:''This article about the Toungoo minister-general. See
Binnya Dala
Binnya Dala ( my, ဗညားဒလ ; also spelled Banya Dala; died December 1774) was the last king of Restored Kingdom of Hanthawaddy, who reigned from 1747 to 1757. He was a key leader in the revival of the Mon-speaking kingdom in 1740, wh ...
for the last king of
Restored Hanthawaddy Kingdom
The Restored Hanthawaddy Kingdom ( my, ဟံသာဝတီ နေပြည်တော်သစ်), also known as the Neo-Ramanic State () was the kingdom that ruled Lower Burma and parts of Upper Burma from 1740 to 1757. The kingdom grew ou ...
.''
Agga Maha Thenapati Binnya Dala ( my, အဂ္ဂမဟာသေနာပတိ ဗညားဒလ, ; also spelled Banya Dala; 1518–1573) was a Burmese statesman, general and writer-scholar during the reign of King
Bayinnaung
, image = File:Bayinnaung.JPG
, caption = Statue of Bayinnaung in front of the National Museum of Myanmar
, reign = 30 April 1550 – 10 October 1581
, coronation = 11 January 1551 at Toung ...
of
Toungoo Dynasty
, conventional_long_name = Toungoo dynasty
, common_name = Taungoo dynasty
, era =
, status = Empire
, event_start = Independence from Ava
, year_start ...
. He was the king's most trusted adviser and general,
[ and a key figure responsible for the expansion, defense and administration of ]Toungoo Empire
The First Toungoo Empire ( my, တောင်ငူ ခေတ်, ; also known as the First Toungoo Dynasty, the Second Burmese Empire or simply the Toungoo Empire) was the dominant power in mainland Southeast Asia in the second half of the ...
from the 1550s to his fall from grace in 1573.[ He oversaw the rebuilding of ]Pegu
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 lang ...
(1565–1568). He is also known for his literary works, particularly ''Razadarit Ayedawbon
''Razadarit Ayedawbon'' ( my, ရာဇာဓိရာဇ် အရေးတော်ပုံ) is a Burmese chronicle covering the history of Ramanya from 1287 to 1421. The chronicle consists of accounts of court intrigues, rebellions, diplomat ...
'', the earliest extant chronicle of the Mon people
The Mon ( mnw, ဂကူမည်; my, မွန်လူမျိုး, ; th, มอญ, ) are an ethnic group who inhabit Lower Myanmar's Mon State, Kayin State, Kayah State, Tanintharyi Region, Bago Region, the Irrawaddy Delta, and s ...
.[ He died in exile after having failed to reconquer ]Lan Xang
existed as a unified kingdom from 1353 to 1707.
For three and a half centuries, Lan Xang was one of the largest kingdoms in Southeast Asia. The meaning of the kingdom's name alludes to the power of the kingship and formidable war machine of the ea ...
.[
]
Early life and career
Little is known about his early life except that he was an ethnic Mon born in 1518/1519 (880 ME[880 ME = 30 March 1518 to 29 March 1519]) in 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 ...
.[Aung-Thwin 2005: 133–134][Thaw Kaung 2010: 25] His birth name is unknown—the name Binnya Dala was a senior title of the Hanthawaddy court, (and later of Toungoo
Taungoo (, ''Tauñngu myoú''; ; also spelled Toungoo) is a district-level city in the Bago Region of Myanmar, 220 km from Yangon, towards the north-eastern end of the division, with mountain ranges to the east and west. The main industr ...
and Restored Hanthawaddy courts).[He was preceded and followed by others with the same title Binnya Dala. Per (Hmannan Vol. 2 2003: 188–192), a Hanthawaddy general named Binnya Dala opposed Gen. Kyawhtin Nawrahta at the Battle of Naungyo in 1538. After the minister-general's fall from office in 1573, another minister succeeded him with the same title Binnya Dala in 1576 as seen in (Hmmanan Vol. 3 2003: 35).] Judging by his later literary works, he was highly educated, and fluent in both his native Mon and Burmese.[Aung-Thwin and Aung-Thwin 2012: 137] Likewise, based on his senior ministerial and military leadership roles first achieved in the mid-1550s, he was likely a junior-to-mid-level officer in the service of King Tabinshwehti
Tabinshwehti ( my, တပင်ရွှေထီး, ; 16 April 1516 – 30 April 1550) was king of Burma (Myanmar) from 1530 to 1550, and the founder of the First Toungoo Empire. His military campaigns (1534–1549) created the largest kin ...
of Toungoo Dynasty
, conventional_long_name = Toungoo dynasty
, common_name = Taungoo dynasty
, era =
, status = Empire
, event_start = Independence from Ava
, year_start ...
in the 1540s, and may have begun his career in the service of King Takayutpi of Hanthawaddy in the late 1530s.[MSK 1963: 333][Chronicles ((Maha Yazawin Vol. 2 2006: 198) and (Hmannan Vol. 2 2003: 259)) mention a Binnya Dala leading a vanguard battalion in 1550. It may have been the same Binnya Dala. In any case, he was not yet a senior commander since the name does not appear in any of the commander lists of the campaigns between 1550 and 1554. Chronicles (Maha Yazawin Vol. 2 2006: 222) list Binnya Dala as a commander in 1555. The Burmese encyclopedia ''Myanma Swezon Kyan'' (MSK 1963: 333) accepts 1555 as the first known date of ''the'' Binnya Dala.] The first confirmed record of him as a senior commander came in 1555 when he and three other Toungoo commanders drove out the retreating forces of the Confederation of 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 ...
from Singu
Singu is a town in the Mandalay Region of central Myanmar
Myanmar, ; UK pronunciations: US pronunciations incl. . Note: Wikipedia's IPA conventions require indicating /r/ even in British English although only some British English speaker ...
.[
]
Rise (1556–1559)
His rise to the upper echelons of Toungoo command was rapid. In 1556, he was a minister at the court at Pegu, which was considering its policy toward the cis-Salween
, ''Mae Nam Salawin'' (
, name_etymology =
, image = Sweet_View_of_Salween_River_in_Tang_Yan_Township,_Shan_State,_Myanmar.jpg
, image_size =
, image_caption = Salween River in Shan State, Myanmar
, map ...
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 ...
. While others proposed piecemeal approaches, he proposed a bold plan: assemble an overwhelming military force, and then take on all the states in one stroke. With his down-to-earth personality,[ he successfully persuaded the initially skeptical court and king. When Bayinnaung's massive forces invaded in 1557, all ''non-Chinese'' cis-Salween states submitted one after another with minimal resistance.][ Bayinnaung in one stroke controlled most of the cis-Salween Shan states from the ]Patkai
The Pat-kai (Pron:pʌtˌkaɪ) or Patkai Bum ( Burmese: ''Kumon Taungdan'') are a series of mountains in the Indo-Myanmar border falling in the north-eastern Indian states of Arunachal Pradesh, Nagaland and Upper Burma region of Myanmar. They ...
range at the Assamese border in the northwest to Mohnyin
Mohnyin ( my, မိုးညှင်း, ; Shan:မိူင်းယၢင်း) is a town in Kachin State, Myanmar. It is the administrative center for both Mohnyin Township and Mohnyin District and it has a population of 33,290.
History
T ...
and Mogaung
Mogaung ( my, မိုးကောင်း ; ( Shan: မိူင်းၵွင်း) is a town in Kachin State, Myanmar. It is situated on the Mandalay-Myitkyina railway line.
History
Mogaung or Möngkawng was the name and capital (roya ...
in the north to Momeik
Momeik ( my, မိုးမိတ်), also known as Mong Mit (Shan language, Shan: ) in Shan language, Shan, is a town situated on the Shweli River in northern Shan State of Myanmar (Burma).
Transport
It is connected by road to Mogok and its r ...
and Thibaw in the northeast to Mone in the east.[Harvey 1925: 165]
The overwhelming success gained him the king's ear. In November 1557, Bayinnaung listened to Binnya Dala, and rejected his son Crown Prince Nanda
Nanda may refer to:
Indian history and religion
* Nanda Empire, ruled by the Nanda dynasty, an Indian royal dynasty ruling Magadha in the 4th century BCE
** Mahapadma Nanda, first Emperor of the Nanda Empire
** Dhana Nanda (died c. 321 BCE), last ...
's proposal to acquire the neighboring Chinese vassal Shan states in the north. The king took the advice of Binnya Payan and Binnya Dala to attack the kingdom of Lan Na
The Lan Na Kingdom ( nod, , , "Kingdom of a Million Rice Fields"; th, อาณาจักรล้านนา, , ), also known as Lannathai, and most commonly called Lanna or Lanna Kingdom, was an Indianized state centered in present-day ...
instead.[Maha Yazawin Vol. 2 2006: 243–244] After Lan Na was acquired in April 1558, the king left Binnya Dala and Binnya Set at Chiang Mai
Chiang Mai (, from th, เชียงใหม่ , nod, , เจียงใหม่ ), sometimes written as Chiengmai or Chiangmai, is the largest city in northern Thailand, the capital of Chiang Mai province and the second largest city in ...
.[ But their thousand-man garrison was unable to prevent the occupation of eastern Lan Na provinces by King ]Setthathirath
Setthathirath ( lo, ເສດຖາທິຣາດ; 24 January 1534 – 1571) or Xaysettha ( lo, ໄຊເສດຖາ; th, ไชยเชษฐาธิราช, , ) is considered one of the great leaders in Lao history. Throughout the 1560s ...
of Lan Xang
existed as a unified kingdom from 1353 to 1707.
For three and a half centuries, Lan Xang was one of the largest kingdoms in Southeast Asia. The meaning of the kingdom's name alludes to the power of the kingship and formidable war machine of the ea ...
, a former monarch of Lan Na trying to reclaim his throne at Chiang Mai. They had to wait for reinforcements to arrive in November 1558 before driving out Lan Xang forces later in the year.[Maha Yazawin Vol. 2 2006: 250–251]
Chief Minister-General (1559–1573)
Military campaigns (1560–1565)
Pleased with Binnya Dala's intellect, versatility and battle-field performance, the king recalled him from Chiang Mai, and made him his primary adviser, general, and administrator in 1559. The general's first assignment as commander-in-chief was to lead the invasion of Manipur
Manipur () ( mni, Kangleipak) is a state in Northeast India, with the city of Imphal as its capital. It is bounded by the Indian states of Nagaland to the north, Mizoram to the south and Assam to the west. It also borders two regions of Myanm ...
. Binnya Law and Binnya Set were appointed as his deputies. The trio left Pegu on 2 December 1559 to take command of the invasion force (10,000 troops, 500 horses, 30 elephants, 50 ships), chiefly drawn from Upper Burma and Shan states.[ The Burmese forces entered the Manipuri capital with little resistance, and received the allegiance of the raja there. The generals arrived back at Pegu on 27 May 1560.][
After Manipur, Bayinnaung put Binnya Dala in charge of the intelligence operations to keep track of ]Siam
Thailand ( ), historically known as Siam () and officially the Kingdom of Thailand, is a country in Southeast Asia, located at the centre of the Mainland Southeast Asia, Indochinese Peninsula, spanning , with a population of almost 70 mi ...
's defensive preparations. In 1562, Binnya Dala recommended that trans-Salween Shan states be reduced to secure the rear before starting the Siam campaign. He drew up the invasion plans, and participated in the four-pronged invasion which acquired the states in March/April 1563.[Maha Yazawin Vol. 2 2006: 260–262]
He immediately returned to the capital to continue the war preparations. In July 1563, he wrote Bayinnaung's ultimatum to King Maha Chakkraphat
Maha Chakkraphat ( th, มหาจักรพรรดิ, ; lit.: 'The Great Emperor'; 1509 – 1569) was king of the Ayutthaya kingdom from 1548 to 1564 and 1568 to 1569. Originally called Prince Thianracha, or Prince Tien, he was put on the t ...
of Siam to submit.[Maha Yazawin Vol. 2: 266] As expected, the Siamese king refused. Even at the late stage, the Toungoo court was still split. At least one prominent minister advised against the war. After reviewing the latest intelligence reports, Binnya Dala recommended to proceed with the invasion.[ The battle plan was his. Instead of attacking the Siamese capital ]Ayutthaya Ayutthaya, Ayudhya, or Ayuthia may refer to:
* Ayutthaya Kingdom, a Thai kingdom that existed from 1350 to 1767
** Ayutthaya Historical Park, the ruins of the old capital city of the Ayutthaya Kingdom
* Phra Nakhon Si Ayutthaya province (locally ...
head on like in 1548–1549, his plan called for attacking peripheral regions of north-central Siam ( Sukhothai, Phitsanulok
Phitsanulok ( th, พิษณุโลก, ) is an important, historic city in lower northern Thailand and is the capital of Phitsanulok Province. Phitsanulok is home to Naresuan University and Pibulsongkram Rajabhat University, as well as ...
and Sawankhalok) and western littoral of Tenasserim coast
Tanintharyi Region ( my, တနင်္သာရီတိုင်းဒေသကြီး, ; Mon: or ; ms, Tanah Sari; formerly Tenasserim Division and subsequently Tanintharyi Division, th, ตะนาวศรี, RTGS: ''Tanao Si'', ...
. He compared his strategy to "clipping the wings of a bird".[Maha Yazawin Vol. 2 2006: 268–269] Following his battle plan, five Burmese armies acquired the aforementioned peripheral regions before converging on Ayutthaya and forcing the Siamese king's surrender in February 1564.[Hmannan Vol. 2 2003: 355][Harvey 1925: 167–168]
Binnya Dala was also instrumental in acquiring Lan Xang but the success there proved illusory. In January 1565, Crown Prince Nanda's army group easily took Vientiane
Vientiane ( , ; lo, ວຽງຈັນ, ''Viangchan'', ) is the capital and largest city of Laos. Vientiane is divided administratively into 9 cities with a total area of only approx. 3,920 square kilometres and is located on the banks of ...
, the capital of Lan Xang.[Maha Yazawin Vol. 2 2006: 278–279] But King Setthathirath escaped. Nanda and Binnya Dala chased the Lan Xang king all the way to what is now Vietnam but failed to find the renegade king.[Thaw Kaung 2010: 138–139][Maha Yazawin Vol. 2 2006: 285–287, 292] (The Lan Xang king remained active in the countryside, and would retake Vientiane three years later.[)
]
Reconstruction of Pegu
In August 1565, Binnya Dala returned to a still charred Pegu
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 lang ...
(Bago), which was burned down earlier in the year by a serious rebellion. The king asked him to reconstruct the capital and the palace.[ The construction effort took over two years. The new capital had 20 gates, each named after the vassal who built it.][Harvey 1925: 171] Each gate had a gilded two-tier ''pyatthat
Pyatthat ( my, ပြာသာဒ်, ; from Sanskrit ; mnw, တန်ဆံၚ် ; also spelt pyathat) is the name of a multistaged roof, with an odd number of tiers (from three to seven). The pyatthat is commonly incorporated into Burmese B ...
'' and gilded wooden doors.[Maha Yazawin Vol. 2006: 295–296] When the newly rebuilt Kanbawzathadi Palace was officially opened on 16 March 1568, an appreciative king seated Binnya Dala in one of the most prominent positions in the elaborate ceremony.[Maha Yazawin Vol. 2 2006: 298–299]
Reconquest of Ayutthaya (1568–1569) and Lan Xang (1569–1570)
Binnya Dala was again called to duty when both Lan Xang and Siam revolted in 1568. While his official role again was Nanda's deputy,[ he was the one the king depended on for advice. When the Toungoo command learned that a Lan Xang army was on its way to break their siege of Ayutthaya, Binnya Dala devised a plan to lure the Lan Xang army to an area suitable for numerically superior Burmese forces. The king left him in charge of the siege and left with half of the army to meet the Lan Xang army.][ On 8 May 1569, Bayinnaung decisively defeated Setthathirath northeast of the city, after which Lan Xang ceased to be of concern to the siege operations.][Maha Yazawin Vol. 2 2006: 319]
Two months after Ayutthaya's fall, the king himself led a two-pronged invasion of Lan Xang in October 1569. Setthathirath again retreated to the jungle to conduct his tried-and-true guerrilla warfare. The Burmese armies spent months combing the Lan Xang countryside. Setthathirath was nowhere to be found but many Burmese troops were dying of starvation and from long marches. The task of telling the king to call off the search fell to Binnya Dala, as Nanda and the king's own brothers were unwilling to tell the king. Upon Binnya Dala's advice, Bayinnaung grudgingly agreed to call off the search in April 1570.[Phayre 1967: 114–115][Maha Yazawin Vol. 2 2006: 328–331] Very few men of the original armies survived to reach their own country.[
]
Last campaign in Lan Xang (1572–1573)
The calm did not last. In early 1572, Setthathirath overran the Burmese garrison at Vientiane but the Lan Xang king was killed shortly after. A senior minister and general named Sen Soulintha
Sen Soulintha, Saen Surintha or Sen Sourintha (1511–1582) was born Chane Tian and became King of Lan Xang reigning 1571-1575 and again 1580-1582.Several problems arise when reconstructing a historical narrative from chronicle entries during ...
seized the throne.[Maha Yazawin Vol. 3 2006: 32] Much to the surprise of the Toungoo court, Soulintha refused to submit. At Pegu, Binnya Dala advised the king that Soulintha, a non-royal usurper was unlikely to be accepted as king by the Lan Xang court, and that a small expedition should remove the pretender.[ The king and the court agreed with the assessment. Bayinnaung appointed Binnya Dala to lead the expedition.][Maha Yazawin Vol. 3 2006: 33–34]
In late 1572, Binnya Dala, now styled as Agga Maha Thenapati ( pi, Aggamahāsenāpati),[Maha Yazawin Vol. 3 2006: 34] left Pegu with 2000 troops. Another 2000 troops each from Lan Na and Siam were also to march toward Vientiane from their respective bases,[ but Binnya Dala and the Toungoo court had grossly underestimated the opposition. Soulintha, a former general, had set up several forts along the border to prevent the three Burmese armies from joining up. Binnya Dala's army was stopped at a fort on the way for two months, and after not hearing any news from the other two armies, had to retreat. At Pegu, the king, who never forgave a failure, was furious at Binnya Dala who used to be his favorite general, and sent him into exile in central Siam with just five attendants.][Maha Yazawin Vol. 3 2006: 34–35][Phayre 1967: 116]
Death
It would be the last time the king would see Binnya Dala, one of the few principal officers with whom the king had "entered into ''thwethauk'' blood-bond, a sacramental brotherhood of some round table as it were".[Harvey 1925: 178] Binnya Dala had written in an earlier memoir that "All f us
F, or f, is the sixth letter in the Latin alphabet, used in the modern English alphabet, the alphabets of other western European languages and others worldwide. Its name in English is ''ef'' (pronounced ), and the plural is ''efs''.
His ...
his chosen men, in fact, whether Shans, Mons or Burmans... declared ourselves willing to lay down our lives or him
Or or OR may refer to:
Arts and entertainment Film and television
* "O.R.", a 1974 episode of M*A*S*H
* Or (My Treasure), a 2004 movie from Israel (''Or'' means "light" in Hebrew)
Music
* ''Or'' (album), a 2002 album by Golden Boy with Miss ...
"[Lieberman 2003: 154]
Binnya Dala fell ill soon after he arrived at the malarial infested remote outpost. Concerned, King Maha Thammarachathirat of Siam moved him to a bigger town of Kamphaeng Phet, five months into the exile, and sent a mission to Pegu to request permission. Bayinnaung granted permission but it was too late. His loyal ''thwethauk'' blood brother, who won him many a battle, died about a month after the transfer to Kamphaeng Phet.[
]
Scholar
Notwithstanding his complex duties of his high office, Binnya Dala also wrote many literary works, the most well known and significant of which is the chronicle ''Razadarit Ayedawbon
''Razadarit Ayedawbon'' ( my, ရာဇာဓိရာဇ် အရေးတော်ပုံ) is a Burmese chronicle covering the history of Ramanya from 1287 to 1421. The chronicle consists of accounts of court intrigues, rebellions, diplomat ...
.'' He translated the first half of ''Hanthawaddy Chronicle'' from Mon to Burmese. His Burmese translation is the earliest ''extant'' text regarding the history of the Mon people
The Mon ( mnw, ဂကူမည်; my, မွန်လူမျိုး, ; th, มอญ, ) are an ethnic group who inhabit Lower Myanmar's Mon State, Kayin State, Kayah State, Tanintharyi Region, Bago Region, the Irrawaddy Delta, and s ...
in Lower Burma
Lower Myanmar ( my, အောက်မြန်မာပြည်, also called Lower Burma) is a geographic region of Myanmar and includes the low-lying Irrawaddy Delta (Ayeyarwady Region, Ayeyarwady, Bago Region, Bago and Yangon Regions), as we ...
.[ (The original Mon chronicle is believed to have been lost in 1565 when all of Pegu was burned down.][Harvey 1925: xviii] Indeed, for nearly four centuries until Nai Pan Hla
Nai Pan Hla ( my, နိုင်ပန်းလှ, mnw, နာဲပါန်လှ; 1923 – 18 June 2010) was a Burmese historian and cultural anthropologist of Mon descent. Throughout his career, he published many works on Mon ethnog ...
translated the Burmese version back to Mon in 1958, the oldest chronicle about the Mon people existed only in Burmese. The second half of the original chronicle remains lost.[Pan Hla 2004: 6–7])
Binnya Dala's writing has been praised as a model of good Burmese prose of the early Toungoo period, and the text was prescribed for Burmese literature students at one time.[Assessment attributed to Zawgyi in (Thaw Kaung 2010: 26, 39).]
Commemorations
* Binnya Dala Road: A road in Tamwe Township
Tamwe Township (also Tarmwe Township; my, တာမွေ မြို့နယ်, ) is located in east central Yangon, Myanmar. The township comprises 20 wards, and shares borders with Yankin Township in the north, Thingangyun Township and Min ...
, Yangon
Yangon ( my, ရန်ကုန်; ; ), formerly spelled as Rangoon, is the capital of the Yangon Region and the largest city of Myanmar (also known as Burma). Yangon served as the capital of Myanmar until 2006, when the military government ...
* Binnya Dala Hall: One of the main campus buildings in the University of Mawlamyine.
List of military campaigns
Notes
References
Bibliography
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Binnya Dala
1518 births
1573 deaths
First Toungoo Empire
Government ministers of Myanmar
Burmese generals
Burmese people of Mon descent