The Cambridge History of India, Vol. IV: The Mughul Period v4.c23.s3.120

v4.c23.s3.120

Mahadammayaza-dipati, king of Burma, angered at his commanders’ failure to repel the Manipuris, used to expose them in the sun with a sword on their necks, saying: “If a failure like this comes to my golden ears again I will chastise you with my sword.” Neither he nor his predecessors since 1648 ever took the field in person. In short, the kingdom was doomed. Unlike the mass of their subjects, the kings were polygamous and although, to preserve the fiction of an undiluted succession, the chief queen had to be the reigning king’s half-sister, the heir was often not her son, or even the son of a queen, but any son who could intrigue or massacre his way to power. No dynasty lasted three centuries or preserved its vigour for three generations.