According to the Mon tradition, the kingdom of Thaton was founded during the time of the Buddha, and was ruled by a dynasty of 59 kings. The tradition also maintains that a group of political refugees founded the city of
Pegu (Bago, which in the 14th century would become the historic capital of the Mon
Hanthawaddy Kingdom) in 573. But the historical kingdom probably came into existence some time in the 9th century, following the entry Mon people into Lower Burma from modern northern Thailand. G. E. Harvey's
History of Burma, citing the Mon chronicle
Shwemawdaw Thamaing ("History of Shwemawdaw Pagoda"), gives the year of founding of Pegu as 825; but even that date remains unattested. Indeed, the earliest mention of Pegu is in 1266, in Old Burmese. The capital, Thaton, was originally a very active port on the
Gulf of Martaban and a center of intense commercial exchanges with southern
India and
Ceylon, present-day
Sri Lanka. Geological changes in subsequent centuries altered the coastline of the gulf, and today the town lies about 12 km from the sea. It is presumed to have been the first kingdom established by the Mon in Lower Burma. Thaton has been credited with introducing
Theravada Buddhism to the region. Some scholars maintain that Buddhist manuscripts from Ceylon were translated into Old Mon around
400, a hypothesis disputed by other historians. Inscriptions dating to the 5th century discovered in Lower Burma confirm the presence of Theravada Buddhism in the area at that time. Traditional Burmese and Mon reconstructions hold that Thaton was overrun by the Pagan kingdom from
Upper Burma in 1057. According to the chronicles, King
Manuha of Thaton surrendered after a 3-month siege of the city by Pagan's forces on 17 May 1057 (11th waxing of Nayon, 419
ME). In the following decades, Mon culture formed the foundation of Pagan civilization. Between 1050 and about 1085, Mon craftsmen and artisans reportedly helped to build some two thousand monuments at Pagan, the remains of which today rival the splendors of
Angkor Wat. The
Mon script is the source of the
Burmese alphabet, the earliest evidence of which is dated to 1058, a year after the Thaton conquest. There are several archaeological sites attributed to the Thaton kingdom. Suvarnabhumi City in
Bilin Township is one such site with limited excavation work. The site, called Winka Old City by other archeologists, contains 40 high-grounds of which only 4 have been excavated. The Winka site, along with nearby walled sites like Kyaikkatha and Kelasa, have been dated as early as the sixth century. While the archaeology of early Lower Burmese sites requires more work, other urban centres in Myanmar like the
Sri Ksetra kingdom in modern day
Pyay were Buddhist as early as the 5th century. However, some modern research has argued that Mon influence on the interior after Anawrahta's conquest is a greatly exaggerated post-Pagan legend, and that Lower Burma in fact lacked a substantial independent polity prior to Pagan's expansion. This interpretation aligns with accounts in the Thai source, the
Northern Chronicle, which state that the coastal region that identified as the Thaton Kingdom had previously been under the authority of the
Monic
Mueang Chaliang, from the reign of
Arunaraja in the 950s until the region became under the Pagan in 1057. Whatever the condition of the coast, all scholars accept that during the 11th century, Pagan established its authority in Lower Burma and this conquest enabled Pagan to replace Thaton in international trade with India and Sri Lanka, and facilitated growing cultural exchange, if not with local Mons, then with India and with Theravada stronghold Sri Lanka. From a geopolitical standpoint, Anawrahta's conquest of Thaton checked the Khmer advance in the
Tenasserim coast. The Mon had to wait until 1287 to regain their independence from the Burmese, when King
Wareru founded what would become known as the
Hanthawaddy Kingdom, taking advantage of the submission of the
Pagan Kingdom to the Mongols of
Kublai Khan. In the meantime, Thaton had lost its importance, and the new Mon capitals were
Martaban and Hanthawaddy, present-day
Bago.
List of Thaton kings According to the Mon chronicles, the Kingdom of Thaton had a line of 59 kings that begun from the time of the Buddha. ==Art==