Anawrahta Minsaw ( my, အနော်ရထာ မင်းစော, ; d. March 1408) was king of Launggyet Arakan from 1406 to 1408. He was appointed to the position by his overlord King Minkhaung I of the

Ava Kingdom The Kingdom of Ava ( my, အင်းဝခေတ်, ) was the dominant kingdom that ruled upper Burma (Myanmar) from 1364 to 1555. Founded in 1365, the kingdom was the successor state to the petty kingdoms of Myinsaing, Pinya and Sagaing th ...

. He later married Minkhaung's eldest daughter

Saw Pyei Chantha Saw Pyei Chantha ( my, စောပြည့်ချမ်းသာ, ; also spelled "ရွှေပြည့်ချမ်းသာ", "Shwe Pyei Chantha") was the List of Burmese consorts, chief queen consort of Arakan for a few months in 1 ...

. He was overthrown in 1408 by the

Hanthawaddy Kingdom ( Mon) ( Burmese) , conventional_long_name = Kingdom of Hongsarwatoi (Hanthawaddy) Pegu , common_name = Hongsarwatoi (Hanthawaddy) Kingdom / Ramannya (Ramam) , era = Warring states , status = Kingdom , event_pre ...

army, and subsequently executed on the order of King

Razadarit Razadarit ( mnw, ရာဇာဓိရာတ်,The spelling "ရာဇာဓိရာတ်" per ''Slapat Rajawan'' (Schmidt 1906: 118) and the 1485 Shwedagon Pagoda inscription (Pan Hla 2005: 368, footnote 1). Nai Pan Hla's ''Razadarit Ayedawb ...

of Hanthawaddy. He is one of two historical personalities that make up the

Shwe Nawrahta Shwe Nawrahta (, ) is one of the 37 nats in the Burmese pantheon of nats. He is the merged personalities of two historic Nawrahtas. The first source is Anawrahta of Launggyet, son in law of King Minkhaung I of Ava. Anawrahta was appointed govern ...

nat Nat or NAT may refer to: Computing * Network address translation (NAT), in computer networking Organizations * National Actors Theatre, New York City, U.S. * National AIDS trust, a British charity * National Archives of Thailand * National As ...

'' spirit in the Burmese pantheon of ''nats''.

Brief

Accession

Prior to his appointment as King of Arakan, he was known as Gamani,Pan Hla 2005: 239 the governor of

Kalay Kalay ( my, ကလေး), also known as Kale, is a town in the Sagaing Region of Myanmar. It is located upstream from Mandalay and Monywa on the Myittha River, a tributary of the Chindwin River. The town is the district headquarters of the Kalay ...

, a vassal

Shan state Shan State ( my, ရှမ်းပြည်နယ်, ; shn, မိူင်းတႆး, italics=no) also known by the Endonym and exonym, endonyms Shanland, Muang Tai, and Tailong, is a administrative divisions of Myanmar, state of Myanmar. ...

of Ava.Hmannan Vol. 1 2003: 445 His rule at Kalay apparently was short.The main royal chronicles (Maha Yazawin Vol. 1 2006: 310, 330) (Yazawin Thit Vol. 1 2012: 224–225) say Anawrahta was already governor of Kalay when Arakan was conquered (in 1406). But other chronicles ''

Zatadawbon Yazawin ''Zatadawbon Yazawin'' ( my, ဇာတာတော်ပုံ ရာဇဝင်, ; also spelled ''Zatatawpon''; ) is the earliest extant chronicle of Burma. The chronicle mainly covers the regnal dates of kings as well as horoscopes of select ...

'' (Zata 1960: 90) and '' Mani Yadanabon'' (Yazawin Thit Vol. 1 2012: 225, footnote 3, citing ''Mani'') say Nyo succeeded Min Chay-To, the first ruler to pay tribute to Ava. Circa December 1406, his overlord King Minkhaung I appointed him to be king of Arakan, which Ava forces led by Prince

Minye Kyawswa Minye Kyawswa ( my, မင်းရဲကျော်စွာ, ; also Minyekyawswa and Minrekyawswa; January 1391 – 13 March 1415) was crown prince of Ava from 1406 to 1415, and commander-in-chief of Ava's military from 1410 to 1415. H ...

had just conquered.According to the ''

Rakhine Razawin Thit ''Rakhine Razawin Thit'' ( my, ရခိုင် ရာဇဝင်သစ်, , Arakanese pronunciation: ) is a Burmese chronicle covering the history of Arakan from time immemorial to the First Anglo-Burmese War (1824–1826). The author was ...

'' chronicle (RRT Vol. 2 1999: 9), Ava forces led by Minye Kyawswa took Launggyet on Monday, 5th waning of

Nadaw Nadaw ( my, နတ်တော်; also spelt Natdaw) is the ninth month of the traditional Burmese calendar. Festivals and observances *Mahagiri Nat Festival, Mount Popa *Literature and Arts Festival () *Pagoda festivals **Botahtaung Pagoda Fest ...

768 ME (29 November 1406). Now known by his royal style of Anawrahta Minsaw, he was the third Ava-appointed king of Arakan.(Hmannan Vol. 1 2003: 410, 414) and (Harvey 1925: 86): The first two were Saw Mon II (r. 1373/84–1380/81) and Saw Me (r. 1380/81–1385/86).

Reign

According to the Arakanese chronicle ''

'', Anawrahta's regime brutally suppressed dissent, and never gained popular support.RRT Vol. 2 1999: 10 His overlord seemed oblivious. About a year later, Minkhaung sent his eldest daughter

to the Arakanese capital Launggyet to be Anawrahta's chief queen. But their rule was soon to be challenged. By January 1408,(Yazawin Thit Vol. 1 2012: 228): Razadarit made the decision to invade Arakan in Tabodwe 769 ME (28 December 1407 to 25 January 1408) after a prayer service at the Mya Thi-Tin Pagoda. King

Hanthawaddy Bago (formerly spelt Pegu; , ), formerly known as Hanthawaddy, is a city and the capital of the Bago Region in Myanmar. It is located north-east of Yangon. Etymology The Burmese name Bago (ပဲခူး) is likely derived from the Mon langua ...

had decided to intervene. Pegu had been concerned about Ava's acquisitions (1404–1406) that had swallowed up nearer

Shan states The Shan States (1885–1948) were a collection of minor Shan kingdoms called ''muang'' whose rulers bore the title ''saopha'' in British Burma. They were analogous to the princely states of British India. The term "Shan States" was firs ...

and Arakan. With the majority of Ava troops campaigning in the north in early 1408, Razadarit decided it was time.Pan Hla 2005: 239 He sent in an invasion force to place either the former king of Arakan

Min Saw Mon Narameikhla Min Saw Mon ( Arakanese:နရမိတ်လှ မင်းစောမွန်; , Arakanese transliteration: Meng Sao Mwan, Arakanese pronunciation: ; also known as Suleiman Shah; 1380–1433) was the last king of Launggyet Dynas ...

or Prince

Min Khayi Min Khayi ( my, မင်းခရီ, ; also spelled Meng Khari, Arakanese pronunciation: ; also known as Ali Khan; 1392–1459) was the second king of the Mrauk-U Kingdom from 1433 to 1459. He began his reign as a vassal of the Bengal Sulta ...

on the throne.According to the '' Razadarit Ayedawbon'' (Pan Hla 2005: 240), the Pegu nominee was

while the chronicle ''

'' (RRT Vol. 2 1999: 10), it was

. The invasion force consisted of just 4000Yazawin Thit Vol. 1 2012: 228 to 5000 troops but they were greeted as liberators by the populace, and quickly advanced to the capital Launggyet.Pan Hla 2005: 240 Anawrahta and his Ava coterie put up a fight but were quickly defeated. He tried to flee but was arrested. It was March 1408.(Yazawin Thit Vol. 1 2012: 228): Launggyet taken in Late

Tagu Tagu ( my, တန်ခူး; mnw, ဂိတု စဲ) is the first month of the traditional Burmese calendar. Holidays and observances *Thingyan *Pagoda festivals **Shwemawdaw Pagoda Festival, Bago Tagu symbols *Flower: ''Mesua ferrea'' *As ...

769 ME (25 February 1408 to 24 March 1408). Anawrahta, Saw Pyei Chantha and 3000 prisoners of war (probably including the garrison's families) were deported to Bassein (Pathein) in the

Irrawaddy delta The Irrawaddy Delta or Ayeyarwady Delta lies in the Irrawaddy Division, the lowest expanse of land in Myanmar that fans out from the limit of tidal influence at Myan Aung to the Bay of Bengal and Andaman Sea, to the south at the mouth of the A ...

. On arrival there, he was promptly executed while his young wife became a queen of Razadarit.Pan Hla 2005: 241

Legacy

Anawrahta is one of the two historical Nawrahtas who came to form the

'' in the Burmese pantheon of ''nat'' spirits.Harvey 1925: 91, 105

Notes

References

Bibliography

* * * * * * {{Burmese monarchs, state=collapsed Monarchs of Launggyet Ava dynasty Burmese Theravada Buddhists History of Rakhine 15th-century monarchs in Asia