Wareru (Mon: ဝါရေဝ်ရောဝ်, Burmese: ဝါရီရူး, Burmese pronunciation: [wàɹíjú]; also known as Wagaru; 20 March 1253 – c. 14 January 1307), personal name Magadu (Mon: သၟိၚ်မဂဒူ ), was the founder of the Martaban Kingdom, located in present-day Myanmar (Burma). By using both diplomatic and military skills, he successfully carved out a Mon-speaking polity in Lower Burma, during the collapse of the Pagan Empire (Bagan Empire) in the 1280s. Wareru was assassinated in 1307 but his line ruled the kingdom until its fall in the mid-16th century.
Wareru, a commoner, seized the governorship of Martaban (Mottama) in 1285, and after receiving the backing of the Sukhothai Kingdom, he went on to declare independence from Pagan in 1287. In 1295–1296, he and his ally Tarabya, the self-proclaimed king of Pegu (Bago), decisively defeated a major invasion by Pagan. Wareru eliminated Tarabya soon after, and emerged as the sole ruler of three Mon-speaking provinces of Bassein, Pegu and Martaban c. 1296. With his domain now much enlarged, Wareru sought and received recognition by Yuan China in 1298.
Although he may have been of ethnic Mon or Shan background, Wareru's greatest legacy was the establishment of the only Mon-speaking polity left standing after the 1290s. The success of the kingdom helped foster the emergence of the Mon people as a coherent ethnicity in the 14th and 15th centuries. Furthermore, the legal code he commissioned—the Wareru Dhammathat—is one of the oldest extant dhammathats (legal treatises) of Myanmar, and greatly influenced the legal codes of Burma and Siam down to the 19th century.
The future king was born Ma Gadu (Mon: မဂဒူ; Burmese: မဂဒူး, Burmese pronunciation: [mə gədú]) on 20 March 1253 in the village of Tagaw Wun (near present-day Thaton in Mon State), to poor peasants. His ethnic background was Mon, Shan or mixed Mon and Shan. He had a younger brother Ma Gada and a younger sister Hnin U Yaing. They grew up in their native village, located about 100 km north of the provincial capital of Martaban (present-day Mottama in Mon State), then part of the Pagan Empire.
When he was about 19, c. 1272, Gadu took over his father's side business of trading goods with the Siamese kingdom of Sukhothai to the east. He joined a convoy of about 30 merchants, and began traveling to the royal city of Sukhothai. After a short stint, he took a job at the royal elephant stables in Sukhothai, and rose through the ranks to become the Captain of the Stables by the beginning of King Ram Khamhaeng's reign, c. 1279. Impressed by the commoner, the new king awarded Gadu the title of Saw Di-Dan-Ri (စောဋိဋံရည်), or Saw Li-Lat-She (စောလီလပ်ရှဲ). befitting an officer in his Household Corps.
According to Mon and Thai chronicles, Gadu repaid by eloping with the king's daughter. By 1281/82, he had become romantically involved with Princess May Hnin Thwe-Da, (Me Nang Soy-Dao; Thai: แม่นางสร้อยดาว, RTGS: Mae-nang Soidao; "Lady Soidao"). So when the king was far away on a military expedition in the south, the couple, with a load of gold and silver, and about 270 of their retainers and troops fled to Tagaw Wun. (According to George Cœdès, this was a legend. Michael Aung-Thwin states that the elopement story is probably "a trope" to link the early kings of Martaban and those of Siam, and may not be historical.)
Chris Baker and Pasuk Phongpaichit read the story as one about the closeness of trade and rule. On their account the Sukhothai king was not angered by the elopement but welcomed the connection with a wealthy and dutiful colleague, sending regalia and a golden inscription that conferred the title chao fa ruea, prince of ships.
Back at Tagaw Wun, Gadu with his troops became the chief of the village. Over the next few years, he enlarged the village into a small town named Donwun, and built up defenses around it. (His manpower may have been swelled by Mon-speaking refugees from Haribhunjaya, driven out by Tai king Mangrai.) By 1284/85, the commoner had set his sights on the governorship at Martaban itself. That a small-time chief like him would contemplate such a move is a testament to the rapidly dissipating authority of Pagan. At the time, Pagan's forces were faring badly against the Mongol invaders, and vassal rulers throughout the country had become increasingly restless. At Martaban, Gov. Aleimma himself had begun planning for a rebellion.
Aleimma's rebellion turned out to be Gadu's opening. When the governor asked his vassals for support, Gadu readily obliged, offering his services and his men to the governor as well as a marriage alliance between the governor and his younger sister, with the wedding to be held at Donwun. It was merely a ploy to get the governor out of Martaban. Surprisingly, Aleimma took the bait, and made a fateful trip to Donwun with a contingent of troops. On the night of the wedding, while Aleimma's guards were drunk, Gadu's men killed them, and assassinated the governor. It was c. 11 January 1285.
Rebel ruler of Martaban (1285–1287)
Gadu went on to seize Martaban, and consolidate his control of the Martaban province. His insurrection was one of several revolts around the country against King Narathihapate of Pagan. The king had already lost the support of his key vassals, including his own sons, who ruled key Lower Burma ports (Prome, Dala and Bassein). Without the full support of his sons, the king did not have enough troops to quell rebellions everywhere. In the south, the king's army never got past Pegu (Bago), which was headed by another warlord Akhamaman, and failed both times to take the town in 1285–86.
Meanwhile, Gadu consolidated his control of the Martaban province. He first rebuilt the fortifications of Martaban, and then conquered Kampalani, (believed to be a small Shan state in present-day Kayin State) whose chief had refused to submit. After Kampalani, all other chiefs fell in line. Gadu was still concerned about Pagan, and sought the backing of his father-in-law. By 1287, a diplomatic mission led by his minister Laik-Gi had successfully secured Ram Khamhaeng's support. The king of Sukhothai acknowledged Gadu as a vassal king, and awarded the royal title of "Chao Fa Rua" (Thai: เจ้าฟ้ารั่ว, "Lord Fa Rua", [t͡ɕaːw˥˩ faː˥.ruːa˥˩])) also reported in Mon and Burmese as "Binnya Waru" (Burmese: ဗညား ဝါရူး, [bəɲá wàjú])) and Smim Warow (Mon: သ္ငီ ဝါရောဝ်).
On 30 January 1287, Gadu declared himself king of Martaban. He held the coronation ceremony c. 5 April 1287. His royal style later became known in Mon as Wareru. The declaration did not elicit any action by Pagan, which was amidst its death throes. The empire formally fell on 1 July 1287 when the king was assassinated by one of his sons Prince Thihathu of Prome. Two years of interregnum followed.
In the beginning, Wareru was just one of several petty strongmen that had sprouted across the former empire. His realm covered approximately modern day Mon State and southern Kayin State. To his east was his overlord Sukhothai. To his south lay the Pagan province of Tavoy (Dawei), which too was in revolt. To his north were Pegu, and Dala, ruled by Akhamaman and Prince Kyawswa respectively.
Situated on the upper Tenasserim coast, Martaban was an island of stability during the interregnum. The multi-party war among the sons of the fallen king in Lower Burma never reached Martaban. The closest it came to was in 1287–1288 when Prince Thihathu the patricide laid siege to Pegu. Even when Prince Kyawswa eventually emerged as king of Pagan on 30 May 1289, the new king had no real army, and posed no threat to Pegu or Martaban. Indeed, Wareru's immediate concern was not Kyawswa but Tarabya, who had gained control of both Pegu and Dala and their surrounding districts.
Nevertheless, the peace between the two neighboring strongmen held. Each was focused on consolidating his region. At Martaban, c. 1290/91, Wareru commissioned a dhammathat (customary law book) to be compiled in Mon, the main language of his nascent kingdom. He appointed a royal commission, which returned with the legal treatise that came to be known as Wareru Dhammathat and Wagaru Dhammathat ("Code of Wareru/Wagaru"). (The compilation was part of a wider regional pattern in which the former lands of the empire as well as its neighboring states produced legal texts modeled after Pagan's, between 1275 and 1317.)