Soe Min Kodawgyi
| Soe Min Kodawgyi စိုးမင်း ကိုယ်တော်ကြီး | |
|---|---|
| Queen consort of Sagaing | |
| Reign | 23 February 1352 – April 1364 |
| Successor | Disestablished |
| Spouse |
Thado Hsinhtein Minbyauk Thihapate |
| Issue |
Thadominbya (son)[1] Shin Saw Gyi (daughter) Saw Omma (daughter) Saw Taw Oo (daughter) |
| House | Sagaing |
| Father | Sawyun |
| Mother | Saw Hnaung |
| Born |
1320s[note 1] Sagaing |
| Died |
? Ava (Inwa) |
| Religion | Theravada Buddhism |
Soe Min Kodawgyi (Burmese: စိုးမင်း ကိုယ်တော်ကြီး, pronounced: [só mɪ́ɴ kòdɔ̀dʑí]) was an influential queen of Sagaing, a 14th century kingdom in present-day Burma (Myanmar). The only daughter of King Sawyun, the founder of Sagaing, became a kingmaker in 1352 when she placed her second husband Minbyauk Thihapate on the Sagaing throne, following the death of her brother King Tarabya II.[2] The queen was married twice. Her first husband Thado Hsinhtein was a scion of the ruling family of Tagaung, the northernmost territory of Sagaing. The couple had three children: Thadominbya, Shin Saw Gyi, and Saw Omma. After Thado Hsinhtein died in late 1340s or early 1350s, she married Thihapate, a court official and not a royal. They had a daughter, Saw Taw Oo.[1]
She appeared to have been an active queen during Thihapate's reign. In the late 1350s,[note 2] she, not the nominal king Thihapate, sent an embassy across the river to the court of King Kyawswa II of Pinya, their cross-river rival. She proposed an alliance, and sent her eldest daughter Shin Saw Gyi for marriage to Kyawswa II.[3] The alliance was intended for the two Irrawaddy-based kingdom to collectively fight the raids from the northern Shan states. But the alliance did not last. Kyawswa II died in 1359. His successor Narathu broke the alliance and conspired with the Shan raiders to attack Sagaing.[4]
She became the queen dowager in 1364 when Thadominbya overthrew Thihapate, and founded the Ava Kingdom.[5] After Thadominbya's death in 1367, all her three daughters became queens of Swasawke who succeeded Thadominbya.[6]
Notes
- ↑ The main chronicles do not agree on her birth year. Maha Yazawin (Maha Yazawin Vol. 1 2006: 270) says she was the youngest child, meaning she was born after 1321 (the birth year of Tarabya II of Sagaing). But Hmannan Yazawin (Hmannan Vol. 1 2003: 388) says she was the eldest child, meaning she was born before 1318 (the birth year of Kyaswa of Sagaing). While Hmannan does not explain why it corrected Maha Yazawin's account, the reason appears to be that Hmannan updated the death year of Sawyun from 692 ME (28 March 1330 to 27 March 1331) given by Maha Yazawin (Maha Yazawin Vol. 1 2006: 270) to Friday [sic], 1st waning of Kason 684 ME (Sunday 2 May 1322), and tried to reconcile its 1322 death date of Sawyun by bumping the youngest child to be the eldest one. But the update is incorrect; inscriptional evidence (Than Tun 1959: 126) shows that the king died on 5 February 1327. And given that her first child Thadominbya was born in 1345, it is more probable that she was born in the 1320s as first reported by Maha Yazawin.
- ↑ (Hmannan Vol. 1 2003: 384) says she sent the embassy in 721 ME (27 March 1359 to 27 March 1360). But it cannot be true as inscriptional evidence (Than Tun 1959: 124) shows Kyawswa II died on 19 March 1359.
References
Bibliography
- Kala, U (1724). Maha Yazawin (in Burmese) 1–3 (2006, 4th printing ed.). Yangon: Ya-Pyei Publishing.
- Royal Historical Commission of Burma (1832). Hmannan Yazawin (in Burmese) 1–3 (2003 ed.). Yangon: Ministry of Information, Myanmar.
- Than Tun (December 1959). "History of Burma: A.D. 1300–1400". Journal of Burma Research Society XLII (II).
| Soe Min Kodawgyi Born: 1320s | ||
| Regnal titles | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by |
Queen consort of Sagaing 1352–1364 |
Succeeded by Disestablished |