Barua people

For the Assamese surname, see Baruah.

Barua Magh
বড়ুয়া মঘ
Total population
1.2 million[citation needed]
Regions with significant populations
Bangladesh Bangladesh
Myanmar Myanmar
India 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
  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.