The Cambridge History of India, Vol. IV: The Mughul Period v4.c23.s3.52

v4.c23.s3.52

Unlike most Burmese kings, who lived in the backwoods (pp. 496, 513), Bayinnaung lived in a seaport and came into contact with the outer world. The extent to which overseas traders frequented the Delta indicates that his trade regulations were reasonable. Merchants sailing from India first sighted Negrais and saw there, as we see now, the superb Hmawdin pagoda flashing on the headland, a landmark for a whole day's sail.¹ They went upstream to Bassein and then, turning east, passed through the Myaungmya creeks to Pegū. Those creeks were, at least on the main route, crowded with villages almost touching each other, a teeming hive of happy people. Customs officers, though strict, were not obstructive, and there was free export of such commodities as jewels and rice, a thing subsequently forbidden by the benighted kings of Āva (p. 501). Bassein is scarcely mentioned, the chief ports being on the eastern side, Syriam, Dalla, Martaban, and above all Pegū, where the merchants were allowed, by special privilege, to have brick warehouses, the populace being restricted to houses of bamboo or timber. Ralph Fitch and the merchants of Venice never tire of describing Pegū city, the long moat full of crocodiles, the walls, the watch-towers, the gorgeous palace, the processions with elephants and palanquins and grandees in shining robes, the shrines filled with images of massy gold and gems, the unending hosts of armed men, and the vision of the great king himself receiving petitions as he sat throned on high amid his lords.