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54-596: Wareru ( Mon : ဝါရေဝ်ရောဝ် , Burmese : ဝါရီရူး , Burmese pronunciation: [wàɹíjú] ; also known as Wagaru ; 20 March 1253 – c.  14 January 1307 ) was the founder of the Martaban Kingdom , located in present-day Myanmar (Burma). By using both diplomatic and military skills, he successfully carved out a Mon -speaking polity in Lower Burma, during the collapse of the Pagan Empire (Bagan Empire) in

108-581: A prestige language even after the fall of the Mon kingdom of Thaton to Pagan in 1057. King Kyansittha of Pagan (r. 1084–1113) admired Mon culture and the Mon language was patronized. Kyansittha left many inscriptions in Mon. During this period, the Myazedi inscription , which contains identical inscriptions of a story in Pali , Pyu , Mon and Burmese on the four sides, was carved. However, after Kyansittha's death, usage of

162-473: A Mon dialect in Thailand found that in some syllabic environments, words with a breathy voice vowel are significantly lower in pitch than similar words with a clear vowel counterpart. While difference in pitch in certain environments was found to be significant, there are no minimal pairs that are distinguished solely by pitch. The contrastive mechanism is the vowel phonation. In the examples below, breathy voice

216-580: A diplomatic mission to Yuan China to receive recognition directly from the Mongol Emperor. It was a bold gesture as his nominal overlord Ram Khamhaeng himself was a Mongol vassal. The Martaban mission passed through Pagan, where they were briefly arrested in March–April. By then, King Kyawswa of Pagan had been deposed by the three generals from Myinsaing . At any rate, the Martaban mission eventually made it to

270-720: A language closely related to Mon, called Nyah Kur . They are descendants of the Mon-speaking Dvaravati kingdom. Mon has three primary dialects in Burma, coming from the various regions the Mon inhabit. They are the Central (areas surrounding Mottama and Mawlamyine ), Bago , and Ye dialects. All are mutually intelligible. Ethnologue lists Mon dialects as Martaban-Moulmein (Central Mon, Mon Te), Pegu (Mon Tang, Northern Mon), and Ye (Mon Nya, Southern Mon), with high mutual intelligibility among them. Thai Mon has some differences from

324-466: A large scale invasion of the south until 1385. With Pagan out of the picture, the rivalry between Tarabya and Wareru came back to the fore. The immediate point of contention was the control of the newly won Irrawaddy delta. By late 1296, the relationship had deteriorated to the point of war. The two sides met at the border, and the two lords agreed to fight in single combat on their war elephants. Wareru defeated Tarabya in combat but spared Tarabya's life at

378-433: A major invasion by Pagan. Wareru eliminated Tarabya soon after, and emerged as the sole ruler of three Mon-speaking provinces of Bassein, Pegu and Martaban c. 1296. With his domain now much enlarged, Wareru sought and received recognition by Yuan China in 1298. Although he may have been of ethnic Mon or Shan background, Wareru's greatest legacy was the establishment of the only Mon-speaking polity left standing after

432-528: A precaution against a Pagan invasion. In marriages of state , Tarabya married Wareru's daughter May Hnin Theindya while Wareru married Tarabya's daughter Shin Saw Hla . Still in 1293, Wareru received assurance from Sukhothai of its continued support. King Ram Khamhaeng even sent a white elephant as a symbol of royal recognition to his son-in-law although this open recognition may have forced Pagan's hand to act. In

486-565: A small proportion (estimated to range between 60,000 and 80,000) speak Mon, due to Thaification and the assimilation of Mons into mainstream Thai society. Mon speakers in Thailand are largely concentrated in Ko Kret . The remaining contingent of Thai Mon speakers are located in the provinces of Samut Sakhon , Samut Songkhram , Nakhon Pathom , as well the western provinces bordering Myanmar ( Kanchanaburi , Phetchaburi , Prachuap Khiri Khan , and Ratchaburi ). A small ethnic group in Thailand speak

540-496: Is a testament to the rapidly dissipating authority of Pagan. At the time, Pagan's forces were faring badly against the Mongol invaders , and vassal rulers throughout the country had become increasingly restless. At Martaban, Gov. Aleimma himself had begun planning for a rebellion. Aleimma's rebellion turned out to be Gadu's opening. When the governor asked his vassals for support, Gadu readily obliged, offering his services and his men to

594-550: Is marked with under-diaeresis. Mon verbs do not inflect for person. Tense is shown through particles. Some verbs have a morphological causative, which is most frequently a /pə-/ prefix (Pan Hla 1989:29): Mon nouns do not inflect for number. That is, they do not have separate forms for singular and plural: sɔt pakaw apple mo̤a one me̤a CL {sɔt pakaw} mo̤a me̤a apple one CL 'one apple' sɔt pakaw apple ba two me̤a CL {sɔt pakaw} ba me̤a apple two CL 'two apples' Adjectives follow

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648-455: Is now considered too early, and the actual beginning is placed at around 750 AD. At that time, most of what is now central Thailand was under the rule of various Mon city-states , known collectively as the Dvaravati kingdom. Queen Jamadevi gave birth to twins, the older succeeding her as the ruler of Lamphun, and the younger becoming ruler of neighboring Lampang . The local legend said that at

702-517: The Khmer unsuccessfully besieged Haripuñjaya several times during the 11th century. It is not clear if the chronicles describe actual or legendary events, but the other Dvaravati Mon kingdoms did in fact fall to the Khmers at this time. The early 13th century was a golden time for Haripuñjaya, as the chronicles talk only about religious activities or constructing buildings, not about wars. Nevertheless, Haripuñjaya

756-546: The Sittaung River in the north to Myeik (Mergui) and Kawthaung in the south, remains a traditional stronghold of the Mon language. However, in this region, Burmese is favored in urban areas, such as Mawlamyine , the capital of Mon State. In recent years, usage of Mon has declined in Myanmar, especially among the younger generation. While Thailand is home to a sizable Mon population due to historical waves of migration, only

810-470: The 1280s. Wareru was assassinated in 1307 but his line ruled the kingdom until its fall in the mid-16th century. Wareru, a commoner, seized the governorship of Martaban (Mottama) in 1285, and after receiving the backing of the Sukhothai Kingdom , he went on to declare independence from Pagan in 1287. In 1295–1296, he and his ally Tarabya , the self-proclaimed king of Pegu (Bago) , decisively defeated

864-569: The 1290s. The success of the kingdom helped foster the emergence of the Mon people as a coherent ethnicity in the 14th and 15th centuries. Furthermore, the legal code he commissioned—the Wareru Dhammathat —is one of the oldest extant dhammathats ( legal treatises ) of Myanmar, and greatly influenced the legal codes of Burma and Siam down to the 19th century. The future king was born Ma Gadu ( Mon : မဂဒူ ; Burmese : မဂဒူး , Burmese pronunciation: [mə gədú] ) on 20 March 1253 in

918-586: The 19th century, in addition to concomitant economic and political instability in Upper Burma (e.g., increased tax burdens to the Burmese crown, British rice production incentives, etc.) also accelerated the migration of Burmese speakers from Upper Burma into Lower Burma. The Mon language has influenced subtle grammatical differences between the varieties of Burmese spoken in Lower and Upper Burma. In Lower Burmese varieties,

972-486: The Burmese dialects of Mon, but they are mutually intelligible. The Thai varieties of Mon are considered "severely endangered." Unlike the surrounding Burmese and Thai languages, Mon is not a tonal language . As in many Mon–Khmer languages, Mon uses a vowel-phonation or vowel- register system in which the quality of voice in pronouncing the vowel is phonemic. There are two registers in Mon: One study involving speakers of

1026-553: The Mon language declined among the Bamar and the Burmese language began to replace Mon and Pyu as a lingua franca . Mon inscriptions from Dvaravati 's ruins also litter Thailand . However it is not clear if the inhabitants were Mon, a mix of Mon and Malay or Khmer. Later inscriptions and kingdoms like Lavo were subservient to the Khmer Empire . After the fall of Pagan, Mon again became

1080-635: The Pagan army from Dala, and drive the invaders out of the Irrawaddy delta . The victory proved decisive. At Pagan, the devastating defeat broke the tenuous truce between Kyawswa and his three brother viceroy-generals. Kyawswa would seek Mongol protection in January 1297, only to be overthrown by the brothers in the following December. The brothers would be preoccupied with the inevitable Mongol reprisal until 1303. In all, neither Pagan nor its successor states would attempt

1134-564: The beginning of her reign, Haripuñjaya's Jamadevi was defeated by the Lawa dynasty's Vilanga  [ th ] , the 13th king of Raming Nakhon ( ระมิงค์นคร, present Chiang Mai ), but her 2 princes married the 2 princesses of King Vilanga and both dynasties became allies. The kingdom under King Adityaraja, came into conflict with the Khmers in the twelfth century. Lamphun inscriptions from 1213, 1218, and 1219, mention King Sabbadhisiddhi endowing Buddhist monuments. The chronicles say that

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1188-403: The chief of the village. Over the next few years, he enlarged the village into a small town named Donwun, and built up defenses around it. (His manpower may have been swelled by Mon-speaking refugees from Haribhunjaya , driven out by Tai king Mangrai .) By 1284/85, the commoner had set his sights on the governorship at Martaban itself. That a small-time chief like him would contemplate such a move

1242-490: The commoner, the new king awarded Gadu the title of Saw Di-Dan-Ri (စောဋိဋံရည်), or Saw Li-Lat-She (စောလီလပ်ရှဲ). befitting an officer in his Household Corps . According to Mon and Thai chronicles, Gadu repaid by eloping with the king's daughter. By 1281/82, he had become romantically involved with Princess May Hnin Thwe-Da , (Me Nang Soy-Dao; Thai : แม่นางสร้อยดาว , RTGS :  Mae-nang Soidao ; "Lady Soidao"). So when

1296-429: The coronation ceremony c. 5 April 1287. His royal style later became known in Mon as Wareru. The declaration did not elicit any action by Pagan, which was amidst its death throes. The empire formally fell on 1 July 1287 when the king was assassinated by one of his sons Prince Thihathu of Prome . Two years of interregnum followed. In the beginning, Wareru was just one of several petty strongmen that had sprouted across

1350-429: The dry season of 1295–1296 (also reported as 1293–1294), a sizable Pagan army led by generals Yazathingyan of Mekkhaya and Thihathu of Pinle (not Prince Thihathu of Prome, the patricide) invaded to retake the entire southern coast. The Pagan army captured Dala and laid siege to Pegu. The city was starving when Wareru's troops from Martaban arrived and broke the siege. The combined Martaban–Pegu forces went on to dislodge

1404-702: The elementary level. This system has been recognized as a model for mother-tongue education in the Burmese national education system, because it enables children taught in the Mon language to integrate into the mainstream Burmese education system at higher education levels. In 2013, it was announced that the Mawlamyine -based Thanlwin Times would begin to carry news in the Mon language, becoming Myanmar's first Mon language publication since 1962. Southern Myanmar (comprising Mon State , Kayin State , and Tanintharyi Region ), from

1458-553: The emperor's court, and received the emperor's recognition in June/July 1298. The Mongols knew that Wareru was then a vassal of Ram Khamhaeng, and recognized Wareru anyway because they did not want a strong state to emerge in Southeast Asia, even of Tais. After receiving Mongol recognition, Wareru reigned for another 8 and a half years. Based on the chronicles' lack of coverage, the years apparently were uneventful. Then in January 1307,

1512-401: The end of the 13th century. Wareru's kingdom would not only survive but also thrive to become the wealthiest state of all post-Pagan kingdoms well into the 16th century. The success and longevity of the kingdom aided the emergence of "Mons as a coherent ethnicity" in the 14th and 15th centuries. His second legacy was the law treatise Wareru Dhammathat (also known as Code of Wareru). The Code

1566-440: The former empire. His realm covered approximately modern day Mon State and southern Kayin State . To his east was his overlord Sukhothai. To his south lay the Pagan province of Tavoy (Dawei), which too was in revolt. To his north were Pegu, and Dala, ruled by Akhamaman and Prince Kyawswa respectively. Situated on the upper Tenasserim coast, Martaban was an island of stability during the interregnum. The multi-party war among

1620-407: The governor as well as a marriage alliance between the governor and his younger sister, with the wedding to be held at Donwun. It was merely a ploy to get the governor out of Martaban. Surprisingly, Aleimma took the bait, and made a fateful trip to Donwun with a contingent of troops. On the night of the wedding, while Aleimma's guards were drunk, Gadu's men killed them, and assassinated the governor. It

1674-500: The intercession of the monks. He brought Tarabya, Theindya and their two young children to Martaban. But Tarabya was found plotting an attempt on Wareru's life, and was executed. Wareru was now king of three Mon-speaking regions of Lower Burma. He had reconstituted a major portion of Pagan's Lower Burma holdings: the Irrawaddy delta (present-day Ayeyarwady Region ) in the west to the Pegu province ( Yangon Region and southern Bago Region in

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1728-404: The king was assassinated by his two grandsons—the two sons of Tarabya. Despite his having raised them, the boys held a grudge against their grandfather for the father's death. On one Saturday in January 1307, they repeatedly stabbed their unsuspecting grandfather to death. The boys were caught, and executed. The king was only 53. Because he left no male heir, his younger brother Gada succeeded with

1782-423: The king was far away on a military expedition in the south, the couple, with a load of gold and silver, and about 270 of their retainers and troops fled to Tagaw Wun. (According to George Cœdès , this was a legend. Michael Aung-Thwin states that the elopement story is probably "a trope" to link the early kings of Martaban and those of Siam, and may not be historical.) Back at Tagaw Wun, Gadu with his troops became

1836-612: The king's life but tend to differ on the actual dates. Mon language Mon was classified as a "vulnerable" language in UNESCO 's 2010 Atlas of the World’s Languages in Danger . The Mon language has faced assimilative pressures in both Myanmar and Thailand, where many individuals of Mon descent are now monolingual in Burmese or Thai respectively. In 2007, Mon speakers were estimated to number between 1800,000 and 2 million. In Myanmar,

1890-666: The lingua franca of the Hanthawaddy Kingdom (1287–1539) in present-day Lower Myanmar , which remained a predominantly Mon-speaking region until the 1800s, by which point, the Burmese language had expanded its reach from its traditional heartland in Upper Burma into Lower Burma . The region's language shift from Mon to Burmese has been ascribed to a combination of population displacement, intermarriage, and voluntary changes in self-identification among increasingly Mon–Burmese bilingual populations in throughout Lower Burma. The shift

1944-517: The lower Tenasserim coast briefly in the 1320s.) Wareru's immediate acts were to consolidate his rule across the newly won territories. He appointed his trusted minister Laik-Gi governor of Pegu , and his brother-in-law Min Bala governor of Myaungmya in the Irrawaddy delta. Because he did not have a male heir, his younger brother Gada became the de facto heir. By 1298, Wareru felt strong enough that he sent

1998-525: The majority of Mon speakers live in Southern Myanmar, especially Mon State , followed by Tanintharyi Region and Kayin State . Mon is an important language in Burmese history. Until the 12th century, it was the lingua franca of the Irrawaddy valley —not only in the Mon kingdoms of the lower Irrawaddy but also of the upriver Pagan Kingdom of the Bamar people . Mon, especially written Mon, continued to be

2052-547: The middle to the Martaban province ( Mon State and southern Kayin State ) on the upper Tenasserim coast. But he did not control other former Pagan territories farther south such as Tavoy (Dawei), Mergui (Myeik) and Tenasserim (Taninthayi). If he had designs on the southern territories, he did not act upon them. After all, his overlord Sukhothai itself had designs on the Tenasserim coast. (Wareru's grandnephews Saw O (r. 1311–1323) and Saw Zein (r. 1323–1330) would later occupy

2106-446: The noun (Pan Hla p. 24): prɛ̤a woman ce beautiful prɛ̤a ce woman beautiful 'beautiful woman' Demonstratives follow the noun: ŋoa day nɔʔ Hariphunchai Haripuñjaya ( Central and Northern Thai : หริภุญชัย RTGS :  Hariphunchai , also spelled Haribhuñjaya ) was a Mon kingdom in what is now Northern Thailand , existing from the 7th or 8th to 13th century CE . Its capital

2160-485: The peace between the two neighboring strongmen held. Each was focused on consolidating his region. At Martaban, c. 1290/91, Wareru commissioned a dhammathat (customary law book) to be compiled in Mon , the main language of his nascent kingdom. He appointed a royal commission, which returned with the legal treatise that came to be known as Wareru Dhammathat and Wagaru Dhammathat ("Code of Wareru/Wagaru"). (The compilation

2214-470: The sons of the fallen king in Lower Burma never reached Martaban. The closest it came to was in 1287–1288 when Prince Thihathu the patricide laid siege to Pegu. Even when Prince Kyawswa eventually emerged as king of Pagan on 30 May 1289, the new king had no real army, and posed no threat to Pegu or Martaban. Indeed, Wareru's immediate concern was not Kyawswa but Tarabya , who had gained control of both Pegu and Dala and their surrounding districts. Nevertheless,

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2268-503: The south, the king's army never got past Pegu (Bago), which was headed by another warlord Akhamaman , and failed both times to take the town in 1285–86. Meanwhile, Gadu consolidated his control of the Martaban province. He first rebuilt the fortifications of Martaban, and then conquered Kampalani, (believed to be a small Shan state in present-day Kayin State) whose chief had refused to submit. After Kampalani, all other chiefs fell in line. Gadu

2322-548: The title of Hkun Law. Wareru's greatest legacy was the establishment of a Mon-speaking kingdom, which enabled the preservation and continuation of Mon culture. Despite its fragility—after Wareru, the polity devolved into a loose confederation until the 1380s—the Kingdom of Martaban became the only remaining Mon-speaking polity from the 1290s onwards. The older Mon kingdoms of Dvaravati and Haripunjaya (in present-day Thailand) had been subsumed into Tai states of Sukhothai and Lan Na by

2376-556: The verb ပေး ("to give") is colloquially used as a permissive causative marker, like in other Southeast Asian languages, but unlike in other Tibeto-Burman languages. This usage is hardly employed in Upper Burmese varieties, and is considered a sub-standard construct. In 1972, the New Mon State Party (NMSP) established a Mon national school system, which uses Mon as a medium of instruction , in rebel-controlled areas. The system

2430-465: The village of Tagaw Wun (near present-day Thaton in Mon State ), to poor peasants. His ethnic background was Mon , Shan or mixed Mon and Shan. He had a younger brother Ma Gada and a younger sister Hnin U Yaing . They grew up in their native village, located about 100 km north of the provincial capital of Martaban (present-day Mottama in Mon State ), then part of the Pagan Empire . When he

2484-413: Was c. 11 January 1285. Gadu went on to seize Martaban. His insurrection was one of several revolts around the country against King Narathihapate of Pagan. The king had already lost the support of his key vassals, including his own sons, who ruled key Lower Burma ports (Prome, Dala and Bassein). Without the full support of his sons, the king did not have enough troops to quell rebellions everywhere. In

2538-655: Was about 19, c. 1272, Gadu took over his father's side business of trading goods with the Siamese kingdom of Sukhothai to the east. He joined a convoy of about 30 merchants, and began traveling to the royal city of Sukhothai . After a short stint, he took a job at the royal elephant stables in Sukhothai, and rose through the ranks to become the Captain of the Stables by the beginning of King Ram Khamhaeng 's reign, c. 1279. Impressed by

2592-594: Was at Lamphun , which at the time was also called Haripuñjaya. In 1292 the city was besieged and captured by Mangrai of the Tai kingdom of Lan Na . The kingdom is referred to as K'un-lun in ancient Chinese records. According to the Camadevivamsa and " Jinakalamali " chronicles, the city was founded by a hermit named Suthep in 629 AD, and the Mon ruler of Lavo Kingdom (present-day Lopburi ) sent his daughter Jamadevi to become its first queen. However, this date

2646-513: Was besieged in 1292 by the Tai Yuan king Mangrai , who incorporated it into his Lan Na ("One Million Rice Fields") kingdom. The plan set up by Mangrai to overpower Haripuñjaya began by dispatching Ai Fa ( Thai : อ้ายฟ้า ) on an espionage mission to create chaos in Haripuñjaya. Ai Fa managed to spread discontent among the population, which weakened Haripuñjaya and made it possible for Mangrai to take

2700-754: Was certainly accelerated by the fall of the Mon-speaking Restored Hanthawaddy Kingdom in 1757. Following the fall of Pegu (now Bago), many Mon-speaking refugees fled and resettled in what is now modern-day Thailand. By 1830, an estimated 90% of the population in the Lower Burma self-identified as Burmese-speaking Bamars; huge swaths of former Mon-speaking areas, from the Irrawaddy Delta upriver, spanning Bassein (now Pathein) and Rangoon (now Yangon) to Tharrawaddy, Toungoo, Prome (now Pyay) and Henzada (now Hinthada), were now Burmese-speaking. Great Britain's gradual annexation of Burma throughout

2754-408: Was expanded throughout Mon State following a ceasefire with the central government in 1995. Mon State now operates a multi-track education system, with schools either using Mon as the primary medium of instruction (called Mon national schools) offering modules on the Mon language in addition to the government curriculum (called "mixed schools"). In 2015, Mon language courses were launched state-wide at

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2808-492: Was part of a wider regional pattern in which the former lands of the empire as well as its neighboring states produced legal texts modeled after Pagan's, between 1275 and 1317.) But Pagan was not completely out of the picture yet. It still claimed its former lands. A truce of sorts between King Kyawswa and his three generals was reached in February 1293. Around the same time, c. 1293, Wareru and Tarabya entered into an alliance as

2862-580: Was still concerned about Pagan, and sought the backing of his father-in-law. By 1287, a diplomatic mission led by his minister Laik-Gi had successfully secured Ram Khamhaeng's support. The king of Sukhothai acknowledged Gadu as a vassal king, and awarded the royal title of " Chao Fa Rua" ( Thai : เจ้าฟ้ารั่ว , "Lord Fa Rua", [t͡ɕaːw˥˩ faː˥.ruːa˥˩] )) also reported in Mon and Burmese as "Binnya Waru" ( Burmese : ဗညား ဝါရူး , [bəɲá wàjú] )) and Smim Warow ( Mon : သ္ငီ ဝါရောဝ် ). On 30 January 1287, Gadu declared himself king of Martaban. He held

2916-466: Was the basic law of the Mon-speaking kingdom until the mid-16th century when it was adopted by the conquering First Toungoo Empire . Translated into Burmese, Pali and Siamese, it became the basic law of the empire. The Code was adapted into the later dhammathats of the successor states of the empire, including Ayutthaya Siam and Restored Toungoo Burma. Various chronicles agree on the general outline of

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