Maha Yadana Dewi

Maha Yadana Dewi (Silaungese: မဟာရတနာ ဒေဝီ, Pali: Mahāratanadevī; 1281-9 September 1342), was the chief queen consort of the Hsinpyu dynasty of Silaung from 1295 until 1330 due to her marriage with Puba Min (Silaungese: ပုဗအားမင်), 2nd monarch of the Hsinpyu, and mother of King Swashin (Silaungese: စွာရှင်), the 3rd monarch. She exerted a great influence on politics during her husband's late reign and her son's early tenure.

Biography
She was a daughter of Bayin Kyawhtin (Silaungese: ဘုရင်ကျော်ထင်), the Saopha (chief) of Western Ruen State. Her birth name might be Shin Mi Saw (Silaungese: ရှင်မိစော). Her eldest sister, Shin Mae Hla (Silaungese: ရှင်မယ်ာလှ), was the spouse of Rubya Mintha, the eldest son and crown prince of King Nasapyu of Silaung.

When Nasapyu wanted to choose a wife for Puba Min, he continued to make marriage contract with Western Ruen State, and picked Maha Yadana Dewi, who was close in age to Puba, as the bride. She entered the Silaungese harem in 1285, and taught by her future mother-in-law, Queen Shin Bai Min (Silaungese: ရှင်ဗအဲ့မင်), and her sister, Princess Shin Mae Hla.

She was married to Puba Prince in 1294, and in the next year, Crown Prince Rubya died in disease, King Nasapyu following him soon after in October due to sadness and illness. Puba Min became the new king as he and Rubya were only two sons of Queen Shin Bai Min. Maha Yadana Dewi was granted to her, together with the title of chief queen on 23 November 1295, meanwhile her maid Saw Hnaung Ma (Silaungese: စောနှောင်းမ) was made Queen of the Northern Palace.

Saw Hnaung Ma gave birth to Puba's first son Shwe Khet, frightening Maha Yadana Dewi since the king was seemed to name Shwe Khet his successor. In 1301, Maha Yadana Dewi was pregnant. There were rumors that Saw Hnaung Ma hired some witches to curse the queen to prevent her from having a son. The next year, Maha Yadana Dewi smoothly gave birth to Prince Swashin and Princess Myat Shin, then in 1303, Prince Shwe Khet died. Many people predicted it was Maha Yadana Dewi poisoned the young prince, but can give no evidence.

With Swashin was confirmed as the crown prince in 1315, Maha Yadana Dewi began to be active in politics. She built a good relationship with Thanaung Htin in this period, a powerful minister whose daughter Shin The Kyi Phyu (Silaungese: ရှင်သဲကြည်ဖြူ) will be the first wife of Swashin.

Upon Puba Min's death in 1330, Swashin became King of Silaung. The Queen Mother maintained her political influence by helping her son handling some affairs. She also controlled the harem, ignoring Mae Aung Myat (Silaungese: မယ်အောင်မြတ်), chief queen of Swashin.

Maha Yadana Dewi died in 1342.