15. The Learned Monk of a thorny bush
The Pinya Period of Myanmar history did not last long a short time span of 60 years. AD 1298-1364 and though it was not so long and great as the Bagan Period in terms of time, might and main, Buddhism continued to flourish in this period thanks to royal patronage and public support. Some monk scholars rose to prominence, of whom one named Ashin Nagita was quite well known. But he was commonly called “Hsu Twin Pyit Sayadaw” which literally means ” One who was discarded in a thorny bush”.
In (A.D, 1340) Leysi Shin Kyaw Swa, son of King Ngasi Shin Kyaw Swa ascended the throne. He built a magnificent monastery and named it Kyaw Swa monastery. He did not donate it to any monk. “Only the monk of great learning with high moral character would dare take residence in this monastery” was his proclamation. For a long time, the magnificent monastery remained unoccupied. One day a certain monk appeared and when he learnt about the royal proclamation. He occupied the monastery without informing anyone or without royal permission. That monk was Ashin Nagita or Hsu Twin Pyit Sayadaw.
His life story was as uniquely strange as it was inspiring. He was native of Thazi village to the north of Sagaing Town. In his boyhood he was a lazy lad always running away from the monastic school where his parents sent him. His father who was a trader was so ashamed of his indolent son who was a disgrace to highly literate family of his that he discarded the lad in a thorny bush telling him never to come back home if he was so lazy to learn. Feeling fear and deeply repented the boy went away. He became a novice monk (Samene) and began learning seriously at different Pariyatti schools teaching monasteries. When he became ordained monk as Ashin Nagita, at the age of 20, he went to Bagan the seal of learning, where he continued higher learning at the reputed monastic institutions under the lucidness of distinguished monk scholars. His learnedness and high moral character become widely known. When the old father heard of Ashin Nagita, he thought he must be his discarded son and went to Bagan only to find his lazy son had grown into a learned monk. “My learned monk son, come home your old mother has been longing to see you” said the old father to Ashin Nagita.
It was on their way back home that the learned monk moved into Kyaw Swa Monastery. When the King was informed of the unknown monk occupying his monastery, he sent his knight named Saturangabala (စတုရင်္ဂဗလအမတ်) to test the scholarship and moral calibre of the occupant. Saturangabala was a learned scholar of high erudition. The monk was questioned on Pali, Tipitaka, Tika (Commentary), Athakatha (Sub-commentary) and several religious Treatises. Without much ado Ashin Ngita could answer all questions. Delightfully the king dedicated his monastery to Ashin Nagita. But to be fair, Ashin Nagita advised the king to cast lot to get the right monk who really deserved the monastery. The lot chose Ashin Nagita.
Ashin Nagita and Saturangabala became comrades-in-scholarship. The latter was the questioner and the former expounder on several difficult points in Tipitaka especially Abhidhamma (Buddhist philosophy). Among many books Ashin Nagita wrote “Sudda Suratha-jalini” (သဒ္ဒ သာရတ္ထ ဇာလိနီ) was Pali grammar which is still in use. Because he was educated in Pauk-kan (Bagan) he was also known as Pauk-kan Sayadaw or Bagan Sayadaw. But in the history of Myanmar literature, he was mentioned as “Hsu Twin Pyit Sayadaw”.
There still stand two ancient pagodas at the site of old Pinya. They hear local names – Myin-bar-hle and Myin-bar-bu. Oral history says that “Myin-bar-hle” was the pagoda built by the older sister of Ashin Nagita to mark the place where she appealed to Ashin Nagita,” My younger brother, I’m your older sister, pray turn to see me (Myin-bar-hle). Aslin Nagita replied. “No, I don’t want to see you”. (Myin-bar-bu) because he still felt hurt when he was discarded in the thorny bush, even his older sister did not come to help him. Myin-bar-bu pagoda was built by Ashin Nagita at the place where he refused to see his sister.