Marayu

Marayu (Burmese:မာရယု) was the legendary founder of Dhanyawadi Kingdom and the first mythical king of Arakan. He is considered as founding king of the ancient Arakanese civilization settled around the Kaladan River Valley. Born from a son of a Brahmin and who later married the daughter of chief of Mro Tribe. He initially defeated the demons (Rakkhasa) whose named trace to the name of "Rakhine" and founded the city of Dhanyawadi.^[1][2]

Marayu မာရယု
King of Dhanyawaddy
Reign	2666 BC - 2604 BC
Predecessor	Founder
Successor	Mara Zi I
Born	2684 BC near the Mikhyoung River of Kaladan
Died	2604 BC (aged 80) Dhanyawadi
Consort	Rusitamala (ရုစိတမာလာ)
Issue	Mara Zi I
Father	Azzuna Brahman (အဇ္ဇုနရသေ့)
Mother	Kaunamayu (ဣနမာယု)
Religion	Hinduism

History

Marayu's birth occurred under unusual circumstances. His mother, In-da-ma-yu, a doe believed to be descended from a lion, gave birth to him in the forest near the mouth of the Mikhyoung River, a tributary of the Kaladan River. His father, indirectly, was King Adz-dzun-na who was a former king who had become a hermit in the Himawonda forest near the source of the Kaladan river.^[3]

After his birth, Marayu was discovered by a chief of the Mro tribe, who was hunting in the forest with his dog. The chief adopted the child and raised him as his own. Upon reaching maturity, Marayu married Rusitamala (ရုစိတမာလာ), who was the daughter of the Myu chief, Mipinya (မိပိန်ညာ).^[4]

He was later granted magical weapons by the Nats, spiritual beings in Burmese tradition. Using these weapons, Marayu successfully defeated the ogres, hostile beings described as ravaging the countryside and attacking humans, particularly at night. Following the defeat of the Bhi-lus, Marayu was acknowledged as king by the local population.^[5]

The king built seven grand halls were built at the site known as "Seven-Hall Village". In this place the king and his wife were formally anointed and accepted as king and queen.^[4]

Reign and death

Historical chronicles state that Marayu ascended the throne at the age of 18 years and reigned for 62 years, dying at the age of 80 years. Arakanese historians claim that his lineage continued in an unbroken succession until the Burmese conquest of Arakan in 1784. According to the historian Ngami, although this account slightly differs from others, there were 54 sovereigns descended from Marayu who ruled for a total of 1,833 years. Based on this chronology, Marayu would have ascended the throne around 2658 BCE.^[5][2]

See also

• History of Rakhine
• Rakhine People
• Dhanyawadi