Battle of Naungyo

Part of Toungoo–Hanthawaddy War (1534–41)

Path of retreat by Hanthawaddy forces

Date	November/December 1538
Location	Naungyo, Irrawaddy delta Kingdom of Hanthawaddy
Result	Decisive Toungoo victory

Belligerents

Toungoo Kingdom

Hanthawaddy Kingdom

Commanders and leaders

Bayinnaung
Taw Maing Ye
Bayathingyan

Binnya Dala
Minye Aung Naing †

Strength

10,000
500 horses
50 elephants

80,000
800 horses
200 elephants

The Battle of Naungyo (Burmese: နောင်ရိုးတိုက်ပွဲ [nàʊɴjó taɪʔpwɛ́]) was a land battle fought between the armies of the Toungoo Kingdom and Hanthawaddy Kingdom during the Toungoo–Hanthawaddy War (1534–41) in late 1538. The battle was the most decisive Toungoo victory of the war. Toungoo armies led by Gen. Kyawhtin Nawrahta (later Bayinnaung) decisively defeated a numerically far superior and better armed force of Hanthawaddy led by Gen. Binnya Dala and Gen. Minye Aung Naing. Only a small portion of the Hanthawaddy forces made it to their intended destination–the fortified city of Prome (Pyay). A decimated Hanthawaddy was no longer in a position to retake the lost territories from Toungoo.

The battle is one of the most famous battles in Burmese history. It was after this battle that Kyawhtin Nawrahta was given the title of Bayinnaung (lit. Royal Elder Brother) by his brother-in-law King Tabinshwehti. The battle is deemed "the first characteristic touch of the great Bayinnaung" who later went on to found the largest empire in the history of Southeast Asia.

The term "Naungyo" is an entrenched part of Burmese lexicon. It is customary to say "နောင်ရိုး စိတ်ဓာတ်ရှိပါ" (lit. "Have Naungyo spirit") or "ဘုရင့်နောင် ဖောင်ဖျက်သလိုလုပ်" (lit. "Do as Bayinnaung destroyed the rafts") to encourage or urge someone to have a sink-or-swim mentality.

In the 1530s, Hanthawaddy (today's Lower Burma) was the most prosperous and powerful of all the small kingdoms that came into existence after the collapse of Pagan Empire in 1287. Toungoo was a former vassal state of Ava, founded only in 1510. When Ava fell to the Confederation of Shan States in 1527, Toungoo was surrounded by larger kingdoms on all sides: the Confederation in the north, its vassal Prome in the west and Hanthawaddy in the south. Toungoo's remote location–east of the Bago Yoma mountain range and away from the main Irrawaddy river waterway–proved a good shelter for many refugees fleeing from Ava.

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