Binnya Dala

Agga Maha Thenapati Binnya Dala (, , also spelled Banya Dala; 1518–1573), was a Burmese statesman, general and writer-scholar during the reign of King Bayinnaung of the Toungoo Dynasty. He was the king's most trusted adviser and general, ) in Hanthawaddy kingdom. His birth name is unknown—the name Binnya Dala was a senior title of the Hanthawaddy court, (and later of Toungoo and Restored Hanthawaddy courts). Judging by his later literary works, he was highly educated and fluent in both his native and . Likewise, based on his senior ministerial and military leadership roles first achieved in the mid-1550s, he was likely a junior-to-mid-level officer in the service of King Tabinshwehti of Toungoo Dynasty in the 1540s, and may have begun his career in the service of King Takayutpi of Hanthawaddy in the late 1530s. The first confirmed record of him as a senior commander came in 1555 when he and three other Toungoo commanders drove out the retreating forces of the Confederation of Shan States from Singu.

The overwhelming success gained him the king's ear. In November 1557, Bayinnaung listened to Binnya Dala, and rejected his son Crown Prince Nanda's proposal to acquire the neighboring Chinese vassal Shan states in the north. The king took the advice of Binnya Payan and Binnya Dala to attack the kingdom of Lan Na instead. After Lan Na was acquired in April 1558, the king left Binnya Dala and Binnya Set at Chiang Mai.

Chief Minister-General (1559–1573) Military campaigns (1560–1565) Pleased with Binnya Dala's intellect, versatility and battle-field performance, the king recalled him from Chiang Mai, and made him his primary adviser, general, and administrator in 1559. The general's first assignment as commander-in-chief was to lead the invasion of Manipur. Binnya Law and Binnya Set were appointed as his deputies. The trio left Pegu on 2 December 1559 to take command of the invasion force (10,000 troops, 500 horses, 30 elephants, 50 ships), chiefly drawn from Upper Burma and Shan states.

He immediately returned to the capital to continue the war preparations. In July 1563, he wrote Bayinnaung's ultimatum to King Maha Chakkraphat of Siam to submit. As expected, the Siamese king refused. Even at the late stage, the Toungoo court was still split. At least one prominent minister advised against the war. After reviewing the latest intelligence reports, Binnya Dala recommended to proceed with the invasion. Following his battle plan, five Burmese armies acquired the aforementioned peripheral regions before converging on Ayutthaya and forcing the Siamese king's surrender in February 1564.

Binnya Dala was also instrumental in acquiring Lan Xang but the success there proved illusory. In January 1565, Crown Prince Nanda's army group easily took Vientiane, the capital of Lan Xang. But King Setthathirath escaped. Nanda and Binnya Dala chased the Lan Xang king all the way to what is now Vietnam but failed to find the renegade king. (The Lan Xang king remained active in the countryside, and would retake Vientiane three years later. Each gate had a gilded two-tier pyatthat and gilded wooden doors. When the newly rebuilt Kanbawzathadi Palace was officially opened on 16 March 1568, an appreciative king seated Binnya Dala in one of the most prominent positions in the elaborate ceremony.

Reconquest of Ayutthaya (1568–1569) and Lan Xang (1569–1570) Binnya Dala was again called to duty when both Lan Xang and Siam revolted in 1568. While his official role again was Nanda's deputy,

Two months after Ayutthaya's fall, the king himself led a two-pronged invasion of Lan Xang in October 1569. Setthathirath again retreated to the jungle to conduct his tried-and-true guerrilla warfare. The Burmese armies spent months combing the Lan Xang countryside. Setthathirath was nowhere to be found but many Burmese troops were dying of starvation and from long marches. The task of telling the king to call off the search fell to Binnya Dala, as Nanda and the king's own brothers were unwilling to tell the king. Upon Binnya Dala's advice, Bayinnaung grudgingly agreed to call off the search in April 1570. Very few men of the original armies survived to reach their own country. Much to the surprise of the Toungoo court, Soulintha refused to submit. At Pegu, Binnya Dala advised the king that Soulintha, a non-royal usurper was unlikely to be accepted as king by the Lan Xang court, and that a small expedition should remove the pretender.

In late 1572, Binnya Dala, now styled as Agga Maha Thenapati , left Pegu with 2000 troops. Another 2000 troops each from Lan Na and Siam were also to march toward Vientiane from their respective bases,

Death It would be the last time the king would see Binnya Dala, one of the few principal officers with whom the king had "entered into thwethauk blood-bond, a sacramental brotherhood of some round table, as it were". Binnya Dala had written in an earlier memoir that "All [of us], his chosen men, in fact, whether Shans, Mons or Burmans... declared ourselves willing to lay down our lives [for him]."

Binnya Dala fell ill soon after he arrived at the malaria-infested remote outpost. Concerned, King Maha Thammarachathirat of Siam moved him to the larger town of Kamphaeng Phet, five months into the exile, and sent a mission to Pegu to request permission. Bayinnaung granted the request but it was too late. His loyal thwethauk blood brother, who won him many a battle, died about a month after the transfer to Kamphaeng Phet. Indeed, for nearly four centuries until Nai Pan Hla translated the Burmese version back to Mon in 1958, the oldest chronicle about the Mon people existed only in Burmese. The second half of the original chronicle remains lost. )

Binnya Dala's writing has been praised as a model of good Burmese prose of the early Toungoo period, and the text was prescribed for Burmese literature students at one time.

Commemorations Binnya Dala Road: A road in Tamwe Township, Yangon Binnya Dala Hall: One of the main campus buildings in the University of Mawlamyine.

List of military campaigns

CampaignDurationTroops commandedNotes Ava 1554–1555 1 regiment Not listed as a commander at the outset of the invasion. But after Ava fell, he appeared as one of the commanders who followed up on the forces of the saopha of Thibaw up to Singu in early 1555. He was under the command of Thado Dhamma Yaza II of Prome. Other commanders to Singu were Binnya Law, Binnya Ran, Binnya Kyanhtaw. Shan states 1557 1 regiment Principal architect of strategy to acquire the cis-Salween Shan states. Mone 1557 1 regiment Led a regiment in the Mone campaign (under the command of Nanda). Lan Na 1558–1559 1 regiment Co-commanded the garrison at Chiang Mai, along with Binnya Set, after Lan Na's surrender in April 1558. Manipur 1559–1560 10,000 Commander-in-chief of the campaign. His deputies were Binnya Law and Binnya Set. The three left Pegu on 2 December 1559 to take command of the invasion force (10,000 troops, 500 horses, 30 elephants, 50 ships), chiefly drawn from Upper Burma and Shan states. Entered the Manipuri capital with little resistance. Arrived back to Pegu on 27 May 1560. Trans-Salween Chinese Shan states 1563 1 regiment Principal architect of the strategy to acquire trans-Salween Shan States and designer of the invasion plan. Led a regiment under the command of Nanda. At the outset of the campaign, he advised the four royals leading the four-pronged invasion: Nanda, Thado Minsaw, Thado Dhamma Yaza II, Minkhaung II. Siam 1563–1564 1 regiment Led the intelligence effort to discover the defensive preparations being made in Siam. Principal architect of the invasion plan. Served in Nanda's army that took Sukhothai. Lan Xang 1565 1 regiment Left Chiang Mai with Nanda, Thado Minsaw and Minye Kyawhtin to Vientiane in December 1564. Led the siege of Ayutthaya in April–May 1569. Lan Xang 1569–1570 1 regiment Combed the Laotian countryside in search of Setthathirath but failed to find the Lan Xang king. Lan Xang 1572–1573 6,000 Commander-in-chief of the campaign. Stopped at the fort leading to the capital Vientiane.