arimaddana
Arimaddana:The name given in the Pāli chronicles to the city of Pagan in Burma (Rāmañña) (Bode:op.cit.,14).During the time of Parakkamabāhu I.of Ceylon,the King of Arimaddana quarrelled with him,ill-treated his envoys,and seized by force a princess sent from Ceylon to Kamboja.Parakkama sent a punitive expedition under the Damilādhikāri ādicca,who reduced the country to subjection (Cv.lxxvi.10-75).
Later Vijayabāhu II.of Ceylon entered into friendly negotiations with the ruler of Arimaddana,and wrote him a letter in the Māgadha language composed by himself.As a result,a friendly treaty was made between them which also resulted in closer contact between the monks of the two countries (Cv.lxxx.6-8).
According to some authorities,quoted by Minayeff (Recherches sur Bouddhisme,p.70),the city was full of learned women.The Gandhavamsa (p.67) mentions a list of twenty-three teachers who wrote their works in Arimaddana.From this context it appears that Arimaddana was known also as Pukkāma (Pukkāmasankhāte Arimaddananagare).This is supported by evidence from elsewhere (Forchhammer:Jardine Prize Essay,pp.29,32.Ind.Ant.1893,p.17).It was a minister in Arimaddana who wrote the Nyāsappadīpatīkā (Svd.v.1240).Arimaddana was also the city of birth of the Thera Chapata (Svd.v.1247).