Sawlu

Sawlu ( Burmese script : စော လူး , spoken [sɔ́lú]; * 1038 in Bagan ; † 1084 ibid) was king of Bagan between 1078 and 1084.

ancestry

Sawlu's father was King Anawrahta (ruled 1044-1078), who founded the Empire of Bagan. He grew up with a wet nurse from the Mon people , who was of noble origin, together with her son. Both boys became close friends.

government

After Sawlu succeeded his father on the throne, he made his friend the governor of Pegu , which was inhabited by the Mon and had been conquered by his father just twenty years earlier. Sawlu apparently did not behave very well during his reign, which the governor noticed during his numerous visits to the court and tried to use it for the independence of the Mon.

The break between the two childhood friends was obviously dramatic, if the court chronicle is to be believed. At a game of dice the governor won against the king and almost fell out with pride, whereupon Sawlu tried to provoke him and asked why he wasn't revolting against him, the king, if he were so clever. The governor returned to Pegu and prepared the revolt. With a force of the Mon he sailed up the Irrawaddy and fortified a position on an island a little below Bagan. Sawlu called Kyanzittha , his father's old general from exile, and marched down the river to meet the governor. Sawlu became impatient and, contrary to Kyanzittha's warning, attacked the well-developed position of governor. The Burmese were surrounded and the king captured. An offer of Kyanzittha to save him was rejected by the king out of fear. He thought he was safe with his old friend, but feared he would be murdered by Kyanzittha. But it turned out the other way around: the governor had the king killed in order to prevent further rescue attempts. His force was defeated by Kyanzittha's troops and the governor was killed by an arrow in battle.

Kyanzittha was elected to succeed the incompetent Sawlu and succeeded him to the throne of Bagan in 1084.

literature

• Maung Htin Aung: A History of Burma . Cambridge University Press, New York 1967.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b} Maung Htin Aung (1967), p. 38f.