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King Wareru
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King Wareru
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King Wareru (1287-1296) was famous king of Hanthawaddy (Hansavadi. or Bago). who ruled over the Mon people of Lower Myanmar. He was also called Magado or Chao Fa Rua. King Wareru was a Thai adventurer of humble origins who had married a daughter of King Ramkhamhaeng of Sukhothai and had established himself as overlord of Martaban on the Salween River in 1281.
Since the reign of King Anawrahta of Bagan (1044-77). the Mon had been under Myanmar rule; but after the Mongols sacked Pagan in 1287. Wareru and his ally. Tarabya. a Mon prince of Bago. drove the Myanmar out of the Ayeyarwaddy Delta and re-established the independence of the Mon. Subsequently. King Wareru killed Tarabya and made himself the sole ruler of the Mon. with his capital at Martaban. Although he was nominally a vassal of Ramkhamhaeng. he conducted independent diplomatic relations with the emperor Kublai Khan in China. A legendary achievement of his reign was the compilation of the Dharma-shastra. or Dhammathat. the earliest surviving law code of Myanmar. Wareru was murdered by his grandsons.
