The Cambridge History of India, Vol. III: Turks and Afghans v3.c29.s5.5

v3.c29.s5.5

Toungoo was usually on good terms with Pegū, and when she went raiding it was to the north, especially to Kyaukse. She always looked longingly on that prosperous hollow, growing three crops a year when she could grow only one, and the stronger she grew the more she encroached there. Her greatest chief, Minkyinyo (1486–1531), finally secured it when the chief of Āva gave him a daughter, and, as her dowry, Kyaukse itself together with the country leading up to it from Toungoo, such as the Yamethin villages Taungnyo, Pyagaung (Kyidaunggan), Shwemyo, Kintha, Talaingthe and Petpaing. He deported the population of these to fill the new town Dwayawadi (Myogyi near Toungoo) which he founded. In 1510 he moved and founded the present Toungoo, digging the lake within the walls and laying out orchards. When the Shāns finally took Āva in 1527 he sallied forth and deliberately devastated the country in the central zone, filling in the walls and breaking down the channels so as to place an impassable belt between himself and the Shāns. While he was doing this, the last great influx of Burmans came fleeing from the Shān terror; the lords of Pyinya in Sagaing district, Myittha in Kyaukse, and Hlaingdet in Meiktila, with many a Burmese family, noble and commoner, fled south to take refuge at his feet. In delight he exclaimed: 'Now I know why the bees swarmed on the gate of Toungoo: it meant that my city would be populous'; it meant more than that, although he did not realise it—it meant that Toungoo would see the re-birth of the Burmese race.