2026-09-23T19:05:44Z https://www.ideals.illinois.edu/oai-pmh

oai:www.ideals.illinois.edu:2142/129316 2025-10-20 col_2142_5131 col_2142_45103 com_2142_5130 com_2142_27709 com_2142_8903

application/pdf en text Submission original under an indefinite embargo labeled 'Open Access'. The submission was exported from vireo on 2025-10-19 without embargo terms The student, Hpone Tu, accepted the attached license on 2025-05-04 at 08:22. The student, Hpone Tu, submitted this Thesis for approval on 2025-05-04 at 08:31. This Thesis was approved for publication on 2025-05-07 at 08:26. DSpace SAF Submission Ingestion Package generated from Vireo submission #22199 on 2025-10-19 at 18:12:29 From Hindu villain to heroic Buddhist king: Dathagiri in the Thiri Rama Tu, Hpone Myint 2025-05-07 Newman, Adam L. Buddhism Kingship Ramayana Authorship Myanmar History And Literature Southeast Asian History And Literature eng This paper analyzes the character of Dathagiri in the Thiri Rama, an 18th century Myanmar court drama. The Thiri Rama is the Myanmar version of the Rāmāyaṇa story – this play is a little-known work in Western scholarship. The most widely known version of the Rāmāyaṇa is Vālmīki’s Rāmāyaṇa, and in this story, the villain is Daśagrīvā. In the Thiri Rama, however, I argue that Dathagiri, Daśagrīvā’s counterpart, is not a villain, but a heroic Buddhist figure. Scholars of the Thiri Rama have labelled Dathagiri the villain of the story, taking, I suspect, a reading of Daśagrīvā and imposing it upon Dathagiri. But this claim does not withstand close scrutiny. I textually analyze the first few acts of the play—which contain Dathagiri’s coming-of-age story—to demonstrate that Dathagiri is a heroic, Buddhist king. Furthermore, to truly understand the complexity of the Dathagiri character, I make connections to the historical context of the Thiri Rama. The Dathagiri character also contains in it the voices of Siamese captives after the fall of Ayutthaya in 1767 and that of the Myanmar royal court defending its empire against a Qing invasion. My study of this relatively obscure text, I hope, enriches the scholarship on Buddhist kingship and the Rāmāyaṇa. 2025-05 Text https://hdl.handle.net/2142/129316 Copyright 2025 Hpone Tu Religion Religion University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign M.A. Thesis