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100-688: It was also the first Burmese historical text to link Burmese kings to the Shakya clan of the Buddha and ultimately to Maha Sammata , the first king of the world in Buddhist tradition. It was one of the first four Burmese texts to be machine-published by the Burmese Konbaung dynasty in 1871. The Mani Yadanabon Kyan , "Treatise of Precious Jewelled Precedents", was completed on 24 September 1781 by Shin Sandalinka ,

200-475: A coup de grace by Hindu Forces. The scholarship helped revitalize a more orthodox form of Theravada Buddhism. To be sure, his reforms could not and did not achieve everything overnight. The spread of Theravada Buddhism in Upper Burma was gradual; it took over three centuries. Its monastic system did not achieve widespread village level penetration in more remote areas until as late as the 19th century. Nor did

300-624: A white elephant as a present for Vijayabahu. The Burmese monks ordained or re-ordained the entire clergy of the island. In return, the Ceylonese king gave a replica of the Buddha Tooth of which Ceylon was the proud possessor. The replica was then enshrined in the Lawkananda Pagoda in Pagan. The greatest achievement of Anawrahta was his consolidation of various ethnic groups into a single nation. He

400-489: A chronicle, Mani is noted for the amount of historical background information. However, much of Mani's accounts were "condensed and cannibalized" versions of then existing chronicles, and add little to the scholarly understanding of Burmese history. According to Lieberman , "[m]ost, if not all, of the material on the Ava period (1365−1555) may be found in greater detail and accuracy in various local chronicles, and more especially in

500-578: A common ancestor, and was also a myth of an early human utopia where humans were born as couples. The important role of the Sāl tree in the life of the Buddha according to the Buddhist texts, as well as his representation as a Bodhi tree and his Enlightenment occurring under one such tree, suggest that the Shakyas practised tree worship, a custom likely derived from Munda religious customs of worshipping sacred groves, and

600-620: A minority. The Shakyas were closely related to their eastern neighbours, the Koliya clan, with whom they intermarried. Scholars such as Michael Witzel and Christopher I. Beckwith have equated the Shakyas with Central Asian nomads who were called Scythians by the Greeks, Sakā s by the Achaemenid Persians, and Śāka by the Indo-Aryans. These scholars have suggested that the people of

700-480: A monk for the remainder of his life. Min Saw grew up in the shadow of his two step-brothers, who viewed Min Saw as their youngest brother and allowed him to retain his princely status at the court. Min Saw and his mother attended Kunhsaw, and lived nearby the monastery. In 1038, Kyiso died, and was succeeded by Sokkate. Min Saw was loyal to the new king. He took wives, and had at least two sons ( Saw Lu and Kyansittha ) by

800-479: A new nation. He never accepted the cult of the god-king, and he was impatient even with gods that his people worshipped; men came to say that he beat up gods with the flat of his lance. He achieved his aims but only at the price of his own popularity. His subjects admired and feared him, but did not love him. His execution of two young heroes for a trifling breach of discipline after the conclusion of his Nanzhao campaign angered people, and to appease them he declared that

900-442: A senior Buddhist monk and the recipient of a high royal title under King Singu 's patronage. According to the author, the work was a compilation of several historical works and chronicles. It claims to describe the exemplary "advice offered by various ministers to Burmese sovereigns from the late 14th to the early 18th century". The book was probably modeled upon the Buddhist text Milinda Panha . "Each section typically begins with

1000-531: A simple voting system through either raising hands or the use of wooden chips. Similarly to the other gaṇasaṅgha s, the Sakya Assembly met rarely and it instead had an inner and smaller Council which met more often to administer the republic in the name of the Assembly. The members of the council, titled amaccā s, formed a college which was directly in charge of public affairs of the republic. The head of

1100-531: A slave or servant class of sudda s, themselves comprising at least an aristocracy, as well as land-owners, attendants, labourers, and serfs. Landholders held the title of bhojakā s, literally meaning "enjoyers (of the right to own land)," and used in the sense of "headmen." The lower classes of Shakya society consisted of servants, in Pāli called kammakara s ( lit.   ' labourers ' ) and sevaka s ( lit.   ' serfs ' ), who performed

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1200-439: A usurper of the Pagan throne, who overthrew King Nyaung-u Sawrahan two decades earlier. Kunhsaw then married three of Nyaung-u's chief queens, two of whom were pregnant at the time, and subsequently gave birth to Kyiso and Sokkate. Kunhsaw had raised Sokkate and Kyiso as his own sons. After the putsch, Kyiso became king and Sokkate became heir-apparent. They forced their step-father to a local monastery, where Kunhsaw would live as

1300-623: A vassal relationship for the remainder of Pagan dynasty, occasionally placing its nominees to the Arakanese throne. Moreover, the Burmese language and script came to dominate the Arakan littoral over the next centuries. With Burmese influence came ties to Ceylon (Sri Lanka) and the gradual prominence of Theravada Buddhism. Anawrahta also received tribute from the Buddhist kingdom of Pateikkaya ( ပဋိက္ခယား , IPA: [bədeiʔ kʰəjá] ). The location of

1400-523: Is considered one of the greatest, if not the greatest, king of Burmese history for he founded first "charter polity" of what would later become modern Burma. Not only did he greatly expand the Pagan Kingdom but he also implemented a series of political and administrative reforms that enabled his empire to dominate the Irrawaddy valley and its periphery for another 250 years. Anawrahta's legacy went far beyond

1500-540: Is greatly exaggerated. Possibly in this period, the delta sedimentation—which now extends the coastline by three miles a century—remained insufficient, and the sea still reached too far inland, to support a population even as large as the modest population of the late precolonial era. At any rate, during the 11th century, Pagan established its Lower Burma and this conquest facilitated growing cultural exchange, if not with local Mons, then with India and with Theravada stronghold Ceylon (Sri Lanka). Anawrahta's next conquest

1600-453: Is permissible as evidence, since 984 CE. Anawrahta was an energetic king who implemented many profound enduring political, socioeconomic and cultural changes. He was admired and feared but not loved by his subjects. Historian Htin Aung writes: Anawrahta was ruthless and stern not to any particular ethnic group but to all his subjects, for he felt that harsh measures were needed in building up

1700-477: Is that Mani like Zabu does not mention King Anawrahta 's conquest of Thaton at all. But it reverses Zabu's account that a company of monks took the Buddhist scriptures from Pagan to Thaton; instead, like Maha Yazawin's account, Mani states that the monks brought the scriptures from Thaton to Pagan. Perhaps most importantly, Mani also marks the earliest appearance in the Burmese histories of Maha Sammata ,

1800-452: The amaccā s came back and waited for the recorders' decision. Another reflection of non-Indo-Aryan cultural practices of the Shakyas was the practice of sibling marriages among their ruling clans, which was forbidden among Vaidika peoples, and was a practice of social demarcation and of maintaining power within a smaller sub-group of the Shakya clan, and was therefore not permitted among

1900-710: The Burmans ) in the northeast, and in the southeast, the Khmer Empire , the main power of mainland Southeast Asia at the time. He assisted fellow Theravada Buddhist Ceylon in its war against Hindu Chola invaders. Pagan's conquest of Thaton shook the Mon world. Anawrahta also demanded tribute from other neighboring Mon Kingdoms, Haripunjaya and Dvaravati (in present-day northern and central Thailand ). Haripunjaya reportedly sent in tribute but Dvaravati's overlord Khmer Empire instead invaded Tenasserim. Anawrahta sent his armies, again led by

2000-512: The Chola invaders from Tamil country . Anawrahta sent ships of supplies in aid of Buddhist Ceylon. In 1071, Vijayabahu who had defeated the Cholas asked Anawrahta for Buddhist scriptures and Buddhist monks . The Chola invasions had left the original home of Theravada Buddhism with so few monks that it was hard to convene a chapter and make valid ordinations . Anawrahta sent the monks and scriptures, and

2100-521: The Mon -speaking kingdoms in the south, which like Pagan were merely large city-states in reality. He first received submission of the ruler of Pegu (Bago). But the Thaton Kingdom refused to submit. Anawrahta's armies, led by the "Four Paladins", invaded the southern kingdom in early 1057. After a 3-months' siege of the city of Thaton, on 17 May 1057, (11th waxing of Nayon, 419 ME ), the Pagan forces conquered

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2200-601: The Shwesandaw Pagoda south of Pagan to house the hair relics presented by Pegu. Farther afield, he built other pagodas such as Shweyinhmyaw, Shwegu and Shwezigon near Meiktila. Scholarship believed until recently that Anawrahta commissioned the invention of the Burmese alphabet based on the Mon script , c. 1058, a year after the Thaton conquest. However, recent research finds that the Burmese alphabet had been in use at least since 1035, and if an 18th-century recast inscription

2300-591: The Tenasserim coastline in the south, Katha in the north, Thazi in the east and Minbu in the west. His first efforts were in then lightly inhabited Shan Hills in the east and the north. He acquired allegiance of Shan Hills in two waves. In the early to mid-1050s, Anawrahta first visited the nearer Shan Hills in the east, and received tribute. He founded the Bawrithat Pagoda in Nyaungshwe . The second wave came in

2400-440: The 107 CE date given in the standard chronicles. Its accession year for King Minkhaung I is also more accurate than that given in the standard chronicles. However, the author did not synthesize differing dates, which likely came from different sources. For example, the text says Sri Ksetra and Pagan were contemporary to each other but the dates given for Sri Ksetra and Pagan are five centuries apart. Another notable mixed narrative

2500-419: The 18th and 19th centuries) mention at least two separate raids from the east, as well as "visits" by Anawrahta and Kyansittha. According to the Arakanese accounts, the attacks from the east ousted kings Pe Byu and Nga Ton in succession. However, the dates are off by centuries with the ousted kings having reigned in the late 8th to early 9th centuries, 10th to 11th, or 11th to 12th centuries. At any rate, as

2600-683: The Aris die out. Their descendants, known as forest dwelling monks, remained a powerful force patronized by the royalty down to the Ava period in the 16th century. Likewise, the nat worship continued (down to the present day). Even the Theravada Buddhism of Anawrahta, Kyansittha and Manuha was one still strongly influenced by Hinduism when compared to later more orthodox (18th and 19th century) standards. Tantric, Saivite , and Vaishnava elements enjoyed greater elite influence than they would later do, reflecting both

2700-728: The Buddha were Saka soldiers who arrived in South Asia in the army of Darius the Great during the Achaemenid conquest of the Indus Valley , and saw in Scytho-Saka nomadism the origin of the wandering asceticism of the Buddha. Scholars criticize the Scythian hypothesis due to a lack of evidence, with Bryan Levman maintaining that the Shakyas were native to the north-east Gangetic plain and unrelated to

2800-499: The Buddhist school's original home. The success of Pagan dynasty made Theravada Buddhism's later growth in Lan Na (northern Thailand), Siam (central Thailand), Lan Xang (Laos), and Khmer Empire (Cambodia) in the 13th and 14th centuries possible. Anawrahta is one of the most famous kings in Burmese history. His life stories (legends) are a staple of Burmese folklore and retold in popular literature and theater. Prior to Anawrahta, of all

2900-557: The Chief Minister Min Yaza to kings from Swa Saw Ke to Minkhaung I of the early Ava dynasty . It also includes submissions from later periods by famous ministers, including the 16th century Chief Minister Binnya Dala , the author-translator of the chronicle Razadarit Ayedawbon . Nonetheless, the book is known mostly for the Min Yaza section, and commonly known as "Po Yaza's Submissions" (ဘိုးရာဇာ လျှောက်ထုံး). The treatise

3000-530: The Greater Magadha region, the Shakyas were saṃkīrṇa-yonayaḥ ("of mixed origin"), and therefore did not subscribe to the caturvarṇa social organisation consisting of brāhmaṇa s , khattiya s , vessa s , and sudda . While non-Indo-Aryan indigenous clans were given the status of sudda s, that is of slaves or servants, indigenous clans who collaborated with the Indo-Aryan clans were

3100-726: The Iranic Sakas. By the sixth century BCE, the Shakyas, the Koliyas , Moriyas , and Mallakas lived between the territories of the Kauśalyas to the west and the Licchavikas and Vaidehas to the east, thus separating the Vajjika League from the Kosala kingdom. By that time, the Shakya republic had become a vassal state of the larger Kingdom of Kosala . During the fifth century itself, one of

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3200-554: The Panlaung river, and three weirs (Nwadet, Kunhse, Nga Pyaung) on the Zawgyi. (He also tried to control the Myitnge river but failed despite all his efforts. The work lasted three years and there were many casualties from fever.) He peopled the newly developed areas with villages, which under royal officers served the canals. The region, known as Ledwin (lit. the rice country) became the granary,

3300-456: The Sakya republic was an elected chief, which was a position of first among equals similar to Roman consuls and Greek archons , and whose incumbent had the title of mahārājā . The mahārājā was in charge of administering the republic with the help of the council. When sessions of the Assembly were held, the rājā s gathered in the santhāgāra; while four amaccā s were posted in

3400-891: The Shakya Siddhartha Gautama, the historical Buddha . The Shakyas worshipped the Sun-god , whom they considered their ancestor, hence why the Shakya khattiya clan claimed to be of the Ādicca ( Āditya in Sanskrit) gotta , and of the Sūryavaṃśa ("Solar dynasty"). The Shakya khattiya clan claimed descent from the Sun-god via his descendant, named Okkāka (in Pāli ) and Ikṣvāku (in Sanskrit ), and whose eight twin sons and daughters who were married to each other had founded

3500-431: The Shakya and Koliya republics, seeking to conquer their territories because they had once been part of Kosala . Viḍūḍabha finally triumphed over the Shakyas and Koliyas and annexed their state after a long war with massive loss of lives on both sides. Details of this war were exaggerated by later Buddhist accounts, which claimed that Viḍūḍabha exterminated the Shakyas in retaliation for having given in marriage to his father

3600-437: The Shakyas, which originated from among the pre-Indo-Aryan Tibeto-Burman populations of northern South Asia. The cremation rituals of the Shakyas which were performed for the funeral of the Buddha as described by Buddhist texts involved wrapping his body in 500 layers of cloth, placing it in an iron vat full of oil as a mark of honour, and then covering it with another iron pot before being cremated. These rites originated from

3700-535: The Shan Hills. He used traditional nat spirits to attract people to his new religion. Asked why he allowed the nats to be placed in Buddhist temples and pagodas, Anawrahta answered "Men will not come for the sake of new faith. Let them come for their old gods, and gradually they will be won over." Urged on by Shin Arahan, Anawrahta tried to reform the very Theravada Buddhism he received from Thaton, which by most accounts,

3800-478: The Upper Menam valley, making Pagan one of the two great kingdoms in mainland Southeast Asia . A strict disciplinarian, Anawrahta implemented a series of key social, religious and economic reforms that would have a lasting impact in Burmese history. His social and religious reforms later developed into the modern-day Burmese culture . By building a series of weirs, he turned parched, arid regions around Pagan into

3900-506: The annexation of the Shakya kingdom by Kosala. The earlier Burmese accounts stated that he was a descendant of Pyusawhti , son of a solar spirit and a dragon princess. The Shakyas lived in what scholars presently call the Greater Magadha cultural area, which was located in the eastern Gangetic plain to the east of the confluence of the Gaṅgā and Yamunā rivers. Like the other eastern groups of

4000-480: The basis of modern-day Burma (Myanmar). Historically verifiable Burmese history begins with his accession to the Pagan throne in 1044. Anawrahta unified the entire Irrawaddy valley for the first time in history, and placed peripheral regions such as the Shan States and Arakan (Rakhine) under Pagan's suzerainty. He successfully stopped the advance of the Khmer Empire into the Tenasserim coastline and into

4100-430: The beginning, Anawrahta's principality was a small area—barely 200 miles north to south and about 80 miles from east to west, comprising roughly the present districts of Mandalay , Meiktila , Myingyan , Kyaukse , Yamethin , Magwe , Sagaing and Katha east of the Irrawaddy, and the riverine portions of Minbu and Pakkoku . To the north lay Nanzhao Kingdom , and to the east still largely uninhibited Shan Hills , to

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4200-470: The borders of modern Burma. The success and longevity of Pagan's dominance over the Irrawaddy valley laid the foundation for the ascent of Burmese language and culture, the spread of Burman ethnicity in Upper Burma. His embrace of Theravada Buddhism and his success in stopping the advance of Khmer Empire, a Hindu kingdom, provided the Buddhist school, which had been in retreat elsewhere in South and Southeast Asia ,

4300-546: The boundary between the two states and whose water was needed by both of them to irrigate their crops. The intervention of the Buddha finally put an end to these hostilities. After the death of the Buddha, the Shakyas claimed a share of his relics from the Mallakas of Kusinārā on the grounds that he had been a Shakya. Shortly after the Buddha's death, the Kauśalya king Viḍūḍabha , who had overthrown his father Pasenadi , invaded

4400-420: The capital city of the Shakyas and were the tribe's ancestors. This was an origin myth of the ruling status of the khattiya families of the Shakya clan, who had the right to be represented in the santhāgāra , were often related to each other, and possessed adjacent areas of land, thus establishing kinship, which itself helped form rights of landownership, and, therefore, of political authority. This myth

4500-467: The capital of Dali Kingdom , ostensibly to seek a Buddha's tooth relic. As in the case of the request for the scriptures from Thaton, it was really a demand for tribute. The ruler of Dali shut the gates, and would not give up the relic. After a long pause, two kings exchanged presents and conversed amicably. The Dali ruler gave Anawrahta a jade image which had come into contact with the tooth. In 1069, Vijayabahu I of Ceylon asked Anawrahta for aid against

4600-471: The city. According to Burmese and Mon traditions, Anawrahta's main reason for the invasion was Thaton king Manuha 's refusal to give him a copy of the Theravada Buddhist Canon . (Anawrahta had been converted to Theravada Buddhism from his native Ari Buddhism by Shin Arahan , a monk originally from Thaton.) In reality, it was merely a demand for submission couched in diplomatic language, and

4700-412: The compilers of chronicles, designed to fill the period back to the Buddha with authentic dynasties." Nonetheless, the claim would later be officially adopted in the 1832 Hmannan Yazawin , the first official chronicle of Konbaung dynasty. L. E. Bagshawe translated the Min Yaza section into English. The partial translation, which represented "somewhat under half of the total", was published in 1981 under

4800-474: The dates regarding his life and reign. The table below lists the dates given by the four main chronicles. Among the chronicles, scholarship usually accepts Zata's dates, which are considered to be the most accurate for the Pagan period. Scholarship's dates for Anawrahta's birth, death and reign dates are closest to Zata's dates. In 1021, when Min Saw was about six years old, his father was deposed by his step-brothers Kyiso and Sokkate . His father had been

4900-507: The early 1040s. In 1044 however, Min Saw raised a rebellion at nearby Mount Popa , and challenged Sokkate to single combat. According to the chronicles, the reason for his uprising was that Sokkate had just raised Min Saw's mother as queen. Sokkate is said to have addressed Min Saw as brother-son, which the latter took great offense. Sokkate accepted the challenge to single combat on horseback. On 11 August 1044, Min Saw slew Sokkate at Myinkaba , near Pagan. The king and his horse both fell into

5000-493: The early 18th century national chronicle by U Kala , the Maha-ya-zawin-gyi ." To be sure, Mani does offer differing accounts from time to time, some of which may be more accurate than those offered in the standard chronicles. One notable example is that Mani says King Thamoddarit founded the royal capital of Pagan (Bagan) in 26 ME (664/665 CE), close to c. 650 CE, given by radiocarbon dating, and in contrast to

5100-583: The early Pagan kings, only Nyaung-u Sawrahan 's reign can be verified independently by stone inscriptions. Anawrahta is the first historical king in that the events during his reign can be verified by stone inscriptions. However, Anawrahta's youth, like much of early Pagan history, is still shrouded in legend, and should be treated as such. Anawrahta was born Min Saw ( မင်းစော , IPA: [mɪ́ɰ̃ sɔ́] ) to King Kunhsaw Kyaunghpyu and Queen Myauk Pyinthe on 11 May 1044. The Burmese chronicles do not agree on

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5200-570: The economic key of the north country. History shows that one who gained control of Kyaukse became kingmaker in Upper Burma. Anawrahta organized Pagan's military. His key men—known as the Four Great Paladins in Burmese history—were: Also at his service were Byatta ( ဗျတ္တ ), a Muslim (likely an Arab seaman) shipwrecked at Thaton , and his sons Shwe Hpyin Gyi and Shwe Hpyin Nge , (who later entered

5300-484: The enormous power of Ari monks over the people, and considered the monks, who ate evening meals, drank liquor, presided over animal sacrifices, and enjoyed a form of ius primae noctis , depraved. In Theravada Buddhism he found a substitute to break the power of the clergy. From 1056 onwards, Anawrahta implemented a series of religious reforms throughout his kingdom. His reforms gained steam after his conquest of Thaton, which brought much needed scriptures and clergy from

5400-542: The entire Menam valley, and received tribute from the Khmer king. One states that Anawrahta's armies invaded the Khmer kingdom and sacked the city of Angkor , and another one goes so far as to say that Anawrahta even visited Java to receive his tribute. However, Western historians (Harvey, Hall, et al) present a much smaller empire, consisted of the Irrawaddy valley and nearer periphery. His victory terracotta votive tablets (emblazoned with his name in Sanskrit) have been found along

5500-503: The first human king of the world in Buddhist mythology , and Abhiyaza as the founder of the first Burmese state of Tagaung . This origin myth allows all Burmese kings to descend from the clan of the Buddha in an apparent attempt legitimize the Konbaung kings by religious criteria. According to Hudson, "the section covering the time before Bagan could be viewed as a retrospective addition by

5600-434: The four corners or sides of the hall so as to clearly and easily hear the speeches made by the rājā s; and the consul rājā took his appointed seat and put forward the matters to be discussed once the Assembly was ready. During the session, the members of the Assembly expressed their views, which the four amaccā s would record. The Assembly was then adjourned, after which the recorders compared their notes, and all

5700-509: The four paladins, who repulsed the invaders. The Burmese chronicles referred to the Kingdom of Cambodia as the southeastern limit of the Pagan Empire. After the Khmer advance was checked, Anawrahta turned his attention toward Dali. Anawrahta led a campaign against the kingdom in the northeast. (According to a mid-17th century source, he began the march on 16 December 1057.) He advanced to Dali ,

5800-550: The important role in their traditions of the Sāl tree, whose flowering marks the beginning of their New Year and Flower Feast festivals: the Santal tribe worship the Sāl tree and gather to make communal decisions under them Sāl trees. The importance of the tree spirits called yakkha s and yakkhī s in Pali ( yakṣa s and yakṣī s in Sanskrit) in early Buddhist texts is an attestation of

5900-580: The king of Pegu to remain as a vassal king in appreciation of the latter's help in Anawrahta's conquest of Thaton. But after the vassal king's death, he appointed a governor. Due to geographical distances, other tributary areas such as Arakan and Shan Hills were allowed to retain hereditary chieftainships. In 1056, a Mon Theravada Buddhist monk named Shin Arahan made a fateful visit to Pagan, and converted its king Anawrahta to Theravada Buddhism from his native Ari Buddhism . The king had been dissatisfied with

6000-430: The king seeking advice on a historical problem," which is then followed by the minister's advice or submissions, supported by "a wealth of didactic examples from religious and historical literature". Sandalinka also interleaves "condensed and cannibalized" historical context before particular submissions. About half of the compilation came from the 15th-century treatise Zabu Kun-Cha , which recounts famous submissions by

6100-454: The labour in the farms. The Sakyas were organised into a gaṇasaṅgha (an aristocratic oligarchic republic ) similarly to the Licchavikas . The heads of the Sakya khattiya clans of the Gotama gotta formed an Assembly, and they held the title of rājā s. The position of rājā was hereditary, and after a rājā 's death was passed to his eldest son, who while he

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6200-484: The late 1050s and early 1060s after his march to Nanzhao Kingdom . After his return from Nanzhao expedition, Shan chiefs along the route presented Anawrahta with tributes. Still, their allegiance was nominal and he had to establish 43 forts along the eastern foothills of which the following 33 still exist as villages. The 43 forts were established per the royal order issued 7 February 1061 (12th waxing of Tabaung 422 ME). After his first Shan campaign, Anawrahta turned to

6300-599: The linguistic influence of Munda languages , as attested by many of their villages having Mundari names, and the name of the founder of their clan, which has been recorded in the Sanskrit form Ikṣvāku and the Pali form Okkāka , being of Munda origin . The society of the Shakyas and Koliyas was a stratified one which did not subscribe to the caturvarṇa social organisation consisting of brāhmaṇa s , khattiya s , vessa s , and sudda s , but instead consisted of an aristocratic class of khattiya s and

6400-574: The lower classes of the Shakya. Since they lived in the Greater Magadha cultural area, the Shakyas followed non-Vedic religious customs which drastically differed from the Brahmanical tradition, and even by the time of the Buddha, Brahmanism and the brāhmaṇa s had not acquired religious or cultural preponderance in the Greater Magadha area to which Shakya belonged. It was in this non-Vedic cultural environment that Śramaṇa movements existed, with one of them, Buddhism , having been founded by

6500-430: The main rice granaries of Upper Burma, giving Upper Burma an enduring economic base from which to dominate the Irrawaddy valley and its periphery in the following centuries. He bequeathed a strong administrative system that all later Pagan kings followed until the dynasty's fall in 1287. The success and longevity of Pagan's dominance over the Irrawaddy valley laid the foundation for the ascent of Burmese language and culture,

6600-418: The members of the ruling aristocratic oligarchy of the Shakyas was Suddhodana . Suddhodana was married to the princess Māyā , who was the daughter of a Koliya noble, and the son of Suddhodana and Māyā was Siddhartha Gautama , the historical Buddha and founder of Buddhism . During the life of the Buddha, an armed feud opposed the Shakyas and the Koliyas concerning the waters of the river Rohiṇī, which formed

6700-430: The name of The Maniyadanabon of Shin Sandalinka . Shakya Shakya ( Pāḷi : Sakya ; Sanskrit : शाक्य , romanized :  Śākya ) was an ancient clan of the northeastern region of South Asia , whose existence is attested during the Iron Age . The Shakyas were organised into a gaṇasaṅgha (an aristocratic oligarchic republic ), also known as the Shakya Republic . The Shakyas were on

6800-430: The northeast they bordered on the Mallakas of Kushinagar . To the north, the territory of the Shakyas stretched into the Himalayas until the forested regions of the mountains, which formed their northern border. The capital of the Shakyas was the city of Kapilavastu . The name of the Shakyas is attested primarily in the Pali forms Sakya and Sakka , and the Sanskrit form Śākya . The Shakyas' name

6900-434: The overall quality of the compilation is uneven. The most detailed and valuable part of this text, according to Aung-Thwin and Bagshawe, is the section on Min Yaza's submissions from ( c. 1368– c. 1421), after which the quality declines. The Min Yaza section is "very likely a good preservation of the 15th century work Zabu Kun-Cha , parts of which can still be found in the palm-leaf copy of 1825". Though not officially

7000-525: The pantheon of Burmese folk deities as Shwe Hpyin Brothers ရွှေဖျဉ်းညီနောင် ). By the mid-1050s, Anawrahta's reforms had turned Pagan into a regional power, and he looked to expand. Over the next ten years, he founded the Pagan Empire, the Irrawaddy valley at the core, surrounded by tributary kingdoms. Estimates of the extent of his empire vary greatly. The Burmese and Thai chronicles report an empire which covered present-day Myanmar and northern Thailand. The Thai chronicles assert that Anawrahta conquered

7100-495: The pantheon of Burmese nat spirits ). But people admired and feared him, and he was able to implement many of his ambitious multifaceted reforms. Anawrahta died on 11 April 1077 in the outskirts of Pagan. The chronicles hint that his enemies ambushed and killed him and then disposed of the body in such a way that it was never found. The chronicles state that a nat (spirit) appeared in the guise of wild buffalo and gored him to death, and then demons took away his body. Anawrahta

7200-521: The peoples of the Greater Magadha region by the Vedic peoples extended to the Shakyas, as recorded in the Ambaṭṭha Sutta , according to which the brāhmaṇa s described the Shakyas as "fierce, rough-spoken, touchy and violent," and accused them of not honouring, respecting, esteeming, revering or paying homage to the brāhmaṇa s owing to their "menial origin." The Shakyans were at least bilingual, under

7300-639: The periphery, both geographically and culturally, of the eastern Indo-Gangetic Plain in the Greater Magadha cultural region. The Shakyas lived in the Terai – an area south of the foothills of the Himalayas and north of the Indo-Gangetic Plain with their neighbors to the west and south being the kingdom of Kosala , their neighbors to the east across the Rohni River being the related Koliya tribe, while on

7400-417: The population of Kosala, with only a few displaced families maintaining the Shakya identity later. The Koliyas likewise disappeared as a polity and as a tribe soon after their annexation. The massive life losses incurred by Kosala during its conquest of Shakya and Koliya weakened it significantly enough that it was itself soon annexed by its eastern neighbour, the kingdom of Magadha , and its king Viḍūḍabha

7500-591: The populations of Greater Magadha as existing outside of the limits of Āryāvarta , with the Manusmṛiti grouping the Vaidehas , Māgadhīs , Licchavikas , and Mallakas , who were the neighbours of the Shakyas, as being "non-Aryan" and born from mixed caste marriages, and the Baudhāyana-Dharmaśāstra s requiring visitors to these lands to perform purificatory sacrifices as expiation. This negative view of

7600-415: The pre-Indo-Aryan autochthonous populations of the eastern Gangetic plains, as were the practices such as honouring the Buddha's body with singing, dancing, and music, as well as placing his bones in a golden urn, the veneration of these remains and their burial in a round stūpa which possessed a central mast, flags, pennants, and parasols at a public crossroads, which were rituals that were performed by

7700-464: The pre-Indo-Aryan populations for their greater rulers. Anawrahta Anawrahta Minsaw ( Burmese : အနော်ရထာ မင်းစော , pronounced [ʔənɔ̀jətʰà mɪ́ɰ̃ sɔ́] ; 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 of Upper Burma into the first Burmese Empire that formed

7800-510: The real aim of his conquest of Thaton was to check the Khmer Empire 's conquests in the Chao Phraya basin and encroachment into the Tenasserim coast . The conquest of Thaton is seen as the turning point in Burmese history. Still according to traditional reconstruction, Anawrahta brought back over 30,000 people, many of them artisans and craftsmen to Pagan. These captives formed a community that later helped build thousands of monuments at Pagan,

7900-471: The relative immaturity of early Burmese literacy culture and its indiscriminate receptivity to non-Burman traditions. Indeed, even today's Burmese Buddhism contains many animist, Mahayana Buddhist and Hindu elements. He was the first of the "Temple Builders" of Pagan. His chief monument was the Shwezigon Pagoda. The work began in 1059 but was still unfinished at his death 18 years later. He also built

8000-405: The remains of which today rival the splendors of Angkor Wat . More recent research by historian Michael Aung-Thwin has argued forcefully that Thaton's contributions to the cultural transformation of Upper Burma are a post-Pagan legend without contemporary evidence, that Lower Burma in fact lacked a substantial independent polity prior to Pagan's expansion, and that Mon influence on the interior

8100-455: The river nearby. Min Saw first offered the throne to his father. The former king, who had long been a monk, refused. On 16 December 1044, Min Saw ascended the throne with the title of Anawrahta, a Burmanized form of Sanskrit name Aniruddha (अनिरुद्ध). His full royal style was Maha Yaza Thiri Aniruddha Dewa ( မဟာ ရာဇာ သီရိ အနိရုဒ္ဓ ဒေဝ ; Sanskrit : Mahā Rājā Śrī Aniruddha Devá ). Burmese history now begins to be less conjectural. In

8200-710: The slave girl who became Viḍūḍabha's mother. In actuality, Viḍūḍabha's invasion of Shakya might instead have had similar motivations to the conquest of the Vajjika League by Viḍūḍabha's relative, the Māgadhī king Ajātasattu , who, because he was the son of a Vajjika princess, was therefore interested in the territory of his mother's homeland. The result of the Kauśalya invasion was that the Shakyas and Koliyas merely lost political importance after being annexed into Viḍūḍabha's kingdom. The Shakyas nevertheless soon disappeared as an ethnic group after their annexation, having become absorbed into

8300-591: The small kingdom remains in dispute. The Burmese chronicles report the location as northwest of Arakan and its kings Indian. But British historian GE Harvey reckoned that it was more likely nearer to the eastern Chin Hills. The Tripura State was described as "Patikara" in Maharajoang, an ancient historical book of Bramhadesh. As his kingdom expanded, Anawrahta came into contact with the Dali Kingdom (the erstwhile home of

8400-645: The south and the west the Pyus , and farther south still, the Mons . Anawrahta's first acts as king were to organize his kingdom. He graded every town and village according to the levy it could raise. He made great efforts to turn the arid parched lands of central Burma into a rice granary. He constructed the irrigation system, which is still used in Upper Burma today. He repaired the Meiktila Lake , and successfully built four weirs and canals (Kinda, Nga Laingzin, Pyaungbya, Kume) on

8500-467: The spread of Burman ethnicity in Upper Burma. Anawrahta's legacy went far beyond the borders of modern Burma. His embrace of Theravada Buddhism and his success in stopping the advance of Khmer Empire, a Mahayana state, provided the Buddhist school, which had been in retreat elsewhere in South and Southeast Asia , a much needed reprieve and a safe shelter. He helped restart Theravada Buddhism in Ceylon ,

8600-428: The status of khattiya s. The Buddhist suttas are ambiguous on the status of the Buddha, sometimes calling him a kshatriya, but mostly ignoring the varna system. Additionally, the populations of Greater Magadha did not subscribe to the supremacy of the brāhmaṇa s of the peoples of Āryāvarta , and khattiya s were regarded as higher in the societies of Greater Magadha. Vedic literature therefore considered

8700-456: The surname Shakya and also claim to be the descendants of the Shakya clan with titles such as Śākyavamsa (of the Shakya lineage) having been used in the past. According to Hmannan Yazawin , first published in 1823, the legendary king Abhiyaza , who founded the Tagaung Kingdom and the Burmese monarchy belonged to the same Shakya clan of the Buddha. He migrated to present-day Burma after

8800-529: The two dead heroes were now gods who could be worshipped. His forcing of Kyansittha to become fugitive increased his popularity although this action at least was justified for the great paladin, like the Lancelot of the Round Table , was in love with one of his queens. (The queen in love with Kyansittha was Manisanda Khin U. The two young heroes executed were Shwe Hpyin Gyi and Shwe Hpyin Nge , who later entered

8900-502: The vanquished kingdom. He broke the power of the Ari monks first by declaring that his court would no longer heed if people ceased to yield their children to the priests. Those who were in bondage of the priests gained freedom. Some of the monks simply disrobed or followed the new way. However, the majority of the monks who had wielded power for so long would not go away easily. Anawrahta banished them in numbers; many of them fled to Popa Hill and

9000-418: The worship of these beings done at yakkha cetiya s . The worship of yakkha s and yakkhī s, which was of pre-Indo-Aryan autochthonous origin, was prevalent in the Greater Magadha region. The nāga king Mucalinda , who in Buddhist mythology protected the Buddha during a storm under a mucalinda tree, was a both snake- and a tree-deity, thus alluding to the practice of serpent worship among

9100-428: Was also a foundation myth of the city which, as the residence of the ruling families of the clan, the city, which was the centre of political and economic activity, was associated with that clan's janapada (territory), and was equated with the whole janapada itself. The myth of the Shakyas' ancestors being four pairs of married twin siblings was a myth which traced the origins of the ruling Shakya families to

9200-593: Was careful that his own people, the Burmans, not flaunt themselves before other peoples. He continued to show regard for the Pyus, who had recently fallen from greatness. He retained the name Pyu for his kingdom although it was under the leadership of the Burmans. He showed regard for the Mons, and encouraged his people to learn from the Mons. Anawrahta replaced the kings of Lower Burma (Pegu and Thaton) with governors. At Pegu, he allowed

9300-400: Was connected to the Shakyas' practice of worshipping the śaka or sāka tree. The Shakyas were an eastern sub-Himalayan ethnic group on the periphery, both geographically and culturally, of the eastern Gangetic plain in the Greater Magadha cultural region. The Shakyas were of 'mixed origin' ( saṃkīrṇa-yonayaḥ ) of Indo-Aryan and Munda descent , with the former group forming

9400-704: Was defeated and killed by the Māgadhī king Ajātasattu . The Buddha was given the epithet of the "Sage of the Shakyas," Sakka-muni in Pali and Śākya-muni in Sanskrit, by his followers. The functioning of the proceedings in the Trāyastriṃśa heaven ruled by Sakka , lord of the devas in Buddhist cosmology , are modelled on those of the Shakya santhāgāra or general assembly hall. Tharu people of Tarai region of India and Nepal claim descent from Sakya. Significant population of Newars of Kathmandu valley in Nepal use

9500-463: Was derived from the Sanskrit root śak ( शक् ) ( śaknoti ( शक्नोति ), more rarely śakyati ( शक्यति ) or śakyate ( शक्यते )) meaning "to be able," "worthy," "possible," or "practicable." The name of the Shakyas was also derived from the name of the śaka or sāka tree, which Bryan Levman has identified with either the teak or sāla tree, which is ultimately related to word śākhā ( शाखा ), meaning 'branch,’ and

9600-527: Was held in high regard by the Konbaung government , the last Burmese dynasty. It was one of the first four Burmese texts to be machine-published, which "shows the priority it commanded". The Mani Yadanabon belongs to a "largely unexplored Burmese literary genre dealing with statecraft and court organization". The book is "essentially a collection of moral tales," and "a repository of historical examples illustrating political principles worthy of Machiavelli." Still,

9700-400: Was in a state of decay, and increasingly influenced by Hinduism. (The Mon chronicles hint that Manuha was reprehensible for making a compromise with Hinduism. Shin Arahan left Thaton because he was unhappy with the decaying of Buddhism there.) He made Pagan a center of Theravada learning by inviting scholars from the Mon lands, Ceylon as well as from India where a dying Buddhism was being given

9800-699: Was living held the title of uparājā ("Viceroy"). The political system of the Sakyas was identical to that of the Koliyas, and like the Koliyas and the other gaṇasaṅgha s, the Assembly met in a santhāgāra , the main of which was located at Kapilavatthu, although at least one other Sakya santhāgāra also existed at Cātuma. The judicial and legislative functions of the Assembly of the Sakyas were not distinctly separated, and it met to discuss important issues concerning public affairs, such as war, peace, and alliances. The Sakya Assembly deliberated on important issues, and it had

9900-458: Was north Arakan (Rakhine). He marched over the pass from Ngape near Minbu to An in Kyaukphyu , and then laid siege to Pyinsa , then the capital of Arakan. He reportedly tried to bring home the giant Mahamuni Buddha but could not. He did take away the gold and silver vessels of the shrine. There is no single unified Arakanese account to corroborate the event. Surviving Arakanese chronicles (from

10000-486: Was the case with the Shan Hills, Anawrahta's suzerainty over north Arakan (separated by the Arakan Yoma range) was nominal. The "conquest" may have been more of a raid to prevent Arakanese raids into Burma, and some historians (Lieberman, Charney) do not believe he (or any other Pagan kings) had any "effective authority" over Arakan. If Pagan never established an administrative system to govern Arakan, it continued to foster

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