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Hanthawaddy kingdom Hongsarwatoi kingdom | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1287–1552 | |||||||||
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 Hanthawaddy in red in the northwest,c. 1450 | |||||||||
| Status | Kingdom | ||||||||
| Capital | Martaban (1287–1364) Donwun (1364–1369) Pegu (1369–1538, 1550–1552) | ||||||||
| Common languages | Mon Old Burmese | ||||||||
| Religion | Theravada Buddhism | ||||||||
| Government | Monarchy | ||||||||
• 1287–1307 | Wareru | ||||||||
• 1384–1421 | Razadarit | ||||||||
• 1454–1471 | Shin Sawbu | ||||||||
• 1471–1492 | Dhammazedi | ||||||||
• 1492–1526 | Binnya Ran II | ||||||||
| Historical era | Warring states | ||||||||
• Overthrow of Pagan governor | c. January 1285 | ||||||||
• Independence from Pagan | 30 January 1287 | ||||||||
• Vassal ofSukhothai | 1287–1298, 1307–1317, 1330 | ||||||||
| 1385–1424 | |||||||||
• Golden Age | 1426–1534 | ||||||||
| 1534–1541 | |||||||||
• 2nd Fall of Pegu | 12 March 1552 | ||||||||
| |||||||||
| Today part of |  Myanmar Thailand | ||||||||
TheHanthawaddy kingdom (Mon:ဍုၚ် ဟံသာဝတဳ,[hɔŋsawətɔe]listenⓘ;Burmese:ဟံသာဝတီ နေပြည်တော်; alsoRone Hongsarwatoi or simplyPegu) was the polity that ruled lowerBurma (Myanmar) from 1287 to 1539 and from 1550 to 1552. TheMon-speaking kingdom was founded asRamaññadesa (Mon:ရးမည,Burmese:ရာမည ဒေသ) by KingWareru following the collapse of thePagan kingdom in 1287[1]: 205–206, 209 as a nominalvassal state of theSukhothai kingdom and of the MongolYuan dynasty.[2] The kingdom became formally independent of Sukhothai in 1330 but remained a loose federation of three major regional power centres: theIrrawaddy Delta,Bago, andMottama. Its kings had little or no authority over the vassals. Mottama was in open rebellion from 1363 to 1388.
The name of the kingdom inMon isဍုင်ဟံသာဝတဳ, which is equivalent inBurmese toဟံသာဝတီနေပြည်တော် and inEnglish toHanthawaddy kingdom.
The energetic reign of KingRazadarit (r. 1384–1421) cemented the kingdom's existence. Razadarit firmly unified the three Mon-speaking regions—Myaungmya, Donwun, and Martaban—and successfully fended off the northernBurmese-speakingAva kingdom in theForty Years' War (1385–1424), making the western kingdom ofRakhine a tributary from 1413 to 1421 in the process. The war ended in a stalemate but was a victory for Hanthawaddy as Ava finally gave up its dream of restoring the Pagan Empire. In the years following the war, Pegu occasionally aided Ava's southern vassal states ofProme andTaungoo in their rebellions but carefully avoided getting plunged into a full-scale war.
After the war, Hanthawaddy entered its golden age, whereas its rival Ava gradually declined. From the 1420s to the 1530s, Hanthawaddy was the most powerful and prosperous of all the post-Pagan kingdoms. Under a string of especially gifted monarchs –Binnya Ran I,Shin Sawbu,Dhammazedi andBinnya Ran II – it enjoyed a long golden age, profiting from foreign commerce. Its merchants traded with traders from across the Indian Ocean, filling the king's treasury with gold and silver, silk, and spices. The kingdom also became a famous centre ofTheravada Buddhism. It established strong ties withSri Lanka and encouraged reforms that spread throughout the country.[3]
The powerful kingdom's end came abruptly. Since the late 15th century, Ava had tried to win the support of theTaungoo dynasty by entering into marriage alliances with KingMingyi Nyo,[4] however from 1534 onwards, Ava came under constant raids by the Taungoo dynasty fromUpper Burma. KingTakayutpi could not marshal the kingdom's much greater resources and workforce against the much smaller Taungoo, led by KingTabinshwehti and his deputy generalBayinnaung. Taungoo captured Bago and theIrrawaddy Delta in 1538–9 and Mottama in 1541.[5] The surrendered Pegu officials were offered amnesty and a pardon by Bayinnaung; they accepted and were placed in their old positions.[4]
Hanthawaddy briefly revived in 1550 after Tabinshwehti was assassinated. But the "kingdom" did not extend much outside the city of Bago. Bayinnaung quickly defeated the rebellion in March 1552. Though Taungoo kings would rule all of Lower Burma well into the mid-18th century, the golden age of Hanthawaddy was fondly remembered by the Mon people of Lower Burma. In 1740, they rose up against a weak Taungoo Dynasty on its last legs and founded therestored Hanthawaddy kingdom.
17°19′31″N96°28′08″E / 17.32528°N 96.46889°E /17.32528; 96.46889
