Thamoddarit ( my, သမုဒ္ဒရာဇ် ; pi, Samuddarāja; 76 – 152) was the legendary founder of

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), who supposedly reigned from 107 to 152 CE. He was proclaimed as the founder of Pagan for the first time by ''

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 ...

'', the Royal Chronicle of

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

in 1832. The introduction of Thamoddarit, whose lineage ''Hmannan'' traces to the Sakya clan of the

Buddha Siddhartha Gautama, most commonly referred to as the Buddha, was a wandering ascetic and religious teacher who lived in South Asia during the 6th or 5th century BCE and founded Buddhism. According to Buddhist tradition, he was born in L ...

as the founder of Pagan, was part of the early Konbaung kings' efforts to move away from then prevailing pre-Buddhist origin narrative of the monarchy.

Burmese chronicles The royal chronicles of Myanmar ( my, မြန်မာ ရာဇဝင် ကျမ်းများ ; also known as Burmese chronicles) are detailed and continuous chronicles of the monarchy of Myanmar (Burma). The chronicles were written o ...

down to the 18th century had traced to another legendary figure

Pyusawhti Pyusawhti ( my, ပျူစောထီး , ; also Pyuminhti, ) was a legendary king of Pagan Dynasty of Burma (Myanmar), who according to the Burmese chronicles supposedly reigned from 167 to 242 CE. The chronicles down to the 18th century ha ...

, a descendant of a solar spirit and a dragon princess.Lieberman 2003: 196Than Tun 1964: ix–x

Legend

Out of Sri Ksetra

According to ''Hmannan'', Thamoddarit was a nephew of Thupyinnya, the last king of Sri Ksetra Kingdom. In 94 CE, a civil war broke out between the Pyu and the Kanyan, two of the three main ethnic groups of the kingdom. (The Mranma (Burmans) were the third.) The Pyu initially emerged victorious over the Kanyan. But the victors soon broke into three rival groups, and a second round of war ensued. Taking advantage of the confusion, a fourth group, the Mon of Lower Burma drove all indigenous groups out of Sri Ksetra.Hmannan Vol. 1 2003: 185–188

Wandering years

Thamoddarit led one of the refugee groups out of Sri Ksetra, and wandered on along the Irrawaddy for over a dozen years. They spent three years at Taungnyo near Sri Ksetra before they were driven out by the Mon. They spent another six years at Pantaung but the Kanyan drove them out. They then went to Mindon for another three years, and in 107 CE, finally stopped at the location of Pagan (Bagan). He incorporated nineteen villages in the area, and founded the city of Pagan. His dynasty became known as the

Reign

Thamoddarit had a long reign at Pagan. In the 22nd year of his reign, in 149 CE, a young man by the name of

became famous by performing daring feats. According to ''Hmannan'', Pyusawhti was a descendant of the Second Tagaung Dynasty, ultimately from the first (mythical) Buddhist king of the world, Maha Sammata. But prior Burmese chronicles had identified him as a descendant of a solar spirit and a dragon princess. Thamoddarit married his daughter Thiri Sanda Dewi to Pyusawhti, and made him the heir apparent. He died three years later in 152 CE at the age of 76. Pyusawhti refused to take the throne; instead he gave the throne to his tutor Yathekyaung, who ruled until 167 CE.Hmannan Vol. 1 2003: 189–201

Notes

References