It is noticeable that Taranatha states[139] that in the Koki countries, among which he expressly mentions Pukham (Pagan) and Hamsavati (Pegu), Hinayanism was preached from the days of Asoka onwards, but that the Mahayana was not known until the pupils of Vasubandhu introduced it.

The presence of Hinayanism in Lower Burma naturally did not prevent the arrival of Mahayanism.  It has not left many certain traces but Atisa (c. 1000), a great figure in the history of Tibetan Buddhism, is reported to have studied both in Magadha and in Suvarnadvipa by which Thaton must be meant.  He would hardly have done this, had the clergy of Thaton been unfriendly to Tantric learning.  This mediaeval Buddhism was also, as in other countries, mixed with Hinduism but whereas in Camboja and Champa Sivaism, especially the worship of the lingam, was long the official and popular cult and penetrated to Siam, few Sivaite emblems but numerous statues of Vishnuite deities have hitherto been discovered in Burma.

The above refers chiefly to Lower Burma.  The history of Burmese Buddhism becomes clearer in the eleventh century but before passing to this new period we must enquire what was the religious condition of Upper Burma in the centuries preceding it.  It is clear that any variety of Buddhism or Brahmanism may have entered this region from India by land at any epoch.  According to both Hsuan Chuang and I-Ching Buddhism flourished in Samatata and the latter mentions images of Avalokita and the reading of the Prajna-paramita.  The precise position of Samatata has not been fixed but in any case it was in the east of Bengal and not far from the modern Burmese frontier.  The existence of early Sanskrit inscriptions at Taungu and elsewhere has been recorded but not with as much detail as could be wished.[140] Figures of Bodhisattvas and Indian deities are reported from Prome,[141] and in the Lower Chindwin district are rock-cut temples resembling the caves of Barabar in Bengal.  Inscriptions also show that at Prome there were kings, perhaps in the seventh century, who used the Pyu language but bore Sanskrit titles.  According to Burmese tradition the Buddha himself visited the site of Pagan and prophesied that a king called Sammutiraya would found a city there and establish the faith.  This prediction is said to have been fulfilled in 108 A.D. but the notices quoted from the Burmese chronicles are concerned less with the progress of true religion than with the prevalence of heretics known as Aris.[142] It has been conjectured that this name is a corruption of Arya but it appears that the correct orthography is aran representing an original aranyaka, that is forest priests.  It is hard to say whether they were degraded Buddhists or an indigenous priesthood who in some ways imitated what they knew of Brahmanic and Buddhist institutions.  They wore black robes, let their hair grow, worshipped serpents, hung up in their temples the heads of animals that had been