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| Duroiselle, in 1915 that
a sounder archaeology at last came to Burma. Duroiselle, a Pali scholar,
commenced the immense task of both exploration and conservation,. not just at
Pagan but at. other sites, particularly the former Pyu capital of Sri Ksetra.
Duroiselle attempted systematically to measure, analyse and assess the
monuments, publishing his reports and memoirs in the publications of the
Archaeological Survey of India. Perhaps his finest work was his `memoir' on the
Ananda Temple. However, Duroiselle should primarily be remembered for his
translation of a number of the lithic inscriptions in Epigraphica Birmanica,
which he edited with C.O. Blagden, and which ran from 1919 onwards. Blagden
is'a name also to be remembered in any story of the introduction of
archaeological and historical studies in Burma; he brilliantly deciphered the
Pyu script for the first time, after eight hundred years of disuse, in
.addition to exploring the great wealth of Mon lithic inscriptions.
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| Despite Duroiselle's
work, much remained to be done; the emphasis was very much on epigraphy, and
though the old Ananda Museum had been set up, it mainly housed inscriptions
collected for safe storage there. Comparatively few of the monuments had
actually been explored; whole areas, like mural painting and iconography,
remained undocumented-the task of research, at Pagan, had barely begun; yet,
despite lack of resources and manpower that lead to ill-thought restoration in
the case of Hpet-leik, it was not a bad start, and Pagan was perhaps lucky to
be in the care of a Pali scholar..
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| Duroiselle was followed
by a number of highly competent Burmese directors, particularly Mya , Lu Pe Win
and Bo Kay, yet though a system of numbering had been devised, and the job of
conservation continued, exploration at Pagan remained limited and our knowledge
of the monuments and their significance expanded little. For example, though
the approximate location of the palace is known, the site has never been dug.
Likewise, the Dhamma-yan-gyi enigma remains unsolved despite recent
discoveries.
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| In 1912, a group of young
Cambridge aesthetes, that included E.M. Forster, nurtured by Bloomsbury, and
all former Cambridge Apostles, set sail from England to take up academic
appointments of various sorts in the colonies. Thus, Gordon Hannington Luce
came from Cambridge to Burma to teach at the Government College in Rangoon.
Burma was lucky. Luce soon became besotted by the country and was to dedicate
his life to the study of the literature, languages, history and art of old
Burma. Though neither an archaeologist, nor expert in oriental .languages by
training (he read Classics and English at Cambridge), Luce was quick to master
not only the Old Burmese and Mon epigraphic sources, but also the Chinese
sources relating to Burma. A poet by calling, compassionate by nature, he took
a Burmese wife and had little love for the club society of the colonials. Luce
never belonged to the Archaeological Survey, though he worked closely with
them, and after the foundation of a
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| university at Rangoon in
1920, where he lectured first in English and then in Burmese and Far Eastern
History, Luce's personal research into Pagan history,, reinforced by a study
leave spent at the Sorbonne under Louis Finot and Paul Pelliot of the Ecole
Francaise Orient, was prolific and enormously productive. Luce trained his
servant in the art of making rubbings and sent him off to search round the
districts for previously unknown inscriptions. Luce saw the clue to an
understanding -08 Pagan in the study of languages and literature and as
Professor Tinker said:
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| The erudition he now
employed was quite amazing. He ranges over so many texts that the reader not so
well equipped linguistically is left breathless. If his main sources are
Chinese, he also demonstrates his mastery of Greek and Latin texts as well as
considerable familiarity with Pali, Sanskrit, and even of the Tamil, Malay,
Arabic and Persian languages. This polymath was also his autodidact. Languages
which other men require a lifetime to master became his linguistic tool within
a few years.
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| Linguist Luce was, and it
is in this role, together with his brother-in-law U Pe Mating Tin and his
friend Bohmu Ba Shin, that his name will be remembered. Luce was not trained as
an art historian; indeed this discipline developed late in Britain, and, thus,
late in her colonies. In his encyclopedic study of 'Early Period' Pagan, a work
that represented the findings of a life's research, Luce was to set out one of
the most difficult stories a historian could ever attempt to tell. Unlike so
many scholarly works, it -is a work as beautiful as that which it explains; if
there are inaccuracies and errors they are outweighed by a high degree of
exactness and insight elsewhere. If, at times, his Cambridge aestheticism
shines through, with gorgeous prose-poetry, it is a joy for the reader and
hardly a distraction. Luce was a `romantic', yet he combined his romanticism
with scholarly precision, erudition and insight. Though he has since been much
criticised by Burmese scholars for his belief that Pagan culture was extracted
from that of the Mons, he may easily be excused for this 35 Likewise, though in
his assessment of many of the monuments he ignores the process of evolution of
style, form and motif, and bases all on either epigraphy, or perhaps his muse,
he must still be honoured for offering a foundation upon which works such as
this may be built.
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| With the outbreak of the
1939-45 war, archaeological work stopped and Pagan was, as in 1826, to come
close to being the site of a major last battle, on this occasion between the
advancing allies and the retreating Japanese. Fortunately, the temple-studded
plain escaped the attention of heavy artillery and aerial bombings, in other
words the inevitable destruction that modern warfare would bring. This escape
was due to the direct intervention of Luce at the allies' headquarters and Luce
has been remembered in a
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