1. Anawrahta unified the entire Irrawaddy valley for the first time in history, and placed peripheral regions such as the Shan States and Arakan under Pagan's suzerainty.
50 Facts About Anawrahta
1. 2.
Anawrahta successfully stopped the advance of the Khmer Empire into the Tenasserim coastline and into the Upper Menam valley, making Pagan one of the two great kingdoms in mainland Southeast Asia.
3.
Anawrahta bequeathed a strong administrative system that all later Pagan kings followed until the dynasty's fall in 1287.
4.
Anawrahta's legacy went far beyond the borders of modern Burma.
5.
Anawrahta is one of the most famous kings in Burmese history.
6.
Anawrahta is the first historical king in that the events during his reign can be verified by stone inscriptions.
7.
Anawrahta's father had been a usurper of the Pagan throne, who overthrew King Nyaung-u Sawrahan two decades earlier.
8.
Anawrahta took wives, and had at least two sons by the early 1040s.
9.
Anawrahta graded every town and village according to the levy it could raise.
10.
Anawrahta made great efforts to turn the arid parched lands of central Burma into a rice granary.
11.
Anawrahta constructed the irrigation system, which is still used in Upper Burma today.
12.
Anawrahta repaired the Meiktila Lake, and successfully built four weirs and canals on the Panlaung river, and three weirs on the Zawgyi.
13.
The Thai chronicles assert that Anawrahta conquered the entire Menam valley, and received tribute from the Khmer king.
14.
One states that Anawrahta's armies invaded the Khmer kingdom and sacked the city of Angkor, and another one goes so far as to say that Anawrahta even visited Java to receive his tribute.
15.
Anawrahta first received submission of the ruler of Pegu.
16.
Anawrahta's armies, led by the "Four Paladins", invaded the southern kingdom in early 1057.
17.
Still according to traditional reconstruction, Anawrahta brought back over 30,000 people, many of them artisans and craftsmen to Pagan.
18.
Anawrahta reportedly tried to bring home the giant Mahamuni Buddha but could not.
19.
Anawrahta did take away the gold and silver vessels of the shrine.
20.
Anawrahta received tribute from the Buddhist kingdom of Pateikkaya.
21.
Anawrahta assisted fellow Theravada Buddhist Ceylon in its war against Hindu Chola invaders.
22.
Anawrahta demanded tribute from other neighboring Mon Kingdoms, Haripunjaya and Dvaravati.
23.
Anawrahta sent his armies, again led by the four paladins, who repulsed the invaders.
24.
Anawrahta led a campaign against the kingdom in the northeast.
25.
Anawrahta sent ships of supplies in aid of Buddhist Ceylon.
26.
Anawrahta sent the monks and scriptures, and a white elephant as a present for Vijayabahu.
27.
The greatest achievement of Anawrahta was his consolidation of various ethnic groups into a single nation.
28.
Anawrahta was careful that his own people, the Burmans, not flaunt themselves before other peoples.
29.
Anawrahta continued to show regard for the Pyus, who had recently fallen from greatness.
30.
Anawrahta retained the name Pyu for his kingdom although it was under the leadership of the Burmans.
31.
Anawrahta showed regard for the Mons, and encouraged his people to learn from the Mons.
32.
Anawrahta replaced the kings of Lower Burma with governors.
33.
From 1056 onwards, Anawrahta implemented a series of religious reforms throughout his kingdom.
34.
Anawrahta's reforms gained steam after his conquest of Thaton, which brought much needed scriptures and clergy from the vanquished kingdom.
35.
Anawrahta broke the power of the Ari monks first by declaring that his court would no longer heed if people ceased to yield their children to the priests.
36.
Anawrahta banished them in numbers; many of them fled to Popa Hill and the Shan Hills.
37.
Anawrahta used traditional nat spirits to attract people to his new religion.
38.
Anawrahta was the first of the "Temple Builders" of Pagan.
39.
Anawrahta built the Shwesandaw Pagoda south of Pagan to house the hair relics presented by Pegu.
40.
Scholarship believed until recently that Anawrahta commissioned the invention of the Burmese alphabet based on the Mon script, c 1058, a year after the Thaton conquest.
41.
Anawrahta was an energetic king who implemented many profound enduring political, socioeconomic and cultural changes.
42.
Anawrahta was admired and feared but not loved by his subjects.
43.
Anawrahta was ruthless and stern not to any particular ethnic group but to all his subjects, for he felt that harsh measures were needed in building up a new nation.
44.
Anawrahta never accepted the cult of the god-king, and he was impatient even with gods that his people worshipped; men came to say that he beat up gods with the flat of his lance.
45.
Anawrahta achieved his aims but only at the price of his own popularity.
46.
Anawrahta's subjects admired and feared him, but did not love him.
47.
Anawrahta's forcing of Kyansittha to become fugitive increased his popularity although this action at least was justified for the great paladin, like the Lancelot of the Round Table, was in love with one of his queens.
48.
Anawrahta is considered one of the greatest, if not the greatest, king of Burmese history for he founded first "charter polity" of what would later become modern Burma.
49.
Anawrahta's legacy went far beyond the borders of modern Burma.
50.
Anawrahta helped restart Theravada Buddhism in Ceylon, the Buddhist school's original home.