"...When I was preparing the manuscript of my collection of "Burmese Folk-Tales" for publication in 1948, for some time I was unable to decide whether to include in that collection the Law Tales which are now given in the following pages. Finally, I decided that they should be left out because, first, I thought that they were borrowings from Hindu legal literature, and second, I thought that they had already been collected in the various Burmese legal writings. In both these assumptions I was wrong, and I was wrong because I then accepted the orthodox theory, first advanced by a European scholar of Burmese history [Forchammer: Jardine Prize Essay - see Bibliography] that Burmese law was merely a derivation of Hindu law. After the publication of the "Folk-Tales", I started my study of the Burmese legal writings (which still exist in hundreds in palm-leaf manuscript in the National Library, Rangoon), and I soon made the discovery that of the 65 Law Tales, only 28 were to be found in Burmese legal literature and of these 28, many were found merely as outlines and not as full-length stories. Further study led to the discovery that Burmese law was native in origin and was very little influenced by Hindu law. In 1950, in my lectures to the students of the Faculty of Law at the University of Rangoon, I criticized the orthodox theory of the Hindu origin of Burmese law, shocking not only the students, but also many scholars of Burmese law and Burmese history. My theory, however, was supported in 1951 by one of the most erudite jurists in Burma, Dr. U. E. Maung (at that time a judge of the Burmese Supreme Court) in a series of lectures. Today, of course, my new theory is generally accepted and is no longer considered heretical and far-fetched. - Maung Htin Aung ..."