Naratheinkha

Naratheinkha ( my, နရသိင်္ခ, ; 1141–1174) was king of Pagan dynasty of Burma (Myanmar) from 1171 to 1174. He appointed his brother Narapati Sithu heir apparent and commander-in-chief. It was the first recorded instance in the history of the dynasty that the king had given up the command of the army. The king was assassinated by Aungzwa, one of Sithu's servants, after the king had raised one of Sithu's wives to queen.Htin Aung 1967: 50–51Harvey 1925: 53–54

According to G.H. Luce, there is no inscriptional evidence that Naratheinkha or any kings between 1165 and 1174 ever existed.Than Tun 1964: 128Coedès 1968: 167 Other historians such as Htin Aung do not agree with Luce's "conjecture".Htin Aung 1970: 42–43

Early life

Naratheinkha was the eldest son of Narathu and Queen Myauk Pyinthe.Yazawin Thit Vol. 1 2012: 124, footnote 3 Chronicles do not agree on his date of birth.''Zatadawbon Yazawin's'' horoscope section (Zata 1960: 66) says he was born on Wednesday, 17th day of 6th month of 503 ME (Wednesday, 18 August 1141). But ''Yazawin Thit'' corrects the year to 496 ME. Also note that ''Hmannan Yazawin's'', dating for this king is inconsistent with its own narrative. ''Hmannan'' like all other chronicles agrees that Naratheinkha was older than Sithu II who was born in 1138. However, it had Naratheinkha's birth year as 1140. The reason for the contradiction is that ''Hmannan'' for some reason suddenly switches to ''Maha Yazawin's'' dates for this king (34 years of age, 3 years of reign), while having followed ''Yazawin Thit's'' dating for nearly all of the prior Pagan kings. The table below lists the dates given by the four main chronicles.Maha Yazawin Vol. 1 2006: 348 Scholarship provisionally accepts the birth date as given in ''Zata's'' horoscopes section.

Naratheinkha grew up at the court of King Sithu I. He was not even in the line of succession as the heir apparent was his uncle Min Shin Saw. When he reached manhood, he married his second cousin Min Aung Myat, who like him was a grandchild of King Sithu I in marriage ceremony presided by the king himself.Hmannan Vol. 1 2003: 311–312

In 1167, Naratheinkha suddenly became the heir apparent to the throne after his father assassinated both Sithu I and Min Shin Saw.

Reign

Naratheinkha came to power in 1171 after his father was killed by the assassins sent by the king of Pateikkaya, an Indian kingdom in the west. At accession, he made his brother Narapati Sithu the heir apparent and commander in chief. This was a significant change because it was the first recorded instance in the history of the dynasty that the king had given up the command of the army. Even a weak king like Saw Lu never gave up the command.(Htin Aung 1967: 50): Narathu may have been the first king to give up the command but it was never officially recorded in the chronicles. He assumed the regnal name "Śrī Tribhuvanāditya Pavaradhammarāja Dānapati" (ၐြီတြိဘုဝနာဒိတျပဝရဓမ္မရာဇဒါနပတိ).

The new king was popular but his downfall soon came, according to the chronicles, due to his interest in Weluwaddy, a queen of Sithu. The king actually passed over marrying her but regretted the decision later after his brother took her. In 1174, Naratheinkha made up an excuse to send Sithu to the front in the far north at Ngasaunggyan (present-day Yunnan) to suppress a supposed rebellion. When he had confirmed that Sithu's army was at a distant fort, the king raised his sister-in-law to queen.Hmannan Vol. 1 2003: 313–315

On his way to the frontier, Sithu got hold of the news by a messenger on horseback.(Hmannan Vol. 1 2003: 314–315): In a case of killing the messenger, the messenger, Nga Pyei, was executed by Sithu, reportedly for the messenger having rested his horse and spent a night sleeping on the way there. When his anger subsided, Sithu regretted the decision and gave Nga Pyei a formal burial. He was made a nat (spirit) that governs the islet, the site of his burial, now called Shwe Pyei Shin Kyun. Knowing he had been misled, Sithu then selected Aung Zwa, a commander from his army, to lead the effort to assassinate the king. Aung Zwa led a team of 80 soldiers, and sped down the river by boat without pause. At Pagan, the team infiltrated the palace, and Aung Zwa himself killed the king.

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{{Burmese monarchs

Pagan dynasty
1141 births
1174 deaths
12th-century Burmese monarchs