sekkyawadi, who was afterwards to be born as Gautama
Buddha. But these legends are shadowy and of little value, and it is
not till the ninth century that we hear anything definite. In the tenth
century the pressure of the rulers of Prome upon Southern Arakan
compelled a change of capital from Dwarawadi (near the existing town
of Sandoway) to MYOHAUNG, farther north. After five centuries of
civil wars and foreign invasions by the tribes across the Yoma, the
kingdom became gradually consolidated. In the fifteenth century
dynastic struggles brought about a temporary subjection to the throne
of Ava; but after 1430 the Arakanese regained their independence,
and throughout the sixteenth century repelled the raids of the Burmans
from the mountains and the Portuguese from the sea. During the
latter half of the sixteenth century Arakan came in contact with the
Mughal power, through the conquest of Chittagong, and the Arakanese
called in the Portuguese to help them. Their dubious allies, however,
proved to be nothing less than pirates, and had to be expelled from the
lands given to them in I605. On being thus ejected they settled in
the island of Sandwip at the mouth of the Ganges and, having obtained
assistance from Goa, attacked Arakan, but were defeated and driven
from the country, while the victorious Arakanese began to harry the
lowlands of Bengal. The power of Arakan was now at its zenith, but
was soon to fall. Aurangzeb, the son of the emperor Shah Jahan, who
had driven his brother Shah Shuja with all his family from Bengal into
the hands of the king of Arakan, determined to avenge the extirpation
of his kinsfolk by that king; and his viceroy, with the aid of the
Portuguese, utterly crushed the power of Arakan, which was further
weakened by internal dissensions, and succumbed to the throne of Ava
in 1784. It is probable that this conquest would have been-only
temporary had no other power been involved. As it was, the refusal.
of the East India Company's officials to surrender the Arakanese
refugees who had been driven out of their country brought the
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