Alaungpaya Ayedawbon

Names

The first published version in 1883 was named Alaungpaya Ayedawbon but subsequent editions of the chronicle were titled Alaungpaya Ayedawbon or Alaung Mintayagyi Ayedawbon. Confusion arose when the second version was published for the first time in 1961, together with the first version. They both were published under the name Alaung Mintayagyi Ayedawbon.

Authorship

Scholarship agrees that both chronicles are contemporary accounts of the king by his ministers but does not agree on the authorship. Both versions were kept at the Royal Library of the last two Konbaung kings, Mindon and Thibaw. According to U Yan, the Royal Librarian, one version is by Letwe Nawrahta and the other is by Twinthin Taikwun Maha Sithu. One of the versions was published in 1883, and again in 1900 as Alaungpaya Ayedawbon.

The first two publications did not explicitly state the author's name, leaving it as "a wise man from the time of Alaungpaya". When it was published again together with other chronicles in 1923, the authorship was attributed to Twinthin Taikwun Maha Sithu. But colonial period historians Pe Maung Tin and Maung Maung Gyi both later corrected the author to Letwe Nawrahta. Yi Yi and Kyauk Taing all say the 1883 version was written by Twinthin Taikwun, while Thaw Kaung sides with earlier historians, and says it was Letwe Nawrahta.

References

Bibliography

References

1. Thaw Kaung 2010: 23
2. Thaw Kaung 2010: 32
3. Thaw Kaung 2010: 23–25
4. However, more recent scholars [[Hla Thamein]] (the editor of the 1961 publication of both versions),Hla Thamein 1961: 6–11