Pre-history and legend The 19th-century chronicle
Hmannan Yazawin introduces Tagaung as the very first
capital of Burma, along with the adage
Myanmar asa Tagaung ga (Myanmar starts from Tagaung), and it was the ancient capital of the
Pyu, who were the forerunners of the
Burmese people. Its history is steeped in myth and legend. The city is said to have been founded in 850 BC by King
Abhiraja of the
Sakya clan from
Kapilavastu in
India, before the time of the
Buddha. It has a very important place in
Burmese culture also for the
Tagaung Yazawin (Tagaung Chronicle) legends of
Maung Pauk Kyaing the
dragon slayer, the powerful blacksmith and his sister who became the household guardian spirits known as the Mahagiri
Nats, and the blind twin princes who were sent adrift on a raft down the Ayeyarwady.
Tagaung Kingdom Although the
British historians G E Harvey and D G E Hall had dismissed the Abhiraja origin of the Burmese people, the antiquity of Tagaung itself is not in dispute.
Ptolemy, the
Greek geographer, writing in 140 AD, mentions Tugma Metropolis believed to be Tagaung at a spot in Upper Burma. According to Chinese annals,
Nanchao invaded and plundered the capital of a Pyu kingdom in 832 AD carrying off 3,000 captives. The chronicles of the
Tang dynasty (AD 606–910) describe the land of the Pyu consisting of 18 states and 9 walled towns. In Upper Burma at least seven walled settlements over 200 hectares have been excavated so far. It was one of the 43 outposts established by King
Anawrahta (1044–1077) of
Bagan along the eastern foothills of the
Shan plateau in defense of his realm, before he embarked on
military expeditions west to
Bengal and east to
Nanchao.
South-west Silk Road Marco Polo (1254–1324) was believed to have reached as far as Tagaung in his travels on one of his fact-finding missions sent by
Kublai Khan. A network of three overland routes from Yunnan westward to
Bengal existed for shipping
bullion between 1200 and 1500 AD. One of them followed the Shweli River, crossing the
Irrawaddy at Tagaung, followed the
Chindwin River north and crossed via the
Imphal pass to
Manipur. In the 1950s tens of thousands of
cowries in Yunnan were found in tombs from the ancient past between the
Warring States period (475 BCE–221 BCE) and the
Western Han dynasty (206 BCE–9 CE). These cowries came from the
Pacific and
Indian oceans, especially from the
Maldives, most likely along the same route. ==Modern Archaeology==