Arakan Library - Arakan Rise Regional Power

Arakan: - One Who Preserves and Takes Care of Their Own Nationality.

Publication by Arakan Action Association (AAA.)

ARAKAN'S ASCENT DURING THE MRAUK U PERIOD

EDITED BY SUNAIT CHUTARANOND & CHRISBAKER

ARAKAN'S RISE AS A REGIONAL POWER: EARLY SIXTEENTH-CENTURY FOUNDATIONS

The great period of the kingdom of Mrauk-U in terms of political ascendancy, territorial expansion, and economic development coves about a hundred and fifty years from King Man Pa (1531-1553) to king Candasudhammaraja (1652-1684). This section outlines Arakan's situation up to the middle of the sixteenth century, while the next section deals with the period of incessant warfare and Arakanese expansion during the reigns of the Warrior Kings--Man Phalaung (1571-1593), Man Raja-Kri (1593-1612), and Man Khamaung (1612-1622). The fourth section focuses on the decades up to the early 1680s when Arakan's kings profited from their local power status in a relatively stable geopolitical environment.

When Man Pa took power in uncertain circumstances in 1531, he inherited a kingdom that had already given proofs of its military abilities, its will to expand, and its openness to trade. All the factors that played a crucial role during the next decades were already persent: a sizable number of foreigners in Arakan's armed forces; integration of regional commerce into the wider Indian Ocean trading network; and an efficient defensive strategy against invaders. Taking a look at the century that preceded king Man Pa's access to power helps us to understand how this marginal kingdom could become a local power player.

At the beginning of the fifteenth century, Arakan was the victim of Mon and Burmese expansionism, as both Pegu and Ava strove for control of the country. The Mons could easily reach the southern part of the country around Sandoway both by sea and land, while the Avan armies had to cross the hill passes (using mainly the Am and Talak roads) to invade the plains of the Kaladan and Lermo Rivers. According to the Burmese chronicler U Kala, King Mingyismwasokay of Ava (1360-1401) installed an uncle on Arakan's throne in 1373 who reigned there for seven years. The Arakanese genealogies do not mention this Burmese appointee. They provide a confusing list of local kings with short reigns thus giving proof of the unstable political situation in the country at the end of the fourteenth century. In 1406, after spending merely two years on the throne, a young king, Naramitlha, fled a Burmese invaseion and left the country for Bengal. He came back around 1428, allegedly with the help of soldiers provided by the sultan of Bengal. He adopted a new title (Man Co Mwan), and established himself at Mrauk-U which remained Arakan's capital until the Burmese conquest in 1785. The Na Mi rajawan reports oral traditions of a legendary character relating to the refugee king's stay in Bengal. It is said, for example, that Naramitlha taught the sultan of Bengal how to catch elephants. The chronicler even boasts that thanks to Naramitlha's cleverness, Delhi was conquered by the sultan! But other Arakanese sources are altogether silent on the subject of the king's exile. No general conclusion on Arakan's relations with Bengal can be drawn from such a narrative. Neither does it convey a clear idea on an early Muslim presence in Arakan. Nonetheless, the fantastic story of King Naramitlha's exile suggests the later chronicler perceived Arakan in this era as inferior to the prestigious Bengal sultanate.

Barely anything is known about the political and social conditions is Arakan during these years. The sources do not even mention who were the troops or foreign governors the king had to confront when he returned from exile and regained power in Laung Krak, the former capital. Man Co Mwan probably controlled the Kaladan and Lemro valleys and eventually the island of Ramree. The country was unified under the reign of his brother Man Khari (better known by his adopted title Ali Khan, 1434-1458). Sandoway, which had been for some decades under Mon control, was coerced into the kingdom. Along the northeastern coastline, the king extended his power up to Ramu. Under Bha Co Phru (1458-1481) and Dolya (1481-1491), the Arakanese kingship was further strengthened. In 1454, king Man Khari met King Narapati of Ava (1443-1469) and the watershed of the Arakan Yoma was fixed as the border between the two considered themselves equals. Poetical creation at the Arakanese court like the famous Rakhaing Minsami egyin may have inspired Burmese poetry. The Burmese monk-poets Shin Maharathasara and Shin Tejosara stayed for some years at the court of Mrauk-U (Pe Maung Tin 1987, 53-4). Just like the courts of Ava and Pegu, Mrauk-U turned to Sri Lanka to reform its sangha.

Any idea of a political ascendancy of Bengal over Arakan during the fifteenth century is necessarily linked to the debt that King Man Co Mwan supposedly incurred to the sultan of Bengal (for providing men to reconquer his throne). But this assumption is not supported by a thorough analysis of the sources, and it does not accord with the political situation in Bengal, especially in the second half of the fifteenth analysis of the sources, and it does not accord with the political situation in Bengal, especially in the second half of the fifteenth century. Central power in the sultanate was weak and hence a Bengali hegemony is improbable. While Arakan enjoyed political autonomy, the cultural impact of the Bengal sultanate was weak and hence a Bengali hegemony is improble. While Arakan enjoyed political autonomy, the cultural impact of the Bengal sultanate was considerable.

The Arakanese kings adopted so-called Muslim titles and -if the identity of some rare undated coins in Persian script could be confirmed - from the late fifteenth century on, they had their coins minted according to the Bengal model. Muslim traders from India came to Mrauk-U and Muslim preachers spread their doctrine. Which Arakan's economy was based on the rice production of its plains, the uninterrupted rivalry with the sultans of Bengal and the Hindu kings of Tripura for the control of the port city of Chittagong indicate competing commercial interests. Information about the ruby trade from Ava over the Arakan Yoma to the Bay of Bengal and about Arakanese rice exports dates only from a later period, but hints at Arakan's integration into the trading network of the Bay of Bengal. The date of Arakan's first attack on Chittagong during the Mrauk-U period cannot be fully ascertained. Phayre's conjecture that the Arakanese controlled the city for fifty years after 1459 cannot be upheld, as Sultan Rukn-ud-Din Barbak Shah (1459-1474) held the city around 1473 (Phayre 1883, 78). Neither does the short narrative of the chronicles suggest any lasting occupation of the city (Habibullah 1945, 35; CL 1932, 2:33).

The political history of Arakan at the very end of the fifteenth century is confusing and the dynastic succession between 1513 and 1531 largely a mystery. Chroniclers paid no attention to these decades that were eclipsed by the acclaimed splendour of King Man Pa's subsequent reign (1531-1553). However, the king's openness to trade and their commitment to further expansion in the northeast towards Chittagong clearly emerge (Pires 19 44, 228). Chittagong was one of the three most important ports of Bengal at the beginning of the sixteenth century when the first Portuguese arrived in the area. The anonymous chronicler of the 1521 official Portuguese mission to Gaur describes Chittagong as a cosmopolitan city with a strong fortress where rival group of merchants competed for influence (Bouchon and Thomaz 1988). Chittagong's position at the periphery of the sultanate, deprived of any real hinterland, made it a tempting target for both the Arakanese and Tripura. In 1513, king Dhanamanikya of Tripura conquered the city, but about two years later, Arakanese troops (sent presumably by King Gajapati), seized the city and held it until Nustat Khan, the son of the great Sultan Husayn Shah of Bengal (1493-1519), retook it in 1516-17. According to the Portuguese chronicler de Barros, the Arakanese king made a warm appeal to the first Portuguese who arrived in Chittagong around 1516-17 to came to his kingdom for trade. This invitation is confirmed by an undated royal letter from around 1519 to the Portuguese authorities (Bouchon and Thomaz 1988).

No other reign has been as magnified by the Arakanese tradition as Man Pa's and his actions have been extolled quite unlike those of his successors. Court annals were probably written for the first time. The legal code (dhammasat) was reformed and the brahmanic ritual “making” the king though an act of ablution was revived (Tha Thwan Aung 1927, 45, 93-110). The legacy of this reign is still visible in some of Mrauk-U's most remarkable stone constructions, such as the Shit-taung Pagoda or the remains of the inner palace walls (whose exquisite shape was revealed by the 1997-98 excavations on the palace site). The Dhanawati are-to-pum chronicle asserts that the king conquered large parts of Bengal (up to Murshedabad) and married a daughter of the “sultan” Delhi. The reason for the conquest, as given by this source, throws some light on Man Pa's territorial claims and legitimizes the aggression.

Man Pa asserted that his ancestor Man Co Mwan had given most of Bengal (according to the chronicle) to the sultan's predecessors as a token of gratitude for helping him to regain his throne, but this gratitude had to come to an end and these lands had to be returned. We have no material proof that Man Pa invaded Bengal at all. But we have good reason to believe that around 1539-40 the Arakanese conquered Chittagong. They probably held the city until the end of Man Pa's rule, facing the tremendous challenge of controlling a cosmopolitan port with a bustling population of traders and soldiers of fortune. It is revealing that the Portuguese chronicler de Barros is mute on events at Chittagong after 1539. An Arakanese inscription on a silver plate dated 1542 proves the Arakanese presence in the city at that time (Shore1790). The turbulent political situation in Bengal and India under the reign of the Afghan Sher Khan (1539-1545) offered an undeniable opportunity for the Arakanese to intervene in southeast Bengal and oust their Tripura rivals. Basically the account of the chronicler makes sense and stresses the king's ambitions, but large parts of the description of the Arakanese attack against Bengal may be dismissed as gross embellishments.

In 1534, a Portuguese fleet went up the Kaladan and succeeded in pushing the Arakanese back to Mrauk-U. The king reorganized his troops and finally forced the attackers to retreat to the open sea (CL 1932, 2:49). As the attack was not due to the official Portuguese authorities of Goa, it was likely a local initiative of Portuguese settlers who made their presence increasingly felt in Bengal and the Chittagong area. The way this attack is reported in the Na Mi rajawan implies that it came as a surprise to the Arakanese. Later evidence dating from the early seventeenth century suggests that the some Portuguese may already have been allied to the Arakanese.

The Burmese invasion of 1546 was the first major test of the strength and confidence that Arakan had found under King Man Pa. Obviously the Arakanese anticipated a Burmese invaded the southern Arakanese province of Sendoway in 1545, their land and sea forces converged on the Kaladan-Lemro plains and Bayinnaung, then the leading commander of the Burmese troops (and later a king himself), put the capital under siege. The Arakanese used a system of dams and canals to flood the western and southeastern areas near the capital. The town itself, lying amidst low-level hills covered by dense vegetation, was shielded in the south by two lakes and partly surrounded by walls connecting the hills (CL 1932, 2:46-8). The Arakanese were probably not strong enough to push back the invaders, but the stalking Burmese ran out of provisions, accepted the stalemate, and retreated. After a short time, the Burmese troops also lost control over Sandoway where a Burmese governor had been installed. The question whether the Burmese actually supported an alternative candidate to the throne, as U Kala's Burmese chronicle claims, cannot be answered satisfactorily because the Arakanese sources do not provide any evidence (U Kala 1960). In 1580, three decades later, the Burmese dismally failed in another attempt to conquer Arakanese were not merely defending themselves. They had become themselves aggressors and conquerors.

By the end of the sixteenth century, an increasing number of Muslim and Portuguese traders from the Coromandel coast and Bengal were visiting Mrauk-U. They bought rice, the major staple product for export, and Bengali slaves, and provided the court with luxury items and cotton textiles from India. An Arakanese source mentions the increasing number of ships arriving from abroad. Rubies from Upper Burma and India cotton textiles were major articles of the trans-Arakanese trade which connected Ava with the Bay of Bengal (Guedes 1994, 201; Leider 1994; Blackmore 1985, 30). For its literary name, Dhanawati, meaning “rich in grain”. The expansion of trade generated even more wealth which ensured the strength of Arakan's rulers. The mounting presence of foreigners (mercenaries, artists, and traders) of diverse origins had a considerable impact as well. Indians, and later on, Portuguese, contributed to technological transfer in the production and use of weaponry (Pearson and DasGupta 1987; Parker 1988; Subrahmanyam 1993; Tak Htwan Ni 1985) as well as the construction of stone temples and fortifications. King Man Pa's reign was not only a period of burgeoning political expansion, but also an epoch of flourishing artistic expression pursued by his son and successor Man Tikkha (1553-1555). He acceded to the throne as the strongest contestant in a power struggle and built the magnificent Ko-thaung Pagoda, a masterpiece of sixteenth-century Arakanese architecture (Gutman 2001).

Between 1550 and 1580, Arakan's kings waged wars against the kingdom of Tripura (who succeeded in controlling during the early 1560s) and against the Muslim governors of Chittagong whose autonomy grew as the Bengal sultans had to confront their political foes in the west. In 1567, the Mughal troops conquered large parts of Bengal and put an end to the independent sultanate. This event opened an entirely new period in the history of the whole area. During the following decades, the Mughal governors confronted strong resistance from the Hindu and Afghan (Muslim) landlords (called the bharah bhuyan) who held most of east and south Bengal. In addition, the lack of any strong central power opened the gates for the sixteenth and beginning of the seventeenth centuries thus became the heyday of Arakan's expansion to the northeast.

Arakan Library was founded by a group of Arakan Action Association (AAA) in exile in Thailand from Burma in 2007 doing to voice for the knowledge, the people democratic and human rights.

Arakan Action Association (AAA)

Chotana Road , Chaing Mai ( 50301 ), Thailand.

Email : arakanactionassociation@walla.com , +66—089-637-4383, +66—053-409-577