Pyinsa Kalayani ( my, ပဉ္စကလျာဏီ ; pi, Pañcakalyāṇī) was the first wife of King

Anawratha Anawrahta Minsaw ( my, အနော်ရထာ မင်းစော, ; 11 May 1014 – 11 April 1077) was the founder of the Pagan Empire. Considered the father of the Burmese nation, Anawrahta turned a small principality in the dry zone ...

and the mother of King

Kyansittha Kyansittha ( my, ကျန်စစ်သား, ; also spelt as Kyanzittha or Hti-Hlaing Shin; 1030 – 1112/13) was king of Pagan dynasty of Burma (Myanmar) from 1084 to 1112/13, and is considered one of the greatest Burmese monarchs. He cont ...

Pagan Dynasty The Kingdom of Pagan ( my, ပုဂံခေတ်, , ; also known as the Pagan Dynasty and the Pagan Empire; also the Bagan Dynasty or Bagan Empire) was the first Burmese kingdom to unify the regions that would later constitute modern-da ...

Burma Myanmar, ; UK pronunciations: US pronunciations incl. . Note: Wikipedia's IPA conventions require indicating /r/ even in British English although only some British English speakers pronounce r at the end of syllables. As John Wells explai ...

(Myanmar). The Burmese chronicles give many inconsistent stories about her, her son and her brief husband

Anawrahta Anawrahta Minsaw ( my, အနော်ရထာ မင်းစော, ; 11 May 1014 – 11 April 1077) was the founder of the Pagan Empire. Considered the father of the Burmese nation, Anawrahta turned a small principality in the dry zone ...

. Most are regarded as legends: :''She was a princess of Wethali Kingdom, who was sent to marry Anawrahta by her father the ruler of Wethali. ''(Wethali is believed to be in the present-day

Rakhine State Rakhine State (; , , ; formerly known as Arakan State) is a Administrative divisions of Myanmar, state in Myanmar (Burma). Situated on the western coast, it is bordered by Chin State to the north, Magway Region, Bago Region and Ayeyarwady R ...

or in

Bengal Bengal ( ; bn, বাংলা/বঙ্গ, translit=Bānglā/Bôngô, ) is a geopolitical, cultural and historical region in South Asia, specifically in the eastern part of the Indian subcontinent at the apex of the Bay of Bengal, predom ...

. Based on Kyansittha's features observed in his statute in the

Ananda Temple The Ananda Temple ( my, အာနန္ဒာ ဘုရား, ), located in Bagan, Myanmar is a Buddhist temple built in 1105 AD during the reign (1084–1112/13) of King Kyansittha of the Pagan Dynasty. The temple layout is in a cruciform with ...

, Pyinsa Kalayani was likely Indian.)'' On her way to

Pagan Paganism (from classical Latin ''pāgānus'' "rural", "rustic", later "civilian") is a term first used in the fourth century by early Christians for people in the Roman Empire who practiced polytheism, or ethnic religions other than Judaism. ...

, she became intimately involved with Yazataman, the Pagan official charged with guarding her. The official dispersed her retinue of 80. At Pagan, she was married to Anawrahta. Soon after the marriage, Yazataman reportedly pointed out to Anawrahta that she could not be a true royal princess because she lacked a retinue. Anawrahta then banished Pyinsa Kalayni, who was then pregnant, an area near

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 ...

. There, she gave birth to Kyansittha and raised him by herself.''Harvey 1925: 23–24 :(''The chronicle stories here are filled with many inconsistencies. The chronicles claim that Anawrahta was already king when Pyinsa Kalayni was sent. But Anawrahta did not become king until 1044. Kyansittha was born in 1030. Moreover, it was unlikely that the ruler of Wethali would have sent his daughter to Anawrahta who until 1044 was a prince but not to

Sokkate Sokkate ( my, စုက္ကတေး, ; 29 March 1001 – 11 August 1044) was king of Pagan dynasty of Burma (Myanmar) from 1038 to 1044. The king lost his life in a single combat with Anawrahta, who succeeded him and went on to found the Paga ...

, the king himself. The chronicles also claim that Anawrahta tried to kill off all babies in the year that Kyansittha was born because his astrologers predicted that a newborn would be king. Again, Anawrahta was not the king.'') History shows that Anawrahta did not seem to know (or care) about her alleged affair with Yazataman, and believed that Kyansittha was his son. He recalled Kyansittha to Pagan in the mid-1050s, and appointed the 15-year-old Kyansittha a senior commander in his army. Only the royalty could become a senior commander at a young age.

References

Bibliography

* {{s-end Pagan dynasty 11th-century Burmese women