Myinsaing Kingdom

The Myinsaing Kingdom ruled central Burma from 1297 to 1313. It was founded by three brothers, Athinkhaya, Yazathingyan and Thihathu of Myinsaing, who had risen to command the defences of central Burma as the Pagan Empire collapsed under Mongol invasion. After King Narathihapate was assassinated in 1287, the brothers drove back a Mongol attempt to restore a vassal and became the real power in the Irrawaddy valley. King Kyawswa rewarded them with viceroyalties, but they resented his submission to the Mongols and overthrew him in December 1297. They then withstood the second Mongol invasion of 1300-1301 and unified central Burma from Tagaung in the north to Prome in the south. The co-rule ended between 1310 and 1313 with the deaths of the two elder brothers, and in 1315 the state split into the rival kingdoms of Pinya and Sagaing. Central Burma was not reunified until the rise of Ava about five decades later. Myinsaing is remembered as a transitional power between Pagan and the smaller Burmese states of the fourteenth century.