Indian Antiquary Vol 45

Author(s): Richard Carnac Temple, Devadatta Ramkrishna Bhandarkar
Publisher: Swati Publications

Page 46

42
THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY
[MARCH, 1916
to Ceylon and establishing Southern Buddhism for a while. They continued to embellish their capital until Kublai Khân (1260-1294) fell on them in 1286, bringing about in 1298 the collapse of the empire that Anawrati had founded.
The Talaings naturally now became independent under Wareru of Martaban, a Shan ohief (1287-1306), and set up a kingdom at Pegu that lasted until 1540. Other Shans began to rule Burmese States on the Irrawaddy at Pinya (1298-1364) and Sagaing (13151364), until a more celebrated capital was founded by yet another Shan at Ava (1364-1554). So that from the thirteenth century to the days of Elizabeth of England Burma was under Shan rulers.
All through this period there was perpetual fighting, both internal and external. Shans, Burmans, Siamese, Arakanese and Bengalis all joining in it. Out of the medley arose a local Burman-Shan kingdom at Taungû (1470-1530), which gave birth to another great hero of the past, Tabin Shwêdî (1530-1548). With the aid of his general, a still greater historical name, Bayin Naung, known to the Portuguese, established in Martaban under Antonio Correa in 1519, as Branginoco (for Burangnongchau = Bayin Naungzaw), Tabîn Shwêdî started to capture Pegu anu Martaban. After several attempts he succeeded in doing so in 1540. His operations are remarkable for the defence of Pegu by Indian Muhammadans and a Portuguese naval commander, Ferdinando de Mortales, the first of many Europeans to take part in Burmese local wars. Tabin Shwêdî now became King of Pegu and in 1542 took Prome, Portuguese gunners under Diego Soares assisting his army. In 1548 he was assassinated and Bayin Naung (1548-1581) succeeded him after a struggle. In 1555 Bayin Naung captured Ava and became ruler of all Burma for the Talaings in 1558. He then attacked Siam, and in 1564 entered Ayuthia, carrying away as captives the King and his family. But in 1569, when the famous Venetian traveller, Cæsar Frederick, was in Pegu, he had to retake Ayuthia, and finally he died in 1581 during an expedition to Aracan. And then, after all this effort, the great kingdom he had erected suddenly collapsed in 1599 through the incapacity of his son, Nanda Bayin (1581-1599). Bayin Naung was a remarkable personality, a mighty builder, and extraordinarily energetic in all he undertook : war, religion, civil administration, architecture, trade. Amongst other things he created a navy, and secured a "holy tooth" of Buddha from Colombo in 1576. He made Pegu into a splendid city of great wealth, and even after his death Ralph Fitch, the first English traveller in Burma, testified to its magnificence in 1586. One outcome of this period of lasting effect on the country was the deliberate re-introduction, in its purest form, in 1476, of Southern (Hinayâna, Buddhism from Colombo in Ceylon by a Talaing monk turned king, Dhammâchêti (Ramadhipati) of Pogu (1458-1489.)
On the collapse of Bayîn Naung's empire there followed the usual Oriental chaos, which gave a Portuguese adventurer, Philip the Brito, the opportunity of rising in three years (1600-1602) from cabin-boy and palace menial to the governorship of Syriam, near Rangoon, for the A akanese, and finally to the throne of Pegu itself, with the daughter of the Portuguese Viceroy of Goa for wife. But he was an aggressive, headstrong man, with no idea of ingratiating himself with his people and neighbours, and by 1613 he was ousted by Mahadhammaraja (1605-1628), a grandson of Bayin Naung, established in Ava; and was impaled alive, while his unfortunate queen was sent as a slave to Ava. Help from Goa arrived just too late.
Mahadhammarája now created an extensive Burmese kingdom, and was active in suppressing the Portuguese pirates along the coasts, as by this time they had become a