Bagyidaw
Bagyidaw Sagaing Min ဘကြီးတော် | |
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Theravada Buddhism |
Bagyidaw (
Bagyidaw's reign saw the
Devastated, Bagyidaw held out hope for some years that Tenasserim would be returned to him, and paid the balance of indemnity in 1832 at great sacrifice.[4] The British redrew the border with Manipur in 1830, but by 1833, it was clear the British would not return any of the former territories. The king became a recluse, and power devolved to his queen Nanmadaw Me Nu and her brother.[5] His brother Crown Prince Tharrawaddy raised a rebellion in February 1837, and Bagyidaw was forced to abdicate the throne in April 1837. King Tharrawaddy executed Queen Me Nu and her brother but placed his brother under house arrest. Bagyidaw died in October 1846 at age 62.[4]
Early life
The future king was born
Crown Prince
His father Crown Prince Thado Minsaw died on 9 April 1808. Nine days later, the young prince at 23 was suddenly elevated to the position of Crown Prince by his grandfather King Bodawpaya. The prince was also allowed to inherit his father's fiefs of Dabayin and Shwedaung. The Crown Prince was Master-General of the Ordnance in the Burmese-Siamese War of 1808, which ended in a stalemate. His elevation to crown prince also brought his royal servants, including Maung Yit (later Gen. Maha Bandula) of Dabayin and Maung Sa (later Lord of Myawaddy) of Sagaing to prominence. Myawaddy became his longtime adviser and personal secretary (atwinwn) until his abdication in 1837. He promoted Maung Yit to governor of Ahlon-Monywa.
In 1812, his first queen Princess Hsinbyume died of childbirth in Mingun near Ava. The crown prince built a beautiful white stupa in memory of his first wife named Myatheindan Pagoda at Mingun.[6] He took on five more queens as crown prince (of the eventual number of 23 queens). His third and later chief queen Nanmadaw Me Nu built the Maha Aungmye Bonzan Monastery in 1818, more commonly known as Me Nu Ok Kyaung (Me Nu's Brick Monastery), unusual in that Burmese monasteries traditionally are wooden structures.[7]
During his stay as crown prince, his grandfather Bodawpaya renewed his expansionism in the west. In February 1814, a Burmese expeditionary force invaded Manipur, placing Marjit Singh, who grew up in Ava, as vassal king.
In 1816, the
Reign
Troubles on the western front
Bodawpaya died on 5 June 1819, and Bagyidaw ascended to the throne without opposition. On 7 June 1819, he was crowned at Amarapura with the reign name of Sri Pawara Suriya Dharmaraja Maharajadhiraja. It was later expanded to Siri Tribhawanaditya Dhipati Pawara Pandita Mahadhammarajadhiraja.
The first to test Bagyidaw's rule was the Raja of Manipur, who was put on the Manipuri throne only six years earlier by the Burmese. Raja Marjit Singh failed to attend Bagyidaw's coronation ceremony, or send an embassy bearing tributes, as all vassal kings had an obligation to do. In October 1819, Bagyidaw sent an expeditionary force of 25,000 soldiers and 3,000 cavalry led by his favorite general Maha Bandula to reclaim Manipur.
The instabilities spread to Assam in 1821, when the Ahom king of Assam, Chandrakanta Singha tried to shake off Burmese influence. He hired mercenaries from Bengal and began to strengthen the army. He also began to construct fortification to prevent further Burmese invasion.[13] Bagyidaw again turned to Bandula. It took Bandula's 20,000-strong army about a year a half, until July 1822, to finish off the Assamese army. Bagyidaw now scrapped the six- century-old Assamese monarchy and made Assam a province under a military governor-general. This differs with the Assamese versions of history where it is written that Bagyidaw installed Jogeswar Singha, a brother of Hemo Aideo, the Ahom princess who was married to Bodawpaya as the new Ahom king of Assam and a military governor-general was appointed to look after the administration.[14][15] The defeated Assamese king fled to British territory of Bengal. The British ignored Burmese demands to surrender the fugitive king, and instead sent reinforcement units to frontier forts.[16] Despite their success in the open battlefield, the Burmese continued to have trouble with cross border raids by rebels from British protectorates of Cachar and Jaintia into Manipur and Assam, and those from British Bengal into Arakan.
At Bagyidaw's court, the war party which included Gen. Bandula, Queen Me Nu and her brother, the lord of Salin, made the case to Bagyidaw that a decisive victory could allow Ava to consolidate its gains in its new western empire in Arakan, Manipur, Assam, Cachar and Jaintia, as well as take over eastern Bengal.[17] In January 1824, Bandula allowed one of his top lieutenants, Maha Uzana, into Cachar and Jaintia to chase away the rebels. The British sent in their own force to meet the Burmese in Cachar, resulting in the first clashes between the two. The war formally broke out on 5 March 1824, following border clashes in Arakan.
War with the British East India Company
In the beginning of the war, battle-hardened Burmese forces, who were more familiar with the terrain which represented "a formidable obstacle to the march of a European force", were able to push back better armed British forces made up of European and Indian soldiers.[18] By May, Uzana's forces had overrun Cachar and Jaintia, and Lord of Myawaddy's forces had defeated the British inside Bengal, causing a great panic in Calcutta.
Instead of fighting in harsh terrain, the British took the fight to the Burmese mainland. On 11 May, a British naval force of over 10,000 men, led by Archibald Campbell entered the port city of Yangon, taking the Burmese by surprise.[18] Bagyidaw ordered Bandula and most of the troops back home to meet the enemy at Yangon. In December 1824, Bandula's 30,000 strong force tried to retake Yangon but was soundly defeated by the much better armed British forces. The British immediately went on an offensive on all fronts. By April 1825, the British had driven out the Burmese forces from Arakan, Assam, Manipur, Tenasserim, and the Irrawaddy delta where Gen. Bandula died in action. After Bandula's death, the Burmese fought on but their last-ditch effort to retake the delta was repulsed in November 1825. In February 1826, with the British army only 50 miles away from Ava, Bagyidaw agreed to British terms.
As per the Treaty of Yandabo, the British demanded and the Burmese agreed to:[18]
- Cede to the British Assam, Manipur, Arakan, and Tenasserim coast south of Salween river,
- Cease all interference in Cachar and Jaintia,
- Pay an indemnity of one million pounds sterlingin four installments,
- Allow for an exchange of diplomatic representatives between Ava and Calcutta,
- Sign a commercial treaty in due course.
After the war
The treaty imposed highly severe financial burden to the Burmese kingdom, and effectively left it crippled. The British terms in the negotiations were strongly influenced by the heavy cost in lives and money which the war had entailed. Some 40,000 British and Indians troops had been involved of whom 15,000 had been killed. The cost to the British India's finances had been almost ruinous, amounting to approximately 13 million pounds sterling. The cost of war contributed to a severe economic crisis in India, which by 1833 had bankrupted the Bengal agency houses and cost the British East India Company its remaining privileges, including the monopoly of trade to China.[19]
For the Burmese, the treaty was a total humiliation and a long-lasting financial burden. A whole generation of men had been wiped out in battlefield. The world the Burmese knew of conquest and martial pride, built on the back of impressive military success of prior 75 years, had come crashing down. An uninvited British Resident in Ava was a daily reminder of humiliation of defeat.[19] The burden of indemnity would leave the royal treasury bankrupt for years. The indemnity of one million pounds sterling would have been considered a colossal sum even in Europe of that time, and it became frightening when translated to Burmese kyat equivalent of 10 million. The cost of living of the average villager in Upper Burma in 1826 was one kyat per month.[20]
Bagyidaw could not come to terms with the loss of the territories, and the British used Tenasserim as bait for the Burmese to pay the installments of indemnity. In 1830, the British agreed to redraw the Manipuri border with Burma, giving back Kabaw Valley to the Burmese. Bagyidaw delivered the balance of the indemnity at great sacrifice in November 1832. But by 1833, it was clear that the British had no intention of returning any of the territories. The king, who used to love theater and boat racing, grew increasingly reclusive, afflicted by bouts of depression. The palace power devolved to his chief queen Me Nu and her brother Maung O. In February 1837, Bagyidaw's crown prince and brother Tharrawaddy rebelled, and two months later in April, Bagyidaw was forced to abdicate. Tharrawaddy executed Me Nu and her brother, and kept his brother under house arrest. Bagyidaw died on 15 October 1846, at age 62. The former king had 23 queens, five sons and five daughters.
Notes
- ^ a b Owen 2005: 87–88
- ^ a b Myint-U 2006: 112–113
- ^ Phayre 1883: 237
- ^ a b Htin Aung 1967: 220–221
- ^ Steinberg et al 1987: 106
- ^ Sladen 1868
- ^ Cooler Chapter 4
- ^ E. A. Gait 1926 A History of Assam: 225–227
- ^ Dr. S.K. Bhuyan 1968 Tungkhungia Buranji or A History of Assam(1681–1826) : 197–203
- ^ Yi Yi 1965: 53
- ^ Aung Than Tun 2003
- ^ Phayre 1883: 233–234
- ^ Dr. S. K. Bhuyan 1968 Tungkhungia Buranji or A History of Assam (1681–1826) : 204–205
- ^ Dr. S. K. Bhuyan 1968 Tungkhungia Buranji or A History of Assam (1681–1826): 206–207
- ^ E. A. Gait 1926 A History of Assam: 228–230
- ^ Shakespear 1914: 62–63
- ^ Myint-U 2001: 18–19
- ^ a b c Phayre 1883: 236–237
- ^ a b Webster 1998:142–145
- ^ Htin Aung 1967: 214–215
References
- Aung Than Tun (Monywa) (2003-03-26). "Maha Bandula, Immortal Myanmar Supreme Commander". The New Light of Myanmar.
- Bhuyan, S.K. (1968). Tungkhungia Buranji or A History of Assam (1681–1826). Guwahati: THE GOVERNMENT OF ASSAM IN THE DEPARTMENT OF HISTORICAL AND ANTIQUARIAN STUDIES IN ASSAM.
- Charney, Michael W. (2006). Powerful Learning: Buddhist Literati and the Throne in Burma's Last Dynasty, 1752–1885. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan.
- Cooler, Richard M. "The Art and Culture of Burma: The Konbaung Period – Amarapura". Northern Illinois University. Archived from the original on 14 March 2007. Retrieved 2007-03-16.
- Gait, Sir Edward (1926). A History of Assam. Calcutta: Thacker, Spink & Co.
- Harvey, G. E. (1925). History of Burma: From the Earliest Times to 10 March 1824. London: Frank Cass & Co. Ltd.
- Htin Aung, Maung (1967). A History of Burma. New York and London: Cambridge University Press.
- Lieberman, Victor B. (2003). Strange Parallels: Southeast Asia in Global Context, c. 800–1830, volume 1, Integration on the Mainland. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-80496-7.
- Maung Maung Tin (1905). Konbaung Hset Maha Yazawin (in Burmese). Vol. 1–3 (2004 ed.). Yangon: Department of Universities History Research, University of Yangon.
- Myint-U, Thant (2001). The Making of Modern Burma. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-79914-0.
- Myint-U, Thant (2006). The River of Lost Footsteps—Histories of Burma. Farrar, Straus and Giroux. ISBN 978-0-374-16342-6.
- Owen, Norman G. (2005). The Emergence of Modern South-East Asia: A New History. University of Hawaii Press. ISBN 978-0-8248-2841-7.
- Phayre, Lt. Gen. Sir Arthur P. (1883). History of Burma (1967 ed.). London: Susil Gupta.
- Shakespear, Leslie Waterfield (1914). History of Upper Assam, Upper Burmah and northeastern frontier. Macmillan.
- Sladen, Edward. "Colonel Sladen's Account of Hsinbyume Pagoda at Mingun, 1868" (PDF). SOAS. Archived from the original (PDF) on 28 April 2007. Retrieved 2007-03-15.
- Steinberg, David Joel (1987). David Joel Steinberg (ed.). In Search of South-East Asia. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press.
- Webster, Anthony (1998). Gentlemen Capitalists: British Imperialism in South East Asia, 1770–1890. I.B.Tauris. ISBN 978-1-86064-171-8.
- Yi Yi, Ma (1965). "Burmese Sources for the History of the Konbaung Period 1752–1885". Journal of Southeast Asian History. 6 (1). Cambridge University Press on behalf of Department of History, National University of Singapore: 48–66. JSTOR 20067536.
External links
- Journal of An Embassy from the Governor-General of India to the Court of Ava in the year 1827 by John Crawfurd, 1829
- Journal of An Embassy from the Governor-General of India to the Court of Ava by John Crawfurd, Vol II 1834
- Was "Yadza" Really Ro(d)gers? at the Wayback Machine (archived September 27, 2007) Gerry Abbott, SOAS, Autumn 2005