Wednesday, May 17, 2006

Razadarit finishes consolidating
his rule over the south (c. 1390)
(Warfare during the Razadarit era , c. 1385-1421)

1390 is a turning point in the narrative of the Razadarit Ayeidawpon.

By this time, Razadarit had finished consolidating his control over Lower Burma with military campaigns. He paused for a short time to make religious acts of merit and festivities. In his history of Burma, Harvey offers a concise summary of the events in the narrative of Razadarit Ayeidawpon which goes on at great length about Razadarit's abandonment of his wife and execution of his son:

"In 1390 he [Razadarit] was at the height of his power. He had driven off repeated Burmese attacks, quelled rebellion everywhere...he built shrines at the Shwemawdaw pagoda, feeding a thousand monks throughout a seven days festival and offering his weight in gold...the king of Ayutthia sent him a white elephant...he also proceeded to be crowned again with a favourite queen; some of his queens were from prominent families in Chiengmai. He grew wary of his first love Talamidaw the sister who had so befriended him during his unhappy youth; he took away all her jewels down to the family rings bequeathed her by their father, which she tried to hide in her hair, and seeing that she was finally cast aside she poisoned herself with a mixture made pon-ma-thein a camphor shrub. Worried that his son by his sister, Bawlawkyantaw, might rebel, Razadarit had him commit suicide by drinking the same poison" (Harvey, 113-114; SL 73-75)