Barua people

For the Assamese surname, see Baruah.

Barua Magh

বড়ুয়া মঘ
Total population
1.2 million^[citation needed]
Regions with significant populations
Bangladesh Myanmar India
Languages
Chittagonian
Religion
Theravada Buddhism

Buddhist temple on Maheshkhali Island in Chittagong Division, Bangladesh

Barua (Bengali: বড়ুয়া, romanized: Boṛua; Rakhine: မရမာကြီး) is a Bengali-speaking Magh ethnic group^[1] who lives in Chittagong Division in Bangladesh, West Bengal in India and Rakhine State in Myanmar, where they are known as the Maramagyi or Maramagri or particularly the Magh Barua.^[2] According to Arakanese chronology, the Barua Buddhists have lived there for five thousand years.^[3] The word 'Barua' was formed of Arakanese words Bo (meaning Army Chief) and Yoya (meaning locality, village). Literally, Barua means the place where an army chief resides. Later on, the people who lived in such locality or village also gradually came to be known as Barua.^[4] In Myanmar, Barua Maghs are classified as one of the seven ethnic groups that make up the Rakhine nation. In West Bengal (India), Barua Magh Buddhist Community is recognized as Scheduled Tribe (ST). The physical characteristics of Barua (Maramagyi) people are Mongolian, their stature is low, face is broad and flat, cheekbones high and wide, nose flat and bridgeless, and eyes small with eyelids obliquely set. Their list of favourite foods invariably includes shnutki machhor(dry fish), sea fish and spicy food prepared with lots of oil and chilli, Gudog with bamboo shoots. Different kinds of shnutki an indication of their origin can be identified. For instance, according to multiple respondents the Siddala and Hangor shnutki (dried sea fish) are consumed by this particular Arakanese community. Borga (pork) is the most commonly consumed meat by the Barua Magh community.

The primary scripture of Barua Magh Tribal Community, the Tripitaka was written in the Pali language. Magh Barua Buddhists of Chittagong have Arakan roots. They migrated to Chittagong some four or five hundred years ago. The term Magh has been derived as corrupted form of appellation Mang or Meng. Use of name Mang or Meng was widely prevalent in Chittagong among the ancestors of Buddhist communities now using the name Barua.

Chittagong was formerly known as "Chaityagrama" or "town with Buddhist shrines".^[5] The region attracted Chinese Buddhist visitors in the 7th century. In 1929, in Jhewari village a hoard of 61 Buddhist images from 9th and 10th century was found.^[6] It was a centre of Buddhism in the 10th century.^[7] Taranatha mentions a monastery named Pinda-Vihara at Chittagong where the custom of wearing pointed caps originated.^[8] The scholar Vanaratna (1384–1468 CE) who is considered the last Indian Buddhist Pandit in Tibet,^[9] was born in the Chittagong district.^[10] He studied in Sri Lanka, parts of the old heartland of Buddhism in present-day Bihar including Bodh Gaya, Tibet and then he settled down in the Kathmandu Valley in Nepal. He wrote in Sanskrit and Apabhramsha. Chittagong region is one of the two regions of the Indian subcontinent where Indian Buddhism has survived without interruption. They insist that they came from the Āryāvarta or the country of the Āryans which is practically identical to the country later known as Majjhimadesa or Madhyadesa in the Pali texts.^[11]

A Magh king, Jaychand, ruled the Chittagong region in the 16th century.^[12] There are periods in history which are known as the dark days and Buddhism or Buddhist history too had to pass through this period in India. Starting with the Muslim invasion when Ikhtiyar Uddin Muhammad bin Bakhtiyar Khilji with his marauding soldiers plundered their way to the throne of India, it was a time when the Buddhist Viharas were destroyed and monks fled the place to escape the brutality and later the Brahmins too caused immense damage to Buddhism by killing the Buddhist monks and destroying the very fabric a Buddhism. By the advent of the nineteenth century, Buddhism was almost extinct in the land of its birth save except for a few pockets where it survived with the influence or migration of Buddhist tribes from Myanmar, Thailand and Chittagong (now in Bangladesh)^[13]

Religious Barua Magh Buddhist Scriptures

History

In the ancient history of Arakan, Rajowang, towards the middle of second century AD (AD 146), a vassal of Magadh’s Chandra Surya Kingdom established a territory in Arakan and Chittagong. With his subjects and soldiers, he established his capital in Dhanyabati. These settlers were integral to the preaching of Buddhism and its culture in Chittagong and Arakan. Those arriving from Magadh (Ancient Indian kingdom in Southern Bihar) as well as locals in Chittagong, who embraced Buddhism, came to be known as ‘Mag’ or ‘Magh’.^[14] By 1585, European, Persian, and Bengali accounts began describing all the Buddhist groups in the region as the Mugh or Maghs.

Descriptions of European writers like Risley (1891),^[15] Hunter and O’Malley (O’Malley 1908) and present day discussions of Sukomal Chaudhuri (Chaudhuri 1982), Ram Chandra Barua (Barua 2010) reveal that, ‘Magh’ and ‘Buddhism’ are synonymously treated in Chittagong.

In present day, non-Buddhists of Chittagong consider the word ‘Magh’ and Buddhists to be identical in the usual settings. However, it is unanimously agreed upon by all that those belonging to the ‘Magh’ community are divided into several groups. The divisions are

i)The Thongtha, Thongcha, Jumia Mags

ii)The Marma, Mayamma, Roang or Rakhaing Magh

iii)The Maramagri, Maramagyi or otherwise called Barua Magh.

They belong to the second sub tribe or group within the Magh Community.^[16]

Magh Cooks

The British built the railways to expand the tea and Burma teak trade, ferried goods, passengers, British sahibs and zamindars. Magh Baruas, who were inherently exceptional cooks were able to understand the European recipes and adapt them with a touch of their own. Since Maghs were Buddhists, they had no qualms preparing pork or beef, so the Britishers employed them on steamers. The delicacies made by Magh Barua cooks eventually crept into the colonial clubs of Kolkata.

The Magh Baruas were appointed by the Britishers and the affluent households of babus like the Shobhabazar Rajbari. Raja Nabakrishna Deb and his family often entertained the British officials, and on such occasions, the Magh cooks were called in to cook various European delicacies for the Britishers.^[17]

Theravada Buddhism

Buddhist Monastery in Moheshkhali

The Baruas used to follow Mahayana Buddhism and followed some of the Hindu customs until the mid 19th century when Saṅgharaj Sāramedha Mahāthera (1801–82) of Arakan, returning from Bodh Gaya, was invited to Chittagong in 1856.^[18]

In the mid 19th century, the Baruas came into contact with other Theravada Buddhists from Burma and Ceylon, and these Baruas were the first groups like the Chakmas who converted into Buddhists during Buddha's time.^[19]

The first Pāli school in modern times was started in Pahartali, Chittagong by Ācarya Punnācāra with the financial backing from a zamindar, Haragobinda Mutsuddi, in 1885.^[20] Bauddha Dharmankur Sabha Buddhist religious organization founded by Venerable Kripasaran Mahasthavir in Calcutta on 5 October 1892.^[21] Kripasharan Mahasthavir was its first president, and Surendralal Mutsuddi was its secretary. The journal of the Dharmankur Sabha, Jagajjyoti, edited by Gunalangkar Sthavir and Shraman Punnananda Swami, was first published in 1908. It was subsequently edited by Benimadhab Barua.

Benimadhab (1888–1948) was born in the village of Mahamuni under Raozan Thana, Chittagong. He was the son of Kaviraj Rajchandra Talukder. Benimadhab assumed the title of "Barua". In 1913, he obtained an MA degree in Pali from University of Calcutta. He also studied law at Calcutta City College and Calcutta Law College.

He became one of the pioneers of the revitalization of Buddhism in the Barua Community. Benimadhab joined the Mahāmuni Anglo-Pāli Institution as headmaster in 1912. From 1913 to 1914 he worked as a lecturer in the Pāli department of the University of Calcutta. He went to England on a government scholarship in 1914. He earned an MA in Greek and Modern European Philosophy from the University of London. In 1917 he was awarded a D.Litt. by the University of London. He was the first Asian to do so.^[22] After returning to India in 1918, Benimadhab rejoined Calcutta University and was promoted to professorship. He improvised the syllabus of the MA course in Pali, in addition his work in the departments of Ancient Indian History and Culture, (1919–48) and Sanskrit (1927–48), in the same university.[1] ^[23]

Anagarika Dharmapala visited Chittagong in 1917, where he influenced a 9-year-old boy, who later became the well known Pali scholar Prof. Dwijendra Lal Barua.^[24]

Dipa Ma, a prominent Buddhist master in Asia of Barua descent.

New traditional outfit of Maramargyi.

Notable Barua

• Benimadhab Barua
• Dipa Ma
• Kripasaran
• Sukumar Barua
• Partha Barua
• Bipradash Barua
• Subrata Barua
• Sukomal Barua
• Dibyendu Barua
• Bikiran Prasad Barua
• Dilip Barua
• Dilip Barua (footballer)
• Gyanashree Mahathero
• Suddhananda Mahathero

See also

• Anagarika Munindra
• Barua Buddhist Institutes in India and Bangladesh
• Bengali Buddhists
• Dalit Buddhist movement § Re-emergence of Buddhism in India
• Dipa Ma
• Shalban Vihara
• Chakma people

References

1. Risley, H.H (1892). The Tribes and Castes of Bengal Volume 2. Bengal Secretariat Press. p. 28-36.
2. Hattaway, Paul (2004). Peoples of the Buddhist World: A Christian Prayer Diary. William Carey Library. ISBN 9780878083619.
3. "Buddhist Studies: Theravada Buddhism, Bangladesh".
4. Chaudhuri, Sukomal (1982). Contemporary Buddhism in Bangladesh. the University of Virginia: Atisha Memorial Publishing Society. pp. 47–48.
5. The Buddhists of Chittagong, Appendix to Chapter 3, Bengal district gazetteers, 1908, p. 65
6. Sarita Khettry, Sakyabhikshu of Bronze Image Inscriptions of Bengal, Proceedings of the Indian History Congress, Vol. 71 (2010-2011), pp. 148-153
7. "Mahayana Buddhism". World History Encyclopedia. Retrieved 14 January 2021.
8. Taranatha's History Of Buddhism In India, Motilal banarasidas, 1970, p. 254-255
9. Rahul Sankrityanan, Bauddha Samskriti, 1952, p. 418
10. Wilden, Eva (2021). "Introduction". Education Materialised. pp. 373–378. doi:10.1515/9783110741124-018. ISBN 9783110741124. S2CID 243661299.
11. Buddhism in Bangladesh
12. Magh raiders in Bengal, Jamini Mohan Ghosh Bookland, 1960p. 55
13. Chatterjee, Aparna (28 November 2022). The Barua Buddhists: Lineage and Cultural Interface. Shhalaj Publishing House. ISBN 978-93-5018-442-4.
14. Chaudhuri, Sukomal (1982). Contemporary Buddhism in Bangladesh. Atisha Memorial Publishing Society. pp. 47–48.
15. Risley, H.H (1892). The Tribes and Castes of Bengal Volume 2. Bengal Secretariat Press. pp. 28–36.
16. "Historical Settings and Physical Configuration of the Community".
17. "The legacy of Magh cooks".
18. South Asian Buddhism: A Survey, Stephen C. Berkwitz, Routledge, 2012, p. 184
19. Young East, 1979, Volumes 5-7, pp. 25-26
20. Buddhist Education in Bangladesh: Challenges and Possibilities, Sajal Barua, Feb. 27, 2015
21. Mahasthavir, Kripasharan, 5 May 2014
22. "Remembering Dr. B. M. Barua - A Distinguished Scholar of Indology - 1st Indian to Get a D.Lit From University of London". The Darjeeling Chronicle. 31 December 2018. Retrieved 15 January 2021.
23. Dr. B.M. Barua Birth Centenary Commemoration Volume, 1989, Bauddha Dharmankur Sabha, 1989
24. Sugat Barua, The Maha Bodhi,1891-1991, Volumes 98-99; Maha-Bodhi Society, p. 307

External links

• Article: A Brief History of Barua Community in Bangladesh