Olivier de Clisson’s Return to France and…

The claim by King Min Bin of Mrauk-U that all of Bengal belonged to ancient Arakanese kingdoms, though without foundation, is nonetheless used by Min Bin as the pretext to exploit the growing weakness of Bengal, a sultanate in long decline due to its wars with the Delhi Sultanate and the Ahom Kingdom.

Leading  a combined invasion force of twelve thousand (three armies of eleven thousand men in a three-pronged attack, and a flotilla of war boats carrying one thousand troops), he invades Bengal on October 7, 1532.

According to Arakanese chronicles, the combined invasion force defeated an Bengal army of ten thousand men and took Chittagong.

The Arakanese armies now press on toward Dhaka on December 1, 1532.

The Bengal army makes a last stand outside Dhaka but is defeated.

The sultan's defenses collapse afterwards, and Arakanese forces enter Dhaka on December 11, 1532, without a fight.

Min Bin at Dhaka on February 8, 1533, receives tribute from local lords of Bengal, and raises a sixteen-year-old princess of Bengal royalty to queen.

He then pays a pilgrimage on March 26, 1533, to Bodh Gaya.

He leaves Dhaka for Mrauk-U on April 13, and on May 14 appoints governors of the newly acquired territories .

According to historians, his control of Bengal beyond Chittagong, where coins bearing his name and styling him sultan are struck, is nominal.

Like Bengal's sultans before him, he has to contend with raids by "Tripuri tribes" from the north throughout his reign, not just on Dhaka but also on Chittagong and Ramu.

An astute ruler who genuinely appreciates the challenges of administering so vast an empire, Akbar introduces a policy of reconciliation and assimilation of Hindus (including al-Zamani, the Hindu Rajput mother of his son and heir, Jahangir), who represents the majority of the population.

He recruits and rewards Hindu chiefs with the highest ranks in government; encourages intermarriages between Mughal and Rajput aristocracy; allows new temples to be built; personally  participates in celebrating Hindu festivals such as Dipavali, or Diwali, the festival of lights; and abolishes the jizya (poll tax) imposed on non-Muslims.

Akbar comes up with his own theory of "rulership as a divine illumination," enshrined in his new religion Din-i-Ilahi (Divine Faith), incorporating the principle of acceptance of all religions and sects.

He encourages widow marriage, discourages child marriage, outlaws the practice of sati, and persuades Delhi merchants to set up special market days for women, who otherwise are secluded at home.

By the end of Akbar's reign, the Mughal Empire extends throughout most of India north of the Godavari River.

The exceptions are Gondwana in central India, which pays tribute to the Mughals, and Assam, in the northeast.

Rajput troops fighting for the Mughals introduce to Assam the habit of taking opium, which the soldiers receive as a daily ration.

Mughal ruler Akbar the Great, ruler of northern India from 1556 to 1605, had initiated such innovative policies as religious liberalism (abolition of the jizya tax), inclusion of Hindus in the affairs of the empire, and political alliance/marriage with the Hindu Rajput caste; in his administration of the empire, he had also adopted some policies of Sher Shah Suri, such as the division of the empire into sarkars.

This has undoubtedly served to maintain the power and stability of the empire, as the fiercely proud Hindu populace had shown stiff resistance and no signs of meekly converting to the whims of Islamic conquest in its years in the Indian subcontinent.

Aurangzeb, who follows a more strict interpretation of Islam, discarded these policies.

Aurangzeb is to spend nearly his entire career seeking to expand his realm into the Deccan and south India, and Assam in the east, sapping the empire’s resources while provoking strong resistance from the Marathas, the Sikhs of Punjab, the Ahoms of Assam and some elements within the Hindu Rajputs.

The Battle of Saraighat is fought on April 9, 1671 between the Mughal empire (led by the Kachwaha king, Raja Ramsingh I), and the Ahom Kingdom (led by Lachit Borphukan) on the Brahmaputra river at Saraighat, now in Guwahati.

The Ahom army, although much weaker, defeats the Mughal army by brilliant uses of the terrain, clever diplomatic negotiations to buy time, guerrilla tactics, psychological warfare, military intelligence and by exploiting the sole weakness of the Mughal forces—its navy.

The Battle of Saraighat is the final battle in what is to be the last major attempt by the Mughals to extend their empire into Assam.

King Bodawpaya of Burma's Konbaung dynasty, faced with a powerful China and a resurgent Siam in the east, has acquired the western kingdoms of Arakan (1784), Manipur (1814) and Assam (1817), leading to a long ill-defined border with British India.

Europeans had begun to set up trading posts in the Irrawaddy delta region during this period.

Konbaung had tried to maintain its independence by balancing between the French and the British.

In the end it failed the British severing diplomatic relations in 1811, and the dynasty fighting and losing three wars against the British Empire, culminating in total annexation of Burma by the British.

The British decisively defeat the Burmese in the First Anglo-Burmese War (1824–1826).

Burma is forced to cede Arakan, Manipur, Assam, and Tenasserim, and pay a large indemnity of one million pounds.

The Raja of Manipur, Marjit Singh, who had been put on the Manipuri throne only six years earlier by the Burmese, had failed to attend Bagyidaw's coronation ceremony, or send an embassy bearing tributes, as all vassal kings had an obligation to do.

In October 1819, Bagyidaw sends an expeditionary force of twenty-five thousand soldiers and three thousand cavalry led by his favorite general Maha Bandula to reclaim Manipur.

Bandula reconquers Manipur but the raja escapes to neighboring Cachar, which is ruled by his brother Chourjit Singh.

The Singh brothers continue to raid Manipur using their bases from Cachar and Jaintia, which had been declared as British protectorates.

Bagyidaw is crowned as Emperor of Burma at the imperial capital of Innwa  following his grandfather's death on June 7.

Suddenly elevated to the position of Crown Prince at twenty-three by his grandfather King Bodawpaya in 1808, Bagyidaw ascends to the throne without opposition.

He thus inherits the second largest Burmese empire but also one that shares a long vaguely defined borders with British India.