The Cambridge History of India, Vol. IV: The Mughul Period v4.c23.s4.40

v4.c23.s4.40

The commanders, watching by his bedside, fearing to dishearten the troops, kept the death a close secret and sent their swiftest horsemen to Shwebo, so that the heir might be the first to know and secure the throne. The body, bound in sheets, was hidden in the curtained litter; and thus in death Alaungpaya still rode with his armies and the daily orders issued in his name. At Rangoon his death was made public and his body, placed on a state barge, was taken upstream. At Kyaukmyaung landing stage in Shwebo district the whole court came out to meet it, and bore it solemnly in through the Hlaingtha Gate of Shwebo. So he was buried with the ritual of the kings in the palace city which once had been his village, amid the mourning of a people. His grave, with an inscription in misspelt English, perhaps by some Negrais captive, is near the Shwebo Deputy Commissioner’s court.