The Cambridge History of India, Vol. IV: The Mughul Period v4.c23.s4.25

v4.c23.s4.25

Several of Alaungpaya's court poets were also field officers, such as Letwethondara (p. 513), who served under the walls of Pegū; Letwethondara had been a writer to the Hluttaw council under the last king of Ava, and was one of the staff taken over by Alaungpaya. About 1750 the Sonta *sayadaw* (abbot) of Hsinbyugyun, Minbu district, compiled the *Manu Ring dhammathat* (law book), which started the fashion of attributing the decisions of Kaingsa Manu (p. 497) to the ancient sage Manu. By Alaungpaya’s order, his minister, the soldier Mahasiri-uttamajaya, compiled the Manu Kye *dhammathat*, a compilation of existing laws and customs which passed into general use owing to its encyclopaedic nature and to its being written in simple Burmese with very little Pali; one of its provisions is that no debt can be demanded when human victims are being offered at the foundation of a city (p. 499); and when in 1751 Tavoy was rebuilt, a condemned criminal was crushed in each post-hole of the city gates.¹