Nanda Pakyan ( my, နန္ဒပကြံ, ; also spelled Ananda Pakyan; 1280s – 1350s) was

chief minister A chief minister is an elected or appointed head of government of – in most instances – a sub-national entity, for instance an administrative subdivision or federal constituent entity. Examples include a state (and sometimes a union terri ...

Sagaing Sagaing (, ) is the former capital of the Sagaing Region of Myanmar. It is located in the Irrawaddy River, to the south-west of Mandalay on the opposite bank of the river. Sagaing with numerous Buddhist monasteries is an important religious and ...

from the 1330s to the 1350s. The powerful minister placed at least three kings

Kyaswa Kyaswa ( my, ကျစွာ, ; 1198–1251) was the king of the Pagan dynasty of Burma (Myanmar) from 1235 to 1251. Kyaswa succeeded his father Htilominlo and was even more devout.Harvey 1925: 59Coedès 1968: 183 Kyaswa's reign like his father ...

(r. 1339−49), Anawrahta II (r. 1349) and Tarabya II (r. 1349−52) on the throne, became the commander-in-chief, and ran the country.

Brief

Nanda Pakyan, formally Ananda Pakyan,Zata 1960: 44 was in the service of King Tarabya I in 1335/36 when the king was overthrown by his own son

Shwetaungtet Thiri Thihathura Shwetaungtet ( my, သီရိ သီဟသူရ ရွှေတောင်တက် ; also Anawrahta I of Sagaing; 1313–1339) was king of Sagaing from 1335/36 to 1339. He came to power by deposing his father Tarabya. He was ...

. The minister served the usurper but having taken bribes from the dowager queen Saw Hnaung, kept quiet about the whereabouts of her young children who were the legitimate claimants to the throne.

Chronicles Chronicles may refer to: * ''Books of Chronicles'', in the Bible * Chronicle, chronological histories * ''The Chronicles of Narnia'', a novel series by C. S. Lewis * ''Holinshed's Chronicles'', the collected works of Raphael Holinshed * ''The Idhu ...

suggest he may have been involved with the queen herself.Hmannan Vol. 1 2003: 389−390 Nonetheless, the minister's loyalties ultimately lay with himself. When loyalists of the deposed king attacked the palace and killed Shwetaungtet, he led the palace guards and put down the loyalists, and killed Tarabya himself. He then placed Kyaswa (r. 1339−49), the 16-year-old eldest son of the founder of the kingdom

Saw Yun , image = , caption = , reign = 15 May 1315 – 5 February 1327 , coronation = , succession = King of Sagaing , predecessor = Thihathu , successor = Tar ...

, on the throne. The new king appointed Nanda Pakyan chief minister and commander-in-chief with the title of Thubarit. The minister was the power behind the throne, and practically ran the country.Hmannan Vol. 1 2003: 391 He also placed the next two kings Anawrahta II (r. 1349) and Tarabya II (r. 1349−52) on the throne. He might have had a hand in the following king Thihapate's accession.The terse language of ''Zatadawbon Yazawin'' is ambiguous. (Zata 1960: 44) says Thihapate was a "son of ''Amat'' Yo" ("အမတ်ရိုးသား"). It could technically mean that he was son of an ''amat'' (court minister) named Yo; it is more likely to mean that he was of the lineage of ministers. Furthermore, ''Zata'' mentions Chief Minister–General Nanda Pakyan in the prior sentence. It is not clear at least in modern Burmese if the ''amat'' in the following sentence refers to Nanda Pakyan, or a new concept entirely. Since Nanda Pakyan put the three prior kings of Sagaing on the throne, the powerful minister may have put his own son Thihapate on the throne. Later chronicles may have found ''Zata's'' reporting ambiguous as well. None of the later chronicles explicitly mentions who the father of Thihapate was.

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Bibliography

* * * * {{cite book , author=Royal Historical Commission of Burma , author-link=Royal Historical Commission of Burma , title=

Hmannan Yazawin ''Hmannan Maha Yazawindawgyi'' ( my, မှန်နန်း မဟာ ရာဇဝင်တော်ကြီး, ; commonly, ''Hmannan Yazawin''; known in English as the '' Glass Palace Chronicle'') is the first official chronicle of Konbaung ...

, volume=1–3 , year=1832 , location=Yangon , language=Burmese , edition=2003 , publisher=

Ministry of Information, Myanmar The Ministry of Information ( my, ပြန်ကြားရေးဝန်ကြီးဌာန) in Myanmar informs the public about government policy plans and implementation and supports improvements to knowledge and education of the publi ...

Sagaing dynasty Burmese generals