Hanthawaddy Pegu, (Mon) Kingdom of

Wareru, born as Magadu near Thaton to a Shan father and a Mon mother, was the eldest child, and had at least two brothers and a sister.

As a young man, Magadu had become a merchant traveling between Martaban and Sukhothai.

In the 1270s, he had entered the service of Sukhothai King Ram Khamhaeng in the elephant stablesand had risen to become the Captain of the Palace Guards.

He had eloped in 1280 with the king's daughter Me Nang Soy Da and fled Sukhothai with a few dozen followers.

Back at Martaban, Wareru scheme to take over the governorship.

According to the Burmese chronicles, Wareru supposedly had asked his beautiful sister Hnin U Yaing to choose her bathing place in a river spot where Aleimma, the governor, would see her.

Aleimma asked to marry her.

At the wedding ceremony, Wareru killed the governor, and became the lord of Martaban.

The year of revolt was 1281 according to Mon records but 1286 according to Burmese records.

At any rate, the Pagan Empire, preoccupied with the Mongol invasions, was on its last legs and could not take any effective action.

After the invading Mongols sacked Pagan in 1287, central authority collapsed throughout the kingdom.

Many governors, especially those in remote parts of the empire, who are already ruling like sovereign kings, openly revolt.

Wareru, who has been technically already in revolt since 1281 (or 1286), makes an alliance with Tarabya, the governor of Pegu (Bago), each marrying the other's daughter.

Their southern forces together defeats the northern forces led by Yazathingyan, who will later become a cofounder of Myinsaing Kingdom, and proceed to conquer the whole of Lower Burma.

Then the two rebel leaders themselves quarrel, and in a skirmish, Tarabya is captured and executed.

[1] Wareru proclaims himself king of the Ramanya Kingdom, more commonly known as Kingdom of Hanthawady Pegu, on April 4, 1287 according to Mon records (or January 18 ,1288 per Burmese records).

The new kingdom is a nominal vassal state of Sukhothai, and of the Mongol Yuan dynasty.

The kingdom of Pagan, finally destroyed by the Mongol and Chinese forces of the Yuan Dynasty in 1287, is to have a lasting impact on Burmese history and the history of mainland Southeast Asia.

The success and longevity of Pagan's dominance over the Irrawaddy valley had enabled the ascent of Burmese language and culture, and the spread of Burman ethnicity in Upper Burma and laid the foundation for their continued spread elsewhere in later centuries.

The two hundred and fifty-year rule has left a proven system of administrative and cultural norms that will be adopted and extended by successor kingdoms—not only by the Burmese-speaking Ava Kingdom but also by the Mon-speaking Hanthawaddy Kingdom and Shan-speaking Shan states.

The Shan leadership, as well as lowland Shan immigrants of the Myinsaing, Pinya, Sagaing and Ava Kingdoms, will come to adopt Burmese cultural norms, the Burmese language, and the Burman ethnicity.

The convergence of cultural norms around existing Pagan-centered norms, at least in the Irrawaddy valley core, will in turn facilitate he latter-day political reunification drives of the Toungoo and Konbaung dynasties.

The town of Pegu, which had declined when the Burmese conquered the area in the eleventh century, becomes the capital of the revived Mon kingdom in 1369.

The Forty Years' War begins in 1385 between the Burmese Kingdom of Ava and the Mon Kingdom of Hanthawaddy Pegu fought primarily in today's Lower Burma and also in Upper Burma, the Shan States and Rakhine State.

A truce of 1391 will stay in effect until 1404.

Razadarit at his accession controlled only the Pegu province out of three principal Mon regions in lower Burma.

The Martaban region is ruled by Byattaba, and the Irrawaddy delta is under the rule of Laukpya of Myaungmya.

Razadarit had pardoned his aunt Mahadevi and given her Dagon in fief but he cannot buy the loyalty of his uncle Laukpya.

Laukpya, who had always ruled his fief like a king under his brother Binnya U, was not prepared to submit to his teenage nephew.

As Razadarit prepared to march to the delta in 1385, Laukpya had sought assistance from King Swa Saw Ke of Ava with the promise of submission to the rival Upper Burmese kingdom in exchange for Razadarit’s overthrow.

This had triggered civil war in Lower Burma; simultaneously, Shans in the north raid into Ava, and Burmese from Prome (Pye) stage a guerilla assault on the Mons.

Razdarit and his Mon forces, after ousting the Burmese from the fort of Myaungmya in the Irrawaddy delta area in 1391, unsuccessfully seeks an armistice with Ava. swa

The region of present Burma, or Mynamar, had divided in the fourteenth century into a number of rival kingdoms, chief of which are Ava in Upper Burma and Pegu in Lower Burma.

These two states, while warring with each other, also fight Toungoo (a state on the Ava-Pegu frontier), the neighboring Shan people, and the Arakan kingdom on the west coast.

Since 1369-1539, Hanthawaddy has been the capital of the Mon Kingdom of Ramanadesa.

A succession dispute following the death of Ava’s King Minyekyawswa in 1401 enables Pegu’s King Rajadhirat, or Razadarit, to launch several attacks against his northern neighbor.

His flotilla sails up the Irrawaddy river in 1406 and, despite defeats suffered en route, manages to reach and settle outside the town walls of Sagaing, across the river from Ava.

Pegu’s Razadarit successfully invades the Arakan kingdom on Burma’s western coast and installs a puppet ruler on the throne in 1406.

Pegu’s King Razadarit, now also controlling Arakan through his puppet, persuades northern Shan chiefs to distract Ava’s king Minhkaung, who is menacing both Arakan and Pegu.

While Minhkaung is occupied with fighting in a northern Shan state, the Mons attack the Ava-held town of Prome in 1408, necessitating Minhkaung’s return south.

Negotiations between Ava and the invading Mon result in King Razadarit’s withdrawal, but the seizure of his daughter at Prome to the south spurs Razadarit to besiege that town.

Minhkaung, Ava’s new monarch, comes to Prome’s rescue, capturing three forts of Nawin and putting its inhabitants to the sword.

In response, Razadarit sends three hundred war canoes up the Irrawaddy River, laying waste to several towns.

Minkhaung, his soldiers faced with starvation by the invading Mon of Pegu, successfully concludes peace in 1408, arranging for an exchange of prisoners and establishing the Ava-Pegu border below Prome.

Burmese forces from Ava under King Minhkaung’s son, Crown Prince Minrekyawswa, invade the Pegu-controlled kingdom of Arakan in 1410 and depose the puppet ruler installed by King Razadarit, but suffer defeat by the Mons in the Irrawaddy River delta area.