A mawgun ( my, မော်ကွန်း, ; originated from archaic my, အမူကွန်း, ) is a form of Burmese poem which is often used to record a significant event meant to last.

History

Early times

In the Pagan era, donors recorded their donations in the prose form of mawgun. However, since from the Ava era, mawguns are composed in the form of poetry rather than prose. The oldest mawgaun in the Burmese literature industry was "Pyayson mawgun" by

Shin Htwe Nyo Shin may refer to: Biology * The front part of the human leg below the knee * Shinbone, the tibia, the larger of the two bones in the leg below the knee in vertebrates Names * Shin (given name) (Katakana: シン, Hiragana: しん), a Japanese ...

during the reign of Thihathura I. Following Shin Htwe Nyo, the most prominent mawgun poets were

Shin Mahasilavamsa Shin Mahāsīlavaṃsa ( my, ရှင်မဟာ သီလဝံသ, variously transcribed Shin Maha Silavamsa, Shin Maha Thilawuntha or Rhaṅʻ Mahāsīlavaṃsa) was a Theravadan Bhikkhu, Buddhist monk and a classical Burmese poet who live ...

and

Shin Raṭṭhasāra Shin Raṭṭhasāra ( my, ရှင်မဟာရဋ္ဌသာရ; 1468-1529 (1530) was a Buddhist monk and prominent classical poet during the Ava Kingdom, known for his ''pyo'' poetry. His 1523 ''Kogan Pyo'' () based on the ''Hatthipāla J ...

of Ava. They both composed many well-known mawguns. Mawguns composed during their times were said to be the high-class ones, and their times was referred as the era of mawguns.

Later

Mawgun did not develop in the

First 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 ...

. Only

Shin Thankho Shin may refer to: Biology * The front part of the human leg below the knee * Shinbone, the tibia, the larger of the two bones in the leg below the knee in vertebrates Names * Shin (given name) (Katakana: シン, Hiragana: しん), a Japanese ...

composed ''Yadanapyaungmon Sindaw Bwe Mawgun''. Mawguns became popular again in the

Konbaung dynasty The Konbaung dynasty ( my, ကုန်းဘောင်ခေတ်, ), also known as Third Burmese Empire (တတိယမြန်မာနိုင်ငံတော်) and formerly known as the Alompra dynasty (အလောင်းဘ ...

. It was Wetmasut Nawade who was a famous mawgun poet of his time, for he wrote at least 15 mawguns. Three of them pertain to Burmese conquests, including ''Ar-than-naing Mawgun'' and ''Rakhine Naing Mawgun'' on the

conquest Conquest is the act of military subjugation of an enemy by force of arms. Military history provides many examples of conquest: the Roman conquest of Britain, the Mauryan conquest of Afghanistan and of vast areas of the Indian subcontinent, t ...

s of

Assam Assam (; ) is a state in northeastern India, south of the eastern Himalayas along the Brahmaputra and Barak River valleys. Assam covers an area of . The state is bordered by Bhutan and Arunachal Pradesh to the north; Nagaland and Manipur ...

and Rakhine respectively, as well as the missing ''Dawei Naing Mawgun'' on the takeover of

Dawei Dawei (, ; mnw, ဓဝဲါ, ; th, ทวาย, RTGS: ''Thawai'', ; formerly known as Tavoy) is a city in south-eastern Myanmar and is the capital of the Tanintharyi Region, formerly known as the Tenasserim Division, on the northern bank of ...

; he also wrote Tayoke Than Yauk Mawgun'' (1821), which details the arrival of a group of Chinese officials to Burma. ''Wilathini Sindaw Bwe Mawgun'' of Wetmasut Nawade is the first-class mawgun amongst the Sindaw Bwe mawguns (records of receiving white elephants), followed by ''Shweminbhone Sindaw Bwe Mawgun'' of U Nyo.

Format and subject

Mawgun is a kind of poem which uses four syllables in each line, like the classical Burmese verse. Most mawguns are the descriptions of the royal white elephants, royal palaces, royal boats, the wars, the lakes and the pagodas.

History

Early times

Later

Format and subject

References

See also