The Cambridge History of India, Vol. III: Turks and Afghans v3.c29.s3.17

v3.c29.s3.17

After the Maw Shāns had departed, Thadominbya (1364–8), one of the Sagaing family, killed off such of his kinsmen as stood in his way there and at Pinya, drained the swamps round Ava, and built the town. It was usually the Burmese capital for the next five centuries; till two generations ago the English, like the Chinese, referred to Burmah as Ava, and for the Shāns the king of Burma was to the end ‘The Lord of the Golden Palace at Ava.’ On his mother’s side Thadominbya was descended from the Three Shān Brothers, and his father was a Shān notable who claimed descent from the primitive Pyusawti lineage. His habits were sufficiently primitive—thus, after killing a Toungoo rebel he ate a meal on the corpse’s chest. Whilst trying to subject Sagu he was seized with small-pox. As he lay dying, a pagan who had no respect for Buddhism, he told an officer to return to the palace and kill his queen lest she should pass to his successor. The officer entered the palace and told her his errand so she then and there married him. As part of the regalia she had already been queen to four successive chiefs³ of Pinya, and her union with the officer raised him to the throne. The pair massacred the royal kinsmen but the ministers would not accept them and hawked round the crown until finally Minkyiswasawke accepted it.