Nanda Bayin

Nanda Bayin နန္ဒဘုရင်
King of Burma
Reign	November 1581 – December 1599 (18 years)
Predecessor	Bayinnaung
Successor	Nyaungyan
Burial	Toungoo
Issue	Mingyi Swa Minyekyawswa I
Names Zeya Thiha (ဇေယျသီဟ)
House	Toungoo
Father	Bayinnaung
Mother	Atula Thiri Mahayazadewi
Religion	Theravada Buddhism

Nanda Bayin (Burmese: နန္ဒဘုရင်, pronounced [nàɴda̯ bəjìɴ]; 1535 – November 1600), was the king of the Toungoo Dynasty of Myanmar from 1581 to 1599. Nanda was the first son of King Bayinnaung. He was made the crown prince upon the ascension of his father in January 1551. As the crown prince, he led subjugation of Lanna and the sack of Vientiene in 1565. He also waged wars alongside his father against Ayutthaya that eventually led to the fall of the city in 1564 and 1569.

Bayinnaung died in 1581. Crown Prince Nanda succeeded his father as the king of Pegu and appointed his first son Minchit as the Crown Prince. Thadominthaw the viceroy of Ava (Nanda Bayin’s brother-in-law), however, didn’t attend the coronation audience due to the crown prince’s treatment to the crown princess who was Thadominthaw’s daughter. Nanda was enraged at the inobedience of his brother-in-law, ordered the massacre of people supporting the viceroy of Ava, and prepared a full-scale war against Ava.

Nanda also requested auxiliary troops from Prome, Toungoo, and Ayutthaya. The king was also to take Ava with the help of Prome and Toungoo and installed his son Minyekyawswa. The Siamese armies led by crown prince Naresuan, however, marched towards Pegu. Nanda hurried down south to stop the Siamese from reaching the capital, only to find out that the Siamese prince had returned and sacked Mon cities on the way.

In 1584, Nanda sent his armies into Siam led by the crown prince Mingyi Swa to subjugate the country. The campaign, however, failed. Nanda decided to lead the armies himself into Siam in 1586 and reached Ayutthaya but laid siege on the city for five months without success. Then Nanda decided to retreat but was followed and harassed by Siamese armies. In 1590, the king marched into Siam again with Mingyi Swa in the vanguard, but the crown prince was again defeated by the Siamese led by Naresuan.

Nanda then mustered all available forces at his disposal aganist the Siamese. In 1592, a very large campaign was organized and the Burmese armies amassed towards Ayutthaya led by the crown prince. The Burmese and Siamese battled near Ayutthaya. The Burmese crown prince and King Naresuan of Ayutthaya engaged a personal elephant battle, which resulted in Mingyi Swa’s death.

With the death of Mingyi Swa, Nanda appointed Minyekyawswa the viceroy of Ava as the crown prince. Nanda suffered several rebellions around the city of Martaban and Moulmein that led to the expansion of Siamese influence into the Mon state. In 1594, Naresuan, with the supports from the Mon rebels, marched towards Pegu and laid siege on the city but then retreated due to an aggressive defence by the viceroys of Prome and Toungoo.

In 1595, however, the viceroy of Prome who was Nanda’s son led a huge rebellion taking Toungoo and a large northern portion of the kingdom, proclaiming himself as an independent king. Nanda then lost trust in those close to him and requested the sons of tributary kings to be held hostage in Pegu. Viceroy of Toungoo Minye Thihathu then requested the King of Rakhine to invade Pegu and declared himself king of Toungoo. The Arakan invasion was countered by the crown prince but the crown prince then gave himself up to Toungoo – where he was killed by Natshinnaung, son of Minye Thihathu. Shocked by the death of his son and his own defeat, Nanda abdicated the throne to the King of Toungoo in 1599 and was captured to Toungoo – therefore his epithet Toungooyauk Min (တောင်ငူရောက်မင်း; the king who was captured to Toungoo).

The abdicated king survived for another year in captivity in Toungoo but was assassinated by Natshinnaung in November 1600.

External links

• Myanmar History: King Nanda