Sanda Thudhamma

Sanda Thudhamma Raza (Arakanese: စန္ဒသုဓမ္မရာဇာ, February 1637 - 20 December 1684) was 24th king of the Mrauk U Kingdom. He reigned from 1652 to 1674. He lost the control of Chittagong during his reign.^[1]

Sanda Thudhamma Raza စန္ဒသုဓမ္မရာဇာ
Going around the Palace of Arakanese King Sanda Thudhamma Raza in Mrauk-U, AD 1664
King of Arakan
Reign	c. May 1652 - 20 December 1684
Predecessor	Thado of Mrauk-U
Successor	Uggabala
Born	c. February 1637 Tabaung 983 ME Mrauk U
Died	20 December 1684 (aged 47) Wednesday, 3rd waxing of Pyatho 1030 ME Mrauk U
Consort	Radanar-Piya
Issue	Uggabala Wara Dhammaraza Thuwanna Kalya
Names Shwenanthakhin Sanda Thudhamma Raza ရွှေနန်းသခင် စန္ဒသုဓမ္မရာဇာ
House	Narapatigyi
Father	Thado of Mrauk-U
Mother	Radanar Kounmari
Religion	Theravada Buddhism

The king built and constructed five prominent pagodas of Mrauk-U which still stood today. After his death in 1684, the kingdom fell into dismantled state which internal struggles of the royal court and subsequents overthrowing of kings became common for the next 100 years till the end of the monarchy came in 1784.

Inscription on the Ratana Manaung Zedidaw Pagoda built by Sanda and his wife

The famous Bengali poet Syed Alaol was the poet in his court. He translated Tohfa at the request of Shrichondro Sudhormo or Sanda Thudhamma.

Reign

Prince ascended to the throne after death of his father, Thado in 1652.

He built several significant pagodas in Mrauk U, including Zinamanaung, Thekyamanaung, Ratanamanaung, Shwekyathein, and Lokamu.^[1]

During his reign, Buddhist exchanges with Ceylon continued. In his final year, around forty Arakanese monks traveled to Ceylon at the request of a mission supported by the Dutch. The Dutch, aiming to counter Portuguese Catholic influence in Ceylon, sought to revive the upasampada ordination, which was declining. They turned to Arakan because they had maintained a trading post near Mrauk U from 1626 to 1683, though it was occasionally closed due to other obligations. In 1670, the entire Dutch staff there was massacred. However, while it lasted, the Dutch found the Sanda more cooperative than the Burmese king. Under a 1653 agreement, Sanda allowed them certain privileges, such as appointing their own interpreter and taking their children born to local women.^[2]

In 1664, Sanda Thudamma had to cede large amounts of his territories due to an invasion by Mughal Emperor Aurangzeb. In 1666, another invasion by Shaista Khan captured the port of Chittagong. Chittagong remained a key port throughout Mughal rule.^[3]