Waithali

Waithali (MYname|MY=မ္ရောက္‌ဦးမ္ရုိ့) was a town in Northern Rakhine State, Myanmar. It was the capital of the second Arakanese Kingdom (4th - 10th Century AD), also named Waithali. The word Waithali is a corruption of the Pali word Vesali

The site is approximately 70 kilometers north east of Sittwe, and lies east of Ram Chaung (Ram Stream), a tributary of the Kaladan River. Like much of Northern Rakhine State, it is in a hilly locale. Like its predecessor, Dhanyawadi, Waithali has fallen into ruins and much of it is now deserted. Only a few temples and traces of the old city wall.

The site is about an hour's bus ride from Mrauk U. It has been estimated that the centre of power of the Arakanese world shifted from Dhanyawadi to Waithali in the 6th century AD. Although it was established later than Dhanyawadi, Waithali is the most Indianized of the four Arakanese kingdoms to emerge. Like all of the Arakanese Kingdoms to emerge, the Kingdom of Waithali was based on trade between the East (pre-Pagan Myanmar, China, the Mons), and the West (India, Bengal, Persia).

According to the Anandacandra Inscription, carved in 729AD, the subjects of the Waithali Kingdom practiced Mahayana Buddhism, and proclaims that the ruling dynasty of the kingdom were descendants of the Hindu god, Shiva.

Some important and badly damaged life-size Buddha images were recovered from Letkhat-Taung, a hill east of the old palace compound. These statues are invaluabe in helping to understand the Waithali architecture, and also the extent of Hindu influence in the kingdom.

According to local legend, Shwe-taung-gyi (lit. Great Golden Hill), a hill northeast of the palace compound maybe a burial place of a 10th century Pyu king.

The rulers of the Waithali Kingdom were of the Chandra dynasty, so called because of their usage of Chandra on the Waithali coins. The Waithali period is seen by many as the beginning of Arakanese coinage - which was almost a millennium earlier than the Burmese. On the reverse of the coins, the Srivatsa (Arakanese/Burmese: "Thiriwutsa"), while the obverse bears a bull, the emblem of the Chandra dynasty, under which the name of the King is inscribed in Sanskrit.

The Kingdom eventually declined after the immigration of the Tibeto-Burmese (the Burmese) from Tibet in the 10th century.

ee also

*Rakhine State
*Dhanyawadi
*Mrauk U

References

*"The Land of the Great Image - Being Experiences of Friar Manrique in Arakan" by Maurice Collis