Monarch and Sangha: Myanmar’s “Supreme Royal Decrees” as a Source for the Study of Buddhism

The article examines the evolution of “Supreme Royal Decrees” – ameindaw (အမိန့်တော်) and yazathat (ရာဇသတ်) – from early Pyu stone charters to the codified orders of the late Konbaung dynasty. Based on a critical comparison of the ten-volume corpus Royal Orders of Burma, the Dhammassattha texts, archaeological materials, and contemporary historiography, a four-stage periodization of the genre is reconstructed. Five thematic clusters of religious regulation are identified (doctrine, discipline, property, personnel, mission) together with shifts in material media and language. The concept of the “dual mechanism” of Burmese law is introduced, in which the Dhammasattha texts form a stable normative foundation, and royal establishments perform the function of an operational superstructure that adapts the Buddhist tradition to political and socio-cultural challenges. The results obtained clarify the role of the Dhammaraja monarch in the system of legitimization of power and demonstrate the continuity of the discourse of the “guardian of the Dhamma” in the colonial and postcolonial normative acts of Myanmar.