Binnya Ran I ( mnw, ပထမ ဗညာရာံ; my, ပထမ ဗညားရံ, ; 1393–1446) was king of

Hanthawaddy Pegu (Mon) ( Burmese) , conventional_long_name = Kingdom of Hongsarwatoi (Hanthawaddy) Pegu , common_name = Hongsarwatoi (Hanthawaddy) Kingdom / Ramannya (Ramam) , era = Warring states , status = Kingdom , event_pre ...

from 1424 to 1446. As crown prince, he ended the

Forty Years' War The Forty Years' War ( my, အနှစ်လေးဆယ်စစ်; 1385 – 1424; also Ava-Pegu War or the Mon-Burmese War) was a military war fought between the Burmese-speaking Kingdom of Ava and the Mon-speaking Kingdom of Hanthawad ...

with the rival

Ava Kingdom The Kingdom of Ava ( my, အင်းဝခေတ်, ) was the dominant kingdom that ruled upper Burma (Myanmar) from 1364 to 1555. Founded in 1365, the kingdom was the successor state to the petty kingdoms of Myinsaing, Pinya and Sagaing ...

in 1423. He came to the throne after poisoning his brother King Binnya Dhammaraza in 1424. As king, Binnya Ran largely kept his kingdom at peace for much of his 20-year reign when Ava was struggling to keep its territories intact. He pursued an opportunistic policy to keep Ava weak, helping

Toungoo Taungoo (, ''Tauñngu myoú''; ; also spelled Toungoo) is a district-level city in the Bago Region of Myanmar, 220 km from Yangon, towards the north-eastern end of the division, with mountain ranges to the east and west. The main industr ...

's rebellion against Ava between 1437 and 1442 during which he placed his son as the viceroy of Toungoo. When Ava reconquered Toungoo in 1442, he did not resume a large-scale war against Ava.

Crown Prince

Binnya Ran was born to Queen Thuddhamaya and King

Razadarit Razadarit ( mnw, ရာဇာဓိရာတ်,The spelling "ရာဇာဓိရာတ်" per '' Slapat Rajawan'' (Schmidt 1906: 118) and the 1485 Shwedagon Pagoda inscription (Pan Hla 2005: 368, footnote 1). Nai Pan Hla's ''Razadarit Ayedaw ...

.Yazawin Thit Vol. 1 2012: 268 After Razadarit's death, Binnya Dhammaraza became king. Binnya Ran and Binnya Kyan immediately revolted against their elder brother. Binnya Dhammaraza pacified Binnya Ran for a time by making him the

heir-apparent An heir apparent, often shortened to heir, is a person who is first in an order of succession and cannot be displaced from inheriting by the birth of another person; a person who is first in the order of succession but can be displaced by the b ...

and governor of

Pathein Pathein (, ; mnw, ဖာသီ, ), formerly called Bassein, is the largest city and the capital of the Ayeyarwady Region, Myanmar (Burma). It is located 190 km (120 mi) west of Yangon within Pathein Township on the bank of the Pathei ...

(Bassein) and the entire

Irrawaddy delta The Irrawaddy Delta or Ayeyarwady Delta lies in the Irrawaddy Division, the lowest expanse of land in Myanmar that fans out from the limit of tidal influence at Myan Aung to the Bay of Bengal and Andaman Sea, to the south at the mouth of the ...

. Binnya Dhammaraza also pacified Binnya Kyan by making him governor of

Martaban Mottama ( my, မုတ္တမမြို့, ; Muttama mnw, မုဟ်တၟံ, ; formerly Martaban) is a town in the Thaton District of Mon State, Myanmar. Located on the west bank of the Thanlwin river (Salween), on the opposite side ...

.Phayre 1967: 81–84 But Binnya Ran was not satisfied. He soon extended his territory, and occupied

Dagon Dagon ( he, דָּגוֹן, ''Dāgōn'') or Dagan ( sux, 2= dda-gan, ; phn, 𐤃𐤂𐤍, Dāgān) was a god worshipped in ancient Syria across the middle of the Euphrates, with primary temples located in Tuttul and Terqa, though many at ...

(Yangon) in 1423. When Ava forces came to occupy Dala opposite Dagon, Binnya Ran presented his elder sister

Shin Sawbu Shin Sawbu ( my, ရှင်စောပု, ; mnw, မိစဴဗု; 1394–1471) was queen regnant of Hanthawaddy from 1454 to 1471. Queen Shin Sawbu is also known as Binnya Thau ( mnw, ဗညားထောဝ်; mnw, ဨကရာဇ် ...

Thihathu Thihathu ( my, သီဟသူ, ; 1265–1325) was a co-founder of the Myinsaing Kingdom, and the founder of the Pinya Kingdom in today's central Burma (Myanmar).Coedès 1968: 209 Thihathu was the youngest and most ambitious of the three brother ...

, and bought peace. Ava forces withdrew, ending the Forty Years' War between Ava and Hanthawaddy Pegu. In 1424, Binnya Ran poisoned Binnya Dhammaraza and became the eleventh king of Hanthawaddy.Harvey 1925: 115–116 His reign name, as reported in

Mon language The Mon language (, mnw, ဘာသာမန်, links=no, (Mon-Thai ဘာသာမည်) ; my, မွန်ဘာသာ; th, ภาษามอญ; formerly known as Peguan and Talaing) is an Austroasiatic language spoken by the Mon peop ...

inscriptions, was Rama Razadarit (; Pali: Rāma Rājādhirāj).Than Tun 1985: xi

Reign

As king, Binnya Ran allowed Binnya Kyan to remain as governor of Martaban where the latter exercised almost independent authority. He soon became involved with the dynastic intrigues of Ava Kingdom. In 1426, Mohnyin Thado ascended the Ava throne. In 1429, his sister Shin Sawbu fled secretly from Ava back to Pegu. Binnya Ran received his elder sister with great honor. In the same year, Thinkhaya III, the governor of Toungoo sought Binnya Ran's alliance against Ava by presenting a daughter. Binnya Ran agreed and attacked

Prome Pyay (, ; mnw, ပြန် , ; also known as Prome and Pyè) is principal town of Pyay Township in the Bago Region in Myanmar. Pyay is located on the bank of the Irrawaddy River, north-west of Yangon. It is an important trade center for the Aye ...

(Pyay) together with Toungoo governor's forces.Hmannan Vol. 2 2003: 71 Mohnyin Thado broke up the alliance by giving a niece,

Soe Min Wimala Dewi Soe Min Wimala Dewi ( my, စိုးမင်း ဝိမလ ဒေဝီ, ) was a queen consort of King Binnya Ran I of Hanthawaddy. Soe Min was of Ava royalty, and was given to Binnya Ran in a marriage of state in 1431. Her title at Pegu ...

, to Binnya Ran. The Pegu king accepted the peace offer as he did not want renewed fighting. The alliance was one of convenience for Binnya Ran. He was happy to see that Mohnyin Thado was having trouble with Shan raids into Avan territory throughout the 1430s. When Toungoo revolted again in 1437, Binnya Ran readily provided assistance for Toungoo. With his help, Toungoo defeated Ava, and Binnya Ran's son Minsaw became the viceroy of Toungoo.Phayre 1967: 91 However, King Minye Kyawswa I of Ava reconquered Toungoo in 1440, and appointed Tarabya, a Shan chief. For the remainder of his reign, he was content to see Ava had its hands full with

Ming Chinese The Ming dynasty (), officially the Great Ming, was an imperial dynasty of China, ruling from 1368 to 1644 following the collapse of the Mongol-led Yuan dynasty. The Ming dynasty was the last orthodox dynasty of China ruled by the Han peop ...

invasions and Shan raids. Binnya Ran died after a reign of approximately 22 years, and was succeeded by nephew and adopted son Binnya Waru, a son of Shin Sawbu.

Historiography

Various Burmese chronicles do not agree on the key dates of the king's life.

Notes

References

Bibliography

* * * * * * * * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Ran 01, Binnya Hanthawaddy dynasty 1446 deaths 1390s births 15th-century Burmese monarchs