Background
Ba Saw Phyu was born to Prince Khayi and Princess Saw Pa-Ba (စောပဘာ), both of Launggyet royalty in early 1430.
Ba Saw Phyu was born to Prince Khayi and Princess Saw Pa-Ba (စောပဘာ), both of Launggyet royalty in early 1430.
In this Burmese name, Ba Saw is an honorific. He acquired Chittagong in 1459, and put down a rebellion there in 1481. He established religious contacts with Ceylon and built the Mahabodhi Shwe-Gu Temple.
Prince Phyu had a younger brother Ba Saw Nyo and several half-brothers.
According to the Arakanese chronicles, the young prince was athletic as well as an expert archer and marksman. He was later married to Saw Nandi and Saw Htin.
He also had at least two daughters. Phyu was chosen as the heir apparent by the king in 1458.
Minister Swe, then governor of Launggyet, revolted, and came back with a force supplied by the Shan state of Kale (Kalay) in November 1458.
However, Mrauk-U forces easily defeated the attack, clearing the way for Ba Saw Phyu as the undisputed heir apparent. Soon after the Minister Swe rebellion, King Khayi died, and Phyu succeeded the throne at age 29. The new king proved an ambitious king.
In the first year of his reign, he took advantage of the turmoil at Sultan Rukunuddin Barbak Shah"s court, and seized Chittagong.
(Note that the Arakanese chronicles claim that the conquest of Chittagong came nine years earlier in 1450 by King Khayi) The conquest of Chittagong pointed as much to Arakan"s rise as to Bengal"s "weakness". After the conquest of Chittagong, Ba Saw Phyu issued a coin bearing the kalima in Persian script "as a token of sovereignty" over Chittagong.
His reign was largely peaceful although rebellions did break out from time to time. In 1461, the lord of Tanlwe revolted.
On 23 May 1476 (Thursday, 1st waxing of 1st Waso 838 Master of Engineering), the Thet people revolted.
Both were easily put down but the most serious rebellion came in 1481 when Chittagong revolted. In December 1481 (Natdaw 843), he marched to Chittagong. The city was taken only after a fierce battle that lasted several days.
The control of the city exchanged hands several times but Arakanese forces eventually prevailed.
The chronicles report that Ba Saw Phyu chased the rebels deep into Bengal. The king founded a town called Pyin-htaung in 1463.
In 1471, he expanded Mrauk-U city and built new moats and water canals. Foreign religion, he built the Mahabodhi Shwe-Gu Temple, on a hill northwest of the palace.
The temple"s octagonal plan is attributed to the Le-Mro period.
Dawlya had been unhappy about the king"s recent decision to anoint his younger half-brother Gamani as the heir apparent. The king was 52. The patricidal Dawlya succeeded him.