Pyinsa Kalayani

Pyinsa Kalayani ပဉ္စကလျာဏီ
Princess of Pagan
Reign	c. 1030?
Born	Wethali
Spouse	Anawrahta
Issue	Kyansittha
House	Pagan
Father	King of Wethali
Religion	Theravada Buddhism

Pyinsa Kalayni (Burmese: ပဉ္စကလျာဏီ [pjɪ̀ɴsa̰ kəljənì]) was the mother of King Kyansittha of Pagan Dynasty of Burma (Myanmar).^[1]:155

The Burmese chronicles give many inconsistent stories about her, her son and her brief husband Anawrahta. Most are regarded as legends:

She was a princess of Wethali Kingdom, who was sent to marry Anawrahta by her father the ruler of Wethali. (Wethali is believed to be in the present-day Rakhine State or in Bengal. Based on Kyansittha's features observed in his statute in the Ananda Temple, Pyinsa Kalayani was likely Indian.) On her way to Pagan, she became intimately involved with Yazataman, the Pagan official charged with guarding her. The official dispersed her retinue of 80. At Pagan, she was married to Anawrahta. Soon after the marriage, Yazataman reportedly pointed out to Anawrahta that she could not be a true royal princess because she lacked a retinue. Anawrahta then banished Pyinsa Kalayni, who was then pregnant, an area near Sagaing. There, she gave birth to Kyansittha and raised him by herself.^[2]

(The chronicle stories here are filled with many inconsistencies. The chronicles claim that Anawrahta was already king when Pyinsa Kalayni was sent. But Anawrahta did not become king until 1044. Kyansittha was born in 1030. Moreover, it was unlikely that the ruler of Wethali would have sent his daughter to Anawrahta who until 1044 was a prince but not to Sokkate, the king himself. The chronicles also claim that Anawrahta tried to kill off all babies in the year that Kyansittha was born because his astrologers predicted that a newborn would be king. Again, Anawrahta was not the king.)

History shows that Anawrahta did not seem to know (or care) about her alleged affair with Yazataman, and believed that Kyansittha was his son. He recalled Kyansittha to Pagan in the mid-1050s, and appointed the 15-year-old Kyansittha a senior commander in his army. Only the royalty could become a senior commander at a young age.

References

1. Coedès, George (1968). Walter F. Vella, ed. The Indianized States of Southeast Asia. trans.Susan Brown Cowing. University of Hawaii Press. ISBN 978-0-8248-0368-1.
2. Harvey 1925: 23–24

Bibliography

• Harvey, G.E. (1925). History of Burma. London: Frank Cass & Co. Ltd.