Saddabindu

Sixty-two paragraphs — the shortest volume in this collection — and its author was a king.

Bode reports that grammatical learning in Burma “was by no means limited to the monasteries”. In the time of Kyocvā there were grammarians at the royal court: “indeed, Kyocvā is said to have insisted on general diligence around him, while he himself set the example by writing the Saddabindu and Paramatthabindu, both grammatical works” (Bode 1909, p. 25). A little work on the Pali cases is ascribed to his daughter. The Pali catalogue says the same in its own formula, giving the Saddabindu and the Paramatthabindu to Kyacvā the king. His reign puts the book in the 1200s CE.

A short book with a long tail: Bode adds that a commentary on it, the Līnatthavisodhanī, was written by Ñāṇavilāsa of Pagan, and that a ṭīkā called Saddabinduvinicchaya survives in the India Office. Schnake notes it among the texts that circulated in the northern Thai region alongside the nīti collections.