A study of gods of Myanmar and India

Abstract

Both in Myanmar and India have a strong history for gods/ nats. Most of the gods have similarity

to pay respect. In Myanmar, most of the people believe that there are 37 gods from both inside and

outside called အတွငး် နတ်-37 and အြပင်နတ်-37 who are the soul of the heroes. In India too, there

are over a hundred nats such as Brahma (the god of creation), Vishnu (the god of preservation),

Shiva (the god of destruction), Saraswati (the goddness of learning), Lakshmi (the goddness of

prosperity), Parvati (the goddness of power associated with courage), etc. They also believe in

animals and worship them. Both Myanmar and Indian worship gods for different reasons: to

control some part of the universe or life. There are three ways to worship the gods. At first, the

regular worship takes place inside the Temple, mostly in front of the immovable objects. Then

there are the festivals, which is "public worship" carrying out, in the words of the Sanskrit

expression "for the well-being of the world". The third type of worship is that which is done by or

for a single devotee, and is meant only for his benefit. These ways occur both in Myanmar and

India.

Keywords: gods/ nats, Myanmar, India, worship, festival

Introduction

The gods/ nats that play a significant role in the lives of the populations for both India and

Myanmar are deeply ingrained in both countries' religious and cultural landscapes. The purpose of

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this assignment is to conduct what kinds of gods in Myanmar and India there are and how much

they overwhelm on human beings in India and Myanmar.

Aim and objective

The aim and objective of this paper, a study of gods of Myanmar and India is to find out

what kinds of gods in Myanmar and India are and how much they overwhelm on human beings.

Literature Review

In this article, Gods, Priests, and Purity: On the relation between Hinduism and the Caste

system, the writer, C.J. Fuller mainly mean the religion of the Hindu gods, says that the gods are

vitally important beings whose existence is hardly ever questioned. Next, he mentioned that a

Karnataka village applies with almost equal force to Hindus in the city of Madurai: 'Rampurians

lived in a theistic universe in the sense that everyone in the village believed that gods did exist, or

more precisely, deities, male and female, and spirits, did exist'. That the gods should be

appropriately worshipped by human beings is rarely doubted either; for the people themselves, the

problem of why the gods are so extensively worshipped, in both temples and homes, is no problem

at all.

According to the paper, worship (puja) of the gods in front of their images is the most

important ritual that takes place in the Temple. There are three main types of worship that can be

distinguished. First, there is the regular worship that takes place inside the Temple, mostly in front

of the immovable objects. Then there are the festivals, which frequently feature processions of

moving pictures. I refer to these two forms of worship as "public worship" because they are carried

out, in the words of the Sanskrit expression "for the well-being of the world". The third type of

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worship, which I refer to as "private worship," is that which is done by or for a single devotee, and

is meant only for his benefit.

To conclude on the article, gods play an important role for human beings who pay respect

or worship to gods both at homes and temples. In Myanmar too, the people have three main types

of worship to gods. For example, there are immovable shrine at the entrance of the city, town or

village. In Mandalay, there is BoeboeKyi shrine (ဘိးု ဘိးု �ကီးနန်း) at the corner of TheinPan Stree

and Mandalay-Maymyo Street. It is immovable. If people go out of Mandalay, most of the drivers

or people pay respect by pressing horn or by offering flowers. I heard that some people go and see

that god after buying a vehicle. Why it is done is to be safe from all types of danger. I am not sure

that it is really sure or not. Anyhow, gods play important and overwhelm on the believe of the

human beings.

U San Lwin translated the book, Man’s Religions. Under the subtitle, popular Hindu

religion, the writer, he says that the people worship gods who are deity, demons, animals and

higher gods such as Vishnu, Brahma, Shiva, tradition spirits: the guardian spirit, trees, etc. Why

they worship the gods is to have rain, to produce qualified crops, to escape from danger, to fulfill

enough food for their daily life, etc. It is also similar to our Myanmar gods/ nats. Different people

from different level believe in differences from both India and Myanmar.

Mr. Temple wrote a book called A Phase of Spirit Worship prevailing in Burma. In his

book, he said there are 37 gods respectably from inside and outside. After heroes passed away,

their soul is called nats who were king, general, etc. Every nats have different customs, different

wares, different dance, different places and time to make festival.

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 In Myanmar, the top and hottest numbers for religion and present knowledge are 3, 5, 7, 9,

37. 3 stands for the Triple Gems, 5 is the five precepts, 7 means moral man’s good things, 9 goes

to the quality of the Buddha and 37 is for ေဗာဓိပက�ိယ တရား. At that time, people strongly

believed in gods and did the ceremony widely. Than, King Anawyatha asked his men to destroy

everything which is concerned with gods. Such kinds of the statues were kept at the wall of Bagan

Shwe Si Khon Pagoda by tying the gods with iron robe chains. Next, 37 nats could be seen

respectively from outside and inside. The book says that there are completed or perfect nats for

inner part but not from outside. It is obvious that there are nearly or over a hundred gods in

Myanmar and India.

Finding and discussion

Around the world, there are so many gods which are called nats, gods like spirits. In

Myanmar, King Anawrahta designated the 37 Great Nats when he formulated the official list of

nats. Most of the 37 Great Nats were human beings who met violet deaths. There are two types of

gods in the believe of Burmese. They are nat sein which are human.

In Myanamr, nat worship is common in rural areas than urban areas. Minorities of ethic as

well as in mainstream Burmese society practice nat worship. Nat worship can be seen among the

Theravada Buddhist Myanmar.

Most of the villages in Myanmar has a nat sin or nat kun which essential serves as a shrine

to the village guardian nat which is called ywa saung nat. Individual houses also have a shrine to

a net, usually hung coconut can be seen on a corner of the house or property, surrounded by

perfume as an offering. Some generation inherits a certain member or in some instances of the 37

Great Nats from one or both parents’ side to worship depending on where their families originaly

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come from. Most of the people believe the one also has a personal guardian deity called Ko Saung

Nat.

At my house from Loikaw, Kayah State, there could be seen a nut sin at the entrance of the

state. Whenever the people leave out of the state, they pay worship the nat not to face any trouble.

At my house too, we had so many nut sins last ten years ago. My mom was the only strong believer

in nats at that time. Luckily, she gave back after listening to the dhamma talks. Last ten years ago,

giving dhamma talk ceremony was widely celebrated. It really works for most of the people, my

mom and me. For having a chance of listening to the dhamma talk by Sayardaws, we could lead

to a better way or future. My mom also gave back for believing in gods at that time. Now, there is

the only one shrine which is the place for the Buddha. It is really wonderful. But there could still

be seen shrine at some of the people’s houses. They strongly believe in gods.

From my husband’s relatives, they still do some special occasion for the nat from their

native place, Monywa. Every year, they go back and celebrate the festival for the nat. If they cannot

go back to their native town, they give money to someone who goes back they town. It could be

relative or neighbor. They do believe that they keep doing the celebration for the nat from their

native place, everything is prosperous. Otherwise, whatever they face problem, it is because of

missing something to offer to their nat.

In Mandalay, there are spirit festivals. Most of the LGBT go to Taung Pyune for Taung

Pyune Pwe and go to Amarapur for nat pwe. Not just LGBT but also, some people not only from

Mandalay but also from other places come to Mandalay for Taung Pyune Pwe. For me too, when

I firstly arrived Mandalay, I visited Taung Pyune Pwe just once. Next, I went to Paw Taw Mu for

coxing nats with my mom and her friends. at the time, I was really sad for seeing people who were

rolling on the ground and dancing like a snake. At that time, my mom also rolled on the ground

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like a snake on the ground. Till now, she sometimes goes and offers something such as bananas,

coconut, popcorn, milk, roses, etc. when she needs to get something.

It is really amazing that some still has a strong desire believing in nats/ gods which are

called အတွငး် နတ်-37 and အြပင်နတ်-37 and the other nats too who are not in the list. Next, they

are regularly offered something differently and respectively.

In India, there are so many nats: Brahma (the god of creation), Vishnu (the god of

preservation), Shiva (the god of destruction), Saraswati (the goddness of learning), Lakshmi (the

goddness of prosperity), Parvati (the goddness of power associated with courage), etc.

On the first day of the lunar month of Chaitra, Hindus celebrate Ugadi. It honors Lord

Brahma, who created the universe. On this day, a great number of deities are worshipped as we

pray to Lord Ganesha, Mata Parvati, Lord Vishnu, Lord Ram, and Goddess Lakshmi for their

blessings on the coming year and for long life, abundance, and peace in our lives. Neem leaves

and jaggery are additional offerings made to the gods.

The Supreme God of Vaishnavism, one of Hinduism's three main branches, and one of its

three supreme deities (Trimurti), Vishnu is a Hindu deity. He also goes by the names Hari and

Narayana. He is envisioned as "the Preserver or the Protector" within the Trimurti, the Hindu

Trinity of the divinity, and is one of the five fundamental forms of God in the Smarta tradition.

Vishnu, along with Brahma and Shiva, is considered a member of Hinduism's holy trinity

(trimurti). He is the most important god in Vaishnavism, the largest Hindu sect. Indeed, to

demonstrate Vishnu's superior status, Brahma is said to have been born from a lotus flower that

grew from Vishnu's naval. Vishnu is a complex character. He is the Preserver and Guardian of

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Men (Narayana), he protects the order of things (dharma), and he appears on Earth in various

incarnations or avatars to fight demons and fierce creatures and thus maintain cosmic harmony.

Vishnu represents Sattvaguna and is the centripetal force responsible for the creation's

sustenance, protection, and maintenance. There is Lord Vishnu Mantra which is “Om Namo

Narayanaya. Om Namo Bhagavate Vasudevaya”. In Hindu is (ॐ नमोः नारायणाय. ॐ नमोः भगवते

वासुदेवाय).

Conclusion

To conclude the paper, there are so many gods/ nats both in Myanmar and India. In

Myanmar, there are အတွငး် နတ်-37 and အြပင်နတ်-37 in general but there are still gods who are

out of the list. In India too, there are over one-hundred gods. For example, Brahma (the god of

creation), Vishnu (the god of preservation), Shiva (the god of destruction), Saraswati (the goddness

of learning), Lakshmi (the goddness of prosperity), Parvati (the goddness of power associated with

courage), etc. Different people from different class worship different gods. Gods overwhelm on

most of the human beings. Therefore, the people try to worship the gods not to get any harm on

the living for the beings. In my point of view, we all should stop worshiping in gods because the

Buddha should be the only one to worship. If paying respect to gods is still convenient, otherwise

making a strong desire is needed to make to give back keeping something concerning with gods,

nats. For further study, the decreasing of believing or worshiping in gods around the world occurs.

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Reference

Fuller, C. J. (Sep., 1979). Gods, Priests and Purity: On the Relation Between and the Caste System.

14(3), 459-476. https://www.jstor.org/stable/2801869

John B. Noss. (). Man’s Religions: Late Hinduism (2nd ed.) (San Lwin. U, Trans.). Thin Thin

Mone. D.

Temple, Sir. R. C. & Ba Nyunt, U. (1991). ြမန်မာမ

့ ိ�ု ိးဖလာဓေလ့ နတ်သမိင
ု း် (Htwe Han. U, Trans.).

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