ABSTRACT
The supremacy of Pegu in Lower Burma was finally established by Rjdhirj in the late fourteenth century, and it was he who according to the tradition usually cited decreed the division of each of the three provinces, Hanthawaddy, Martaban, and Bassein, into 32 myostownships or districts. The first allusion to the 32-myo system in a dated document occurs in the Kaunghmudaw inscription of AD 1650 at Sagaing. In 1540 the kingdom of Pegu had been brought under one crown with Ava and Toungoo, and the city, with a Burmese dynasty on the throne, continued as the capital of the wider realm for more than a century. The relic pagodas are to be the palladia of the kingdom: From the time that my tooth is kept here, truly all creatures shall be free from famine. And the miraculous multiplication is attributed to the desire of Siridhammsokas 33 queens each to enshrine it herself.
